The first time I watched
the film Inception was a couple of years ago; all I can remember from
that experience was that I was just really confused. Since it was so long ago, I figured that I would
be just as confused watching it a second time.
But as Nabokov said, the best readers will reread and reread a story
many times to understand its full meaning. Even though I did not fully
understand the movie the second time through( quite frankly I don’t think
anybody does completely understand it), I did grasp some of its deeper meaning
as well as the many modernist attributes in the movie.
One
idea that really confused me while watching the movie the first time was why
Mal locked her top inside the limbo of her mind. After watching it for a second
time, and learning about modernist attributes, I realize now that this is
symbolic of Mal's disillusionment. Mal
decided to accept that her dream was reality so she locked up her one reminder
of reality and convinced herself that she could live in her dream forever.
Cobb
was forced to kick Mal back to reality by running her over with a train,
telling her that death is the only escape from this dream. Unfortunately this
idea grows in Mal's head and she is lead to further disillusionment. She
believes that reality itself is not real. This leads her to take her own life,
believing that she will wake up from another dream.
My
favorite part, which was another modernist attribute , was the very last scene.
This final scene was an ambiguous ending and also included that symbolic top.
As described throughout the movie, in a dream the top will spin forever whereas
in reality, it will eventually fall over. After Cobb leaves the frame to see
his kids for the first time in years, the focus turns back to the spinning top.
Right before the scene cuts out, the top wavers but does not yet fall; then
everything goes black. This left me with
in a highly confused and wondrous state at the end of the movie. Is it actually
reality or not? We will never know…
I agree with Nabakov and your points on rereading (or in this case, re-watching) stories to understand their full meanings. I had felt the familiar experience of noticing details that I had not been aware of before. It was especially interesting to watch Inception with Modernist concepts in mind, giving a sort of an explanation to certain points of the story instead of a general “what is going on, exactly?” Inception is only so confusing if it is viewed as a traditional story. By experiencing Inception as a Modernist example, one can surely begin to understand the concepts of disillusionment and ambiguity more clearly.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you about the importance of watching a film like Inception multiple times and I think I would understand it a lot better if I did watch it again, or at least watched the middle of the movie. I can see how you are able to understand the film better and begin to truly delve into the symbolism and meaning of things a lot better after seeing the movie again. I also really enjoyed the end of the movie and the power of its ambiguity.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that you connected Nabokov's lecture on good readers to the idea of watching a movie multiple times, and I completely agree with you. I have seen the movie previously, yet I picked up on a lot more this time around. Understanding modernism and having seen it before made viewing Inception again a more pleasant experience.
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