It seems like Fincher's comments about the Joker character were taken out of context.

"I don't think anyone would have looked at that material and thought, Yeah, let's take [ Taxi Driver's] Travis Bickle and [ The King of Comedy's] Rupert Pupkin and conflate them then trap him in a betrayal of the mentally ill, and trot it out for a billion dollars," Fincher said.

The title of the article makes it look like Fincher is saying the Joker movie betrays people who have a mental illness, but I think he was trying to explain that the character, Arthur Fleck is a victim of betrayal by society's treatment of him for being mentally ill. He does go into the tired critique of Fleck's character being a combo of past Martin Scorcese films, which is an over simplification on his part.

Edited by user Monday, November 16, 2020 7:02:55 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified