Upon its release, Joker was met with a great deal of resistance, primarily from people who thought that the unhinged violence and villainy of the character might inspire real-life violence. The 2010s were undoubtedly defined, in many ways, by mass shootings. Over the course of the decade, Las Vegas, Newtown, CT, Parkland, FL, Marysville, WA, Santa Fe, TX, Orlando, FL, and other cities were all affected by gun violence. Additionally, in 2012, upon the release of the last Batman film to feature the character of The Joker (played by Heath Ledger), a shooter open fired on a movie theater in Aurora, CO that was showing the film. The Colorado movie theater refused to show Joker when it was released.
Todd Phillips' Joker stages the origin story of a disenfranchised and mentally ill white man who descends into chaos after coming into possession of a gun, a description that applies to nearly every one of the mass shooters of the 2010s. This, combined with the fact that one of these shooters went into action at a screening of the last film featuring the Joker character, spelled out a recipe for controversy. Yet many critics contend that the film does not depict the typical "incel" or "white nationalist" that we think of when we think of these mass shooters, but a more complicated and specific narrative. Additionally, the Aurora shooter was not dressed as the Joker or drawn to the film because of its villain, as many rumors have suggested. Rather, he is said to have arbitrarily chosen the film because it was a large blockbuster being released that weekend.
The controversy surrounding the film brings up larger questions about art's moral responsibility. When the film was released, many wondered if it is the responsibility of the filmmaker to discourage its viewer from violence, or if that is beside the point. Director Todd Phillips and star Joaquin Phoenix were quick to insist that not only is the movie not an endorsement of violence, but that it has no responsibility to morally educate the viewer. In an interview, Phillips said, "We’re making a movie about a fictional character in a fictional world, ultimately, and your hope is that people take it for what it is...You can’t blame movies for a world that is so fucked up that anything can trigger it." Some critics, however, have contended that films do have moral responsibilities. Richard Lawson wrote in his review for Vanity Fair, "It’s exhilarating in the most prurient of ways, a snuff film about the death of order, about the rot of a governing ethos. But from a step back, outside in the baking Venetian heat, it also may be irresponsible propaganda for the very men it pathologizes. Is Joker celebratory or horrified? Or is there simply no difference, the way there wasn’t in Natural Born Killers or myriad other 'America, man' movies about the freeing allure of depravity?"
