The "Quinn" In Dylan

                The film I’m Not There takes a novel approach to the classical biopic genre through using multiple characters to describe the different aspects of Bob Dylan’s life and personality. Each character in the film leads a very different life from all the other characters, and they serve to show how Dylan was a colorful person of many talents and abilities. For example, Woody Guthrie shows how Dylan was influenced by Guthrie’s artistry. Additionally, Jude Quinn demonstrates how Dylan was reluctantly chosen as a “member of the people”, to represent them and their sentiments. The other characters also serve to represent Dylan with their own backgrounds and individual stories.

                In the film, Jude Quinn represents how Dylan was the reluctant “voice of his generation”. In the film, Quinn is not cooperative with anyone, is angry with the media and the bureaucrats, and is constantly questioning why he has become so popular. He insists that no one understands him or his motivations, and that he doesn’t care whether they do. Mostly, he just wants to be left alone, like Dylan did during his early days. In the film, he is only happy when he meets the poet Alan Ginsberg, his hero, and when he is in his apartment flipping through magazines and admiring art. Quinn is an artist who becomes a voice of the people, just like Dylan was an aspiring artist whose music and artistry represented the feelings of the people. Some of Dylan’s fans felt betrayed later on by his switch to electric music mediums. This anger is portrayed in the character Quinn, whom some former fans yell at during a press conference. Reporters also try to extract information and quotes from him to explain his strange behavior, but Quinn is reluctant to give any information and only offers obscure quips, the context of which hint at the fact that he is an individual who is not only a public servant. Throughout the film, Quinn consistently represents the reluctant public voice of Bob Dylan. 

Mind Control in Inception

                Inception is a cleverly-crafted film about the ability to plant ideas in people’s minds through dreams. Cobb, the protagonist, is haunted by his late wife; having been accused of killing her, he can’t return home. Mr. Saito desires to dissolve the empire of his competitor, Maurice Fischer, and he hires Cobb to plant the idea in Fischer’s son, Robert Fischer, who stands to inherit his father’s empire. Cobb accepts the proposal, because Saito claims that he has the power to return Cobb home to his children.  Cobb hires Ariadne, an architectural student, to design the dream, since he himself is haunted by his late wife and his projection of her ruins the dreams that he crafts. He also hires a chemist, and they compile a team. On a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles, Fischer is sedated, and the team enters the dream that they have designed. There are many layers of the dream (dreams within dreams), which buy the team more time and help them to deeply-root the idea in Fischer’s head, since he becomes progressively more confused as they descend through the dream’s layers.  The team is ultimately successful, and Cobb is reunited with his family in the end, courtesy of Mr. Saito.

                The main, most heavily emphasized theme of Inception is the ideas about psychological manipulation that it raises.  Psychologists attempt to guide people in the right direction and to help alter their thinking so that they can lead normal, productive lives. However, in the film, Cobb acts contradictorily to the basic premise of psychology, manipulating people’s minds for his own ends, and destroying his subjects. The film may be seen as a statement about the dangers of the field of psychology and mind control. There is a very fine line between helpful psychological counseling and manipulative controlling, and it must be carefully walked by experienced, sure-footed doctors. Obviously, Cobb does not respect this boundary, and he ultimately destroys the financial success of his victim, Fischer. By comparing the psychological actions of Cobb to the common practices of trained doctors, one may see that the film is essentially an issue of the dangers and boundaries of psychological manipulation.  

Revisionist Screwball Comedy

                Intolerable Cruelty is a film about a greedy woman named Marilyn who is seeking financial independence, and Miles, a lawyer, who gets caught in her machinations.  Marilyn finds herself in Miles’s office, because he is her former husband’s divorce attorney. They go out to dinner together, and verbally spar with one another. Soon after, Marylin marries a wealthy oil tycoon, with the intent to divorce him ASAP after the wedding, so she can inherit his fortune. She engages Miles’s professional help, and utilizes his famed Massey Prenup, so that she can tear it up after the wedding and inherit the money. After the divorce, Marilyn falls for Miles, and the two marry with a Massey Prenup. When Marilyn tears it up, Miles discovers that Marilyn’s husband is just an actor, and not wealthy at all. Now his own wealth is exposed, and Marilyn stands to inherit half of it. When they meet to negotiate their divorce, Miles begs for another chance, and they sign a Massey Prenup, which Marilyn tears up yet again.

                Since classical screwball comedies place great value upon the institution of marriage, and this film emphasizes the values of divorce and single life, it should be considered a revisionist screwball comedy. Classical screwball comedies show two partners constantly trying to gain back the lost attention and love of their lover throughout the film. Miles prepares to give a great speech on the values of single life, and Marilyn enters nearly four marriages to gain independence and wealth, and she willingly turns over her body and herself to several men just to attain money. In essence, she is only a glorified prostitute. The last marriage in the film between Miles and Marilyn is a joke; they hardly know anything about each other, and their infatuation is only rekindled after several wild goose chases and Miles’s last attempt at rectifying his reputation. In this revisionist screwball comedy, the love, if it can be called that, was on again, off again, and the value of the institution of marriage was greatly discarded by both parties.  Additionally, the ending marriage gives no promise or hope of lasting; it is clearly infatuation, and the audience knows that. Because of the attitude toward marriage in the film and the little hope it gives of the final marriage lasting, the film should be considered a revisionist screwball comedy, since it is ultimately not about love, but about divorce.