Jarman
portrays Wittgenstein as a tortured genius. He is constantly tormented by his
own brilliance and does yearn to have a relatively normal life; away from
academia. In this way, Jarman does excellently showcase Wittgenstein’s sadness,
in that he is always running away from his life; probably in a bid to forget
the torment his work provides him with. Jarman also conveys excellently the
ways in which Wittgenstein influences and affects others around him, especially
the frustration and exasperation he causes Bertrand Russell. One of the biggest
problems that Wittgenstein seems to possess in Jarman’s film is his idea of
language games. He is shown not only to hate the fact that others did not
understand language games, but also with the fact that whilst trying to
understand language games himself, he started to believe that language had no
real meaning. This started to drive him mad, and could be considered one of the
reasons that he wanted to leave academia behind him.
Even
though Jarman’s film does provide an excellent portrayal of Wittgenstein and
his theory of language games in some ways, he can also be criticised for the
way he portrays him in others. An example of this is the addition of the
Martian and intermittence of the young Wittgenstein can be shown to undermine
Wittgenstein’s work. A Martian can be seen as childish or fantastical, and may be
viewed by some people as an odd thing to add to such a film. Another criticism
of Wittgenstein is that it almost
glazes over Wittgenstein’s work, and is more focused on his private life, so if
you did not necessarily want to learn about Wittgenstein, but about his work as
a philosopher, it could be misleading. Furthermore, the fact that the young
Wittgenstein kept coming and going throughout the film could be considered to
be confusing.
Overall,
Jarman does provide a useful insight into Wittgenstein and his theory of
language games. It shows that Wittgenstein as a tormented genius, who is able
to understand hard philosophical concepts, yet he makes it so that ultimately,
the audience feels sorry for him.
LL
and SS
A great review - I agree that there is a great sadness to Wittgenstein. I like your reference to Russell, exasperated is a perfect description! I also agree the martian is more than a little odd! The audience does indeed feel a great sympathy with Wittgenstein which may be part of the reason is a much loved philosopher!
ReplyDeleteA great review. I think the film captures well a central idea of Wittgenstein's that there are no real philosophical problems only problems of misunderstanding language (quoted in the film itself). I think the surreal elements do seem to interrupt the flow initially, but I think they form part of the bigger picture. With regard to his life and his work, I would say that one thing about Wittgenstein is that you could never separate the two and perhaps the film does that well. A great blog that makes you want to watch the film again.
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