When the unnamed doorman in The Last Laugh is demoted to bathroom attendant, his world collapses. At the end of the film he is estranged from his family, fellow workers and neighbors and only the night watchman gives him succor. Is this film a tragedy in the Aristotelian sense (that is, does he fall because of some tragic character flaw?)? Is it an indictment of the society of the time? A study of the inevitable effects of aging? Or, to put the point another way, whose fault is the doorman's downfall?
The Last Laugh uses a common law of life as the doorman's fatal flaw in order to comment on society's unfair expectations of us. Our slowly diminishing doorman is believed to be the hero of the tragedy and he is told that he is no longer useful due to his 'age and fertility.' By suggesting that age is a big enough flaw to be the downfall of their hero, the film effectively suggests that everyone is subject to a downfall at some point. It seems difficult to blame the old man for getting older so maybe we should be blaming him for not being prepared for his downfall. Or perhaps we should be blaming society for shaming the old man and making him feel like he needed to hide his demotion from the world in order to preserve his honor. Either way, it seems like the film wants its viewers to recognize that age is not some great flaw that results in the downfall of a hero but rather a commonality that exists among all people. It is what takes all of us out of our prime and closer to our death. As such, it is completely unfair for society to push fallen heroes to the side or enhance the incompetent emotion that is overcoming them.
ReplyDelete"The Last Laugh" is a display of problems surrounding money and occupation in the society by using the unnamed doorman and his neighbors and family. The way this is done is by demonstrating the unreadiness of the doorman turned bathroom assistant to admit his firing to his family. Although, the doorman is shown struggling to carry luggage and is slugging around he stills views the doorman job as something he needs and cannot give up, but once he gets demoted he still cannot face the truth as he knows this is his identity, and he will lose respect within his own family and neighbors. Another problem with the society is how they view the doorman once they all realize he has been demoted. When the doorman turned bathroom, assistant comes home he is greeted by laughter from his neighbors and he is not welcomed in his own home. This is incredibly disrespectful and rude as it seems as the only thing his family valued him for was being a doorman. The neighbors laugh as they are making fun of his demotion and failure while his family is showing the hatred, they had in him by not letting him into his own apartment. Finally, the largest problem with society is how everyone is viewed in what they do and not who they are and how they act. The doorman did not change his morals or change the type of person he is, but all everyone around him sees him as is “the doorman”. This means that once that title is taken away from him, he has lost every bit of respect causing him to go into a downward spiral. In conclusion, it is the societies fault for the doorman to fall so hard once getting demoted. The values of what a person should be looked at should go past just what they do as a profession.
ReplyDeleteThe Last Laugh shows a bell curve like pathway of life through the doorman where there is a rise to the peak then a descent back down as time continues; this pathway portrays the inevitable effects of aging as people become older they are suitable for other callings. The movie begins at the peak of the bell curve with the doorman loving every aspect of his job. We see his enjoyment for the occupation as he greets every guest joyously and helps people unload their luggage into the building. Then a dramatic scene occurs when a large crate needs to be unloaded from the top of a vehicle. The camera angle points to a low angle showing the doorman looking up at the case, and then the angle changes to a high angle where the audience gets the perspective of the case; this makes the case seem overwhelmingly colossal and the doorman insignificantly small foreshadowing future events of the doorman losing his job. He is unfit for the position due to his old age. Shortly after the viewers see him unload the case, the doorman walks home being praised by his neighbors as the doorman occupation is a symbol of high status in this society. The viewers see how sumptuous his life is and what the doorman label means in this world. Then the doorman’s life begins to descend down the bell curve as he loses his job, the superb status that came with it, and his family. The film captures the superiority of occupation in our society when the doorman loses his job. He doesn’t only lose his job, the doorman loses everything! This is reflected in the world today. When a person gets older, they begin to prune and eventually lose their job through retirement. When someone doesn’t have a job they are seen as inferior, an outcast in our capitalistic society. At the end of the film, the doorman dies (or falls asleep) where the bell curve has concluded at its right and bottom most point. Part of the journey is the end. There is nothing that stops time from taking people on the bell curve like path.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing to blame for the fall of the doorman in "The Last Laugh" is his age. He is demoted to the position of bathroom attendant because his appearance is not fit for his prior job anymore. His boss believes he has become too old to be greeting guests at the door and he should be placed somewhere where he will be noticed less. In the scene when the doorman’s lies are discovered, we can see that somebody much younger has replaced him. This film is commenting on our society’s view of the elderly compared to other cultures. In America, as people grow older, they are often seen as a burden or deteriorating. They need to be taken care of and cannot be trusted with difficult tasks. In many other cultures, as a person grows older, they are seen as wiser and deserve respect. This position change was bound to happen because ageing in inevitable. The doorman’s boss believes that the looks of an employee have more of an impact than how well they do their job. We know that the doorman loved his position and did nothing to provoke getting fired. This film is not a tragedy in the Aristotelian sense because he did not have a major character flaw. I do believe that the doorman made mistakes during the movie, since he should not have lied to his family and friends. However, that mistake is not the reason he was demoted, so we do not know of any major flaw that he has. Ageing is a process that nobody can escape. The only difference is the way you are treated because of it.
ReplyDeleteAlthough The Last Laugh is somewhat of an indictment of a "cruel" and "emotionless" society, it also critiques those who fail to properly prepare for the repercussions of living in such a cruel society. Due to a complete lack of dialogue in The Last Laugh, the film is completely reliant upon setting, visual cues, and acting in order to effectively communicate its themes. Additionally, The Last Laugh, which was released during the era of German Expressionism, uses the portrayal of emotion as the main device to communicate its central messages. With this in mind, when drawing conclusions about themes in The Last Laugh, it is essential to do so based on the visual information presented to the viewer in addition to the plot.
ReplyDeleteOn the surface, The Last Laugh's basic plot might lead the viewer who only had time to "read the summary" of the film to feel pity for the hardworking unnamed doorman who looses his job. On paper, the unnamed doorman's only "character flaw" is his old age (which is not an indictment on his character, but rather just a tragic circumstance). However, although the unnamed doorman still exhibits many of these same traits in the film, he also comes across as overly prideful, ashamed of himself, and unwilling to problem solve. Because the unnamed doorman refuses to label himself as anything other than a doorman (evident by him constantly wearing his uniform, even outside of work), his peers only see him as a doorman, leading to him losing his identify when his title is finally stripped away from him. Although he recognizes that his old age may finally catch up to him (evident by his struggles to lift heavy luggage early on in the film), he nonetheless remains unprepared for "life after being a doorman". Finally, when he is finally stripped of his title as doorman, he is unwilling to problem solve and move forward (evident by his refusal to communicate his job loss to his family, or even look for a new job), and is thus subject to humiliation in both his new job as a bathroom attendant, and from his family.
Ultimately, while The Last Laugh is a tragic story about an unnamed doorman who looses his job due to old age, it also provides commentary on what it means to lead a "successful life" in a cruel society through its emphasis on emotion. While it may be easy to label The Last Laugh as a tragedy because of its plot, it nonetheless should be examined through the eye of German Expressionism, as the portrayal of emotion is just as important to communicating a theme as the plot.
Not only is The Last Laugh an indictment of Germany’s labor system at the time, it is also a critique on the immense value all capitalist economies project onto labor. In the film, the unnamed doorman holds his honor along with his position. When he is demoted to the role of a bathroom clerk, his sense of personal identity is shattered. Although the intense emotion exhibited through the film is slightly hyperbolized, the ideas of pinning one’s identity and value on their job and economic success still stands. In the current labor market, an individual’s importance to society is measured mainly through their yearly income and net worth. Huge figures such as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, etc. are often regarded as godlike leaders of the working world. This creates three problems: a low-level employee is seen as lazy and unimportant, it excuses mass exploitation and dangerous power structures that cause the accumulation of wealth in a small population of people, and the devaluing of other means of human advancement i.e., the arts. Introspectively, the doorman has lost a sense of self along, taking a blow to his market-controlled ego, while outwardly, he creates the illusion that he has not lost his job in fear of being humiliated. These points culminate in the final scene where his surmounting feelings of self-deprecation and the inability to contribute to the economy as he once did leave the doorman hollow. Interpreting the secondary ending as a dream sequence compounds the sentiment of purpose through money to an even higher level. As the doorman freezes in the bathroom of the hotel, his head is filled with thoughts of grotesque overindulgence and gluttony. The cartoonish levels of wealth and greed are nearly as off-putting as the idea that his dream is manufactured by the false notion that money is and should be fulfilling.
ReplyDelete