Aurora shooting victims raise concerns about Joker in letter to Warner Bros.

[Mosby]

Family members of theatergoers killed in a mass shooting during a 2012 screening of The Dark Knight Rises have signed a letter to Warner Bros. expressing concerns about the new film Joker.

The family members say they remain haunted by “absolute hell and pain” over the shooting in Aurora, Colo. — when a gunman wearing body armor and armed with multiple weapons killed 12 and injured scores of others — and say the storyline of Todd Phillips’ Joker is worrisome. In the film, the DC Comics villain played by Joaquin Phoenix is presented as a mistreated outcast who goes on a killing spree.

[The Aurora shooting], perpetrated by a socially isolated individual who felt ‘wronged’ by society, has changed the course of our lives,” reads the letter obtained by EW. “When we learned that Warner Bros. was releasing a movie called Joker that presents the character as a protagonist with a sympathetic origin story, it gave us pause.”

The group isn’t asking the studio to halt the film’s release, however, or urging a boycott. Instead, they’re asking the studio donate to groups that help victims of gun violence, as well as “end political contributions to candidates who take money from the NRA and vote against gun reform” and “use your political clout and leverage in Congress to actively lobby for gun reform.”

https://ew.com/movies/2019/09/24/aurora-shooting-joker/


I think this movie is an incels wet dream and probably shouldn't be released at all.

[customerserviceguy]

1. If you feel this way about a movie

then you probably feel that video games are to blame for mass shootings, too.

[Mosby]

2. There is precedence

The Warriors.

The following weekend the film was linked to sporadic outbreaks of vandalism and three killings — two in Southern California and one in Boston — involving moviegoers on their way to or from showings.[10]

This prompted Paramount to remove advertisements from radio and television completely and display ads in the press were reduced to the film's title, rating and participating theaters.[9] In reaction, 200 theaters across the country added security personnel. Due to safety concerns, theater owners were relieved of their contractual obligations if they did not want to show the film, and Paramount offered to pay costs for additional security and damages due to vandalism.[11]

Hill later reflected, "I think the reason why there were some violent incidents is really very simple: The movie was very popular with the street gangs, especially young men, a lot of whom had very strong feelings about each other. And suddenly they all went to the movies together! They looked across the aisle and there were the guys they didn't like, so there were a lot of incidents. And also, the movie itself is rambunctious — I would certainly say that."[6]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Warriors_(film)

Movies can affect people very profoundly.

[customerserviceguy]

3. It's a movie

it's a fairy tale, and while the Colorado people may have some odd feelings about it, this Joker movie is not going to cause anybody who was not already bent to violence to do a damned thing. Without it, they'd just act out someplace else.

When entertainment just becomes as innocuous as "Mister Rogers Neighborhood", then the assholes have won.

[Blue_true]

4. I really am conflicted.

Up front, let me say that I have never been around a shooting, least yet a mass shooting, so I don't have the perspective of the Aurora victims.

But, I know that when I have gone into public places like theaters or large meetings, I always have my back against something like a wall. I have done that forever, even when dining in public.

Having said that, it is a movie, fantasy. It should be taken for what it is. A psychopath can go on a mass killing spree for any reason, a diner not cooking their eggs right, traffic in their once quiet city too heavy, their girlfriend left them. The reasons are endless. What we need to laser focus on is keeping guns that are capable of quickly killing scores out of the hands of psychopaths, not be distracted by movies.

[Bettie]

5. I think that they are asking for something very

reasonable.

Donations and use of their political leverage to make a positive impact versus a boycott or demands to stop the film.