One film I watched recently that I loved was the film Birdman. The film came out in 2014 and features Michael Keaton as an aging actor who previously played a fictional superhero (in the movie universe) called Birdman. The film is set in New York in Broadway. The film is about Keaton’s attempt to direct and star himself in a Broadway theatrical play. Also cast are Emma Stone, Edward Norton and Zach Galifianakis. Throughout the film Keaton hears voices in his head (of the superhero Birdman) and he imagines himself flying around or using telekinesis-like powers to move objects around. Keaton is surrounded by various strong personalities such as Norton who plays one of the lead parts and Emma Stone his daughter who is recovering from a drug addiction and Zach Galifianakis who plays a key role in the directing and management. Keaton experiences endless obstacles and petty and childish drama in his attempt to make the play a hit with the public.

The themes of the film are aging, fame and social media. Keaton constantly questions himself via the voice of Birdman which is not unlike the interior voice many of us have criticizing ourselves.

My favourite part of the play however is when Keaton gets locked out of the theatre in only a basic gown in a side alley and has to walk naked apart from underwear through the bustling crowds of the square adjacent to the main entrance of the theatre. Onlookers record the incident on their smartphones (which in 2014 is a relatively new invention) and upload the clip to Youtube and Twitter. In his despair later Keaton approaches the prominent theatre critic of the New York Times in a bar and she enters into a hateful rant about how she intends to destroy Keaton’s reputation and his theatre play the following day (in her newspaper column). She seems to view Keaton as some sort of upstart to her world. Keaton’s brilliance is his resignation in the wake of this hate and humiliation, his ‘keep calm and carry on’ attitude that is the reality of life for many of us. 

Hollywood movies often glamorise those who panic and fight or run in their storylines, but more often than not maturity in people is about accepting your fate and the state of things and working with instead of working against the inevitable destructiveness of humankind. In the Godfather 2 the character Frank Pentangeli takes his life to get out of testifying against Michael Corleone thereby preventing damage done to the mafia organisation. In Donnie Brasco Al Pacino gets ‘called for’ by Michael Madsen to a location in New York and Pacino endlessly worries that he will be assassinated when he arrives. But as he states ‘if you get called for you go,’ this code of honour that is adhered to allows Madsen to trust Pacino in the face of rivalry, violence and betrayal by other gangsters in the organisation. 

Birdman ends ridiculously with Keaton making an attempt on his life at the end of a play performance and the NYT critic writing a very praising column as a result, in a change of mind. Keaton ends up in a hospital bed adored by the general public (shown on the television in his hospital room).