“The subversion on a massive level, the thing that’s profound is this: It’s not just suspenseful, it’s not just riveting and exciting, the director subverts the audience because the Joker is a fucking nut,” Tarantino explained. “Robert De Niro’s talk show character is not a movie villain. He seems like an asshole, but he’s not more of an asshole than David Letterman. He’s just an asshole comedian, talk show guy.
“He’s not a movie villain. He doesn’t deserve to die. Yet, while the audience is watching the Joker, they want him to kill Robert De Niro; they want him to take that gun, and stick it in his eye and blow his fucking head off. And if the Joker didn’t kill him? You would be pissed off. That is subversion on a massive level! They got the audience to think like a fucking lunatic and to want something [they would never normally want]. And they will lie about it! [“Audiences] will say, ‘no, I didn’t [want that to happen]!,’ and they are fucking liars. They did.”
Tarantino also noted that you did yourself a disservice if you didn’t see Joker in the theater. In his words, “You got a hand job as opposed to great sex… [or a] three-some.”
Throughout the podcast, Tarantino also touches on James Cameron’s Aliens, The Terminator, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, and Django Unchained.
