Heh, this is going to be a long post
Also intimate. Bear with me, might put a smile on that face of yours
Ok, for this, you gotta take my word, and Í́ m a bit drunk right now, cause I just saw the movie and it shook me to the bone, so you CAN trust me.
I didnt feel sorry for the Joker, because he doesń́ t want you to feel sorry for him. I know. I have an IQ they could never measure with tests, freakishly intelligent so to speak. Í́ m also a near paraphlegic, so thats two handicaps. Imagine a guy with Schwartzeneggers body and a peanut sized brain. Now turn it the other way around. Not as obvious, but still makes life complicated. I doń́ t think that people who are less intelligent are less worthy than me. Intelligence is just a trait and most real people with self control and manners have redeeming features. Patince with people is the key. The Joker just doesń́ t have the patience, but I can understand him. Hes out to prove a point, and doesń́ t have patience or time for the endless red tape that is civilized life. Just think of the mafia meeting. He knows how to deal with the problem, but he cant explain it to these guys caught up in liabilities like interests, status, money and petty rivalries. They just see an outlandish guy and cant begin to comprehend his ideas or give him outright the authority he deserves. I can relate. I have often felt like a clown while trying to explain perfectly rational stuff to people of lesser intelligence or level of education. If you think Í́ m just bragging, try asking a computer wizz to explain to you what exactly is wrong with your computer next time you call one to fix it. He might try. And get frustrated, unless he is a very patient man.
So, almost everything the Joker did in the film was rational to me after i saw what was the reason behind it. I have done stuff like that in real life if you take the film as a metaphor, which artworks should often be taken as. I can imagine what he felt like. He was just out to prove a point. Its very easy to describe this film in terms of metaphor. There are two guys (Joker and Batman) who are sitting in a bar debating philosophy and having a drinking contest at the same time. Every time a claim is made (I could blow up a hospital to convince you) the trust of the opponent in the debate is gained by taking a shot of hard liquor (In the movie the Joker kills people, and Batman beats them up). A third guy (Harvey Dent) is a friend of one of them and is willing to pay for their drinks because his friend (Batman) is convincing him that he can both do it and it is worth it. I study comparative literature and know quite a few philosophy students, so Ive seen it happen almost like that. Its simple. One guy (Joker) claims that intelligent people should be unchained with the nuisances of civilization, and the other (Batman) is patiently coping with and parrying his cunning and well thought out arguments, all the while gaining his respect by matching him drink for drink. They are both fascinated by each others rethoric and logic, so they cant stop, all the while making the bill huge. When the bar finally closes, they are still deeply entranced by (and possibly madly in love with) each other, but the poor sponsor has a breakdown when he sees the bill he was essentially manipulated to pay.
Thats all there is to it. If you understand, you give me more reasons to not lose my patience and not become the Joker, if you doń́ t i hope you find things in life that interest you and never run into somebody with people skills, intelligence and a lack of morals. TDK Joker is what an exceptionally intelligent and knowledgeable person really feels like under and the restraints and madly in love with somebody who can prove to him that those restraints are there for a reason.
Furthermore. The movie doesń́ t teach only of the importance and value of paying your own bills, or in other words responsibility. It is a tragic romantic movie about love between kindred spirits that have lost their ideals and feel the need to either constantly question their partners devotion and the limits he/she would have to go to to keep them around, to still keep them resolute (in the case of Joker), or the ability to look themselves in the mirror and stay the way they are no matter what life threw at them (in case of the Batman). Its a story of would you still love me if. Batman needs somebody to understand the importance of what he stands for, and the Joker needs somebody to appreciate his insight and put him in his place long after hes lost all idea why he should be there. Its true love of imaginative children made graphic.
All the Jokers mannerisms and manipulative little stories make sense. I know this, because I had to learned to endear people to myself. Even family members lose patience when they need to hand the paraphlegic the urin container for the hundreth time. You just want somebody to have patience with you and be amazed with what you have, even if its just raw, unproffitable intelligence. You want somebody to love you for the challenge that you pose, somebody to see the reasons for your egzistance. You want to find that somebody can appriciate the joke, find the tragedy behind the humor as deep as you find it. Somebody that doesń́ t kill you even after you show him that you really have no place in an ordinary world. Somebody to put you in your place, and earn enough of your respect to believe in it.
[FONT="]I love my girlfirend. I love her because we doń́ t have to resort to killing people to provoke one another into proving our love and devotion, both to each other and the world we live in. I love her because we can see where the debate is going and just kiss each other and tell each other that we understand, even if so few others do.
The Joker is sane.He ́́́ s just so disaapointed and bored. He falls in love. And it might just be the greatest love story ever told.[/FONT]
I love how some people feel sorry for him with the ferries don't blow up. The answer is no through out the film, but when he fails in killing hundreds of people, everyone feels bad for him. Priceless.
