There is a wonderful new independent American film called ‘Whiplash’ about a young jazz drummer just starting his studies in a conservatory very much like Juilliard. He falls under the demonic spell of a teacher; a man as ferocious and dangerous as he is focussed. His methods are like that of a military drill sergeant, but the young man - whose mother walked out on his decent, loving, but somewhat plodding father when he was just a little boy - is urgently looking for a pater familias to validate the loss of the absent mother and the gentle middlingness of his own Dad. The film has received wow reviews, but certain critics have said that the teacher’s methods are so extreme they would not be tolerated in a modern conservatory. But there are moments in narrative art where you have to slightly bend the rules on so-called verité and run with the wild drive of the piece. This is certainly the case here, for ‘Whiplash’ is a tale of identifying with a brutal figure in the search of an ideal. We might hate the individual who calls us names... but if he/she is doing it to push us towards some sort of higher place?... well, there’s a tangled moral question for you to consider. Having been bullied at school I find displays of any sort of vindictive behavior to be repugnant and unnerving. As such the film’s moral centre might be regarded by many as questionable - because, though it shows the extremity of the teacher’s actions, it also shows the student eventually gaining power over his tormentor, but also achieving the greatness that his teacher has pushed him towards. Art is not meant to provide facile, black-and-white answers to life’s thornier contours. It is meant to provoke and raise all sorts of queries... especially about the many nuances within the human condition. As such, ‘Whiplash’ is as provocative and intriguing a film as I have seen in years. And it serves as a reminder that, as much as we want to take a Manichean approach to apparent self-evident truths, the real truth is: human behavior is, by and large, so conflicted, so shaded, so confused
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 01:25:13 +0000
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