BIRDMAN!

I didn’t quite know what to expect when I went to the cinema recently to see the Oscar nominated performance of ‘Birdman’. Having read mixed reviews, and seen various scenes from the trailer - which features two of the biggest eyes that I have ever seen in a motion picture before, I was a little sceptical, but never the less I went along anyway, and boy am I glad I did. Take it how you will, but I saw this film as an in-depth insight into the imagination, and where an individuals thoughts may lead, if being given the chance to run riot.

I have found this to be the truth within my own imagination. On many occasions, walking down the street for me, is not simply just walking down the street. I have a tendency (as I’m sure many people do) to create scenes in my head and change the factual images I see around me, into something all together quite different. Here’s an extract from one of the notes I recently wrote down whilst sitting on the tube...

‘He stood up and pulled out a 6 inch nail from the drum of his own ear. He then started hammering it into the doors of the train, as smoke filled the carriage and the ground beneath me started to shake. And then, Silence.’ 

...You see what I mean? What the hell is she currently writing?! Truth be known...I don’t actually know yet! But my point is, as a human being, sometimes you never quite know when the next thought (no matter how bizarre) could alter your way of thinking entirely and ultimately change the course of your own mental stability ...and this, is what I took from the film. 

For example, imagine actually, if my imagination was to become some form of reality for me. Imagine if that man actually did stand up and pull out a 6 inch nail from his own ear drum, at the exact same time that the earth around me began to move, and then imagine, if I thought, that I wasn’t the only one who could see this all happening. And my imagination was actually the reality. And that my friends, is ‘Birdman’.

The film is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, and its metaphor I think lies within the direction itself. It appears as if shot in one take, and only breaks this at the very moment where Michael Keaton shoots himself in the nose. You could take many things from this stylistic choice of movie making, and maybe I took a little bit too much.

But what I did take was this: Everyone’s life is actually, in just one take. Think about it, time doesn’t suddenly cut out, scenes don’t suddenly change. Noone has a sound, lighting and special FX crew on hand at any given moment. So yes, life, is actually in just one take, much like how the film is shot. 

Perhaps Keaton's character believes in what he is imagining in this one take, to be real. And then an ''accident'' occurs, and he realises that what he thought was reality, was in fact not reality at all. Or in simpler terms: You’re happily walking along, going through life (in one take) when all of a sudden BOOM!! Something happens which wakes you up from what you thought you knew to be true, and you realise that life isn’t actually your imagination.

...and perhaps this is not the case at all and I am looking into this faaar too much, and have just lost my mind entirely. 

 Snap out of it already!

Trying to find an explanation or theory that supports this film is impossible and in that fact, it is much like the human existance. Impossible to understand. One thing I’m sure we can all agree on is that the movie itself, definitely gets the old cogs turning. 

Mind officially Blown...by the film, and this post. Awks.