Birdman –A Significant Turn for the Hollywood Film Industry

Birdman –A Significant Turn for the Hollywood Film Industry

       Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance is a black comedy. It is a story about a washed-up former star Riggan Thomson, who is famous for portraying an iconic superhero. This mid-aged man is attempting to make his comeback by staging a Broadway play by adapting a short novel What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, written by Raymond Carver. In the days of preparing the play, he always struggles with his narcissism and attempts to rebuild his family, his career, and himself. Many people hold that this film is only a satire for the reality of Hollywood film industry. It is undeniable that Hollywood film companies created many action movies featuring superheroes, bloody and violent sceneries, and love stories recent years to cater to the audience so as to make a tremendous profit. That has also been well portrayed in the Birdman. However, to look into further to the movie and the characters, it is more like an irony of introspection in the fusion and opposition of the reality and the drama with extremely fertile imagination. It can be taken as another form of expression for Hollywood films. Some key Hollywood elements still can be identified in the Birdman: the repeated appearance of Birdman role, sex and love, and blood. To be noticed that, through this irony of introspection, the last existing fig leaf between modern arts and commercial interest is ruthlessly removed. It is also just the desperate and suicidal attempt that brings the significant turn for the Hollywood film industry.

       Though haunted by the old Birdman role, the protagonist Riggan Thomson makes a magnificent turning from superheroes to Broadway show. In the eyes of professional critics, like the influential critic Tabitha Dickinson, the celebrity like Riggan Thomson, is completely a Hollywood clown wearing an elastic straitjacket. The critic Tabitha Dickinson hates the people of his kind, without any cultural accumulation or any formal training but thinking to create real art all day and making some works called the director’s play. But at last she is moved by their faith and commitment when Riggan injures his nose during the performance and comments that as “The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance”.

What Riggan wants are fame and success. At the same time, he immensely loves the real art. That is why he regards the billions of copyright for their film as shit. He believes the pure art can also help him gain both fame and wealth. He frequently gets self-doubted and self-detested in pursuit of anther higher icon while breaking away from the old Birdman icon. Riggan himself is not confident and often tortured and harassed by the voice of Birdman. He even imagines he could fly. He intends to restore his career by the stage play. However, he is even not able to distinguish the discrepancies between the aspiration and love, as his wife points out. To involve Raymond Carver’s short story “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love”, he aims to ask for love from the audience and regain his social identity and popularity. The diegetic music of drums and classical pieces can be heard in this film: the radio in Riggan's room and the show itself. The drum sound comprises the majority of the score. “González Iñárritu explained the choice by saying they helped to structure scenes, and the drums, for him, was a great way to find the rhythm of the film... In comedy, rhythm is king, and not having the tools of editing to determine time and space, he knew he needed something to help him find the internal rhythm of the film. He also wanted a score that wouldn’t cater to an audience’s expectations, which the drums, being more abstract, provided.” (Wikipedia). The music keeps high consistency with the emotions and acting of the actors and lead the audience into the story.

 After a failure of the rehearsal and a drunk night for Riggan, the fantasy and magic appear. Agitated by the Birdman, Riggan flies back to the theater. That is a very impressive scene, which displays two points: the inspirational power that “I believe I can fly.” and the other– Riggan’s dream of being “Icarus”. The former is an optimistic encouragement and the latter is tragic. Whenever Riggan gets self-doubted and self-detested, the Birdman emerges. The Birdman’s objectives in the film are to remind Riggan what the audience mostly want and what Riggan should do. They are different from Riggan’s. Riggan prefers to gain both fame and wealth through the real art. Besides the Birdman’s persuasion, the social commentary also proves a fact that people only remember him as the Birdman icon when he accidentally walks on the streets in his underwear. That is the reality.

The gauze covered on his face is only a deformation version of Birdman mask. Nevertheless, this film indeed makes a breakthrough in Hollywood film industry by integrating the reality and arts. The irony of introspection gives the audience a new experience.