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Acclaimed and Oscar-winning director Quentin Tarantino has shared his thoughts on 2019’s blockbuster smash Joker, and in particular the grisly and uncomfortable talk show scene involving Robert DeNiro’s character.
In an Empire podcast conversation with director Edgar Wright, Tarantino discussed the scene, in which Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker meets DeNiro’s Murray Franklin, confesses his murderous ways, and then shoots Franklin in the head.
Tarantino said the scene succeeds in subverting expectations and convinces the audience that Joker should kill Franklin.
“The subversion on a massive level, the thing that’s profound is this: It’s not just suspenseful, it’s not just riveting and exciting, the director subverts the audience because the Joker is a f**king nut,” Tarantino said (via Collider). “Robert DeNiro’s talk show character is not a movie villain. He seems like an asshole, but he’s not more of an asshole than David Letterman. He’s just an asshole comedian, talk show guy.”
Franklin is not a villain, per se, and he doesn’t deserve to die, according to Tarantino. The genius of the scene, Tarantino said, is that director Todd Phillips succeeded in convincing the audience that Joker should kill Franklin.
“He’s not a movie villain,” Tarantino said of Franklin. “He doesn’t deserve to die. Yet, while the audience is watching the Joker, they want him to kill Robert DeNiro; they want him to take that gun, and stick it in his eye and blow his f**king head off. And if the Joker didn’t kill him? You would be pissed off. That is subversion on a massive level! They got the audience to think like a f**king lunatic and to want [Arthur to kill Murray]. And they will lie about it! They will say, ‘No, I didn’t [want it to happen]!,’ and they are f**king liars. They did.”
You might not agree with Tarantino’s take on the subject.
Joker released in 2019 and made more than $1 billion at the global box office. It even made more money than Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.
Joker won two Academy Awards, including Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Joaquin Phoenix) and Best Achievement in Music Written for a Motion Picture (Hildur Guonadottir).
Phillips’ next movie is a Hulk Hogan biopic starring Chris Hemsworth.
