People Severely Missunderstand What This Movie Is About

Rating: 10/10 (14 October 2019)

Joker is a film about a man's transformation from the mentally ill loner Arthur Fleck to the widely-known villain Joker. This seems straightforward enough, but there are much deeper messages in this movie that apply not just to this fictional universe, but to our real world.
Arthur is a man who has been beaten down by not just society but fate itself time and time again. He has been dealt, for lack of a better term, a s*** hand and no one in his life seems to truly want to help him. He is a man that truly is alone in society, learning throughout the film how true that statement really is.
While the actions committed by him are definitely wrong, we understand him and can even somewhat empathize with him (hopefully we can, I may just be weird). Unlike how some people like to suggest, this movie doesn't glorify the violence that Arthur causes. This movie shows how horrible people can be created by the environment they are living in. We are living in a time where we like to blame the violence around us on the insane people who start it. Shootings are happening more than ever, and the insane gunman is responsible for it.
Of course, it cannot be denied that the gunman is at fault. There is clearly something wrong with the people who do these things. However, much too few people think, "Why is this happening?", "Why are these people doing the things they do, and how can we stop them from doing this?" We see the result of what happens when an at risk individual doesn't get the help he needs in this movie. What we need is a system that can actually help these people.
The movie Joker differs from other comic book movies because it is not only grounded in reality, but it's messages can be directly applied to our world. People like Arthur Fleck, people who have been brutally beaten by life at every turn need a way to be helped. The rich and successful don't care about these people. These people are viewed as threats instead of who they really are: humans, just like everyone else. We need to create an outlet where these individuals can get the actual support they need, not stuff them with medication and let specialists with their own agendas pretend to care about them.
Another argument I've seen about this movie is that it has no reason for existing. It shows violence and shows a unique portrayal of a popular character but it has no substance to it. As you can probably tell, I strongly disagree with anyone who believes this, and I truly believe anyone who thinks this completely missed the point of the entire movie.
In conclusion, this movie definitely has substance and doesn't glorify violence in the slightest. This movie brings up an issue in our society that we have been neglecting for far too long. There's a stigma about mentally ill people that we have to get over. People who have been neglected and have nothing left to lose are the most dangerous type of people, and the problem with our society is that we allow people to feel as if they have nothing left to lose. Arthur Fleck is just a person who never got any sign at all that he was needed or loved by society, or anyone for that matter. He is truly, as cliche as this may sound, a product of his environment. You can criticize this movie for being too dark but by doing so you're just dismissing the reality we live in.