The Beauty and Complicity of the Character Arcs of Whiplash
Damien Chazelle’s 2014 film Whiplash is one of the greatest on screen depictions I have seen of the “tortured artist” trope. While Whiplash is undoubtedly a movie about jazz and how artists create art, I believe that Chazelle’s success with this movie lies in its pademonius composition and character arcs.
Isolation serves as the main theme in Whiplash. Throughout the film we see Andrew isolate himself in multiple areas of his life; the most blatant example of Andrew’s isolation being when he breaks up with his girlfriend because he believes that she is a distraction to his musical greatness. A huge strength of this movie is the intimacy we feel with the characters, by only having a few characters to keep track of we are able to see who is playing important roles in Andrew’s life. By cutting off the character of his girlfriend, Andrew cuts off one of his only connections to the world outside the music conservatory. Not only is there a change in Andrew’s psyche, Chazelle also changes the editing and pacing of the movie after the breakup scene in the diner. As Andrew’s world becomes messier, and so do the film cuts and camera movements.
Like I mentioned before, this is an intimate movie. After finishing the film I feel as though I personally know both Andrew and Terrence. These characters are layered, complicated, and raw. At the genesis of the film, the audience is made to believe Andrew and Terrence are extremely different characters with different values and goals, but by the climax of the final scene we realize that these characters are more homogenous than we are initially led to believe. Both Andrew and Terrence are detached from the world outside the conservatory because of their gross lust for distinction and validation that they are good at what they do. The more Terrence infiltrates Andrew’s life with his psychological abuse, the more Andrew starts to adopt character traits of Terrence. Andrew becomes crueler, lonelier, and mithantopic, which are the traits of Terrence from the beginning of the movie.
