VOA常速英语:电影《小丑》引发对暴力犯罪的担忧

I have some bad news for you.
This is the last time we’ll be meeting you.
You don’t listen.
As Gotham city’s public mental health program gets the axe, Arthur Fleck medicines of counseling are canceled.
His work as a clown is a dead end and he’s constantly bullied by angry people in a gritty city teeming with division and dissatisfaction.
However Arthur is trying to live up to his mother’s belief that he was born to spread laughter in the world, an expectation that feeds into his delusions of grandeur.
But after he gets mocked and kicked one time too many, he fires the gun that opportunity puts in his hands.
His transformation to the menacing joker has begun.
Critics are divided of the joker.
Some see the film as an artful portrayal of a man’s descent into insanity,
but many say the film empathizes with the lone shooter as a victim of circumstances and then elevates him to an iconic vigilante.
One of those critics is George mason university film professor May Santiago.
She calls Warner Brothers studio and filmmaker Todd Phillips decision to make such a film irresponsible after a slew of mass shootings in the country by men exhibiting behaviors similar to that of the joker.
We are traumatized society.

And you’re really going to throw in a blockbuster film, a film with millions, hundreds of millions dollars behind it.
I’m sorry, but now it’s not that easy.
And with one of the most iconic characters and the cultural lexicon, you don’t get away with it that easily.
Movie theaters around the country have increased security and banned masks from being worn by movie-goers.
Los Angeles Police department is aware of the historical significance and the public concern around the premiere of the Joker.
While there are no credible threats in Los Angeles area, we do encourage Angelenos to be vigilant.
In 2012, James Holmes killed 12 people and injured 70 during a midnight screening of another Joker film, Christopher Nolan’s batman blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises.
So far, Joker has won three top awards at the Venice film festival and Joaquin Phoenix is already garnering Oscar buzz for his performance.
Usually characters motivations are so clearly defined that we’re telling the audience precisely what to feel and when.
And what I like about this movie is it’s really up to interpretation.
Art shouldn’t be made in a vacuum.
May Santiago says we should hold art accountable to our social values.
It’s been less than a month since our last mass shooting by a white man.
You know, that’s just a society we live in and until gun laws start changing and there’s more of a monumental shift in American society.
We should be defensive. We have to be defensive.