The movie starts with a fireball falling from the sky, which is an obvious image - the fall of the bird man.
Birdman is our protagonist Regan, an out-of-date Hollywood blockbuster who is over 500 years old. He made his fortune with "Birdman", but hated others to advertise him as "Birdman".
But Regan is a paradox. His subconscious always regards himself as a real birdman, and his inner personality always talks to himself in the tone of a birdman. He even agrees that he has the superpowers that Birdman has.
Even so, Regan is still sober, and he doesn't want to live in the shadow of Birdman all his life. So, after trying several unpopular movies on and off, he chose to enter Broadway to find his second spring after starring in "Birdman" 20 years ago.
Reagan loves acting, and also wants to be loved by acting.
The opening line about Love & Beloved is a famous quote from Raymond Carver's works. And what is love, is also the theme of the play "What exactly are we talking about when we mention love". It's just that the play within the play discusses the love between men and women, while the movie "Birdman" discusses love and desire to be loved in a broad sense, especially Regan's love and desire to be loved for performing arts.
Regan loves acting too much. Loved enough to reconcile with his wife over cheating issues, but threw a kitchen knife at his wife because his wife said he played a bad comedy. He has always been in love with peace of mind, but he angrily reprimanded his daughter because she might discredit his debut.
But is Regan's love and being loved for acting really out of his pursuit of art? Not also.
From Hollywood to Broadway, Regan has always been a man of fame. Yes, no matter Hollywood or Broadway, it is the land of fame or shame. Rather than saying that Reagan loves acting, it is better to say that he loves the flowers and applause he brings to him because of his acting career. He couldn't accept that the inexhaustible effort he had put in didn't yield cheers. That's why he threw the kitchen knife at his wife.
And his daughter has seen through all this long ago.
After the stormy words hit Regan's face, Regan was speechless. Silence is the default.
What my daughter said was right, Regan was the one who was abandoned by the times, and Regan was the one who was afraid of being mediocre but really was mediocre.
The film also happens to have a sharp contrast with Regan - Mike. Acting is everything to Mike. He's a joker who really lives in the show. He drank real wine on stage, and he had erections in front of eight hundred spectators.
Mike's biggest goal isn't to be famous, just to stay true to art. But inadvertently, he was on the front page of the art newspaper. Regan, who tried his best to seek fame, only occupied a small corner of the newspaper.
However, Oolong, who walked out of the theater naked in the rehearsal, became the hottest moment for Regan in the new century. At the same time, others advertised him as still the title of "Birdman Actor".
A downhearted Regan goes to a bar and meets New York's most influential playwright critic, who tries to please her. But critics insisted that everything Regan had done was the hype of an outdated actor, and vowed to write an unprecedented bad review.
Critics may be biased in their assessment of Regan, but isn't it true? Regan is indeed a man who wants to gain fame through acting.
Faced with all of the above, Regan, who was under pressure, replaced the fake gun with a real gun during his first performance and shot himself.
It's not dead, this shot hit the bridge of his nose.
Regan survived.
The next day, Regan took up the entire page of the newspaper, netizens prayed for him, and bouquets from the audience filled the dressing room. Regan overnight became a man of influence in the United States and a trend-setter in public opinion.
But is this really what Regan is after? Not also.
This seemingly comic ending actually has a tragic core.
Blood spilled on the stage, and the people still just used Regan, who escaped from the ghost gate, as a talk before and after dinner. This is nothing more than a novelty, essentially the same as any crimson news and entertainment. And because he lost his nose, Regan couldn't even smell the long-awaited flowers. None of the reporters and crowds crowded in the corridor outside the ward door cared or admired Regan, just hoping to get a share of the heat. Tore the gauze off his nose, and Regan's appearance was not even his own.
So letting Regan survive is perhaps more thought-provoking, ironic, and subtle than letting Regan be shot.
In today's era of information explosion, the cost of happiness is too cheap, and the way to feel pain is too simple. Nobody really respects Regan, nobody really respects art itself. Hollywood assembly line films and Internet celebrities have shot down one "bird man" after another. This is the tragedy of Broadway, the tragedy of Hollywood, the tragedy of America, the tragedy of the world, and the tragedy of the times.
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