And the Oscar Goes To... (2015) - Part 1
Best Actor Prediction - Michael Keaton (Birdman)
Last week, Chanie and I took a break at the office to watch an Intelligence Squared debate with the late Christopher Hitchens and the actor, the comedian, the modern philosopher, and the newly married (yup, sorry boys) Stephen Fry. The Catholic panelists, defending the resolution "The Catholic Church is a Force for Good," asked the two lads to defend a life that is devoid of purpose. As two outspoken atheists, Stephen and Hitch, the religious debaters surmised, do not serve a larger purpose, and thus live without meaning to their lives. The chaps both responded quite well by each positing a variant of an appeal to personal fulfillment. The crux of their responses was that life has no intrinsic meaning or reason, and that we must instead construct personal fulfillment, balancing our desires, conscience and prudence to create a better world, either for ourselves or for others. Socrates knew this, and attributed his desire to lead a life worthy of being remembered by others to a daimon that resided within him.
In Alejandro G. Iñárritu's masterpiece Birdman, the protagonist has an inner daimon of his own; he is obsessed with creating fulfillment in his life, something meaningful for which he can be remembered. Riggan Thomson, a former action star of the fictional Birdman superhero franchise (our titular Birdman), risks life, limb and lucre to put on a self-indulgent Raymond Carver Broadway production that he directs, writes and stars in. From the first moment that we see Riggan hovering in his dressing room in the lotus position, we see a man nearly unhinged by a determination to shed his public persona as a caped comic book character, with his alter ego and Socratic daimon, The Birdman, verbally abusing him into giving up this futile effort to create a lasting artistic influence on the world. But the criticism comes from more than just the disembodied voice of Birdman. A biting condemnation of Riggan's self-obsession comes from his troubled daughter, played perfectly by Emma Stone, in her first Oscar-nominated performance (more noms to follow).
While much has been said about the acting (Keaton will win the Oscar) and cinematography (the film creates the illusion that the first two-thirds are a single uninterrupted tracking shot), not enough emphasis is paid to the film's treatment of our universal theme of the pursuit of meaning and inner-demons. And that, in at least one writer's opinion, is a crying shame. The film warns about over-indulgence in the pursuit of meaning, and yet seems to support a healthy balance of creative license and soul searching, also to the same end of creating personal life fulfillment. Through short but pointed conversations between Riggan and his ex-wife (played perfectly by Amy Ryan) we get a lovely parable-within-a-parable view of the self-indulgent activity that destroyed the Thomsons' family life.
The dirty little secret when it comes to marketing and advertising is that the entire enterprise is an appeal to the vanity within us, the voice inside us, that daimon that tells us that a nicer car, a sleeker phone, or a designer watch will lead to greater personal fulfillment, and yes, a more note-worthy existence and legacy. But the real dirty little secret, the real irony to it all, is that nothing any of us can do will really provide meaning to the world. In a thousand years from now, no one will remember Bill Clinton, let alone you. I suppose Hitchens said it best; when asked what gives his life meaning, he quipped, "I suppose mainly gloating over the misfortunes of other people." Only the small, short-lived pleasures of life are worth pursuing. So let's all go to Burning Man!
