Social and Political Discussions on Mass Cinema in Media: the Joker Movie Case

We studied the history of the Joker character through examples of comic books as primary sources and movies and considered the transformation of the character's appearance, his madness and cruelty, the characteristic personal instability and variability, as well as the relationship with the Batman. We also showed that the Joker is a character that is conditioned by and changes with the historical and ideological framework of liberal capitalism. Todd Phillips' film has a social and political background, has been confirmed. On the other hand, it turned out to be too complex to be considered left or right. Rather, we can talk about "political ambivalence." The Joker as a character has social connotations, which, on the one hand, were originally embedded in him, on the other hand, developed with him during 80 years and resulted in a dispute about the film of the same name. Because of the complex cultural and political situation, as well as the narrative instability of the character, the film has a large number of interpretations, where none of them is completely true or convincing.