Monday, February 5, 2018
Tragedy of the Common Man?
When the unnamed doorman in The Last Laugh is demoted to bathroom attendant, his world collapses. At the end of the film he is estranged from his family, fellow workers and neighbors and only the night watchman gives him succor. Is this film a tragedy in the Aristotelian sense (that is, does he fall because of some tragic character flaw?)? Is it an indictment of the society of the time? A study of the inevitable effects of aging? Or, to put the point another way, whose fault is the doorman's downfall?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The Last Laugh is a perfect example of how aging can change a person’s life, and also compares the idea with the main characters flaw of pairing happiness with youthful to cause his ultimate downfall. Aging is inevitable, and as demonstrated in the film as one ages they are not able to do things as they could before, but this isn’t inherently bad. Early in the film we briefly meet a figure who is sent to a retirement home due to his age, but this figure is not portrayed in a state of depression as he seems perfectly fine. However, the author wants to present the idea that aging can only cause a downfall when happiness is dependent on youthfulness, as demonstrated through the main character. From the moment the main character realizes he is not as capable as he once was, we see his spirits shrink. This depression is emphasized by the many close up shots highlighting his emotional state and the high angles looking down on him in a humiliating way. The movie highlights the main characters fall from grace, triggered by his increasing age and decreasing physical capabilities, and shows how his happiness rooted in youthfulness ultimate collapsed with his dwindling age.
ReplyDeleteThe demise of the doorman is not the fault of a tragic flaw, but rather the role of mother nature imposing old age upon the likes of all people, and in this case, the doorman. The doorman’s situation is most certainly a tragedy due to his uppers feeling that his age and frailty would derail his work ability, but the tragedy is not due to a specific character flaw, rather the flaw of all people. In the story, the doorman is demoted to a bathroom attendant due to the fact that he is aging and a younger person could perform his job much better. It is not necessarily the doorman’s fault, it is the fault of his uppers in that they feel his age is a problem for the job. This movie shows the effects of aging in society in that the higher ups will always want a younger person as an employee over older people. The older people struggle to have job security, for example the doorman, because a younger person is more presentable and has a higher potential and usually a higher motor for work. Even though the older workers have more knowledge and experience, their value in today’s society is not as high a younger person. Unfortunately in the movie, this effect of age by Mother Nature leads to the doorman’s demoting even though he is fully capable of his job, which casts a light on age in today’s society as well as when the movie was made.
ReplyDeleteI think that the last laugh was representing the effects that age will inevitably have on everyone. Due to his age and inability to perform at the highest level, the main character was removed from his position and assigned to a less demanding job. The doorman was clearly unable to complete the task of lifting the heavy trunks of clothing from the tops of the cars, and the camera angles kind of showed how the trunks were looking down upon him. In the type of way that a great mountain would be looking down on a struggling climber, trying to master its summit. I think that the pride of the doorman had a lot to do with his ability to ignore his age and weaknesses while working, which lead to his failure to realize that he did not belong at this job. While age is always going to happen, I can say I think he is to blame for his own downfall. Mainly because of the fact that he couldn’t realize that he was not in a good state to be performing this high demanding job. However, I think that there are other people to blame for him losing his job. There were clearly other people around him that would be able to tell that he was not fit for his position. While society showed the demand and respect for hard workers, I think that this movie was trying to represent the hardships of hard working, un-wealthy people. Mainly because of the fact that he was working in a great hotel and returning to a poor and struggling home. The amount of respect he received gave him the motivation to keep working, but he failed to realize that it wouldn’t last forever.
ReplyDeleteThe Last Laugh is not a stereotypical tragedy in the Aristotelian sense, but expands on the inevitable effects of aging. The doorman gets fired from his job not because of some mistake that he made, but due to his age and fragility. The Last Laugh is more of a commentary on identity. The doorman was reluctant to accept that he was aging and tried to lie to his neighbors about his job status due to his embarrassment that he wouldn't be portrayed as a respected leader in the community. While, the neighbors did laugh at him for his current situation, I think this was an exaggeration. The director purposely used special effects to make the viewer disoriented during the scene when the neighbors take jabs at the doorman. These effects could've been used as a visual device to show how the embarrassment that the doorman felt having lost his job. Neither society or the doorman are to blame for his own downfall, but the doorman's refusal to accept the inevitable effects of aging causes a more painful and embarrassing collapse.
ReplyDeleteThe Last laugh is a great representation of how old age is the eventual fault for everyone but the doorman’s demise was due to linking his happiness to his job. The last Laugh is a story of an unnamed doorman that is demoted because of his old age and loses all of his happiness. Part of his demise was due to an uncontrollable factor of old age. As he got older he slowly became weaker not allowing him to perform his job as well. Old age and its causes are unchangeable and uncontainable due to old age affects everyone. On the other hand the doorman also played a part in his demise as he coupled his job with his own happiness. By linking his joy with his job it only made losing his job worse. When the doorman lost his job as a doorman then he was extremely distraught due to the pride he held alongside being a doorman. The crippling sorrow he encountered as due to the extreme pride and joy he took in his work. It was his fault for putting the two together because he felt greater pressure from his surroundings. Because he put such pride into his job that it was because of himself to bring such depression.
ReplyDeleteThe last Laugh, a German film, directed by F. W. Murnau, is a film which shows the inevitable effect of aging. The movie is a fiction based story which shows a portion of a doorman’s life. This doorman works at a hotel and is esteemed by the whole community. In the same hotel a bathroom attending retired because of his old age. Due to the loss of this position, the doorman was given a letter saying that he should change positions in the hotel. The letter said that he should be the bathroom attending because of the job needing to be filled and as well as his old age. This letter and job switch drove the doorman to insanity. I feel that the only reason why he was given this job was due to his old age. The whole community loved the doorman which is why he shouldn’t have lost his job. Also he was still good at his job and no one was complaining about him or else he wouldn’t have been so popular in the community. With age comes knowledge and he would be better than any other doorman that were to fill his position. There are some negative effects of aging though. First off the doorman is old and frail and probably wouldn’t be able to easily keep people out of the hotel that shouldn’t be in there. Also he has to work lots of hours, which can not only be tedious, but also can be dangerous due to the man’s age. Overall I believe that the director was not intentionally trying to convey this theme, but happened to make a good point out of it.
ReplyDeleteThe film “The Last Laugh stars a man who loses his position and is demoted down to a bathroom attendant because of his old age. When we first meet this man he seems to be very happy with his position and a repected person by those around me because of his position so he ends up trying to deceive these members of his community or he feels he will lose their respect. However, I feel by doing his he ended up just making his situation even worse. He attempted to deceive those around him because of his embarrassment of growing old and weak. If he had instead of attempting to deceive them told them the truth the backlash would have been significantly less. This film definitely portrays his situation as an Aristotelian tragedy because of his flaw of feeling embarrassed by his age ends up making things even worse for him in the end.
ReplyDelete