Film Director Describes 'Joker' As Mockery Of Mental Illness

Joker is a high-successful film at the box office but that did not mean all film directors fancy the storyline which one of them has come out to label as a "betrayal" of people suffering from some sort of mental illness. 

David Fincher, Netflix's Mank director, has opened up on his views on the multi-award-winning film which he believed would not have gotten off ground if consideration was given to its contest and impact it would have on some viewers. However, he admitted there have been films some years past that are just like Jokers that performed equally well.  

During an interview with Daily Telegraph, Fincher mentioned comedy films that portrayed characters similar to that of Joaquin Phoenix's in Joker, which paid little attention to what impact the materials may have on their audience. He believed those films seemed to him as the inspirations behind the film directed by Todd Philips.

Explaining his opinion, he said: "I don't think anyone would have looked at that material and though, 'Yeah, let's take Travis Bickle [Taxi Driver] and Rupert Pupkin [The King Comedy] and conflate them and trap him in a betrayal of the mentally ill, and trot it out for a dollar dollars."

Despite being heavily criticized before its release, Joker did not only passed its projection but also crossed the billion-dollar benchmark having a domestic gross of $335.5million and even doubled that performance in the international market making a staggering $738.5million in gross.

At the 2020 Academy Awards night, Joker won two awards out of eleven nods as Joaquin Phoenix grabbed Best Actor of the Year for the film that also won the Best Original Score.