Matt (zeldatra)'s status on Monday, 07-Jun-21 21:43:10 UTC
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Yes, the violent, white, male protagonist is treated sympathetically in the film. He’s treated like a victim. Not THE victim. *A* victim. There are a lot of victims in the movie. Arthur. Bruce. Martha. The guys that Arthur killed in the subway. Opposite Joaquin Phoenix is Robert De Niro, who plays Murray. Murray is, like Arthur, a white male. He’s not violent. In fact, he’s (rightly) disgusted by Arthur’s acts of violence. But he’s the antagonist. He’s POWERFUL. And he plays a role in Arthur’s descent into The Joker, as does Thomas Wayne, the film’s secondary antagonist, who is even more powerful and, arguably, responsible for Gotham’s downfall altogether. It’s a film about how the subjugation of the disadvantaged by the rich and powerful can have grave consequences, and it’s dumbfounding that people, living in Obama-Trump-Biden era America where that’s the status quo, can’t see that.
