Stephen Galloway at HollywoodReporter.com offers praise for the near-pornographic violence in the new film, ‘Joker’ with Joaquin Phoenix. Like Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 ‘A Clockwork Orange’, which garnered an X rating, and a public outcry, the visceral impact of Joker sickens, yet packs a moral punch unlike anything in recent memory. Should Warner Brothers and others make gruesome films like Joker? Does the new movie show that someone in Hollywood still knows the difference between right and wrong?
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Joker: The Moral Punch of Near-Pornographic Violence in 2019’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’
Stephen Galloway at HollywoodReporter.com offers praise for the near-pornographic violence in the new film, ‘Joker’ with Joaquin Phoenix. Like Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 ‘A Clockwork Orange’, which garnered an X rating, and a public outcry, the visceral impact of Joker sickens, yet packs a moral punch unlike anything in recent memory.
10 replies on “Joker: The Moral Punch of Near-Pornographic Violence in 2019’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’”
I wonder where The Human Centipede and it’s sequels fall in Bill’s definition of art?
It is far easier to destroy than to build. Showing destruction for the sake of destruction is a sign of weakness not strength. It is nothing to emulate except for the destruction of those who would destroy you first. Even this, is really a very small fraction of life.
Successful life for humans is mostly:
Live and let live.
Do not initiate force on another willfully with intent to harm or destroy.
Work to support yourself by creating the values necessary to meet that end.
Trade the values you created for values created by other on a mutually voluntary open win-win market bases.
Treat yourself and others with the honor and dignity actually earned by all concerned.
Do not keep feeding the parasites who expect nothing but to feed off you and destroy you.
Allow others to walk their own path to heaven or hell because you hardly have the wisdom to do that for your self let alone others.
Live long and prosper!
The Heath Ledger “Joker” performance was one of my all-time favorites. Joaquin Pheonix has always made me uncomfortable. This is his m.o., of course, and it is an artist’s prerogative to choose to make us that way. But I don’t have to agree that is “better acting”.
The whole problem with DC movies is that they don’t want to be comic book movies. They want to be translate comics books into the real world dramas. Secondarily they just don’t believe in heroes.
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Art is the conscious creation of something beautiful or meaningful. Life is challenging enough on its own. Art should be uplifting not disgusting. No room in my life for this.
Art is the creation of something evocative. Not necessarily beautiful. Munch’s “The Scream” and van Gogh’s “Starry Night” both move me. I don’t think either is beautiful.
Contrary to that, I recall lying on the floor of the Sistine Chapel and weeping.
Movies have long been a reflection of the times they are made. “A Clockwork Orange” (is is really almost 50 years old) and many other films of the 70s are a reflection of a dark, dirty, violent time in our not too distant past.
That said, i will likely not see the Joker as I am at a point in my life where I have witnessed enough violence firsthand that seeing it non-cartoon style is not worth the $15.
I will say that based on reviews, this “film” is not a reflection of current society but likely a reflection of what this director sees in his own private funhouse mirror.
I have a personal policy of only attending “popcorn” movies. If there is a sad ending I do not go. I prefer to sit, enjoy my popcorn and walk away feeling good. Up until the last Godzilla release, those movies worked for me. LOL
I am much like Scott, I will go to pretty much any movie my wife wants to see so that we can sit there together and hold hands. There are just fewer movies that interest her because Hollywood is not making movies for us.
When we were dating and first married we went to so many movies people referred to us as Siskle and Ebert. Now if we go 4 times a year it is a lot.
I have not seen “The Joker”; however, since I assume that it is aa violent and gruesome as many are saying, I think that the innocence of my childhood comic book characters is lost. This is a sad thing to consider.