If “Joker” can use the main character’s mental illness as a way of humanising him, and clearly establishes that his path to villainy is in no way connected to that illness, then it could ultimately play a positive role in our culture.
At the same time, even if “Joker” does plan on making Phoenix’s character sympathetic in his mental illness, it will be difficult to avoid at least sub-textually linking that illness to violence when the man who becomes one of the most infamous villains is branded that way. The danger being influential films like this leads to real-life stigmas that affect people with mental illness — and it’s one that really, really needs to go away.
Did you know some of the Dark Knight films were filmed Croydon?
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