Modernism & Such

The playwright True West that we’re watching in class is a good movie that shows different aspects of metamorphism and modernism. The drunken brother initially was a “parasite” who lived off of anyone he could, hopping into windows and leaving through the front door. The studious brother is hard working and tries to take his writing to the next level by publishing it for Hollywood. The metamorphosis happens when the drunken brother played by Malkovich turns into the concerned writer who wants to see his work complete and his “dorky” brother becomes more apathetic towards the script. The theme of change is very obvious in this film and also has a lot to do with modernism. This play as a whole represents a metamorphosis of the status quo of what is acceptable in film which is the basic principle of modernism—shaking things up (having drunken men scream at the tops of their lungs, smashing typewriters with golf clubs and having alcohol being very present). True West has internal character changes, but it also represents externally what is perceived as normal for various pieces of literature.