I’ve been
studying about competition and storytelling slams. Over the weekend the movie, Bad Words came
out in the theatres. It is a story about
Guy Trilby, a 40 year old middle school dropout who seeks revenge by attempting
to win a televised spelling bee. After finding
a loophole that all contestants must not have graduated the 8th
grade by the date of the National Spelling Bee, Trilby proceeds to advance to
the end. Throughout the movie I am
reminded that competitions aren’t always about winning, but are about honing
your skill set. One character, Chai, the young
kid that befriends Trilby reminds us of this.
Struggling with finding a friend in real life, Chai enjoys the
intelligent sarcastic and often black humor of his immature genius friend.
In addition
to the friendship that develops, another side of competition rears its head – aggression. Not only do the staff members show the ugly
side of agon, but the parents do as well.
In one scene, the Director of the National Spelling Bee fixes the
competition, disgracing the event and honor of competing. In her office, a host of angry parents
ridicule her for allowing Trilby to compete and request her to resign should he
be allowed to continue to compete. Parents
horrified that Trilby continues despite the measure taken to eliminate him,
behave irrationally, displaying non-sportsman like behaviors. Chai’s father, in an attempt to gain a
competitive edge, tells his son to befriend his enemy so Trilby cannot beat him
when the time comes. At one point the entire
crowd chats, “ Kick him out, kick him out" forcing the head of the Bee to aks for
respect to the honor of the competition.
Trilby responds by spelling his word accurately - disgracing the honor of the competition and the man that began the program.
I enjoyed the
black comic nature of the film. It was interesting to me to see that there are those parents that fight for
equality with “No Child Left Behind” wanting all children to earn awards
fighting against the agony of defeat and
those that fight like gladiators in the ring, until death. The film Bad Words demonstrates that arête and philotimias are required components of agon, or competitions.
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