Ali Alvarez Whats So Funny Professor Kohn November 14, 2011

Rhinoceros
Rhinoceros a play by Romanian born author Eugene Ionesco is one of the masterpieces that defines best the absurdist movement or Thtre de l'Absurde. This play was written in 1959 and has its foundations on the rise of fascism Ionesco had been impacted greatly by this event and all the gruesome that took place during World War 1 and World War 2. In Rhinoceros he explores the boundaries of human character and behavior using nonlogical situations in which humans start turning into rhinoceroses randomly, first slowly, and causing no harm. But then increasing in number and becoming more and more violent. Ionesco compares the transformations into the wild animals with those of the entire populations that succumbed to fascism when Hitler swept a large area of Europe during the expansion of the Third Reich. Showing how easily people can start thinking just like those who surround them losing their own opinion specially if figures of high power or leaders also fall into this chain. In 1974 Tom OHorgan adapted Rhinoceros for the big screen. Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder and Karen Black were the protagonists. It must be said that OHorgan chose a difficult play to be shown as a film so its effectiveness is relative to the perception of the viewer. However it certainly preserves the characteristics of absurd theater. Absurd theater could be best described as a dream or nightmare world in which nothing makes sense if measured with the instruments of logic, a movement in which authors exploit ideas, which are unconventional and hard to imagine. In the film we have a rhinoceros

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Ali Alvarez Whats So Funny Professor Kohn October 24, 2011 running thru the city in the first act while Stanley and John are having a drink but there is nothing extremely odd with this, logically we could assume the beast had escaped from the zoo. However everything changes when we arrive to the second act when we see the first transformation of a human into the savage beast, the director then uses comedic clichs such as them running around the office in circles to add some sort of human presence. If we analyze the fact that after suffering the transformation the quadruped is still able to recognize his wife who in a heartbeat jumped to his back. We are thrown in an added layer of illogical situations in which not only humans transform into wild animals but also are capable of remembering people from their life as humans a metaphor describing that despite of societys support to fascism they would still be able to recognize their acts. The characters are all amazed by whats happening and cant believe what their eyes are seeing. Still all of them but Stanley accept it and keep going with their lives, even saying that everyone should live as they want and if people wants to become wild and human hating animals then they have the right to do so ,which enhances the irrationality of a society who at the presence of such acts is still capable of turning their backs to it. Something that seems totally illogical and nonsense to Stanley who is terrified by what is happening and increases his already existing alcohol abuse. In the film this character is portrayed as an individual who lacks will power and has no commitments in life whatsoever, traits that are highly criticized by his friend and neighbor John, who depicts himself as the complete opposite of Stanley, an epitome of Friedrich Nietzsches superman someone who thinks of himself as being above all human morality.

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Ali Alvarez Whats So Funny Professor Kohn November 14, 2011 The film does a good job describing how characters that claimed to be leaders succumb to the mass thinking or simply roll with the snowball. When in the second part of Act two we are shown how Stanley presences the transformation of John into a rhinoceros using the dialog and body language to show how he is increasingly becoming a misanthropist and pronouncing humanism for dead. Proposing the return to the primal laws of nature instead of morality. Given the year that the film was shot we cant disregard the big Richard Nixons poster hanging on Johns apartment wall. Which he kisses and salutes after arguing with Stanley about which path human kind should take. This act is not very clear to me but the message between its lines its undeniable. The role of Stanley as the protagonist is very important as mentioned before OHorgan portrays him as a man with red eyes due to his lack of sleep, and his alcoholism issue, as a way to express the inner and deep pains of his soul, he is constantly having nightmares and cant seem to connect with anything in life. The use of a poster that reads, You better not compromise yourself. Its all you got its a very obvious way to highlight Stanleys lack of commitment analyzing him will show us the true and more important transformation in the entire movie. Stanleys love, Daisy, comes to visit him, the director show us absurd everything in what the real world is by showing Stanleys dream which compared to real life has no big difference.

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Ali Alvarez Whats So Funny Professor Kohn October 24, 2011

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