[Jazz] Whiplash [One of the Greatest Music Films Ever Made]

I’ve been meaning to pin down the three favourite films of my life, but so far I’ve only settled on two. One is Fight Club. The other is this one!!!

I’ve seen a huge number of films by now, but there really are ones I end up watching again and again.

Today it’s one of those!

Whiplash (released in Japan as Session)

Ahh~ the whole thing has this orange cast to it and it’s so beautiful. Looks like America in the thirties.

So I thought I’d write about this one today!

Starting with the characters. It’s no exaggeration to say there are only these two.

Number one.

Our protagonist, Andrew Neiman — (played by Miles Teller)

A 19-year-old genius jazz drummer.

Seriously good.

Has just started at Shaffer Conservatory, the finest music school in America.

Looks pretty uncool

Number two.

Terence Fletcher — (played by J.K. Simmons)

He’s famous as the finest conductor in the whole of Shaffer Conservatory

He scouts our protagonist for the jazz band he conducts himself (top class in America).

By the way, the actor was the editor-in-chief in the old Spider-Man films.

Read only that much and it’s easy to assume this is a heartwarming story about a genius drummer growing alongside a genius conductor.

But take a look at the original title.

Whiplash. As in the lash of a whip

It’s not some rose-tinted story like that. What it actually is:

Violent conductor VS drummer whose effort has gone completely off the rails

That’s it. For example, make a mistake and he throws a chair at you, corners you psychologically — the tension inside that band is unreal.

And our protagonist ends up in the state you see here.

Yep. Tough luck.

Takes me back to music lessons in primary school.

That teacher was terrifying~

But of course, he’s the protagonist.

He doesn’t give up! He really doesn’t give up!!

He practises until his hands are covered in blood. Incredible. You, sir, are a genius of sheer effort.

Right. So after this he wins the teacher’s trust, gets into the regular lineup, and it all wraps up with a happy ending… of course it doesn’t. The teacher’s bullying escalates! And the protagonist’s single-mindedness knows no limit either.

Where on earth do these two end up, I wonder.

Please go and see the rest with your own eyes. It’s streaming on NETFLIX right now, which has a one-month free trial, and at TSUTAYA it counts as a back-catalogue title so it should be easy to get hold of.

That’s the introduction. From here on it’s my thoughts.

Ahh~ honestly, I’ve watched this film six times.

There’s less dialogue than in other films, and most of what you hear is the jazz they’re playing. And that’s done so skilfully~

Never gets dull to listen to or to watch. It drives the story forward beautifully. It really does

And the protagonist’s single-mindedness makes you want to follow his example. Makes me want to pile into the thing I love exactly like that, as much as I want, and to get that feeling back again. Somehow it makes me feel nostalgic.

And the teacher is the best too! He’s a total bastard, but he’s cool. He sees the thing he believes in all the way through. Same as the protagonist. His attitude towards the music he loves is magnificent.

The last nine minutes of the film. You’re bound to come out of it elated and feeling like you have to go and achieve something!