Greed Disguised as Ambition Human nature dictates the yearning to be successful, to be remembered, or to be rich. It is almost predestined that humans are instilled with the desire to be more than what they already are. That desire, that hunger, and that ambition, when not properly maintained, can come at a high price. In the film, The Words. Dir. Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal. Sony Pictures, 2012. DVD, Rory Jansen, Bradley, Cooper, perf., learns about the price he must pay for his starving ambition. Throughout the film, he struggles with his identity and often questions if he is as good of a writer as he wants to be. This inner struggle is magnified by his wife, Zoe Saldana perf., Dora, who loves him deeply and believes Rory can be the
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He does this by copying the manuscript word for word, error by error. Until this point, we have a vague idea of who Rory is as a man. The first moment we are introduced to Rory, it is obvious that a writer is all he aspires to be. He has been fighting for his dream to come alive for two years. That’s two years of rejection calls, rejection letters, and, as Rory states to be the worst of all rejections, silence. That is twenty-four months of pouring his thoughts into a laptop screen, tireless nights restlessly tossing next to Dora, months of hard work with nothing in return. What we know about Rory and what we are about to learn about him, all rises into a crescendo of unavoidable questions. He’s given so much of himself already, so what is his limit? What is he willing to sacrifice to achieve his dream? How far is Rory willing to go? As far as stealing another man’s life, down to the finer details, and all the imperfections and reminisces of pain that comes with it. This theft, the act of taking not only another man’s property, but his pain, his grief, and his aching, defined who Rory is as a man. It put a spot light in the darkest recesses of his mind where the …show more content…
That the silences he faced after pouring his all into a book, were too loud to bare. That doesn’t make it right, nor acceptable. We cannot forget the nameless victim, who throughout the entire movie was referred to as the old man, Jeremy Irons, perf. His grief, when Rory found him in the greenhouse, was apparent. We see the pain when we were first introduced, when the old man coyly tells Rory who he really was. As he recounts the story and we are taken back in time, we hear the despair and loss in his voice. That agony, belonged to the old man. It never belonged to Rory. Projected by guilt, Rory offers to make whatever amends necessary to make it right, but the one offer the old man wanted, Rory could not supply. The old man told Rory that since he stole his life, he should take his pain too. This is what we often misinterpret when it comes to plagiarism, this valuable lesson Rory learned. That stealing another’s work, something they created and put their energy, their emotions, and their life into, is a violation that none other could compare. Rory didn’t just steal the mans words and life, he stole his healing, his salvation, his rebirth. The old man told Rory it took him two weeks to put that grief into that manuscript, and after he wrote it he felt somewhat saved. That he was ready to take back his life. He told Rory how it broke him, and his wife, apart when he
He does this by copying the manuscript word for word, error by error. Until this point, we have a vague idea of who Rory is as a man. The first moment we are introduced to Rory, it is obvious that a writer is all he aspires to be. He has been fighting for his dream to come alive for two years. That’s two years of rejection calls, rejection letters, and, as Rory states to be the worst of all rejections, silence. That is twenty-four months of pouring his thoughts into a laptop screen, tireless nights restlessly tossing next to Dora, months of hard work with nothing in return. What we know about Rory and what we are about to learn about him, all rises into a crescendo of unavoidable questions. He’s given so much of himself already, so what is his limit? What is he willing to sacrifice to achieve his dream? How far is Rory willing to go? As far as stealing another man’s life, down to the finer details, and all the imperfections and reminisces of pain that comes with it. This theft, the act of taking not only another man’s property, but his pain, his grief, and his aching, defined who Rory is as a man. It put a spot light in the darkest recesses of his mind where the …show more content…
That the silences he faced after pouring his all into a book, were too loud to bare. That doesn’t make it right, nor acceptable. We cannot forget the nameless victim, who throughout the entire movie was referred to as the old man, Jeremy Irons, perf. His grief, when Rory found him in the greenhouse, was apparent. We see the pain when we were first introduced, when the old man coyly tells Rory who he really was. As he recounts the story and we are taken back in time, we hear the despair and loss in his voice. That agony, belonged to the old man. It never belonged to Rory. Projected by guilt, Rory offers to make whatever amends necessary to make it right, but the one offer the old man wanted, Rory could not supply. The old man told Rory that since he stole his life, he should take his pain too. This is what we often misinterpret when it comes to plagiarism, this valuable lesson Rory learned. That stealing another’s work, something they created and put their energy, their emotions, and their life into, is a violation that none other could compare. Rory didn’t just steal the mans words and life, he stole his healing, his salvation, his rebirth. The old man told Rory it took him two weeks to put that grief into that manuscript, and after he wrote it he felt somewhat saved. That he was ready to take back his life. He told Rory how it broke him, and his wife, apart when he