Martin Scorsese, Who Helped Inspire Joker, Still Hasn’t Seen Joker

Martin Scorsese, the man whose 1970s oeuvre inspired the billion-dollar hit Joker, still hasn’t seen Joker. And it appears that he’s not terribly interested in watching it, despite the fact that the Todd Phillips-directed blockbuster channels old Scorsese films like Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy in order to tell its bleak loner tale. In an interview with the New York Times, Scorsese let it be known that he’s in no rush to ever see it.

“I saw clips of it,” Scorsese said of Joker. “I know it. So it’s like, why do I need to? I get it. It’s fine.”

So many layers to this! Let’s break it down, starting with “I saw clips of it.“ Scorsese just did that thing we all do at parties when we haven’t seen the movie or TV show everyone else is talking about, but we want to prove somewhat in the know. Who among us hasn‘t let slip “I’ve seen parts of it” when making small talk about some project or other just to make it known we are aware of the thing, even if we haven’t seen the thing?

It’s unclear where, exactly, Scorsese saw the clips, though. Did he see a trailer? Did he see clips at the various awards shows and galas that have transpired in the last few weeks? Did Todd Phillips personally email him a clip with a subject line like “hey man, think you’re really going to dig this part”? We’ll never know.

But then, he said “I know it.“ He knows it. Which…true, in a way! Joker in its current form wouldn‘t exist if it wasn‘t for Scorsese’s earlier films. It’s clear that Taxi Driver, Scorsese’s iconic 1976 film, and The King of Comedy, his 1982 film, both starring Robert de Niro, were the inspiration behind Joker’s plot and aesthetic style. De Niro even stars in Joker, playing a role that winks back at The King of Comedy. So, yeah, in a way, Scorsese knows this. He was even at one point reportedly in talks to produce Joker (there was also a rumor that his favorite leading man, Leonardo DiCaprio, would take the role before Joaquin Phoenix jumped on board), but Scorsese ultimately passed on it. His longtime collaborator Emma Tillinger Koskoff produced the blockbuster comic book movie instead.

This is also to say nothing of Scorsese’s current war of words with the comic book industrial complex, particularly Marvel. He’s made it clear that he’s not happy about the way comic book movies have shifted the industry’s focus away from a broader range of genres; at the end of the day, Joker is still just Joker trying to camouflage himself in one of Scorsese’s old outfits. Thus, the philosopher asks, why does he need to get to it? Why indeed. He gets it. It’s fine.