Image Source: Netflix / Everett Collection
In 1984, after shooting and wounding four men in a subway train in Manhattan, Bernhard Goetz was dubbed the “Subway Vigilante.” The resulting media circus would not only be covered by Netflix the true crime series The trial-by-Media but he had also to serve as inspiration in part for the year 2019 the Joker. But how much of Goetz is present in Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix)? After seeing Goetz’s episode of The trial-by-Mediathe similarities are clear.
To tell a version more courageous of the Joker’s origin story, director Todd Phillips and his team of production design was inspired by the City of New York in the 1980s. At the time, New York was known for its high crime rate rather than its tourist attractions, and the metro rolled a great stone of touch in the history of the city.
Prior to the shooting, Goetz, a meek-looking man with a slumped posture similar to that of Arthur Fleck, was assaulted in the streets. The incident resulted in the development of their distorted sense that the situations can be dangerous, and that people can be violent. These points of view, incompatible with reality, it led the metro shooting, although Goetz victims fortunately survived.
As the subway shooting served as a defining moment in the Goetz’s life, a fictionalized scene in Joker the catapults Fleck in its final descent to become a depraved villain. Of course, there are differences in both the motivation and the result between the two events. Goetz, a white man, shot four Black men. Fleck actions were motivated by the inequality of class; his victims were White men who worked in the financial district.
As Fleck, Goetz was praised and vilified for his actions. As detailed in The trial-by-Mediathe vigilante group known as the guardian Angels began patrolling the subway. They also collected money for their legal defense. In Joker, Fleck inspires a clown uprising to take control of Gotham. While the guardian Angels’ main focus was to keep the city safe (supposedly) and act independently of Goetz, the clown uprising focuses strictly on the creation of chaos and doing whatever the “clown prince of crime”, suggests. Goetz’s actions, while indefensible and deplorable, provoked a conversation about racial profiling that would eventually lead to a more serious and responsible the City of New York.
Phillips wanted a band of Joker. To achieve this, I needed to ground the character in something very real. The best balance of Goetz and Fleck appears at the end of Goetz’s The trial-by-Media episode: “No hero, never was.”
