Todd Phillips’ Joker is a conflation of ‘Travis Bickle and Rupert Pupnick’: What David Fincher’s comments on Joker reveal about the film industry today

Director of 1999 cult classic Fight Club unapologetically shared his views on Todd Phillips’ 21st-century adaptation of one of the most recognised villains in fiction in his 2019 film, Joker.

As part of promotion for his newest film Mank, Fincher reflects on the massive success Joker enjoyed at the box office followed by a generally warm critical reception, in an interview with The Telegraph. Had it not been for Nolan’s massive success in adapting Ledger’s compelling performance to The Dark Knight, Fincher finds it hard to believe that the 2019 film Joker would have been received as well as it was. “Nobody would have thought they had a shot at a giant hit with Joker had The Dark Knight not been as massive as it was”. He goes on “I don’t think anyone would have looked at that material and thought, ‘Yeah, let’s take [Taxi Driver’s] Travis Bickle and [The King of Comedy’s] Rupert Pupkin and conflate them, then trap him in a betrayal of the mentally ill, and trot it out for a billion dollars.’”

Fincher highlights the film’s undeniable allusions to 1970s and 1980s classics Taxi Driver, which follows the disorientated quest for redemption of unbalanced New York taxi driver, and The King of Comedy, a black comedy film centered around the delusions of aspiring stand-up comedian whose eccentric mannerisms and even attire, are noticeably emulated in Joker. Both films were directed by Martin Scorsese and star Robert De Niro as lead role, who has also appeared alongside Joaquin Phoenix in Joker. With the emulation and re-emulation of previously successful and popular tropes in film, it is perhaps not unreasonable to consider that some directors may be tempted to recycle aspects of older films which, at some level, secure a degree of success, or at the least, attention for their ‘new’ projects.

Whilst Phillip’s direction of colour and camerawork alongside Phoenix’s stunning performance hold up as a remarkable piece of art, the adaption of the comic book villain was not a challenging or revolutionary one; it’s success was at least partly owed to the legacy of Ledger’s performance in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008), which had already developed and established the Joker as one of the most alluring villains in fiction. However, that is not to suggest that Phillips did not offer an alternative, enlightening perspective to his adaptation of the character; revealing a developed backstory is what developed the Joker in a way other films had not. But at the same time, constructing a history for the Joker defeats the significance of the obscure meaning behind his actions, which is what made his character both elusive and compelling in previous performances.

Fincher highlights the lack of challenging new material in the film industry today, whose studios “don’t want to make anything that can’t make them a billion dollars”. The reproduction of a character whose success had already been established, no doubt assured film studios of its success; Joker profited over $1 billion at the box office.  

However, before criticising filmmakers for the lack of challenging and new material, we should be considerate of their restriction of free movement in actualising their ideas. Whilst some “challenging content” does manage to make it to the big screen Fincher says, directors still face many obstacles to achieving this, which is something he has experienced first-hand; after a 30-year long struggle, Fincher was only recently able to bring his father’s script for Mank to the big screen. So, can we legitimately chastise directors for failing to present viewers with challenging material, when they are compelled to produce films centered around subjects which have already proven to be commercially lucrative? Nonetheless, conceptualizing an idea and adapting an idea for commercial production are evidently two very different things in the film industry.

Fincher’s newest film, Mank, has already received outstanding reviews from critics and will be available for viewing on Netflix from December 4, 2020.

Photo: nofilmschool.com