A Review of Whiplash (screenplay)
by Aditi Adve
Whiplash is a story of passion. Of what happens when your passion takes over everything in your life: your relationships, your health, every thought you have and every action you take. It is a discussion of where the line should be between working hard to achieve your dreams and your own health, and whether their should be a line at all. It is powerful, gripping, and thought provoking (plus it has a great soundtrack).
The movie Whiplash was written and directed by Damien Chazelle and scored by Justin Hurwitz. The pair are best known for creating La La land and First Man. Whiplash was released in 2014 and won many accolades, including multiple Academy Award wins and nominations and a Grammy nomination for Best Score. I have only seen a few clips from the movie, but when I was reading the screenplay I could not put it down. Here's a summary...
Andrew Neiman is a 19-year-old jazz drummer enrolled in the best music school in the country, the (fictional) Shaffer Conservatory in New York City. In a narration by Chazelle, he explains that he wanted the opening scene to be sort of a thesis statement for the rest of the movie, and I believe he was pretty successful with that. The story opens in Andrew's practice room while he beats away at his kit. Out of the darkness, Terrence Fletcher, the conductor of the best band in Shaffer, emerges. Every student in Shaffer dreams of playing in front of Fletcher for a chance to join his band. Well aware of this, Fletcher asks Andrew why he stopped playing when Fletcher entered. As a response, Andrew resumes playing only to have Fletcher stop him and dryly ask why he resumed. Fletcher asks Andrew to show him his rudiments, but he can't keep up with Fletcher's tempo. Without another word, Fletcher leaves, slamming the door behind him. A few seconds later, though, he returns, and you can almost feel Andrew's hope turn into despair and then back to hope. "Woopsy-daisy. Forgot my coat," Fletcher says casually, and leaves again.
A big theme in this story is hard work; talent doesn't matter if you don't work hard. After this initial letdown, Andrew practices until his hands are bleeding and covered in blisters. But it's worth it when Fletcher gives him a second chance and he earns a spot in Fletcher's band. The rest of the movie shows Andrew's struggles to keep up with the other guys in the band. More importantly, though, it is about Andrew learning to deal with Fletcher's verbal and physical abuse. No one else in Andrew's life - his father, his girlfriend, his cousins - understands why he works so hard to impress Fletcher in what they believe to be a dead-end career, a hobby. But all Andrew can think about are his heroes, his role models, the greats: Buddy Rich, Jo Jones, Bird, etc.
The second main topic of the movie is the line between pushing someone to reach their goals and pushing too hard. In this aspect of the story, Fletcher is starkly contrasted with Andrew's dad, Jim. Jim calls himself a writer, but has never written anything and now teaches at a high school. Andrew seems to believe that his dad has not made a big decision by himself in his life, and is simply complacent. Fletcher, meanwhile, pushes his students to their breaking points and twice as far beyond. His band is the best in the country, but his players are miserable and constantly terrified of him. But Fletcher's character isn't so cut-and-dry. He is shown mourning the life of his former star student, being fatherly to a young girl, and, when he's not yelling at them, he clearly does care about the players in his band. Portraying Fletcher as a fundamentally good person makes the story a lot less black-and-white and a lot more thought-provoking.
I really like the writing of the script, too. In my opinion, one of the goals of the movie is to make the audience feel as uncomfortable and on-their-toes as a victim of this type of abuse might feel. Fletcher can go from caring and encouraging to screaming and throwing things in a second, and that is reflected in the writing. It has minimal description, so it feels very fast paced and some of the scene changes are almost jarring. It is hard to get bored reading it.
Overall, I highly recommend reading Whiplash. Some negative reviews claim that it over-dramatizes situations and paints jazz musicians in a bad light and misrepresents jazz music. However, I think the story is more about what it is like to have a passion you sacrifice everything for, and what real-life abuse looks like, than about jazz specifically. I do think that certain parts are unrealistic (specifically how the band seems to be the only thing in the players' lives and they apparently don't have classes), but this doesn't ruin the impact of the story. One of Fletcher's lines pretty much sums up the controversial theme of this movie: "There are no two words more harmful in the entire English language than 'good job'."
Whiplash is a story of passion. Of what happens when your passion takes over everything in your life: your relationships, your health, every thought you have and every action you take. It is a discussion of where the line should be between working hard to achieve your dreams and your own health, and whether their should be a line at all. It is powerful, gripping, and thought provoking (plus it has a great soundtrack).
The movie Whiplash was written and directed by Damien Chazelle and scored by Justin Hurwitz. The pair are best known for creating La La land and First Man. Whiplash was released in 2014 and won many accolades, including multiple Academy Award wins and nominations and a Grammy nomination for Best Score. I have only seen a few clips from the movie, but when I was reading the screenplay I could not put it down. Here's a summary...
Andrew Neiman is a 19-year-old jazz drummer enrolled in the best music school in the country, the (fictional) Shaffer Conservatory in New York City. In a narration by Chazelle, he explains that he wanted the opening scene to be sort of a thesis statement for the rest of the movie, and I believe he was pretty successful with that. The story opens in Andrew's practice room while he beats away at his kit. Out of the darkness, Terrence Fletcher, the conductor of the best band in Shaffer, emerges. Every student in Shaffer dreams of playing in front of Fletcher for a chance to join his band. Well aware of this, Fletcher asks Andrew why he stopped playing when Fletcher entered. As a response, Andrew resumes playing only to have Fletcher stop him and dryly ask why he resumed. Fletcher asks Andrew to show him his rudiments, but he can't keep up with Fletcher's tempo. Without another word, Fletcher leaves, slamming the door behind him. A few seconds later, though, he returns, and you can almost feel Andrew's hope turn into despair and then back to hope. "Woopsy-daisy. Forgot my coat," Fletcher says casually, and leaves again.
A big theme in this story is hard work; talent doesn't matter if you don't work hard. After this initial letdown, Andrew practices until his hands are bleeding and covered in blisters. But it's worth it when Fletcher gives him a second chance and he earns a spot in Fletcher's band. The rest of the movie shows Andrew's struggles to keep up with the other guys in the band. More importantly, though, it is about Andrew learning to deal with Fletcher's verbal and physical abuse. No one else in Andrew's life - his father, his girlfriend, his cousins - understands why he works so hard to impress Fletcher in what they believe to be a dead-end career, a hobby. But all Andrew can think about are his heroes, his role models, the greats: Buddy Rich, Jo Jones, Bird, etc.
The second main topic of the movie is the line between pushing someone to reach their goals and pushing too hard. In this aspect of the story, Fletcher is starkly contrasted with Andrew's dad, Jim. Jim calls himself a writer, but has never written anything and now teaches at a high school. Andrew seems to believe that his dad has not made a big decision by himself in his life, and is simply complacent. Fletcher, meanwhile, pushes his students to their breaking points and twice as far beyond. His band is the best in the country, but his players are miserable and constantly terrified of him. But Fletcher's character isn't so cut-and-dry. He is shown mourning the life of his former star student, being fatherly to a young girl, and, when he's not yelling at them, he clearly does care about the players in his band. Portraying Fletcher as a fundamentally good person makes the story a lot less black-and-white and a lot more thought-provoking.
I really like the writing of the script, too. In my opinion, one of the goals of the movie is to make the audience feel as uncomfortable and on-their-toes as a victim of this type of abuse might feel. Fletcher can go from caring and encouraging to screaming and throwing things in a second, and that is reflected in the writing. It has minimal description, so it feels very fast paced and some of the scene changes are almost jarring. It is hard to get bored reading it.
Overall, I highly recommend reading Whiplash. Some negative reviews claim that it over-dramatizes situations and paints jazz musicians in a bad light and misrepresents jazz music. However, I think the story is more about what it is like to have a passion you sacrifice everything for, and what real-life abuse looks like, than about jazz specifically. I do think that certain parts are unrealistic (specifically how the band seems to be the only thing in the players' lives and they apparently don't have classes), but this doesn't ruin the impact of the story. One of Fletcher's lines pretty much sums up the controversial theme of this movie: "There are no two words more harmful in the entire English language than 'good job'."
Here is the link to the screenplay (warning: it does have a lot of curse words): https://www.sonyclassics.com/awards-information/whiplash_screenplay.pdf
Bonus - here is the link to the aforementioned video of Damien Chazelle dissecting the opening scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHEiqYYrZeg
Bonus - here is the link to the aforementioned video of Damien Chazelle dissecting the opening scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHEiqYYrZeg
I was planning on skimming this post because I like to see what's on our blog, but after reading the first paragraph I found it hard to stop. I tend to dislike book reviews, but I can appreciate them when they clearly display effort and critical thinking. I have never read a screenplay before so I am curious about how it compares to a traditional book. I also wonder if the screenplay is able to fully capture a story based around music and intended to be seen with audio. Lastly, I was wondering if you see any connections between Fletcher and Papa Eugene from Purple Hibiscus. I only saw the opening scene, but they both seem to be scary and violent people with good reputations that want the best for their kids.
ReplyDeleteI'm very glad I found this review, Aditi! I liked how you managed to convey your passion about this book in a fiery - yet meticulous - summary and analysis of the happenings in the screenplay. Your summary, as mentioned above, is extremely detailed - to the point where you can feel the book there - but not to the point where its a retelling of the book at all. I especially enjoyed how you manage to seamlessly blend the analysis and summary, such as in the fourth paragraph, where you lead into the next section of the summary by explaining some of the major themes in Whiplash. Thank you for the review, I look forward to seeing more from you!
ReplyDeleteYES! This is one of my favorite movies of all time and I think your review encapsulates what I like about it. One of the most interesting things I ever heard in an interview was that anyone who tries to become elite at something should strive to relate to both Fletcher and Daniel and that was one of the most Interesting things I have ever heard. I feel what this movie tries to have you do is relate to about 60% of each character to a point where you can see a little bit about yourself in each character. I feel like I can relate to Daniel's ambition but I also have to ask myself the question as to whether or not I could go as far as he did. Overall I really liked your review and I think it clearly shows why this movie is so great.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen this movie or even heard of it, however your review makes it sound very interesting. I like how you formatted your review and mentioned what you think the two main ideas of the story are. I think usually when people watch movies they typically do not think that deep about them and their themes, however reading this review I see how reading the screenplay can open someone up to a whole other side of a movie. I have never thought about reading a screenplay before, but your review makes it sound interesting!
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