Window on the creative process

Rating: 10/10 (26 February 2015)

There was a lot of human drama here, but as one who has had more than a casual involvement in the realization of a music piece or two, I was impressed with the film's accuracy of that process. And it is a process. One reviewer lamented an irony that jazz was supposed to be so free, but the film reduced the music to something mechanical. Well, I hate to bust anybody's romantic notions,but when a conductor is assembling a music piece utilizing 10,20,50,100, or 300 individuals, it becomes a primary necessity to discipline the mechanics before all else, any individual expression belongs solely to the conductor who has determined well ahead of any of the other participants what he wants to hear to make a piece "tight". This film was all about that discipline, the time, blood, sweat and dedication involved in an uncompromising artistic pursuit of excellence, and the people who do it. There is always a lot of human drama involved in the pursuit of excellence, bloody taped fingers, sore muscles, stripped out vocal cords, the anguish of missing the mark, and the joy of overcoming. Whiplash is an excellent representation of exactly how a music piece is polished. The only weak spot I saw was how the actor portraying the conductor did not seem to grasp the importance of what a conductor does on stage. If you are a band, chorus, or orchestra member, your ears are filled with the sounds of the people in your immediate vicinity- you absolutely cannot hear what the people across the room are doing. So on stage, the conductors job becomes essential to keep everyone together, and cue sections in or out as needed. All members have eyes on him or her at all times for these purposes. It is far from an ornamental role, and the actor did not quite seem to get that.
Other than that, "Whiplash" is exactly how music is made. Very real.