I think Joker and Thor: Ragnarok are the same movie, or at least, two separate movies focused on the same subject, one looking down at it and the other looking up. One examines the subject honestly, and the other, I fear, dishonestly. I must admit that one is gut bustlingly funny while the other is gut wrenchingly horrible.
The subject, as I see it, might be called societal decay, but I think that term denotes more than I mean. It might be, from my perspective, the odd fact that those at the bottom of our society and those at the top have aligned (seemingly by accident) to screw over those in the middle. That’s not exactly what I mean, either. It is the problem that is always the problem in every age and at all times: That falling is easy, far easier than climbing. Of course, the stairs in the Joker depict this idea marvelously, but it is also there in Thor, the titular character’s character arc mapping out his own development from the one who protects and uplifts society to the one who destroys it.
I mentioned two things earlier: an accidental alignment and the idea that these movies look at the same thing, one from above and one from below. The Joker, it seems to me, is looking up at the problem; it is from the perspective of someone who is at the bottom of society, who finally embraces the forces pulling him down, and in that decision, tears down society. Thor, on the other hand, is about someone at the very top of the society, its king, finally joining with a horned devil to destroy his kingdom because of the fear of death. It is, I think, accidental that these opposites come together, by which I mean, it’s not a conspiracy. They have met by the mere accident of walking the same road. In this sense, these movies seem to reflect the reality well. (A fundamental transformation of America, says one president, and since his presidency, murderous riots have become the norm.)
But there is one key difference, I find, between these movies: One is truthful, and the other lies. The Joker shows the failures of a society, but it does not make the destruction of said society out to be a good thing. On the other hand, Thor is almost, if not entirely, propaganda; it not only whitewashes the evils of destroying its society, but blackens the sins of the society it wants to destroy.
I think there needs to be a movie giving the middle’s perspective, but on reflection, an honest, hard working man battling the drudgeries of everyday life and finally meeting death defiantly and dignity, would not sell. A slow, gradual climb can never be as spectacular as a great fall. Though it is a miracle, we adults are bored by trains running as they ought. We do not even see them until they crash. Only a child is in love with a well-running engine. Perhaps that is a hint at our Lord’s meaning when he says that we cannot enter heaven unless we become like little children, like a little boy building a trainset.
Tale Told 