Aside from the surreal metaphors of the film and the complex and diverse filmmaking techniques (limited), let’s talk about the ideas that this film wants to express in my opinion.
First of all, I think the main idea that this film wants to express can be roughly divided into two directions. The film revolves around a famous playwright, Barton Fink, as the protagonist, and the expression to be expressed is nothing more than the representation of Barton Fink. Artists and the examination of the artistic creation environment represented by Hollywood.
"Looking at literature and art workers" I think it is mainly to show the writers in a specific social environment and even talk about the inner contradictions of some literature and art workers, citing what is said in the movie, that is, "a wrestling with one's own soul". Each stage of a character also has a different mapping.
For example: Mayhew in the movie, at first he was a talented writer recognized by his peers, but he did not get rid of the temptation of material conditions, and came to Hollywood to seek development, or to try to "make a fortune" (the same is true of Patton ), but the lack of inspiration and the incompatibility in the objective environment made him walk very hard, he could only paralyze himself in alcohol, be dominated by fragility and cowardice, and eventually degenerate. Behind it, there are even more disgusting things such as ghostwriting and extramarital affairs. The bright and filthy quilts are displayed in their entirety. This is a sleazy description of the existence of such a circle.
As for our protagonist Patton, it is not difficult to see that he is an idealist and a man with his own dreams, but he has not jumped out of the arrogant circle of literary and art workers. This is a sharp self-contradiction. I think this is also the protagonist. The source of all suffering. On the one hand, as a writer, he has been widely acclaimed by describing the life of ordinary people at the bottom. He takes it as his responsibility to promote artistic creations such as dramas to every ordinary people, and strives to create works that belong to the "majority of working people". But the fact that the applause below the theater was full of upper class people in decent suits and lavish dresses, he dismissed the praise of the rich and critics, but he forgot that it was these encouragement and Appreciation is the source of his artistic value. His dream itself is a castle in the air based on self-deception and self-satisfaction. However, we can't deny Patton because of this. He also has some advantages. He is simple, talented, and ideal. He is willing to make friends with ordinary people in the lower classes of society (although this may be his way of achieving self-satisfaction), but his nature is Kind, not malicious. What he embodies more is not irony but a kind of self-mockery of the creator.
But he didn't realize that what ordinary people at the middle and lower levels needed most was not a work of art like wrestling with their own soul, but an easy-to-understand violent wrestling movie. And this is exactly what film industry bosses are looking for. Because the group of ordinary people in the middle and lower classes is large enough, they are the real gold owners of the capitalists.
This has to mention another aspect of the film, that is, the examination of the film industry represented by Hollywood——the helpless creation environment that makes the creators cute and hateful. A cruel world where capital is the god and everything is compromised to cost. The boss of a dignified company can kneel down and kiss the shoes of his employees. I think he is very sincere, because what he kisses is not the shoes, but the capital. What he desires is not forgiveness, but the return on investment. In the end, the protagonist Barton Fink lost his most important work and a well-paid job because of the ownership of the copyright, and even lost the dawn of future development. Faced with the choice between art and material, the two best lines of the film "I don't know" seem to express the aspirations of countless literary and art workers.
If a movie has a mapping of reality across time, then I think as a medium to convey ideas, it is a success. This movie reminds me of some problems that still exist at home and abroad. I think of Yan Lianke's "Ode to Style" "Thinking of the entertainment industry and even Laohu...
(The above are some of my thoughts, not very well written, purely for discussion and exchange)
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