If Tim Burton had a difficult time portraying the villainous
Joker as a trickster in his film Batman,
than our perception of the film director’s abilities might be a tad bit off.
The term Joker is nearly synonymous to the word trickster, so Burton’s work on
the character had already been cut out for him. What truly made Burton’s
version of the Joker so much more advanced than others was the depth he ripped
out from the hearts of Batman, Bruce Wayne, the Joker and Jack Napier. While
the image of most mere tricksters entails bandits and ne’er-do-wells who remain
petty little creatures who’s eminent defeat is always staring them down,
Burton’s Joker takes those tricksters and rises above to not only trick, steal,
and kill, but create, influence, and infect.
Most
tricksters are very external creatures. They derive from the whims of
materialistic temptation and folly wants. They knife their way through life,
stealing and killing for money and revenge. The Joker, although he does want
revenge and does kill for money, he seems to truly love the evil things he
does. Yes, he is angry at Batman for dropping him into the vat of acid and
changing his persona forever, but even early on before his transformation it is
obvious that he does these horrible things merely because he loves to.
Obviously
alienated because of this evil disposition and later because of his
disfiguration, the Joker’s motive changes from the simple thirst for blood and
corruption into a desire to be like everyone else. Since it is impossible with his
disfigurement to be normal in any way possible, he must bring everyone else
into his tortured, lonely world. He does this by finding ways to change the
citizens of Gotham’s faces into ones similar to his own, and by killing.
Another
thing that makes the Joker such a different trickster is his want to bring
everyone down with him, without any consequence. Since he believes that his old
self died when thrown into the acid, the deaths and crippling of others only
brings the people of Gotham closer and closer to him. Tim Burton’s portrayal of
the Joker truly shows the many complex sides to a trickster. Although like
other normal tricksters the Joker deceives and causes pain for the deep-rooted
emotional revenge he wants on life, he also does it because he loves it. Overall,
these many traits of the Joker shown by Burton make for a fully formed, well-rounded
villain.
Dylan Seals' comment
ReplyDeleteAwesome opening sentence. You're a good writer. I loved how you defined tricksters- especially with the word creature. Good description of how he's different and his motives. What else to say.. Great post!
In your blog you've addressed several points that are crucial to the understanding of Burton's Joker. And although I agree with many of the these points, there are several arguments you've made that left me with questions. You explained how the Joker's motives are driven by "materialistic temptation and folly wants." In my interpretation of Burton's portrayal of the Joker, a typical trickster character, it seemed that quite the opposite was actually true. I saw the Joker as a tortured character whose actions and rationale were based off of his sense of self imprisonment and the need to escape through manipulation of the weak society around him. For example, when the Joker threw money to the audience at the parade, he didn't seem to be expressing his materialistic-based identity, but, rather, exploit the rest of the citizens' greed. What I would have liked to see you explore further in this blog is why Burton felt the need to include this character in his film and how he emotionally contributes to the film in its entirety.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your description of the joker, and tricksters as a whole. I have never thought about them as you did. Nevertheless, I do not really with some of the things. For instance, I think tricksters are more influenced by their story and the situations they have been through. On other hand, I agree with you when you talked about how he wants yo bring everyone down with him and, all his acts don't have any consequences because he's already dead.
ReplyDeleteRosalia Esteva