Birdman: The Unexpected Shake-up of Cinema
Natalie Webster | MA in Contemporary Literature and Film
Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) won
best picture, along with three other awards, at the 2015 Oscars. In an age
where a large proportion of cinematic success is celebrated by superhero
franchises like The Avengers, Iñárritu tells the story of what a washed-up
superhero actor with a drinking problem does thirty years after his last film.
In the case of Riggan Thomas, he adapts a Raymond Carver short story for
Broadway. This film is a fascinating experiment in reality and fiction; the
entire picture has been edited to look as if it is one continuous shot, giving
the impression that the viewer is following the character through their story.
Michael Keaton (Riggan Thomas) was famous for playing Batman, a clear
inspiration for the appearance and vocal performance of the eponymous
Birdman. Edward Norton plays Mike Shine, a passionate, difficult actor who
insists on changing lines of the script and a truthful performance. Norton is a
notoriously difficult actor to work with, and is known to edit scripts himself, as
well as also being a superhero actor at one stage of his career. The real-
world influences on this film, as well as the embedded fiction of the play,
allows for multiple layers of fictionality. In several moments of the film, the
real cinema audience are faced with the fictional theatre audience,
consistently reminding them that none of this is real, and confusing which
side is which. This paper will unpick the devices within the film that allow for
this blurring of the real and the make-believe narratives and question whether
the distinction is ever necessary or useful.
Keywords | Birdman, Raymond Carver, Michael Keaton, Edward Norton
‘[Riggan] Thomson has unwittingly given birth to a new form that can only be
described as supra-realism. Blood was spilled both literally and metaphorically
by artist and audience alike. Red blood. The blood that has been sorely
missing from the veins of the American theatre...’ 1
So goes the review for Thomson’s Broadway adaptation of What We Talk About When We
Talk About Love 2 , being himself the desperate, has-been-celebrity protagonist (played by
Michael Keaton) in Iñárritu’s Oscar-winning film, Birdman (2014). The entire film focuses on
the rehearsal process of this play, which Thomson writes, directs and stars in, as well as his
struggle with the superhero alter-ego, Birdman, who he played for many years and makes
appearances throughout the film. The aforementioned review’s comment about the play
‘giving birth to a new form’ is prompted by the fact that, in the climax of the film, Thomson uses
or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (2014,
Fox Searchlight Pictures), DVD.
2 Raymond, Carver. “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” In What We Talk About When
We Talk About Love, 114-139. (London: Vintage, 2009), 114-139.
1 Birdman
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