Punch Drunk adj
1. Demonstrating or characteristic of the behaviour of a person
who has suffered repeated blows to the head, esp a professional boxer
2. dazed; stupefied
The
movie that I have selected to be analyze is Punch
Drunk Love(2002), written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson(PTA). It is critically acclaimed movie that
won best director and received a nomination for Palm d’Or at the prestigious
Canne Film Festival. This is a
major feat considering that it stars Adam Sandler, an actor who has a track
record for being the same exaggerated, over-the-top character in a series of
high concept comedies. In this role PTA managed to find a talent, and a
believability in Sandler that no other director had managed to previously
capture. Not only does it star
Adam Sandler but the premise has been heard time and time again: an insecure,
easily taken advantage of man must transform into a brave, confident man stand
up against the oppressors to get the girl of his dreams. With these ingredients, Punch Drunk
Love could have easily gotten lost in a sea of Hollywood’s forgettable romantic
comedies. The following analysis will explain how PTA’s careful, yet extensive
use of film language and unique story structure manages to elicit an emotional
response from its audience and set it apart from other romantic comedies. In
order to do this I will breakdown the story by its key plot elements as well as
explain his use of symbolism, composition, light, and various other story
techniques.
Before
I can begin the analysis here’s a quick breakdown of the story:
Adam Sandler plays Barry Eagan, an owner of a small
business. He is a business man who
is the youngest of eight siblings, all of seven older sisters. They all make sure to push their ideas
about him, manipulate, him and control him. He feels that he has no one to talk to. Nobody, to listen to him. In a
desperate attempt to be heard he calls a phone sex hotline. The hotline ends up being a scam to get
his credit card information. Meanwhile
he finds the girl of his dreams.
The story Barry’s journey to put an end to these pursuers before he
loses his possessions and his newfound love can get hurt.
When
breaking down this story, my first instinct was that since Barry’s objective is
to ‘get the girl’ I assumed that all of the plot points would revolve around
this mission. The reason is that
in most movies about a guy going pursuing a girl, the plot points will revolve
around this relationship. For
example:
Inciting Incident.- Guy
meets girl.
1st Turning
Point: Guy and girl go on a date.
Midpoint- Guy leaves
girl or girl leaves guy for someone or something else
2nd Turning
Point- Guy decides he will do whatever it takes to get girl back.
Climax- Some sort of
dramatic wedding sequence, airport chase, etc.. he gets her back before she leaves,
or is committed to someone else.
Resolution: Guy gets
girl.
Since
there are so many movies like this I was accustomed to this type of
structure. But that’s not what
Punch Drunk Love is about. This story is not about this girl, she’s actually
interested in him throughout the movie, there are no dark moments of her
leaving, instead the movie is a character driven story about Barry standing up
for himself and becoming confident within his own self. Lena, rather than being the source of
conflict she represents someone
who he can talk to and someone who will listen to him. In that sense she is t for his change
but the story’s dramatic ark. She is what keeps him pushing to move forward. With
that said, the key turning points take place at the times when Barry makes a
decision to deal with the other people’s taking advantage of him in a new way. The following paragraphs are the five
key plot points that take place in this story about Barry’s transformation into
a person who believes in himself. After talking through the plot points I will closely
examine the film language in order to explain how this story actually worked.
In
the opening image the world of the story is established quickly and
effectively. The first line of the
movie is “yes, I’m still on hold” this summarizes the dramatic conflict in the
story, Barry is a man who is being
“put on hold” by the world he lives in.
His sisters are manipulative, and unlikeable, his job is clearly not going
well, and he has nobody who he can talk to.
The
hook occurs when Barry walks outside and sees a car crash and roll violently
followed by a harmonium, being placed at Barry’s feet. This exactly what a hook should
do. It grabs the audience’s attention
and gets their mind to be actively engaged in the story. I mean what’s more engaging then a
violent car crash and the ditching of a harmonium out of the blue?
The
next major beat is when the audience sees Barry lose control for the first
time. This is occurs when he breaks three glass doors at his sister’s birthday
party, he decides to confide in his brother-in-law, a dentist. Barry “I don’t like myself
sometimes. Can you help me?... I
sometimes cry a lot for no reason”
and then proceeds to break into tears. The reason this is the inciting incident is because Barry is
making his first move towards understanding what his problem is. It establishes that his dramatic need
is to understand who he is and why he feels so weak. This leads to the inciting
incident, when he calls the Phone sex line. Here he is making a desperate move to find someone to talk
to. This leads to Barry searching
for a solution to his problems. Within the first fifteen minutes we have seen
the protagonist, the object of his desire, we have seen him interact in his
world and sympathize for him because we feel discomfort just as he does.
Barry’s
solution is to call a phone sex line.
The morning after Georgia, the girl from the phone sex service, calls
him back asking for money. This is
when the audience first finds out about the central conflict of the story, Barry
dealing with the phone sex line.
“I have your credit card information”. While the threat of losing money is obviously a concern for
the character, money is not a factor in this story. The actual conflict is Barry’s fear of being exposed as
someone he is not. Barry is a
character who is private by nature is at risk of his reputation being at
stake. Knowing how his sisters
tend to act around him, the audience is likely to wonder: “How are his sisters
going to react when they find out about this?” This begins the growing tension
of the story.
The
next major beat is when Barry is assaulted. Barry does not stand up for himself. He goes to the ATM, withdraws the cash,
and begins to say he cannot afford this only to receive a punch to the
face. He has not been able
to transform into the hero yet. At
this point in the story Barry is still not ready to challenge them, instead he
decides to flea the situation and travel to Hawaii to meet up with Lena. This raises the stakes by
reminding Barry that he is in harms way and this problem will not just go
away.
The
midpoint occurs when Barry tries to redeem his Pudding, and finds out that he
must wait six to eight weeks. Now
both parts of his story are at a low.
Not only is he in harms way but he has no access to meet up with
Lena. He manages to get to Hawaii
anyway, and is refreshed, it is an escape from the phone sex story, a chance
for the audience to relax and take a breath.
The
Hawaii sequence is too happy, this is the point of false hope. It is easy to perceive that something
is going to change for the worse. And
it does. A car strikes Barry’s car and they spin out of control. This is a major beat because this is
the first time that the two stories (Barry’s love story and his phone sex
conflict) have directly converged.
The convergence of these two stories is the staw that breaks the camels
back. It is the determining moment
in which Barry fears he could lose the Lena, the one thing that is most
important to him, his dramatic need.
From here on Barry takes on the role of a hero, he has no doubt in his
mind what he needs to get done.
Now
Barry is sick of using phone to communicate. He will no longer allow himself to be put on hold. He travels all the way to Utah and
addresses the man in charge of the phone sex scam face-to-face. The mattress man quickly accuses him:
“fuck you. You’re a pervert. You think you can be a pervert and not
pay for it?”. Barry’s response is
“I didn’t do anything. I’m a nice
man and I mind my own business. So
you tell me that’s that before I beat the hell from you. I have so much strength in me, you have
no idea. I have a love in my life.
It makes me stronger than anything you can imagine. I would say that’s that mattress man.” Barry is full of self confidence, he
knows who he is as a person and will not allow anyone else to influence his
thoughts. Following this is the
most brilliant part. Rather than
Barry responding to this situation with violence, he shows that not only is he
brave, and strong, but he has enough self-control to not attack this man. The transformation of the hero is
complete.
It
is easy to think that a person is reading too far into a movie’s analysis when
the someone searches for deep, profound meanings in objects, little details in
a movie. Such as someone may say: ‘there’s no way that in Psycho, Hitchcock
included a bunch of stuffed birds in Bates’ room to symbolize his relationships
with woman as dead and unresponsive” My argument is that symbolism is used all of the time
in movies and more often than not, it is a conscious decision. Now, a director isn’t necessarily
implying exactly what people interpret.. these interpretations are subjective
and people will develop their own conclusions. What the director is doing is using an object as a device
for showing the audience rather than telling. Symbolism as a device is commonly used in three different
ways: it can be a form of exposition, illuminate something about a character, and/or
to show a transformation through the character’s interaction with that
object. PTA is extremely conscious
of the symbols he uses and will in some cases will go to the extreme of using a
symbol in the story regardless of the fact that it may interfere with the
story’s believability.
The
pudding is something that Barry has control over. He is living in a place where everyone seems to
misunderstand him and try to manipulate him…The movie is about a man who is
grossly misunderstood. Other
people do not give him the time of day.
And try to manipulate him.
The pudding is something that he has seen that everyone else seems to
have looked over. This is
something that he thinks he has control over… a finer detail.
After
Barry finds out that the pudding will take six to eight weeks to process before
he can get his frequent flying miles.
To this point it had been a symbol of something that Barry had gotten
the better end of. Now its not
going to work. He reacts by
punching a map on the wall. He
screams in pain and grabs again for his harmonium, we see that the cuts on his
bloodied knuckles spell out “Love”.
While I can argue that this lack of believability could pull the
audience out of the story, it’s a powerful image that manages to encapsulate
Barry’s story.
Phones
ringing are used as a way to add tension in scenes. Everyone knows that annoying feeling of a phone ringing in
which you know you should answer but you don’t want to deal with whoever is on
the end of the line. Paul
understands this feeling and used this phone ringing sound as a device to
instill tension in the audience.
Barry is often a man who people overlook, and don’t take the time to
understand him… he’s misunderstood.
In the climax, Barry rips the phone from the machine and takes it with
him to confront them head on. Face
to face. He literally runs off while still holding the phone to his ear. He brings the phone to the mattress
shop and yells at him still holding the phone. He is putting a face on a voice… forcing them to look at the
fine print(referring to his comment about the putting earlier-everyone misses
the fine print).. understand what they are doing.
The
harmonium is relief. This is established as something he has taken on his own,
something he is very intrigued by-
It is a source of comfort for the protagonist. When the audience sees him reach out and grab the harmonium
they realize that he is getting a sense of relief.
The
deep blue suit that he wears is something other people judge him for. Something that is used as a source of
other people’s jokes, or judgemental questions. We are never told when he got the suit, why he continues to
wear it, but we know that he likes it… By addressing the suit multiple times in
the movie it acts as a way to show the audience the character’s
transformation. He reacts differently
to people’s comments as he transforms.
The camera
is used as narrator in this movie.
As you can already tell, the imagery in this movie is carefully used so
as to evoke emotions within the audience.
But not only the objects within the frame are used but also the framing
in itself. The camera acts as a
narrator, point the audience where to look, and to what is important. This is typical of PTA, his shot
selection is clearly thought out.
Each composition for a specific reason. I believe that the effect of this camera narration is that
it keeps the audence compelled and it tells the story through showing rather
than telling. It acts as a form of
exposition, of which the audience must remain actively engaged to follow this
story. The following is an
analysis of how PTA’s camerawork contributes to this story.
A
contrast between flat space and deep space is one tool that he uses to keep the
story visually dynamic, this acts to keep the audience visually
stimulated. In terms of story
structure, it keeps the story propelling forward and is a tool to hint at a
certain feel in the scene.
Deep
space is scene frequently in the hallway way shots. They are shot with a telephoto lens that actually shrinks
the space but are long enough hallways that they look like have a dramatic
look. Some scenes in which we see
Barry in hallways, the hallways
act as a way to build tension, for example the scene after Lena says “I wish
you would have kissed me” barry runs from hallway to hallway, running at the
camera and then running away from the camera, with the telephoto lens it looks
like he’s not going anywhere. This
heightens the tension of the scene as the audience cannot wait to see the
protagonist kiss the object of his desire. Deep space is also used in the warehouse scenes. These are some of the most stressful
scenes that I’ve ever scene. Paul
builds the tension with music, and background dialogue, and reflections of
people moving, phones ringing etc… this deep space adds to the visual intensity
as Barry runs back and forth, answering phones pitching to his clients.
Flat
space is used equally as well.
This occurs at the times when Barry is supposed to feel trapped. One example is the scene where he
brakes the three glass doors. The
tension builds as his sisters call him “gay boy” and pester him about
everything imaginable. The shot is
composed of horizontal and vertical lines and there is very limited depth. Barry has nowhere to go, on top of that
he is standing in front of a glass cabinet full of nice china. As the sound intensifies and Barry
remains trapped in this space, the audience can sense that something is going
to happen.
Another
compositional method for showing that Barry is trapped is done by filming him
from through a hallway so that the doorway reaches into both ends of the
frame. This gives the appearance
of him having nowhere to go. One
of the most effective uses of this framing is when Georgia, calls him back the
morning after he had called her for phone sex. He answers the phone and it is framed as a medium shot. The camera very slowly pushes in on
Barry as Georgia hints at needing money.
As the camera pushes in Barry backs up at a faster rate, by the time the
shot is done, it is a full shot of Barry, it is still framed by the doorframe
and as the camera pushes in, the objects in the frame get considerably larger,
especially those objects in the foreground. The effect of this shot is that Barry not only looks
trapped, but also he’s literally shrinking around the world of the story. The
objects are getting larger and he is getting smaller. The audience can sense that this is going to become a big
problem. This visual effect is especially relevant because it occurs at the
first turning point. The room
growing around him is a visual representation of him entering the ‘a new world’
which in terms of story structure, a protagonist is supposed to be entering a
new world at the end of the first act.
The
movie uses a lot of two shots where the characters are framed from the
side. The first time we see this
type of framing, it is Barry sitting at his dinner table. It is framed in a way
that you would expect there to be another person sitting at the table with
him. The audience already knows
that Barry has nobody to talk to.
So by seeing him framed at a dinner table across from an empty chair the
audience is directed to feel sympathetic for him. PTA wants the audience to be feeling the character’s
loneliness. Now if this feels like
to much of a stretch, then lets say that Barry was centered in the frame and
Barry was sitting at the table with just the empty plate. Now, maybe the audience could wonder if
he’s hungry and thinking about what to eat, or if he’s just sitting down
relaxing. Furthermore, by
instilling a sense of sympathy in the character the audience can now justify
our protagonist calling a phone sex line, an act that would otherwise make our
character unlikeable, and make it more difficult to relate to Barry. When another two shot is used later in
the story, Lena is sitting at the table with him. Now this seat has been filled, and chances are the audience feels
a sense of relief because of this filled void.
In
Punch Drunk love, light is frequently used as a storytelling device. Many of the shots are intentionally
overexposed. In this story the
purpose of overexposed shots is to imply discomfort. The first scene is a great example. Barry slowly peaks
outside of his warehouse into an area that is so overexposed it is difficult to
make out what is out there. We see
fear/hesitation in his face and he quickly steps back into his dark
warehouse. Throughout the movie
shots are overexposed when Barry finds himself in new situations, where he
doesn’t feel comfortable, or when he other people are impeding on his personal
space.
Lens
flares are also used as a tool to imply discomfort. This is another one of PTA’s bold stylistic decisions
because a lens flare immediately draws attention to the fact that we are
observing this story through a camera which risks pulling the audience out of
the spell of the movie. In my
opinion they work because they are used sparingly and only at parts that are of
high intensity for the protagonist, the audience is involved in the story
enough that the lens flare complements the mood rather than acting as a
distraction.
Another
use of light that draws attention to itself is when Barry calls Lena from the
payphone. This is the greatest
moment for Barry, he is overcome with excitement to hear the sound of her
voice. As she says hello the light
in the phone booth quickly brightens to a bright yellow glow on Barry’s
face. It’s as if he were literally
glowing with excitement. This is
complemented by a loud cheer by the crowd behind him, its justified because all
of the people are watching a parade but PTA intentionally included it because
the cheering of a crowd subconsciously complements the moment with a positive,
celebratory feel.
Paul
Thomas Anderson effectively tells a story about a man who must take arms
against his own personal troubles.
Focusing on the psychological transformations within this man, Paul
Thomas Anderson brings the audience on a psychological ride that literally
makes one feel what the protagonist feels. It is a testament to his highly acute understanding of film
language that he manages to pull the viewer in rather than distract them with
his highly formalistic direction.
Without such storytelling, it likely would have been just another
Hollywood movie. My hope is that
in the future more directors will be willing to take risks and focus on
visual/highly subconscious storytelling in order to carry an audience through
the hero’s journey.