Whiplash (2014 film)

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Whiplash is a 2014 drama film. J.K. Simmons stars in it, receiving an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Andrew dreams of being a famous jazz drummer. He fights to get into an exclusive jazz ensemble while attending the Shaffer Conservatory. Terence Fletcher recruits him as an alternate to the core drummer. Seems easy enough.

Except there are red flags during ensemble practices. Fletcher will stop to yell at any mistake -- or even if a student thinks they made a mistake. Andrew decides he has to impress Fletcher, no matter what it takes.

Tropes used in Whiplash (2014 film) include:

Adult Fear: Imagine that you are at a special academy to live for your dream, only for a teacher to start crushing you. You push yourself to the breaking point, even willing to bleed for hours on end, only to get abuse.
- Sean Casey's parents lost their son when Sean died by suicide. They suspect that Fletcher's teaching methods had something to do with it.
- Andrew falls into Heroic BSOD after being expelled and giving up his dream of being a drummer. In fact, he might have settled for waiting tables for life. His dad looks helpless about how to give him advice on how to move forward.
Alternative Character Interpretation: In-universe, no one knows what kind of person Fletcher is:
- Sean Casey's parents maintain that the man is a monster who gets off pushing students to their breaking point. He showed No Sympathy when their son died by suicide.
- Fletcher himself says that his methods are meant to help students reach their highest potential. He does reach out to Andrew to book him for a life-changing gig, but purely to humiliate him in revenge for getting him fired.
Big Bad: Fletcher is the main antagonistic force of the film, being clearly abusive and mean-spirited to Andrew at every turn possible that makes you wonder if he is really trying to make him better or just try to make him give up.
Bittersweet Ending: Zigzagged. Andrew finally achieves his dream, and seems to beat Fletcher at his game when the latter sets him up to fail at a gig but nods in respect when Andrew persists. Yet to do so, he allowed Fletcher to lure him back to that high-pressure world of jazz, and push his body to the breaking point again.
Papa Wolf:
- While he is helpless to break Fletcher's hold over his son, Andrew's father is furious about how he's suffering. He convinces Andrew testify anonymously against Fletcher about the abuse that he suffered in class. That makes it all the more creepy when he attends the concert in the climax where Fletcher booked a gig for Andrew.
- Sean Casey's father is determined to get justice for his son, and ensure that Fletcher can never have another student at his mercy again.
Power At A Price: If Fletcher's training works, it works at the cost of a good part of your sanity and healthiness.
Reality Ensues:
- Andrew thinks that he has to meet Fletcher's standards and become the best drummer to build his career. His own girlfriend Nicole points out this is not healthy, and not helping is when he's willing to literally bleed for it.
- Andrew hits his Rage Breaking Point and attacks Fletcher after a shitty day where he gets in a car crash before a concert, and a No Sympathy Fletcher cuts him from the ensemble. It should be a moment of awesome. Only the other students and security pull him off because they know Fletcher is a bad guy, but don't want Andrew to stoop to his level. Not to mention Andrew could become more injured than he already is, and he's barely walking. He also gets expelled for assaulting a teacher while being unable to explain why.
- Fletcher's behavior was going to catch up to him eventually. He was not acting as a professional musician or teacher. And not every parent is left stunned and helpless when their child ends up traumatized. Sean Casey's parents have lawyered up to ensure that Fletcher is fired after he drove their son to suicide. When they convince Andrew to testify anonymously, Fletcher gets fired from the conservatory.
- Andrew breaks up with Nicole to focus on jazz, and he insults her while doing that. He invites her at the end of the movie to his gig that could change his life. Nicole is unimpressed because he's not helping his case, and she moved on with someone else.
Sadist Teacher: This trope may as well be Terence Fletcher.
Suddenly Shouting: Fletcher can go off at any time, like a bomb. Case in point, the scene where he screams, "NOT MY FUCKING TEMPO!"
Stay in the Kitchen: No women are in Fletcher's jazz classes. It's weird that it's only men, when there are a large number of women musicians attending school.
Training From Hell: What Fletcher's training is supposed to be. If it works is a different question, that is, if it turns you into a zombie obsessed with playing good to not get reprimanded, or that you end up dead or simply gives up(which seems like more and more like the rational decision as the movie goes on). If Fletcher even believes it will make anyone good at it is even more ambiguous, though a piece of dialogue about his views on jazz clearly implies he himself may be about to cross the Despair Event Horizon and he thinks with only extreme pressure a talented jazz musician may emerge from his class.