The Bird and The Boy

So, Birdman won the big prize last night. And frankly, I was not expecting it. I was rooting for Boyhood and my heart sobbed when it did not win.

So I decided to do my own comparative analysis:

The Bird -

I watched Birdman with awe at the technical brilliance of its roving camera, the continuously beating drum in the back-ground like the very heart and soul of the movie, the brilliant performances by Michael Keaton, Emma Stone and my favorite, Ed Norton.

Birdman is the story of a man who was once famous and successful, but in today’s fast-paced world he is no longer “relevant” (as noted by one of the characters in the movie). He is trying to find his place and his lost glory and is trying to connect with his audience one last time, while handling other issues like insecurity about himself, his daughter and a “mad birdman” conscience continuously blabbering into his brain.

It is a brilliant premise flawlessly executed, but at the end of the day it was the story of Hollywood and of one actor trying to find his place.

Somehow, I could not relate to it. In spite of all its path-breaking brilliance, I could not connect to the Bird.

The Boy -

Boyhood on the other hand starts with that haunting Coldplay song – “Yellow”, with 6-year old Mason looking into the sky, thinking (as we know later) about how Wasps are born. In that one scene, you are instantly bonded to the movie, its premise, its story and its protagonist – Mason. Because you as a child have also done similar things.

Over the next 2.5 hours, you watch as Mason grows from that 6-year old quiet, shy boy to a young adult gone to college and on the verge of finding an identify for himself.

On the way, he has struggled with his mother’s multiple divorces, his strict step-fathers, the break-up with his girlfriend, experimenting with drugs and alcohol and finally finding his calling.

It’s a story that all of us have gone through and could easily relate to. It’s a story that is inspiring, awesome, brilliant and at the same time, commonplace.

While Mason is the focus of the movie, we also watch all the other characters grow old not just on screen, but in real life. We watch with fascination, as Mason’s real father (Ethan Hawke) grows older and matures as an individual. We watch as Patricia Arquette, Mason’s mother in the movie, grows from a single-mother with two small kids trying to make ends meet to an older lady who cries her heart out, when Mason is preparing to leave for college. 

Boyhood is a film about the sweep of time, that relentless presence in human life which is constantly changing all of us, one micro-second at a time.

The film is about the fact that nothing remains the same over the course of a life-time. People change, situations change, circumstances change and the change is always for the better.

And the final scene where Mason goes hiking in a park with his friends and they talk about how the moment seizes you, instead of you seizing the moment. That’s is the scene which stays with you far after the movie is over and the lights are turned out.

The Bird vs. the Boy

So, yes, Birdman won the Oscars, but years from now, when I grow older, I know I will be watching Boyhood for the umpteenth time.

Thoughts on a Dark Night

The city sleeps under my feet. It’s dark and unusually quiet. Only the soft night breeze makes a low, sinister, moaning sound. Like a corpse calling. It’s a humid sticky summer night, but the breeze is cool and it’s calming my frantic nerves.

It’s at nights like these that my mind tends to wander, trying to get out of my control. 

And it should. 

Because it needs sleep and it needs rest. It’s been 3 days since I have slept and there is nothing in this world that I won’t give up, right now, to be able to sleep. Just for some time.

Well, this self-inflicted torture in not new to my body or my mind. 

In the past, I have bruised myself, suffered concussions, broken my ribs, burnt myself, almost got myself killed a few times, lost my loved ones and suffered immeasurable sorrow.

So, why have I endured all this pain and suffering, you ask?

I believe it’s for a greater purpose. To save people. Save mankind from evil disguised as good and from evil menacing as evil. The world is full of sorrow, grief and madness and I believe I have to do whatever I could to help the people who are helpless.

Because there was a time when I was helpless.

The night that my parents died on the cold black streets and all I could do was watch, as the living breath escaped from my mother’s body, as the heart stopped its rhythmic beating in my father’s chest. On that dark, cold night I watched them die.

That night I felt fear, I felt shame, I felt helplessness and I never wanted to feel it again. I never wanted anyone to feel it again.

That is why I became what I am.

Often these days, I wonder if I made the wrong choice that night and chose the wrong path. Often these days, I imagine myself going back home that night and taking charge of my father’s company. Making him proud. Becoming a good man, a good businessman, maybe a cop or a senator. Help my city and my country in a different way. A different way.

But then again, my mind becomes muddled and it asks questions I cannot answer. Did I really have a choice that night? Could I really choose a path that I wanted to take? Or did the path choose me?

Writhing to have my revenge on the guy who killed my parents, I followed him down those mean streets, dark like a serpent’s hole. I came upon thousands of guys like him. Guys who felt no regret, no remorse to plunder, kill and rape. Naturally, I tried to stop them and as I did, I kept getting dragged further and further down that hole. Until, I myself became darkness.

So again, did I choose to go down that path? I guess I no longer know or care. I guess like most defeated people, I have accepted my fate. I have accepted who I am and what I have become. Like most other people, I imagine and hope that I had become someone else, but I can’t go back and change things now, for I have come too far from that fork in the road.

Whatever choices I have made, whether by free will or pre-destined, I have to live with them. No one else can understand what I am going through and no one really cares. 

I alone have to endure this pain. 

I alone will have to persevere and sacrifice. 

Perched on this rooftop on this skyscraper on this dark night, I alone will have to walk my path. Because I alone am Batman.