The Dreamers and the Losers of Wes Anderson

The Dreamers and the Losers of Wes Anderson

 

If all of a sudden you are asked to name your favourite movie, you may choose to answer at least top 3 or sometimes top 5. But this is not the case for your favourite actor and favourite director. You mostly have a definite one. I belong to the cult of Wes Anderson… and not surprisingly like many of you out there.  And When I say Anderson, it never means Anderson alone, it’s always the Anderson community- Anderson, the Wilsons, Murray, Norton, Brody, Schwartzman …you know what I mean J

No, this is not a blog to talk about his directorial style or his filmmaking genre, or review of any of his movies. There are millions of great critiques on this. I just want to pen down my perspectives on what I love about the movies and why I feel so hooked into them and never get bored watching them again and again.

Let’s start from the ’96‘s ‘Bottle Rocket’ which was his directorial debut in the big screen (just for an information- this is Martin Scorsese’s favourite too)! It is Dignan’s dream to rescue his friends (a bunch of losers) and show them a path way forward (though it involves multiple small scale and big scale crimes) which he has sorted out for himself long back. Anthony and Bob get along in order to fulfil Dignan’s dream and in the way experience love, distrust, crisis and betrayal. Still they fight back their way and manage to conduct a group heist which cannot get accomplished at the end. Dignan’s accountability and integrity to the operation comes in between where he chooses to further risk himself in order to save a member of his group and can’t help but get himself arrested by the police. Dignan’s dream never stops where the next one in action is to find a way out from the bar/jail. Who is Dignan? A Dreamer or a Loser? How about Anthony who at the end is still able to keep his faith in love and friendship?

Rushmore Academy’s Max Fischer is a dreamer who juggles around multiple co-curriculums and lives the life to the fullest in the institution which has a highly perceived value. His dream of Rushmore changes into a dream of Miss Cross’ love and later changes into an obsession to gain her when he finds himself in a competition with his one and only dependable and admired friend Mr. Blume. Although the initial battle of love is lost by both, Max’s journey to dream big, to fix all glitches and complications and find love again, is not a story of a loser.

We always remember the bond of Whitman brothers and their spiritual journey of self-discovery in The Darjeeling Limited. Similarly, the Tanenbum family’s fight for their loved ones and in the way confronting their insecurities and regaining their once-lost trust -are something, one always can relate to.

One of my personal favourite is Moonrise Kingdom where the entire khaki scout of the summer camp in New Penzance makes up their mind to help two of their camp-mates –Sam & Suzy -who fell in love with each other and ran away from the camp in a dream of settling down together far away from their home and family and all the enemies of love. Where it is a struggle for love in Moonrise kingdom, it is a struggle for existence and dream for a safe life for (fantastic) Mr. Fox . Be it Atari’s search for his Spots (in Isle of Dogs) or Whitmen’s search for their mother, there is always a loss and a dream to search and gain back and to make everything right at the end

Steve Zissou’s dream is to make a successful aquatic documentary featuring a ‘Jaguar shark’ which he accomplishes at the end, but in the journey he loses Ned- his perceived one and only son, who leaves his entire career and invests all his earnings only to fulfill a dream to join his allegedly father and gets killed in an air-crash. 

Who here is the actual loser? Is it Ned who actually lost everything for somebody who later was discovered not even his father? Or Zissou who can never forget his affection for Ned and have regrets for his death for the rest of the life?

The losers can be -Richie Tanenbum, once a Tennis Prodigy, now a submissive, self-contained brother who dares his love to his adopted sister Margot. Or the loser can be Chas, a widower overprotective father of two and a frustrated son. Margot is no less than a loser with her complicated love lives where everybody is ready to drown into. Or Eli- the rich neighbor, once a friend, now a failed lover? Are they actually losers? Or they are the dreamers? Or the dreamers and the losers are so interchangeable that we can’t fit them into a regular life’s graph.

There is nothing for the losers to lose further, a loser can dream big as there is nobody to stop them from dreaming. And this idea of ‘not giving up’ can someday make them actually achieve it. And there is always a try, there is always a struggle, and then there is a transition from ‘losing everything’ to ‘having something’ and finally ‘having everything’ which reminds us the journey of Zero Mustafa from ‘zero’ to the sole heir of ‘The grand Budapest Hotel’.