Lessons from Movies #1 Birdman (2014)
Lessons from Birdman
The best part about movies is that you can see the world through someone else’s eyes and get to understand people better as a whole. Films have shown me a lot of things about the world, not all of them correct since a lot of the movies are polluted with mass-media lies, but there are some gems that I want to share with you.
This is not going to be a just worthless series of movie reviews but a place from where you can get a few ideas and maybe the next time you watch one of the movies I’m talking about, you will look at it with a new set of eyes.
I will not focus on famous movies, nor on unknown ones but on films that I consider as being outstanding, films from which you can learn a few things and see past your limitations.
I have to note that these are my opinions, what I took from the movie, but I advise you to watch it yourself, maybe you will feel differently or pick up on something I missed.
Reality
I feel like Birdman is a movie that likes to play with people’s mind, ten minutes into the film and it’s already mocking the reality, mass-media values, consumerist behaviors and people that are only interested in gossip and meaningless things. Illustrated by Clara’s question “Now, is it true that you've been injecting yourself with semen from baby pigs?” who’s asking about gossip in a press meeting where the main topic is art and theater.
You can clearly see the movie references from our world like Avengers or Iron Man that set the film between our reality and the imaginary world in which Riggan has superpowers that are actually just in his mind. For me, that is an explicit reference to the fact that people construct their own realities, that they are living in a dream world.
Truth
But I think that the best scene that illustrates the fakeness and superficiality of the world is where Mike is caught up drinking on the stage. In this scene, he’s dropping a real gem that in direct relationship with the discussion from the press meeting, “Stop looking at the world through your cellphone screens. Have a real experience!”.
What he’s saying is entirely right, since throughout the movie most people are so focused on their social media life, where everything’s fake, that they forget to live life to its fullest. Also, because they are consuming mass-media nonsense nonstop, they miss the truth, and Mike even stated this through his line, “Does anybody give a shit about truth other than me?”. After which he went on a rant where he was saying that the whole set was fake, a statement that I see as a metaphor for our life and social media in general.
The gap between reality and social media is emphasized over and over again by all the main characters; it’s even seen when Riggan is arguing with his daughter, they both represent different worlds, “you, or your cynical friends whose only ambition is to go viral.”.
Existence
The dual existence of Riggan is illustrated throughout the whole film, Birdman – the comic book character - and the human. This is met in each, and every one of us, the voice that tells us that we are not capable of doing something, the voice that strengthens our insecurities and as in us, the fight between him and the Birdman is intense, both sides are fighting to take over.
After all the anxiety about reality and existence, anxiety that is presented even in the soundtrack of the movie “The Anxious Battle for Sanity”, there’s the grand final metaphorical solution to all, death, suicide, and Riggan almost kills himself, “I don't exist. I'm not even here. None of this even matters. I don't exist. I don't exist.”
Lessons Learned
I think that Birdman is a reflection of our society, people being scared of humiliation putting weight on others meaningless opinions, fame being their holy grail. There’s not a defined line between what’s real and what’s not most of the people living fake lives while valuing all the wrong stuff that got them there in the first place.
The uncertainty is so intense that they are even unsure about their existence and what that consists of, the truth being something rarely met. For me, this movie represents a fight between realities in a world of fakeness.
People should get off their asses, and start something that is real, make real connections with one another and ditch all the mediums that are destroying their brains, being authentic and genuine about their actions. That, my friend, is the most significant lesson I got from this movie.
I hope you enjoyed this post; I will see you next week. Until then, make sure to tell me below in the comments, what movie would you like to see featured here?
Authored by: guyfawkes4-20
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