Tragedy of the Common Man?
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?
When it comes to the progression and downfall of the doorman’s life, a lot of the fault lies on the protagonist himself. From the beginning of the movie up until he receives the demotion letter, the film shows the protagonist struggling to lift luggages, especially in the beginning when he tries to lift the baggage off of a car but has to set it down because of its weight. Additionally, he is shown getting fatigued easily, with him having to sit down, even though it’s important for a door attendant to stand through his shift. Therefore, the hotel was in the right by demoting him to a washroom attendant since he couldn’t carry on with his duties, and it shows that the hotel wanted to keep him because of how long he had been a door attendant. While the hotel was in the right to demote the door attendant, the protagonist reacted wrongfully to the news, for he not only tried to deny that he was becoming more fragile, but he was also lying to his family. One instance of him lying comes the day after the wedding when he still puts on the door attendant uniform in order to avoid telling his family the truth. Additionally, he even tries to go to work as usual until he is out of sight from anyone who lives in the same apartment building as him. In the scene where he’s trying to go to work as a door attendant, there is even a shot from his point of view where it shows how he’s going dizzy and has trouble seeing clearly, showing that this news is already a huge downfall for him. Because of how much his original job meant to him and the status it brought to him and his family, for him to have a piece of his identity stripped away like that showed that he caused his own downfall because of how badly he took the news of his demotion.
ReplyDeleteThe Last Laugh is designed to leave the audience questioning the morality behind the state of society and the economic system at the time of production and furthermore, serves as communist propaganda. The main character is a doorman who has worked many years devoted to hotel service. Although the doorman takes great pride is his responsibilities, his ability to lift heavy suitcases has declined with age, and his superiors catch him during a moment of weakness while taking a break. As a result, his years of hard work dedication to the hotel are dismissed and he is demoted to bathroom attendant. The news of the doorman’s new position is terribly demoralizing and sends him into downward spiral of shame throughout much of the movie. The old man’s pride gradually diminishes as he attempts to drown his sorrows in alcohol and is condemned by friends, family, and neighbors. The prolonged scenes projecting the man’s pitiful transition from proud doorman to depressed bathroom attendant reveal a substantial flaw within an economic system that does not support enthusiastic, dedicated workers. When the old man seems to have hit rock bottom, he is suddenly revived by a substantial inheritance from a man who happens to die in his arms. The highly unrealistic and somewhat outrageous circumstances of the main character’s inheritance alludes to injustices within an economic system largely based on luck rather than hard work. The film further emphasizes the absurdity of impractical wealth in the final scenes when the main character sits for a lavish meal and spoons piles and piles of expensive caviar onto a plate. Ultimately, the films emphasizes the societal flaws on both ends of the economic spectrum in order to promote what the producer views as a more just and fair economic system.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of people who could technically be at fault for the doorman’s downfall in “The Last Laugh”, but if anyone is at fault, it is the doorman himself. While he is enthusiastic and clearly loved his job, he is slow and not fit enough to be working as a man who carries peoples’ luggage all day. This was put on display when he tried to lift the luggage in his boss’s office and failed. If a doorman cannot consistently lift peoples’ luggage, he has no business being a doorman. While he may have been better at his job when he was younger, one cannot blame his boss for wanting to demote him because of how he currently performs at his job. The doorman must have known his performance was not at its peak recently, so if he wanted to get better and keep his job, perhaps it would have helped him to work out or do something to improve his craft. However, he should not be shocked that by his downfall, considering he could not perform his job properly. While he may have loved his job and worked at ”The Atlantic” for many years, there is no law that prevents an employer from firing you because they have working so many years. Simply put, he could not perform his job well, so he was demoted, leading to his downfall. One can also place the blame on nature and that he was just getting old, and this is a valid argument as well, since the doorman was probably at or approaching retirement age. However, valuing his job as a doorman more than anything else in life did not set up the doorman for success because when he was demoted, he had just about everything taken away from him, and if he found more meaning in life than working as a doorman, his demotion would only have been a minor roadblock. Because of this, the doorman’s downfall would not actually be a downfall.
ReplyDeleteIt is without question that the root of the doorman’s downfall is his demotion to bathroom attendant. However, the doorman exhibits an utter lack of grace in this situation and only makes his circumstances worse by being shameful about it and lying. The film displays an important social dynamic of the time in which inefficient things are tossed to the wayside and replaced with a newer model (building off of the belief system of Karl Marx). As an old man, the doorman was simply incapable of performing his job duties as effectively and efficiently as he once could, thus he is thrust into the role of bathroom attendant while a young man takes his place at the door. From here, the protagonist further diminishes his standing in society by hiding his new position. This is best shown by the scenes when the doorman leaves and returns home in his doorman uniform, but changes into the bathroom attendant’s uniform at work. He is protecting his pride, and is being dishonest with everyone around him as he hides his demotion. It is clear that his identity is directly associated with his position, and he feels lost and ashamed of himself once it is taken away. Society’s reaction to his new position is in part related to the importance of status in terms of a respectable/manly job, but it is also related to everyone’s knowledge of how hard he tried to hide his demotion. The spread of gossip on his demotion runs rampant, but if the doorman was humble enough to admit his demotion right away, the fallout within his community would have been lessened. His family’s reaction is that he has brought shame upon them, but the question to be asked is if the shame stems from his demotion, or his denial of it? From beginning to end, the doorman is incapable of coming to terms with his body’s deterioration, and continues to live in denial of his situation.
ReplyDeleteIn the film The Last Laugh there is a lot of ways the message of the film can be interpreted, especially in terms of whose “fault” it is that these events happened. Personally, I don’t think the answer to that is as simple as one might think. I think it’s a complex and layered answer. First of all, I don’t think the inciting incident of the man being demoted is anyone’s fault, I think it’s simply the universe at play. Sure one could argue that he is demoted because of a corrupt system, but as corrupt as the system may be, I don’t think it’s to blame. The man is simply too old to do his job effectively, as we see in the film when he tries to lift the suitcase to prove himself but ends up falling over. When push comes to shove, the man is too old to be efficient in his tasks and that is no one’s fault but the universe’s. When it comes to the events and losses that follow though, I believe the film is making a commentary on society and how fickle and cruel people can be. As soon as the man loses his job as a bellman and is demoted to bathroom attendant, everyone the man knows completely turns on him. His friends and neighbors shun him, his family disowns him, all because of an arguably inevitable demotion. This, is what I believe to be the true cause of the man’s downward spiral. The fact that on top of his age costing him a job he truly loves, it has also cost him all the relationships and people he truly loved. I don’t think that there is one person or party that is fully to blame for the events of the film but I think the film is trying to send the message that though some things are inevitable and pre-decided, the way we as people react to them is entirely up to us.
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