Thursday, February 7, 2013
Tragedy of the Common Man?
When the unnamed doorman in The Last Laugh is demoted to bathroom attendant, his world collapses. At the end of the film he is estranged from his family, fellow workers and neighbors and only the night watchman gives him succor. Is this film a tragedy in the Aristotelian sense (that is, does he fall because of some tragic character flaw?)? Is it an indictment of the society of the time? A study of the inevitable effects of aging? Or, to put the point another way, whose fault is the doorman's downfall?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
In The Last Laugh, the doorman’s demotion is indeed the inevitable consequence of aging, but his emotional downfall is the result of his own insecurity; by staking his identity so securely upon his status as doorman, when he loses the job, he really does – in a personal sense – lose everything. The man’s initial shift from doorman to cleaner is certainly no one’s fault. After all, he seems to have had the job for many years and he does appear a little worn around the edges. When he lifts customers’ suitcases, he needs to take a drink and sit down afterward. When he reads letters, he puts on his glasses and even then has some trouble. His daughter is even getting married, if that is any indication of his age. When someone becomes old and slightly frailer, lifting heavy suitcases is likely not the best task for their health. His bosses probably believe that the change of position is a favor to him, a chance to rest after his years of running around. They are not casting him out onto the streets, as viewers might expect in such a seemingly tragic film, but they simply alter his position.
ReplyDeleteSo what makes the affair so heartbreakingly tragic? This can squarely be placed upon the (not insignificant) shoulders of the man himself. It seems that, over the years, he has built his existence upon his job as doorman. Whenever he ventures out of his house, he puts it on, and it shapes his whole mood. The man salutes pedestrians on his walk to work, gallantly steps between quarreling children, and never loses his proud, majestic posture – back straight, head held high. Such a state of being has become his reality, and without it, unfortunately, it turns out that he has very little. Thus, when his precious station is taken from him, the man has nowhere to turn. His honor and, really, his existence have become so dependent on that uniform and the duties it entails, that everything afterward feels like disgrace. He loses his regal march, instead slowly lumbering around the hotel with his back hunched far over, and his constant expression of cool contentment is placed by perpetual horror. However, these changes and the destructive consequences they bring upon his life really all are mental. Indeed, if he had calmly returned home the night after his demotion and rationally explained the situation to his family, they very likely (from their loving appearances early in the film) would have supported him and not held it against him at all. By being unable to cope with the change and therefore hiding it, though, the man is perceived as nothing more than a bragging liar, and he in turn is ostracized. His unwillingness to accept and come to terms with aging is what creates his tragedy. The fact that only the night watchman shows pity on him does not mean that only the watchman is a nice person. The watchman is simply the only person (at least whom we see in the film) who has not gotten to know the proud, dominating doorman. In his eyes, the man on the ground is just a depressed, lonely figure, nothing more. He never knew the mighty yoke within the cracked shell, and so has no reason to not want to help the man start to put the pieces back together.
See below for more!
The pains – real and perceived – of aging are a common theme of film across the decades. In Fellini’s 8 ½, Guido faces a similar mortification: he has informed the world of his intention to make his biggest, greatest movie yet, but he really has absolutely nothing for it, and so he his horribly ridiculed by the press. Similarly, as he tries to maintain his playboy, womanizing image, he must face the harsh reality of married life and having to choose who he spends his time with. William Wyler’s Dodsworth examines the very different ways in which a wealthy, middle-aged husband and wife respond to growing old. Walter Huston’s Sam realizes that he wants a simple life with a happy home, while Fran, desperate to retain her youth, tries to become a sophisticated member of the nobility, ultimately to no avail. Sam’s reaction is similar to that of Burt Lancaster’s Don Corbera, another aging patriarch, in Visconti’s The Leopard, who, while depressed by his age, tries to cheerfully enjoy life’s pleasures. Fran’s disgust, meanwhile, bears some resemblance to the leading man’s horror in The Last Laugh but more closely resembles perhaps Hollywood’s most famous film about failing to cope with age: Wilder’s Sunset Blvd. In this film, Gloria Swanson’s aged silent movie star lives in her decrepit mansion in a fantasy world of sorts, unable to give up the belief that she is still a star with her big comeback just around the corner. Like the doorman whose identity is too tightly bound to his job, she cannot fathom the idea of a quiet life out of the spotlight. Most recently, aging in cinema has received buzz through the Haneke’s Amour, which examines the effects of old age on a retired French couple. Quieter and more focused on “normal” people than many of the other aforementioned films, this movie arguably is the best comparison to The Last Laugh. It tells no grand tale of heroes and adventures, simply a story that all of us, unfortunately, have to cope with.
DeleteIn my opinion, I do not think that The Last Laugh qualifies as a typical Aristotelian tragedy; I do not believe that the doorman’s story satisfies two major qualifications for a typical tragedy. I do not think that doorman suffers from a tragic character flaw nor is his crisis in the film resolved in the original version, both of which are critical elements of an Aristotelian tragedy. The reason for the doorman’s suffering is his old age. I do not consider this a tragic flaw because aging is an inevitable part of life; it is not a flaw unique to the doorman. Additionally, in the original version of the movie, there is no resolution to the doorman’s apparent dismal situation. The old man is demoted, feels miserable, and never recovers from his blow.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this film aims to discuss the hardships of growing older and the common denial that accompanies the aging process. The hotel management thought that the doorman was not fit to do his job any longer, and quite frankly, they were probably right. Multiple techniques such as camera angle and blurring were used to emphasis the doorman’s aging ways. For example, one scene is filmed in such that the suitcase the doorman needs to carry from a car appears very large and heavy compared to the weak old man. The doorman, however, throughout the entire film refuses to accept the truth of his aging, and instead does everything in his power to avoid reality. For example, he sneaks in to the hotel at night to retrieve his beloved doorman jacket. He dreads having to share the truth with his family and neighbors, so instead, he tries to cover up the entire situation.
I think that the true tragedy in this film does not come from the doorman’s demotion, but instead, his inability to accept the truth before him. After his demotion, he lives in shame and in fear of how his family and friends will react. Regardless of one’s economic or societal level, to feel as if you do not have the complete support of your loved ones is horrible. I do not think the hotel is responsible for the doorman’s downfall, but instead it is the result of the doorman’s inability to accept and embrace reality.
In The Last Laugh, the doorman’s downfall is not just his fault, but also the fault of human nature. In fact, the doorman’s downfall is a critique on life, aging, and decline in general. At the beginning of the movie, he is a capable, strong doorman who does his job successfully. However, he is an older man who is becoming frailer as time passes. This is a tough realization for the man to deal with, but it is not just the doorman who has this problem. As a huge sports fan, it is always tough to see the severe decline of once amazing athletes. Even tougher is watching the decline when a player doesn’t know when to hang up the cleats and call it a career. In baseball, some all-time greats, including Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, chose to prolong lengthy careers, with their final few years underwhelming and disappointing. In fact, Mays was so bad that they he was traded away from the Giants after over 20 years with the franchise because he was not the player he once was.
ReplyDeleteThe doorman is dealing with the same problem in many aspects as he is obviously not in good enough condition to work, but he doesn’t want to believe that and doesn’t want to turn in the jacket and retire. As Annie said, the doorman can’t accept his decline and that is the real tragedy of The Last Laugh. Most people, as they age, cannot accept that they are in decline and that they aren’t as strong as they once were, both physically and mentally. It plagues society in general and is a tragedy that the doorman is just one example of. Had the doorman just accepted his decline rather than letting his age and frailty ruin him, he might have been successful in making his decline less steep, especially emotionally. That inability to accept the truth of aging is the biggest tragedy of The Last Laugh.
I would argue that The Last Laugh could on the surface count as an Aristotelian tragedy although it does have an ironic twist at the end. The movie highlights two sources of fault for the doorman’s downfall: the pressures of society and the pressures of his village. The Last Laugh both scrutinizes the paragon of working class success in Germany and also critiques the social mores and exaggerations of self-importance in the old man’s home village.
ReplyDeleteThe Last Laugh may not follow Aristotle’s requirements word for word, but certainly many of the important characteristics of the tragedy occur in the movie. While it would be proper to go through each aspect of the Aristotelian tragedy, I will focus on three of the important points.
Certain aspects of the plot are problematic when dealing with Aristotle’s tragedy characteristics. For one, the plot is not entirely self-contained with “incidents bound together by internal necessity” (cnr.edu)—the rich man dying in the old man’s arms and thus passing his fortune on does not necessarily count as self-contained because it is very random. And also the plot is not as complex as an ideal tragedy (it lacks peripeteia—when a character produces an effect opposite of the intended action (cnr) and anagnorisis—a change from ignorance to knowledge).
The main character of the film also generally fits the bill. The old man is, at first, ennobled according to his village, realistic, consistent in personality, and equipped with a good moral compass (although this is questionable later on in the film). The old man’s overactive sensitivity towards external social pressure is his a tragic flaw, in my view. The best way to see the tragic flaw in the old man is through his reaction to external pressures.
On one side of the stress scale, we see the normal indications of unfettered capitalism. At the first signs of aging, the old man is pulled into the manager’s office and demoted to the job usually reserved for the eldest and most sickly of the hotel staff. In this way, the labor system is portrayed as cruel from the point of view of the old man and merely utilitarian according to the manager. However, the demotion is only one scene in the entire movie, and we do not really see the manager again. So the management, as a source of stress leading to the old man’s downfall cannot be the only cause. The fault additionally lies with the old man’s village.
In order to understand the origins of the old man’s stress from the community, it is important to keep “Schadenfreude”—pleasure derived from seeing another person’s misfortune—in mind. Schadenfreude plays a critical role especially during the scene in which the rumor of the old man’s ‘downfall’ spreads around the village and we suddenly see a series of tracking shots across the hallways and roads capturing the gossip-filled community. This communal reaction would not have been as prominent had the old man not been such a symbol of success. The very idea of a lower salary and lower position (even if it’s just a demotion from doorman to bathroom attendant) also serves to lessen the societal “shame” that may have come as a result of their class. After all, if the local hero gets demoted, everyone is suddenly on the same level. With the combined effort of both pressures, the old man succumbs to depression and reaches the low point of the plot (the scene of the man forlornly sitting alone in the bathroom). (Continued in reply)
The final requirement of Aristotle’s tragedy is the “catharsis” or purging and releasing of tragic emotions like sadness and pity that accompany the audience of The Last Laugh. In this sense, the added epilogue could in one light, serve as the catharsis of the film. During the ending scene, at first, the viewer almost forgets about the old man in his depression because of the old man’s exuberance—we’re tempted to call him a young man because of his physical revitalization. However, the epilogue also, in my view, serves as an ironic extension of the same theme that drives the old man to his downfall: an obsession with wealth and status as a means of happiness.
DeleteOutside source: http://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/poetics.html
In the last laugh, the main character suffers from a demoting blow, by becoming the hotel’s bathroom attendant. His original job, being the head bellhop/doorman/luggage guy, was a respected job position (for some reason) among the residents of the surrounding town. On the day he goes to work expecting to work as the bellhop, and instead gets a letter personally handed to him by the boss demoting him to bathroom attendant, he takes a blow to his dignity. The reason for this demotion is because he is getting older and is unable to do his job as well as a younger and stronger man may be able to do. I think that this is his fault, because he is getting older and is simply not able to do the job. I wouldn’t call it a tragic flaws because everyone gets older eventually, but it is his fault; he is old and he is unable to do his job well because of it.
ReplyDeleteThe way that he suddenly becomes frail and slow, I think is a way that the director decided to show that he is old and is weak. Before his demotion, he stood erect and always with a strong stature. He seemed to be of good strength, and did not seem to be suffering from being old; however, this completely changes after he is stripped of his job. He walks around hunched over like he is in a daze, and like he has some sort of back problem. I don’t know why he would suddenly have these issues other than it was simply a way for the director to show that he is actually old and is unable to do his job.
The tragedy of the fallen doorman can be due to multiple causes. It can be because of the society of the time, his cynical family, the inevitable event of aging, or his pride. However there are many aspects of his fall and I believe each of these instances serves as a cause. The most prominent cause is his aging. When he was demoted his boss said the cause of it was his old age. It had made him weak and scrawny and he didn’t have the strength to transport luggage. Due to his pride he was not able to accept this. He believed that he had been given the lowliest of all positions. He still had a job and should have been thankful he was not out on the street. His family also provided to his downfall for their cruel and unusual ways. After he was demoted they had shunned and ridiculed him. They added to his already down trotted spirit. A real family would have stayed with him through his pain and sorrow. However they tormented him for something that was out of his control. I believe that the greatest cause of his downfall was his own perspective of the situation. He believed that his life became so bad he didn’t see all the good he did have. He still had a job even if it did make less money. If he only had a better perspective, he could have found happiness with his knew life.
ReplyDeleteAs Oliver said, the downfall of the doorman is due to multiple reasons. At the beginning of the movie, it seems as if he has everything he needs to be content in life, and as the movie progresses, his life gets worse and worse. His downfall begins when he receives a letter explaining that he is fired due to his old age and fragility. He was so caught up in being proud of his job that being fired felt like losing everything to him. This is also why he feels like being a bathroom attendant is such a terrible job, even though it's not much different than being a door man. He then becomes caught up in the fact that he is aging, and this is all amplified by his family making fun of him for it. In reality, he probably was aging and too old for his job, so he was going to have to retire soon regardless. However, because he was simply fired with no warning, he took it personally and over reacted a little bit. Not to say that he shouldn't have been upset, but the director's cut made it seem like he was going to wallow in self pity for the rest of his life.
ReplyDelete