Whiplash is about a nineteen-year-old ambitious young man, Andrew, studying drums in a prestigious music school in New York. In his first year, he gets noticed by Terence Fletcher, an unyielding instructor known for his terrifying methods. Fletcher leads the jazz ensemble of the school, in which he inserts Andrew.
After the initial thrill, Andrew soon discovers that Fletcher demands from his students to reach a quite impossible standard. In the man’s head, the abusive methods he uses are a way to make talent emerge from the young musicians. He tries to “push people beyond what’s expected of them”, believing that “there are no two words in the English language more harmful than good job”. There is no other way: if he acted otherwise, the world would be deprived “of the next Louis Armstrong, or the next Charlie Parker”.
The movie is a constant fight between the student and the teacher, but also between the student and the world outside. Becoming a great jazz musician requires a big effort and practice, and Andrew seems to find obstacles everywhere. As long as Fletcher asks him to do more and more, he isolates himself from everyone, even breaking up with the girl he is dating. He dedicates himself to playing drums all day long, causing his hands to bleed, literally. In addition, Andrew’s family does not understand his efforts, nor they seem to consider his field of study important or relevant. As Whiplash enlightens, there are sacrifices and a huge discipline behind a musician’s education that – like Andrew’s family – we are often not aware of. But the movie is also a consideration about whether or not a strict instructor’s method can push people to make their real talent emerge and if real passion and talent for music can be discouraged or incentivized by dreadful teachers.
The result is a fascinating and original drama revolving around the world of a kind of music (jazz) often considered not so popular. Furthermore, we see a kind of sacrifice and pain that is associated, on the screen, only to sports, mostly. Since the very first sequence, with the drums playing a sort of military rhythm, we understand that a battle between the characters will go on, both physically and emotionally.
The pursuit of the excellence is all the time on the edge; the desire for perfection often gets close to obsession, and this tension, which completely catches the viewer, finds its relief only when the beautiful jazz classic Whiplash goes on, uninterrupted.
