B efore Joker opened last weekend, much was being made of how its tale of a murderous villain echoed news stories of mass shooters and incel threats, and how the film might encourage unbalanced viewers to commit acts of violence. As it turned out, it mainly inspired audiences to open their wallets for the biggest October opening ever.

After watching the film, I could understand the concerns: Directed by Todd Phillips and starring Joaquin Phoenix as the deranged clown Arthur Fleck, the title character, Joker is simultaneously a well-made film in its own right and a blatant mashup of The King of Comedy and Taxi Driver. It nods at classism and winks at the Bruce Wayne family mythos, but at its core the movie is about a mentally ill loner.

Still, what struck me most is that what the film wants to say — about mental illness or class divisions in American society — is not as interesting as what it accidentally says about whiteness. For it is essentially a depiction of what happens when white supremacy is left unchecked. It shows the delusions that many white men have about their place in society and the brutality that can result when that place is denied.

The fact that the Joker is a white man is central to the film’s plot. A black man in Gotham City (really, New York) in 1981 suffering from the same mysterious mental illnesses as Fleck would be homeless and invisible. He wouldn’t be turned into a public figure who could incite an entire city to rise up against the wealthy. Black men dealing with Fleck’s conditions are often cast aside by society, ending up on the streets or in jail, as studies have shown.

And though Fleck says he often feels invisible, had he been black, he truly would have been — except, of course, when he came into contact with the police. They would be sure to see him.

20 directors who hate their own films Show all 20 1 /20 20 directors who hate their own films 20 directors who hate their own films American History X – Tony Kaye There are few directors who have gone so actively out of their way to discourage people from watching their film as Tony Kaye. Unhappy with the way the studio, New Line, had re-cut American History X, the filmmaker wrote multiple open letters – published by the trade press – telling people to not watch the final version. He even had the film pulled from Toronto Film Festival. “I had tried to get my name taken off it, and replaced with various pseudonyms,” Kaye wrote in The Guardian, three years after the release. “One was ‘Humpty Dumpty’. Another was ‘Ralph Coates’, who played for Tottenham in the 1970s.” The Directors Guild of America would not allow Kaye to change his name, and he has bitterly lived with the accolade of directing the cult classic ever since. 20 directors who hate their own films Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – Michael Bay The first Transformers was a decent-enough popcorn flick. Critics may not have been enamoured by the CGI blockbuster, but there’s no denying watching robots beating each other up is mindless entertainment of the highest order. Yet, Michael Bay managed to make a mess of that simple winning formula in the sequel, Revenge of the Fallen, something he later admitted. "When I look back at it, that was crap,” he said of the film in 2011. “The writers' strike was coming hard and fast. It was just terrible to do a movie where you've got to have a story in three weeks. I was prepping a movie for months where I only had 14 pages of some idea of what the movie was. It's a BS way to make a movie.” 20 directors who hate their own films The Snowman – Tomas Alfredson While Swedish director Tomas Alfredson received acclaim for the Oscar-nominated Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, his follow-up film, the mystery thriller The Snowman, was ripped apart by critics. “Our shoot time in Norway was way too short,” he explained following the film’s release. “We didn’t get the whole story with us and when we started cutting we discovered that a lot was missing.” Alfredson added that, despite The Snowman being in development for years, with Martin Scorsese once attached as director, around 10 to 15 per cent of the script was not filmed. “It’s like when you’re making a big jigsaw puzzle and a few pieces are missing so you don’t see the whole picture,” he added. 20 directors who hate their own films Avengers: Age of Ultron – Joss Whedon Joss Whedon changed cinema with The Avengers. The ensemble film brought a host of disparate superheroes together, and in the process made over $1.5 billion (£1.15 billion) at the box-office. Balancing all those characters was tough, and come the sequel, Age of Ultron, the director was worn down. Whedon apparently couldn’t muster the ability to watch the entire film after completion, saying: “I’m tied and I had a terrible time.” A year later, in 2016, the filmmaker clarified his comments. “I was so beaten down by the process. Some of that was conflicting with Marvel, which is inevitable. A lot of it was about my own work, and I was also exhausted.” Whedon added that he remains “proud” of the film, yet there are still things about the film that “frustrate” him hugely. 20 directors who hate their own films Annie Hall, Hannah And Her Sisters, Manhattan – Woody Allen Annie Hall is widely regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time. Hannah And Her Sisters won an Oscar for best screenplay. Manhattan is often heralded as a comedy masterpiece. Woody Allen, though, believes his other films are better. “For some reason [Annie Hall] is very likeable. I’ve made better films than that. Match Point is a better film, Purple Rose of Cairo is a better film, the French one – Midnight in Paris – is a better film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is as good. I mean, I’ve made films that were as good, but for some reason that’s got some charismatic, inexplicable hold on people. That and Manhattan too. [On] Manhattan, I missed what I was going for. Same thing with Hannah and Her Sisters. I’m not saying it’s a terrible film or a bad – I’m not here to knock my films. But for me personally, I missed. It was too treacly at the end, too bailed-out.” 20 directors who hate their own films Highball – Noah Baumbach Noah Baumbach is now a beloved indie filmmaker (thanks to The Squid and the Whale, Frances Ha, and The Meyerowitz Stories). Yet he was not always an acclaimed director. Baumbach despised his second film, Highball, so much that his directing credit was changed to Ernie Fusco and his writer’s one to Jesse Carter. “It was just too ambitious,” he said of the film, which concerns a newly married couple who end up inviting too many people to their Brooklyn flat for a party. “We didn't have enough time, we didn't finish it, it didn't look good, it was just a whole ... mess. We couldn't get it done, and I had a falling out with the producer. He abandoned it, and I had no money to finish it, to go back and maybe get two more days or something. Then later, it was put out on DVD without my approval.” 20 directors who hate their own films Babylon AD – Mathieu Kassovitz Before Babylon AD – a futuristic sci-fi flick about a mercenary who has to escort a woman from Russia to America – reached cinemas in the UK, the director, Mathieu Kassovitz, was trying to distance himself from the Vin Diesel-led project. "The movie is supposed to teach us that the education of our children will mean the future of our planet,” he said. “All the action scenes had a goal: they were supposed to be driven by either a metaphysical point of view or experience for the characters... instead parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24." Kassovitz later added the film was "pure violence and stupidity". 20 directors who hate their own films Catchfire – Dennis Hopper In 1992, Dennis Hopper joined the ranks of directors who released their film under the pseudonym Alan Smithee (famously used when filmmakers disown their own film). Originally called Catchfire, the Jodie Foster-starring thriller about a woman who enters witness protection was later retitled Backtrack, and 20 minutes were cut for the straight-to-VHS release. Hopper rarely spoke about the film; he wanted to distance himself as much as possible from the doomed project. 20 directors who hate their own films The Underneath – Steven Soderbergh “I think it’s a beautiful film to look at and I think the score is beautiful,” Steven Soderberg said of The Underneath, “but 15 seconds in I know we’re in trouble because of how f***ing long it takes to get through those opening credits. That’s just an indication of what’s wrong with this thing: it’s just totally sleepy.” The film, about a recovering gambling addict, was an unsurprising box-office flop. “I can’t say I’d recommend it to anyone,” Soderbergh added, “other than to look at in the context of someone’s career”. 20 directors who hate their own films Thor: The Dark World – Alan Taylor Alan Taylor – of Game of Thrones and Sopranos fame – seemed a perfect fit for Thor, the heroic God of Thunder who spoke in Shakespearean prose. When the sequel was released, many were disappointed with the film, which somehow wasted Christopher Eccleston, who played the villain. Taylor later criticised the project, saying: “The Marvel experience was particularly wrenching because I was sort of given absolute freedom while we were shooting, and then in post it turned into a different movie. So, that is something I hope never to repeat and don’t wish upon anybody else.” Marvel 20 directors who hate their own films Fear and Desire – Stanley Kubrick Few filmmakers have spotless filmographies. Stanley Kubrick believed the blotch on his was Fear and Desire – the renowned-perfectionist’s cinematic debut. As his stature as a director grew, Kubrick was said to grow ever-more disgruntled with Fear and Desire, an anti-war film about four soldiers trapped behind enemy lines. Reports emerged in the Sixties that Kubrick had destroyed the original negative print, and was hoping to destroy all leftover prints. In 1964, Kubrick called the film “a serious effort, ineptly done”. 20 directors who hate their own films Batman and Robin – Joel Schumacher Almost everyone involved with Batman & Robin seems to hate the final product. George Clooney has apologised for his Bat-nippled version of the Caped Crusader, while director Joel Schumacher has said sorry multiple times. “Look, I apologise,” he said in 2017. “I want to apologise to every fan that was disappointed because I think I owe them that.” After the widely maligned film reached cinemas, Schumacher said he was treated like “scum”. “It was like I had murdered a baby,” he continued. 20 directors who hate their own films The Day the Clown Cried – Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis’s The Day the Clown Cried has never been released. The director, who also starred as the leading character, locked the film – about a clown arrested in Nazi Germany for drunkenly defaming Hitler – in a private vault after completion. Lewis thought the film was so “bad, bad, bad” that he often refused to discuss the project, only commenting very occasionally. "I was ashamed of the work and I was grateful I had the power to contain it all and never let anyone see it. It could have been wonderful but I slipped up – I didn't quite get it,” he said in 2013. AFP 20 directors who hate their own films Fantastic Four – Josh Trank Everything was looking good for Fantastic Four before filming began. Some of Hollywood’s most promising actors were playing the eponymous characters – Michael B Jordan, Miles Teller, Kate Mara and Jamie Bell – while Josh Trank, coming off the back of runaway success Chronicle, was hired to direct. During post-production, though, everything fell apart. Trank was forced by the studio, Fox, to do extensive reshoots (you can tell which scenes were reshot because Mara’s wig looks awful and Teller has varying lengths of stubble). The month before the film’s release, the director spoke out on Twitter. “A year ago I had a fantastic version of this,” he wrote. “And it would’ve received great reviews. You’ll probably never see it. That’s reality though.” The film bombed at the box office, with Trank’s tweet reportedly costing Fox between $5m and $10m (£3.8m and £7.6m). 20 directors who hate their own films Woman Wanted – Kiefer Sutherland During the Nineties, Kiefer Sutherland wanted to progress from acting to directing. Although his feature-film debut as director, 1997’s Truth or Consequences, was not exactly a critical success, he persevered, directing the 2000 flick Woman Wanted. Sutherland was so disappointed with the results, he released the film under the pseudonym Alan Smithee – becoming the last person to ever use the famed name. He has not directed a film since. 20 directors who hate their own films An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn – Alan Smithee/Arthur Hiller A film about the pseudonym Alan Smithee that ironically ended up being an Alan Smithee film. Arthur Hiller had no intention of disowning Burn Hollywood Burn, which aimed to lampoon the Hollywood system. The film centred on a director, named Alan Smithee (played by Eric Idle), who hands in a cut of a film, only for the studio to recut the entire thing. Life mirrored art as the studio behind Burn Hollywood Burn took the film away from Hiller, who ended up using the Smithee pseudonym on the release. 20 directors who hate their own films Dune – David Lynch Following the success of Oscar Best Picture winner The Elephant Man, David Lynch could have done almost anything. Despite having not read the book, Lynch agreed to adapt Dune, choosing the project over the third Star Wars, Return of the Jedi. Lynch soon started work on turning Frank Herbert’s epic novel into a screenplay, turning in over five drafts. Yet, despite the preparation time, the final results were less than satisfactory for the director. “I started selling out on Dune,” he said. “Looking back, it's no one's fault but my own. I probably shouldn't have done that picture, but I saw tons and tons of possibilities for things I loved, and this was the structure to do them in.” 20 directors who hate their own films Alien 3 – David Fincher David Fincher was just 28 years old when the producers of Alien decided to bring the upstart on board their second sequel. With just five weeks’ preparation time, an unfinished script, and no real clout behind his name, Fincher struggled with the film. “Oh, it was just awful,” he later said. “This is the worst thing that ever happened to me.” In 2009, promoting The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Fincher elaborated: “I had to work on it for two years, got fired off it three times and I had to fight for every single thing. No one hated it more than me; to this day, no one hates it more than me.” 20 directors who hate their own films Hellraiser: Bloodline – Kevin Yagher The fourth film in the horror series Hellraiser had a troubled production. Original director Kevin Yagher was ordered by the studio to reshoot scenes, which he refused to do. Joe Chappelle stepped in, leading to Yagher demanding the Alan Smithee pseudonym be used. The final film – which acted as both a prequel and a sequel to the other three films – was not screened for critics, and was dismissed by many fans. 20 directors who hate their own films Accidental Love – David O Russell David O Russell began working on Nailed in 2008. Envisioning the film as a romantic comedy with political undertones, the director cast Jessica Biel and Jake Gyllenhaal in leading roles, and was awarded $26 million (£20 million) to make it. And still, somehow, the entire filming process was a mess. The set was shutdown a reported 14 times after cast and crew complained about not being paid. Eventually, after key scenes were not filmed during production, the entire thing was abandoned. After Russell started drawing Oscars attention for The Fighter and American Hustle, though, the studio wanted to get Nailed out in cinemas. Work continued on the film without Russell’s involvement. The film was then retitled Accidental Love and released in cinemas, with the director’s name changed to Stephen Greene. Critics hated the results.

Though Fleck is pursued and investigated by Gotham’s finest, his whiteness acts as a force field, protecting him as he engages in the violent acts of the latter half of the film. Consider his appearance on the live talk show hosted by Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro). A black man acting as strangely as Fleck does would not have been allowed to go on the air. But the white Fleck is given access, and bloodshed soon follows.

Joker final trailer (2019)

Or look at how Fleck interacts with others. He is frequently in conversation with people who occupy a lower rung in society than he does: a state-appointed therapist he sees early on; a protective mother who chastises him for playing peekaboo with her son on the bus; his possible love interest, a neighbour who lives in the same building; and the psychiatrist he sees in Arkham Asylum. Every one of these characters is a black woman with whom he eventually has confrontations. Phillips consistently places Fleck in an oppositional or antagonistic position to these women.

I don’t know if this is intentional on Phillips’ part, but it is significant. When we learn that his relationship with the neighbour (played with artful restraint by Zazie Beetz) was merely a figment of his troubled imagination, the way he leaves the apartment implies that this realisation has led Fleck to kill her and perhaps her child. After his final conversation with the Arkham doctor, his bloody footsteps suggest that he kills her as well.

Fleck kills white men because he cannot access their status and is ostracised by them, but his black female victims are so invisible that the film does not bother to show their deaths. We as viewers can and should take note of them.

There are other ways that whiteness informs Fleck’s character. He anticipates he’ll be treated as a son by the Wayne family, and assumes he’ll be given medical records just by asking the hospital orderly (played by the great Brian Tyree Henry). The privileges that come with Fleck’s race set him up for these unrealistic expectations. When they’re not met, the consequences are deadly.

Whiteness may not have been on the filmmakers’ minds when they made Joker, but it is the hidden accomplice that fosters the violence on screen.