One of the most legendary Batman stories, The Killing Joke, has finally gotten a movie and right now it is trending for all of the wrong reasons. Many fans have apparently reacted negatively toward both the presence of the film itself, as well as an added scene where Bruce and Barbara do the dirty on the roof of a building. Much of the uproar involves accusations of the writers warping what is supposed to be a father/daughter relationship (despite the fact that Bruce and Barbara have been involved in Batman: Beyond).
idk how to feel about this pic.twitter.com/gsBGHsYet5
— ☕ (@AcroNite7) July 22, 2016
To put it bluntly, we live in a very hyper-sensitive world in regards to things like sex and sexual violence (among other things) and at a time (and an industry) where the onus is to portray women as empowered, The Killing Joke represents the complete opposite of that. This has resulted in a number of fans reacting poorly to the scene. That is something that The Killing Joke team understands all too well.
In speaking with Vulture, longtime DC Comics artist Bruce Timm said of the Bruce/Barbara sex scene:
"We were aware that it's a little risky. There's definitely some stuff in that first part of the movie that's going to be controversial. Here's where we came down on that specific issue: It was really important to us to show that both of the characters make some pretty big mistakes. I mean, his “parental skills” aren't that great. Maybe never having had any kids of his own, he doesn't realize that if you tell a kid to not do something, they’re going to want to do it even more. And then she makes some mistakes and then he kind of overreacts to her mistakes and then she overreacts to his overreaction. So it's very human; it's a very understandable story. It's tricky because it's messy, because relationships are sometimes messy. But to me and to Alan and Brian, it was all very fascinating to us to explore that angle."
Whatever your feelings on the sex scene are, it's hard to argue with the logic of both characters' mental condition. Neither Bruce nor Barbara is what you would call "normal." After all, Bruce Wayne's entire life has been built around not knowing or understanding a healthy definition of "love" seeing as how his parents were murdered in front of him and Barbara's life hasn't been an easy one either. There's a big reason why the two of them go out at night in full costumes risking their lives and beating up bad guys, and it's not because they are squeaky clean.
Timm is also confident that the final product will represent the story in the most authentic way possible. He said:
"But I think it’s not as extreme as it could’ve been. We didn’t go out there waving a red flag like, Hey, we want an R rating! It’s horrible, but it’s relatively tastefully done, as was the comic. In this day and age, we clearly see way worse things. Even on prime-time TV, sometimes, on shows like Hannibal or even Gotham, in terms of explicit violence. We needed to stay true to the comic."
You can go and see The Killing Joke in select theaters today and tomorrow, July 26th. The movie will release digitally tomorrow as well, with a physical release following on August 2nd.
Sources: [Vulture, Bleeding Cool]
