Film - Film Analysis

Whiplash Film – Analysis

The 2014 film Whiplash was directed by Damien Chazelle and follows the story of an ambitious, young jazz drummer Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller). From the start, it is clear that he is a very lonely and different individual as seen from his lack of friends, he constantly looks around the room and expects people to approach him. Andrew pursuits to be ‘one of the greats’ and often practices with intensity and passion, but in class is considered as a bad drummer. This all changes when he is taken into a studio band by conductor Terence Fletcher (J.K Simmons), because of his determination to impress Fletcher he practices more often but this time with anger and rage, and so his passion to achieve perfection quickly spirals into an obsession. Andrew even punches a hole into his kit and curses out of sheer anger when playing. To allow himself to practice for longer Andrew dips his hands into ice when they would bleed due to continually playing for long durations of time.

From this point, you can see how much Andrew has changed, a once quiet and likeable character is now hot headed and foul-mouthed person who belittles and insults people. This soon backfires on him and he is taken off the band because he does not preform properly, this is mainly because he was just in a car accident and refused to see medical help. Whilst on stage Andrew is filled with rage and therefore attacks Fletcher, consequently Andrew has been expelled from Shaffer conservatory and we see him back where we first found him, but this time he has given up on his dream and works a mediocre job. This is probably one of the best character developments and the audience find this personally relatable

Arguably its J.K Simmons’s whose performance that shines most, the abusive and vulgar conductor adds intensity and questionably he is the main antagonist. He is a representation of the one thing missing in Andrews dream. At the start of the film Fletcher comes upon Andrew practicing and auditions him, at this point we understand it is Andrew who knows of Fletcher due to his uneasement and desire to impress him that gives him away. This is a sign that Fletcher is his only reason to practice and so becomes great so he can impress Fletcher. Andrew is willing to bleed for him just so he can master the set pieces and in turn satisfy Fletcher.

The ending of the film was electrifying and intense, during this finale the audience are unable to blink for 15 minutes and are paralysed to their seats. The finale was after Fletcher has purposely humiliated Andrew on stage in front of hundreds of people, to Fletchers surprise he comes back and preforms with the band following his lead. An initially furious Fletcher begins to see how Andrew has become a great drummer, and we see how he finally believes in Andrew when he gives him a smile and nod, Andrew smiles back showing that he has finally received the appreciation from the man that he strived to impress. We see Andrew playing without anger or rage but with passion again and even continues to impress Fletcher when he continues to play his drums even when the composition had finished. Andrew muscles up his strength to play faster than ever thereby qualifying his as 'one of the greats'.