Patton Oswalt Has A Pretty Fascinating Theory About The Joker's Backstory In 'The Dark Knight'
‘The Dark Knight’, along with ‘Empire Strikes Back’, has held the spot at the top of my favorite movies of all time list since July 18th, 2008 when it was released. It holds the spot in a 1a/1b type deal, because depending on the day, weather, or my mood, those two flicks flip-flop, so I could never definitively rank one above the other, but that’s neither here nor there and not what this blog is about.
In this blog, we’re taking a look at a theory Patton Oswalt shared on his Facebook page yesterday about what The Joker’s backstory may be in ‘The Dark Knight’. It’s obviously a huuuuuuge block of text, so if you want the tl;dr version, here ya go…
-Patton’s theory is an offshoot of the already existing theory that in ‘The Dark Knight’, The Joker is a war veteran suffering from PTSD. This theory exists because in the film he talks about a “truckload of soldiers” being blown up, knows his way around military hardware, and is an intricate and articulate planner.
-Oswalt suggest that possibly, The Joker wasn’t just military, we was military intelligence. Specifically: interrogation.
-The Joker’s ability to manipulate his own personality to get the reaction he wants out of anyone is brought up.
-The continuously changed backstory behind how he got his scars is a tactic straight out of an interrogation/torture playbook, sympathizing with his victims. Oswalt goes on…
“To Gamble and his henchmen, he’s an abused child (figuring that they were also the products of abuse and neglect). To Rachel, he’s a man mourning a tragic love — something she’s also wrestling with.”
-My favorite pull from this theory is how The Joker’s final confrontation with Batman is interpreted. Here’s Patton’s full paragraph on that…
“In the end, he ends up trying to mind-fuck an entire city — and the city calls his bluff. Or is that what he wanted all along? He plummets to his seeming death, laughing like a child. And when he’s rescued by Batman, the one individual he couldn’t manipulate or break, he’s blissful and relieved (and, visually, turned on his head). Even the language he uses when saying goodbye to Batman — describing their relationship as an “irresistible force meeting an immovable object” — is the kind of thing an interrogator would say, ruefully, about a fruitless session.”
-Some comments later pointed out other things that support this theory that Patton didn’t initially pick up on…
The Joker also “directs” Batman’s interrogation of him, like an instructor with a newbie. “Never start with the head, the victim gets all fuzzy.”
The Joker uses The Russian’s dogs against him, and later sics them on Batman. Just like the pictures from Abu Ghraib of the prisoners being terrified by dogs.
Personally, I dig it and will likely give ‘The Dark Knight’ another watch this weekend with the theory in mind the whole time. I suggest you do the same, because 1. ‘The Dark Knight’ is always worth watching and 2. whenever theories like this arise, it’s always fun to see whether they heighten or dampen your enjoyment of the film. It’s a win/win, because if ya now LOVE ‘The Dark Knight’ more than ever, you got something new out of a decade-old film. If not, you can just forget about it and you still got to watch the flick!
If you wind up watching ‘The Dark Knight’ over the next few days, shoot me a tweet about it! See if you picked up on any more clues to fill in the gaps of this theory, or if you have a theory of your own. I’d love to hear ‘em.