It Got Me To Thinking

Rating: 8/10 (12 June 2019)

The movie is about a cruel perfectionist teacher in an exclusive school of music, and a pupil who has a need to become one of the best musicians (drummer) ever. Somewhere I have seen this plotline before but as I watched the movie, that sense of deja vu didn't too much matter. The performances were very good but the best part about it was that it got me to thinking. First, the student, played by Miles Teller, and the teacher, played by J.K. Simmons, were cut from the same cloth as far as the almost pathological need to create supreme talent. The student was free to walk away from the abuse at any time but he chose not to. For that reason my sympathy for the student disappeared well before the end of the film.
I have known a number of people who sacrificed a lot in pursuit of a dream. I think specifically of long ago when I would see friends study hours on end, day after day in pursuit of one career or another. As a lifelong below average student with very limited academic aptitude and no artistic ability of any kind, I was never put in the position of those friends, or the fictional student in the movie. Whiplash made me wonder if I would have been willing to make such sacrifices, given the chance. Any film that spawns thought must be pretty decent.