From Failed Parenting to Reunion: Analyzing the Impact of Dysfunctional Families in Wes Anderson Films
No other director in modern cinema has developed a more instantly recognizable and distinguishable style than Wes Anderson has in the last three decades. Unique color palettes, complex and balanced sets, iconic hipster-inspiring costumes, very detailed, but no dialogue slow-motion shots, perfectly in-sync music with scenes, recurring cast members playing quirky and tragic roles and plots that blend melancholy with humor. Anderson accomplishes these elements through comedy dramas that disguise the dark elements with outlandish and whimsical humor. All of his films can easily be placed on a shelf next to each other and you’ll never get sick of laughing or crying at the deeply-flawed characters, whether it’s of kids, adults or even stop-motion animals, in dysfunctional relationships and complicated situations that are all equally intriguing.
Since his first film, Anderson’s main focus in his catalog has always been about family. From Chief serving as the leader to his pack of indestructible, but naive alpha dogs in Isle of Dogs and to the unintended bond between the ambitious Max Fisher and the father of two of his classmates in Rushmore, it’s safe to say that Anderson’s films are deeply connected through close interpersonal connections and the love, humor and tragedy that can comes from a family. With all these types of connections, it’s like Anderson has created his own world or genre dedicated to dysfunctional families. Sure, it’s hard to argue that Anderson’s main focus in the Oscar-winning adventurous and thrilling comedy-drama, The Grand Budapest Hotel, was deeply about family, but you can still point out how the delightful M. Gustav treats his protégé, Zero like a son or how he bends over backwards to provide first-class service to his hotel guests just like a father who is committed to do anything for his children. Who knows how his upcoming film, The French Dispatch, will support this theme, but it seems like this perennial concept of family is inescapable for Anderson to avoid.
Parenting plays a crucial role in Anderson’s movies. Almost every character has been greatly affected by dead mothers (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), dead fathers and absent mothers (The Darjeeling Limited) and absent fathers (The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou). No matter the age or social class of the characters, the loss or being abandoned by one of their parents has shaped their perspective and has caused pain and personal setbacks. It’s depressing when they try to hide or lie about it, but even worst when their pain goes unnoticeable. These characters try to seek peace and happiness to overcome what haunted them in their past whether it was intentional or not. Sometimes even the parents who have caused this great pain upon their children have some healing to do. Parents like Royal Tenenbaum know they have failed their family for decades, but they try to reunite with their family to fill in the gaps and make things better in the end. Steve Zissou is full of arrogance, but in the end he finally drops his guard and realizes the realism of life. And the Whitman brothers know they have disconnected due to how they were raised and the death of their father, but they deal with their pain together as brothers.
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Anderson’s deeply moving and complicated 2001 screwball comedy, The Royal Tenenbaums is the epitome of Anderson’s use of his common theme and style.
After decades of betrayal, failure and tragedy, the Tenenbaum family are suddenly all living under the same roof after hearing the news their father, Royal Tenenbaum, who they haven’t spoken to in three years, is dying from a supposed terminal illness after being avoided by his wife and children for decades. When really after hearing his wife, who has had many suitors before, is now considering marrying her longtime accountant, Henry, Royal hatches up a plan to save his marriage. Royal now realizes all the mistakes he has made in his life and fakes the terminal illness to win his family back.
22 years before this, Royal was told to leave by his wife, Etheline during the peak of their three children’s career. He tells his three genius children, Margot, his adopted daughter who is a playwright, Chas, a tireless entrepreneur and Richie, a pro tennis player, that he and their mother are separating. When his children question the divorce wondering if it’s their fault, Royal steers away from the tough questions and doesn’t think he can discuss the divorce any further with his children.
During the introduction of his three children, the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” plays in the background, which makes you feel even more compassionate towards the children. At least most people know that Paul McCartney dedicated that song to comfort John Lennon’s son, Julian Lennon, when his parents were getting divorced, which perfectly matches the situation the three Tenenbaum children were going through at the time of the film. Later, his three kids would go from child prodigies to emotionally distraught adult children. Even though they were still considered “geniuses” to many, it seemed like they peaked too soon and are now suffering from adulthood.
With Ethel raising the children on her own terms, on weekends, Royal would take only Richie on outings around the city, which ranged from visiting his grandmother to betting on dog fights. These invitations for some reason were only exclusive to Richie and not Margot or Chas. While Richie was seen as Royal’s favorite and would later form an alliance with his father during the beginning of his “terminal illness,” Margot would go on to resent her father, especially with him always referring to her as “the adopted one.” She once ran away from home and went looking for her real family at 14-years-old, where she lost one of her fingers. Royal also once criticized a play of hers to her face at her own birthday party, in which he never got invited to another one of his kids’ parties again. At a young age, Chas was once shot in the hand by a BB gun used his father, who was on the same team as him. You can view this as a permanent betrayl by Royal to his son, since the pellet stayed caught between his knuckles and so did his feud with his father. Not only did Royal shoot his own son, but he also stole money from his accounts when he was a minor and bonds from his safety deposit box. Throughout his life, Chas would be hurt by his father’s lack of affection and find it difficult to forgive him.
Royal also didn’t seem to remember Chas’ wife, who tragically died and is buried in the family plot. This showed how far apart Royal was to his son’s life and furthered Chas’ lack of trust and commitment to his father. Chas’ views towards his father and overprotection of his two sons, Ari and Uzi, are justified, but deep down Chas is still hurting inside and loves his family very much, but doesn’t know how to express it. You can say the same as well for Royal.
Chas and his two sons all dress-alike by wearing red Adidas tracksuits so that they are visible to one another in a crowd whenever there is an emergency. The guy is practically Marlin from Finding Nemo. Being overprotective of his kids is mainly due to his wife’s plane crash, while almost losing his two sons to the same disaster. However, by having an absent father who rarely noticed his children's many talents, Chas has dedicated himself to being the best father possible, even if it means suffocating his children and even making them workout 16 times a week. Chas’ overprotectiveness is even indicated on the front cover of the film, where he has his arms over his two sons, keeping them close to him like a parent would in a public crowd so he doesn’t lose them. He even trains them in the middle of the night in case there’s a fire and times how fast they can evacuate before they would die. Chas’ son Ari, seems to imitate him the most, especially in the scene when they all sleep in the room and Ari lies down next to his father in the same position his father is laying in.
After having many failed marriages and troubled relationships due to having daddy-issues, Margot finally settled on marrying writer and neurologist, Raleigh St. Clair. She is also having an affair with Richie’s best friend, Eli Cash. She hides her smoking and irregular past from him, which makes them both unhappy because Margot doesn’t actually love Raleigh, but she feels trapped and Raleigh suspects Margot is cheating on him.
Richie is secretly in love with Margot and has been almost his entire life. All of his paintings he did as a child are of her. You might think this is weird, but it’s really not because again, she’s adopted.
Richie’s famous tennis career came to an end during the worst game of his career, where he had a meltdown due to Margot marrying Raleigh a day before the match. After this, they disappeared from their lives.
When Chas comes home unannounced and tells his mother how his apartment is “not safe,” Ethel informs this news to Margot that her brother is home like she’s a child, while also discussing how unsafe it is to have electrical gadgets near the bathtub. When Margot’s response sounds like how a jealous child would sound if their sibling was able to do something they couldn’t, you get the full picture of how each of the Tenenbaum children are envious and cynical of one another before reuniting, while being self-absorbed and arrogant in flawed ways with declining careers and disconnection from each other.
Margot and her siblings are eccentric and well-privileged, but still have familiarity with ordinary viewers of the film. No matter the social class or how much money they might have, their problems are just as real and relatable to any other person’s.
Even Eli, who lived across the street, is suffering from abandonment, which likely led to his future drug abuse; always being an outsider. Growing up, Eli lived with his aunt and was practically ignored by her, which led to him being a regular fixture at the Tenenbaum household.
Growing up, Eli became a commercially successful author of historical fiction. Even though his reviews weren’t always good, he still sent clippings of all his reviews to Ethel, who he always admired as a mother figure. Before this, he would send her his grades from college to win approval to be part of the Tenenbaum family and receive the typical encouragement you would see an average mother give. However, some critics panned him and specifically considered him to be “not a genius,” which is a true blow personally to him since he always wanted to be a Tenenbaum. Eli may not be as central like the Tenenbaum children, but he is still just as depressing. He battles drug addiction mixed with watching too much porn, and having a wild Western King of the Hill-esque persona. He also seems to only listen to the Clash, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. He even has a meltdown on some Charlie Rose ripoff show, in which he repeats the name of his previous novel, Wildcat repeatedly. Who knows, maybe “wildcat” will become Owen Wilson’s new catchphrase.
After receiving a message from his mother about coming home, Richie informs her he is coming home ASAP. Richie seems more concerned about his father than his siblings and disembarks and transfers to third class immediately to get home. When coming home, he wakes up early one morning to feed and release his old pet bird, Mordecai. Like a parent would, he decided:
“Birds should not be kept in cages.”
This rivals the parenting style his brother has adapted. When Royal gets kicked out from the hotel he was staying at, Richie sneaks him into the house and asks the rest of his family if Royal can move in, hoping they’d say yes.
When bringing it up to his family, the dinner table becomes divisive negative, especially Chas. As Richie tries to persuade Chas to allow his father to come home, Chas becomes furious and envious and refers to Richie as a “Papa’s boy.” However, Chas’ kids seem to approve of Royal staying with them, which confuses and upsets Chas. They all argue like a typical family would at dinner before Richie finally admits to them that Royal has already moved in. It’s been 17 years since the entire Tenenbaum family has been under the same roof.
When Chas goes upstairs to confront his father to leave, Royal falls down and a worried Chas can be heard yelling “Dad!.” This indicates how deeply Chas cares for his father even when he is frustrated with him. After finding out Royal is okay, Chas turns back into the son who seems to despise his father.
One scene in particular is when Chas goes into the room his father’s hospital bed is in and turns off the lights when Royal was in the middle of reading something. Chas says to him “lights out,” which seems like something a father would say, but here a son says it to his own father. It seems attention seeking too that Chas would purposely walk into his father’s room just to turn off the lights. It’s like he was really checking up on his father and just used the lights as an excuse to not show his true colors. Chas shouldn’t be sporting a bright red tracksuit. He’s one of the most flawed characters in the film and deserves to be wearing black.
When finding out about their grandfather and meeting with him secretly after being told by their father he was “already dead,” Ari and Uzi become interested in “actually” meeting Royal and start referring to him as “Papi,” which offends Chas because his father was never there for him. Adding to this cruelty to his son, he sneaks behind his back and takes his grandkids out on one of those outings, involving betting on dog fights and go-karting and jaywalking through the streets of Harlem, that Chas was never invited to as a kid, to “brew some recklessness into them.”
When worried where his sons went and stumbling upon dog’s blood on Uzi’s forehead, Chas grabs Royal into a closet full of board games and tells Royal to stay away from his kids. Royal challenges Chas’ parenting and believes he is having a nervous breakdown after losing his wife. In this moment, Chas avoids further confrontation and walks away because he knows his father is right.
However, Royal and Chas have always been distant from one another. Royal doesn’t seem to understand the impact of Chas’ wife’s death, thus he’ll never have the perspective of sheltering his children since he was hardly there for his own kids growing up. Since the passing of his wife, Chas has been dedicated to protecting his children, which Royal doesn’t seem to understand just yet. He’s too selfish in fulfilling what he “needs” to do to come to peace with his family and tries to just make them bury the past, which isn’t an easy thing to do when it’s this traumatic.
Royal disapproves like a patriarch of Margot two-timing her husband with Eli, who he has never approved of for some reason. Raleigh informs Richie that he thinks Margot is cheating on him, which infuriates Richie because he loves her too. Richie helps Raleigh hire a private investigator to confirm this speculation.
After Royal discriminates Henry by calling him “Coltrane” and threatens him for trying to steal “his woman,” Henry becomes skeptical of Royal’s condition and investigates his case of having stomach cancer. This is more personal to Henry because his wife and the mother of his son died from stomach cancer. Henry goes through Royal’s pills and finds out they’re not pills at all; they’re Tic Tacs. Henry confronts Royal in front of his entire family and makes him confess for faking his illness. Royal tries to plead his case, but is kicked out alongside his helper and the longtime assistant to the Tenenbaum family, Pagoda.
With the combination of never having Margot with the betrayal of his father yet again, Richie attempts suicide while shaving. After one of the most emotional scenes depicted in a Wes Anderson film, Richie is found by Dudley, a kid with disorders Raleigh is studying and is rushed to the hospital. His family receives the news and hurry to his side.
At the hospital, Raleigh inappropriately confronts Margot of what he has has learned about her past and her currently cheating on him with Eli. Raleigh storms off and Ethel finds out Margot has been smoking for 22 years. She is shocked by this discovery, but there’s a lot this family doesn’t know about each other.
Richie checks himself out of the hospital and goes back home. He discovers Margot in his tent, istening to records while crying. Richie comes to the realization that Margot loves him too and they makeout before lying down on his bed stuck in nostalgia. She questions if he is still suicidal and Richie responds “I doubt it.”
Before Margot leaves his room, she says, “I think we’re just going to have be secretly in love with each other and leave it at that.”
Yes, they’re adopted, but this shouldn’t be happening in a “normal family.” However, they are the only two people that truly understand each other.
Richie visits Royal at the hotel he and Pagoda are working as elevator operators. Richie admits to his father he loves Margot and Royal doesn’t seem to mind. Royal now admits to Richie how he has never understood any of them, including Richie. Richie forgives his dad and knows he has failed countless times, but believes Royal means well. While talking, Mordecai flies back to Richie, but Richie can’t tell if it’s really Mordecai because he appears different, but is still the same. This is symbolism to having kids grow up and appear different, but to the parent, they’re the same. Like Richie did, Mordecai flew away and then came back.
Royal takes Margot out and orders her a sundae, with innocent Charlie Brown Christmas music playing in the background in correlation to how Royal is treating her. Royal tries to prove to Margot how he can change, but she presses him and asks if he knows what her middle name is. He slowly responds telling her how that’s a trick question and she doesn’t have one, when indeed she does. It’s Helen, which is also the name of Royal’s mother. This is not only a huge slap to the face to Margot, but it reflects how little Royal does know about his family and how he is aging, thus remembering it will only become harder. Immediately after this, Royal tries to visit his grandkids, but Chas turns him away, so he visits Chas’ wife’s grave and pays his true condolences. He then gives divorce papers to Ethel to officially file for a divorce for her and Henry to get married, while also trying to reconnect and bond with Henry. Surprised by his actions, Ethel is speechless.
Before Ethel and Henry’s wedding, Chas and Richie meet Henry’s son, Walter. Chas finds out Henry is also a widower, where now Chas seems to approve of Henry since he knows the pain he has been through. In this moment, Chas looks at Henry as his own father.
On his way to the wedding, Eli is smashed and crashes into the Tenenbaum home, almost running over Ari and Uzi, but they were saved by Royal. However, sadly Eli hit their old hound dog, Buckley. Enraged by Eli almost killing his children, Chas develops “dad rage” and chases Eli around the house and garden. Just like in Bottle Rocket, Owen Wilson’s character’s always seem to get trapped because here, Eli gets caught by Chas and is thrown over a brick wall into the neighbors Japanese garden. After everybody stares at him and noticing Richie on the ground after elbowing him in the eye, Chas realizes what he has done and jumps over the wall to reconcile with Eli. They both tell each other how much they need help.
Royal buys Ari and Uzi a Dalmatian dog named Spark Plug from the responding firemen, to match the mice Chas created when he was younger. It’s this moment, especially when finding out Royal saved Ari and Uzi’s lives, that Chas finally comes to peace with his father and put’s aside past resentments. The symbolism with the Dalmatian is significant because not only is Royal treating the ones Chas cares about the most, but it also represents Chas’ change from the dalmatian mice he created when he was a kid, which carried the same perspective of his father growing up to now finally forgiving him and developing an adult-relationship with his father with now practically a larger and more mature version of the dalmatian mice, represented by the dog.
Just like in other Wes Anderson films, it’s still difficult for Chas to show his true affection towards his father, but when Chas tells his father how he has had a rough year, they both know how they really feel towards each other. This is what’s most special and depressing about father-son relationships. It’s hard for us to tell each other how we really feel because we’re both men and men aren’t supposed to “act emotional,” especially towards one another; it’s embarrassing. However, with this deep disconnect for decades, it’s like Chas and Royal are just starting to know each other, which is both sad and beautiful.
48 hours after this mess, Chas and his sons change from suits to their red Adidas jumpsuits in case of another mishap, while being present for Ethel and Henry officially getting married. It seems like the Tenenbaum family is finally at peace with each other.
Margot finally writes a new play called The Levinsons in the Trees, which is loosely based off her own family. It ran for two weeks and received mixed reviews. Richie starts teaching competitive tennis to 8–12 year-olds in a program he started. Eli checked himself into a rehabilitation hospital, where he shows off his cowboy rope tricks. And finally, Royal is now allowed to see his family. Royal and his grandkids are still continuing the classic outings, but now with Chas joining them, to make up for the old times.
Unfortunately, Royal has a heart attack at 68-years-old and the son who used to always criticized his father and once even sued him, was the only one who rode with him in the ambulance and the only witness to his father’s death. Chas held his father’s hand in the ambulance while appearing speechless on how little time he actually was able to bond with his father. Ari and Uzi became closer to Royal than Chas ever did and they only knew him for around two months.
According to his will, Royal wanted his funeral to occur at dusk. Everybody attends the funeral. No body says a word because there isn’t much more to say. Everyone is sporting their typical apparel, besides Chas and his sons who are now wearing black Adidas tracksuits, which clearly indicates their mourning.
After Ari and Uzi give a gun salute with BB guns, Father Peterson sees the epitaph inscribed on Royal’s grave reading: “Died tragically rescuing his family from the wreckage of a destroyed sinking battleship.” Metaphorically, Royal did save his family from a sinking ship because they were all in a post-career decline. Chas was broken up over his wife’s death, Margot was in an unhappy marriage and struggling with her career and Richie was battling issues with depression and was suicidal. Royal’s children were sinking further and further into despair and who knows how it would’ve turned out if Henry didn’t propose to Etheline and Royal not realizing the mistakes he made.
Pagoda, who is such an underrated and central character, being the dedicated servant and partner on some of the wild and mysterious adventures with Royal, closes the gate to the family plot with a very fitting Van Morrison song in the background. Royal is now buried with his mother and daughter-in-law.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
“I wonder if it still remembers me,” Bill Murray’s Jacques Cousteau-esque title character says to the remainder of his crew inside a submarine when he lays his eyes on the monstrous beast that had killed his longtime partner and best friend. With Steve Zissou’s guilt-ridden and weeping eyes paired with Sigur Rós’ “Starálfur” setting the tone, there is no other scene from a Wes Anderson film that is more beautiful and heartbreaking than when Steve and his crew come face-to-face with the glamorous metaphorical jaguar shark. The words spoken by Steve are not from man who takes revenge onto the shark that ate his best friend. These are the words from a remorseful and absent father.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is one of the most imaginative, surreal and adventurous films in Anderson’s catalog. However, it is also one of his most tragic and depressive films.
By 2004, Anderson was riding high off his financially successful film, The Royal Tenenbaums, which had a budget of $21 million and made $71.4 million at the box office. For his next project, Anderson had a much higher budget from his previous film and wanted to make a film in Italy that was influenced by the Jacques Cousteau films he watched growing up. Anderson grew up wanting to be like Cousteau, just like how one of the main characters in The Life Aquatic grew up wanting to be like Steve Zissou.
The Life Aquatic is about a washed-up 52-year-old oceanographer filmmaker, who is going through a mid-life crisis, marriage problems and struggling with the realization of parenthood, while trying to hunt down the shark that ate his best friend.
Ned Plimpton, a polite and gentle 29-year-old pilot from Kentucky, tracks down Steve at the premiere of his last film in Italy. After the passing of his mother, Ned introduces himself to Steve at an after party on Steve’s ship, the Belafonte, and confronts him about knowing his mother, Katharine Plimpton. It is alluded that Steve may be Ned’s biological father. Steve informs Ned, but lies about not ever being contacted by Ned’s mother and not hearing from her in 30 years (which you will learn about later).
One of the most depressing moments during this pitiful and awkward exchange, is when Steve tells Ned, “I guess it’s too late now,” which shows Steve’s guilt on missing out on fatherhood. Ned finally brings up the word “son” and tells Steve, he just wanted to meet him just in case he was his father. Steve understands, but walks away for a moment to smoke a joint to relief some stress like some parents do smoking cigarettes when they become overwhelmed with their children.
While being excited, but skeptical too, Steve invites Ned to aboard Team Zissou (not as an official member yet) and stay with him and his wife, Elanor for a couple days to help their marriage and for Ned to act as the son they never had. Elanor used to be married to Alistair Hennessey, a more successful oceanographer and Steve’s nemesis.
In contrast to The Royal Tenenbaums, here, the child seeks his father out instead of the other way around. If it wasn’t for Ned looking for his father, Steve would’ve remained the depressed and self-centered man he was.
Another point in the film when father and son swaps roles, is when Steve offers Ned a hit of his joint. Ned politely denies and tells him how he doesn’t “smoke grass.” Ned then whips out a tobacco pipe and starts smoking himself.
Ned later informs Steve he has been a member of the Zissou Society ever since he was 11-years-old, which is quite depressing if you think about it. Here’s a young boy who grew up without his father, but watches films and writes letters to a guy who might actually be his father.
When Ned and Steve go to the Explorers Club together, where Steve is ridiculed and crucified by critics, just like Eli was in The Royal Tenenbaums, Ned defends and comforts his supposed father. When running outside, Steve throws his earring off, appearing like he was just bullied severely like a kid in junior high. Ned tells him that those critics “can go straight to hell,” which is honestly what some parents tell their kids and there’s nothing wrong with that, right? This is also where we get to see a portrait of Lord Mandrake, who was Steve’s mentor and quite possibly his father figure.
Steve first asks Ned if he could change his last name to Zissou to officially brand his supposed son with the famous last name. Steve’s urge to rush something like this, even later to want to change Ned’s fist name to “Kingsley” indicates Steve’s longtime wishing and consideration of having a son; it’s like he had it all planned out. Ned keeps his name, but is flattered.
Of course it might’ve been tough for Steve to be a parent when he was younger because he was at his peak. While now, he’s a bit washed up to the public eye, he can now look back on the mistakes and life choices he made when he was younger. This is why Bill Murray is perfect for this role. People would consider Murray to be at his peak when he was part of Saturday Night Live and acting in more screwball comedies throughout the late seventies and early eighties. Now that Murray is older, he has been pursuing more dramatic and serious roles, which some critics can easily rebuke him for because that is not what they are used to seeing him do. But just like Steve and Murray themselves, we all must move on in life.
One of my favorite moments in the movie is when Ned and Steve are at the Explorers Club and a waiter comes over with a bottle of wine. As he is about to pour some into Ned’s glass, Steve immediately says, “Pour it over here, please. He [Ned] doesn’t know anything about wine,” like Ned is underage and too young to be drinking wine. This might’ve been just father instinct or Steve just being an a**hole.
Ned tells Steve that his mother died from overdosing on pills, but we later find out, she did this because she had ovarian cancer, which led to her to be in so much pain.
While officially joining now Team Zissou, Ned runs into Klaus, a member of Steve’s team who has always considered Steve to be his own father figure. When being asked to join the crew during the filming of the documentary, Klaus didn’t film because he wants Ned out of the family portrait.
When coming into contact with one another alone, Klaus confronts Ned like he’s the new sibling trying to take all the love the parents used to give the only child before. However, Klaus and Ned are more similar than they think. Klaus also never grew up with a father and sees that Ned is trying to steal the man Klaus viewed as a father.
Besides Ned and Klaus, Steve is also like a father to the Belafonte. I mean, you know how men can be. The Belafonte is an old boat that resembles a vintage World War II ship and has the inside of a play set. He cares about it deeply and takes care of it. He admires every feature of it, except the dolphins on the ship because he believes they are misleading and unintelligent.
The Joe Hodgson-esque submarine appropriately named Deep Search, which is also tattooed onto Steve’s right shoulder, had a previous name being Jacqueline that is crossed out above. This meant Steve couldn’t afford yellow paint or he just left a name of an old lover of his as a memory, but crossing it out adds dislike to the marking.
When Jane Winslett-Richardson, the pregnant British female reporter from Oceanographic Explorer who is always seen chewing gum, joins the crew to do a piece on Steve’s journey, there’s a scene of her reading aloud to her unborn baby boy. Ned becomes fascinated and amused by this and listens as in like he’s the baby boy or wannabe father figure to Jane’s kid.
Jane is in a very troubled position right now. The father of her son, who is her editor at her media outlet, is married and hasn’t been getting back to her most likely due to her being pregnant with his child. He’ll just send her edits of her work and avoid talking about the baby. It seems like even this unknown editor is avoiding fatherhood. Jane must find a father for her child and throughout her time on the Belafonte, her and Ned develop a close relationship.
Ned believes without the biological father of Jane’s baby in the picture that she’ll make a great single mother. However, he then tells her how her and her baby will be at a tremendous disadvantage. This informs viewers how impacting and difficult his life was growing up without a father. His mother might’ve had ovarian cancer later on, but she was always in a lot of pain when raising Ned on her own.
Even though Ned isn’t the father of her child, he knows what it’s like to grow up without your biological father in the picture, thus he would be perfect to fill in the role.
It seems like given Elanor’s mood around Steve, especially when he introduces her to Mandeeza, a woman he seems to have had an affair with in the past, their relationship is not healthy. Both are too self-absorbed to worry about each other’s feelings and Elanor seems to think Steve just uses her for her knowledge and money. However, when they work together, their marriage comes together.
Supposedly, Steve has known about Ned for five years. Ned questions Steve as to why he never contacted him and it’s because Steve hates fathers and never wanted to be one, which alludes something troubling about Steve’s upbringing.
Later on, Steve borrows money from Ned, just like how Royal did to Chas, for the budget for the film. However, Steve now agrees to not kill the shark that ate his best friend, but to simply just find it and prove to people it exists.
Steve seems to be fond of Jane by constantly flirting with her and calling her odd names, but she seems more interested in Ned and not at all towards Steve. She asks Steve why he “abandoned” Ned, but Steve becomes infuriated as well by the tough questions like Royal does when he told his three children that he and their mother were getting divorced. Steve wants questions that are relatable for a puff piece, not some bias reporting.
Ned wrote Steve a fan latter 17-years ago, which asked if he remembered his mother, foreshadowing their current situation.
When filming a scene underwater for the documentary, oddly Steve doesn’t want Ned to call him dad, which confuses and disappoints Ned. Instead, he would prefer if Ned called him “Stevesie.”
After pirates try to take over the ship, some of Steve’s team commits mutiny and Jane breaking things off with the father of her child after finding Ned, Steve runs back into Elanor after finding her at Ali’s villa. Steve begs for her to come back, while also admitting how difficult it is to accept Ned as his biological son, but still wants him to look up to him as a father.
Steve stumbles upon Ned and Jane spending time and sleeping in each other’s cabins. Like a father, he barges in like a nosy parent would. As Steve and Ned begin to argue over their difficult situation and their mutual and competitiveness liking towards Jane. Klaus notices and hilariously asks like an entertained and pleased rival sibling, “Are you two fighting?” while Steve replies in a very typical father voice, “I’ll deal with you later.” This also proves that Steve is the father or patriarch of the Belafonte. As they approach the deck of the ship like a play set, Steve admits how he misread him and has to rethink some shit. Becoming more frustrated, we see a different Ned, especially when replies to Steve and says,
“You don’t know me. You never wanted to know me. I’m just a character in your film.”
After they both give each other a sucker punch, Steve emotionally tells Ned, “You call yourself my son, but I just don’t see it. It’s nothing personal.”
After saying this, you can see how hurt and disappointed Ned is by Steve’s words and confirms with Steve if he knew about Ned since the day he was born. Steve confirms this. In the middle of this father-son-altercation, Elanor returns and again, Steve asks Ned for more money to pay for Elanor’s water taxi.
Elanor meets Jane and admits her suspicion towards Ned. She informs Jane that Steve cannot be his biological father because Steve is apparently infertile. Either Elanor is lying about this or this shows how Elanor and Steve always wanted to have kids, but were literally never able to.
Elanor always seemed to be suspicious of Ned, especially being the “rich bitch” she is. In a deleted scene, she tells Ned “to be careful” unknowingly. Elanor never seemed accepting of Ned and probably believed he was out to get Steve’s money or something like that. Or she just didn’t want any interference with the trip or more pain to be inflicted on her struggling husband.
However, her suspicion might not make any sense because when Ned nearly drowns when filming a scene, she becomes concerned for his safety and begins to question Steve letting him come aboard the adventure. Steve disagrees with and believes he is obligated to do this, which makes leads to Elanor to leave.
When splitting up into teams, Steve picks Ned to be on his squad and not Klaus. Klaus of course becomes emotional and as Steve comforts him, Klaus admits to Steve how he always viewed him and Esteban as his dads, while Steve admits he always viewed Klaus as his baby brother.
Ned starts calling Steve “Papa Steve” now, while Steve apologizes for never acknowledging his son. When going to rescue one of their members at an abandoned hotel on a remote island, which resembles a Call of Duty map, Ned and Klaus both hear gunshots and run to their “father’s” safety. This is the first time, Ned and Klaus bond, which foreshadows how brothers communicate, which will be tackled in Anderson’s next film.
After this mission, Ned and Jane continue to flirt with one another and Jane slides Ned a note underneath his cabin door. Ned reads it over in front of Steve, but Steve isn’t intrusive this time.
As Jane waves goodbye to Ned and Klaus thanks Ned for including him on the flag he made for Team Zissou, Ned and Steve take off in the ship’s helicopter.
While flying and bonding like a real father and son, Steve shows Ned how he always kept his fan letters just like how Ned kept Steve’s replies. In a part of Ned’s letter, he wishes how he could breath underwater, which foreshadowed his tragic death.
The helicopter malfunctions and before crashing, Steve puts his arm across Ned’s chest trying to protect him, which is such a fatherly thing to do out of instinct. When crashing, Steve gets flashbacks of first meeting with Ned in person at the last film premiere. As Steve finds Ned all bloody, he realizes this is the same blood in the water he saw with his best friend. Steve pulls Ned’s body to shore before realizing it’s too late. Ned is dead.
The moment when the beginning of the Zombies’ “The Way I Feel Inside” starts playing, you can see from a long shot onto the shore that Steve starts sobbing, which shows how heartbroken and guilty he is for never being there for his supposed son.
Ned’s funeral is held, as he is honored by Team Zissou and has a burial at sea. Elanor doesn’t attend and seems deeply saddened, especially having a feeling something terrible would happen to Ned. As Elanor shows tears, in which according to Steve is rare, Steve tells her he was hoping they would adopt Ned. Elanor says she would’ve considered it.
The film comes to a conclusion when Steve and the remaining members of his crew enter his submarine to track down the mythological jaguar shark. Not only do they come across the alluring monstrous creature, but Steve comes face-to-face with something that is much more than just a jaguar shark; death and guilt.
The entire film is about Steve dealing with Esteban’s death by this shark as well as Ned’s death by Steve’s mission to kill this shark. Due to his missions, he loses both a father and a son.
Steve could’ve became infertile after having Ned and realizing this, he knew he wouldn’t of been able to produce anymore children. However, he knew he had a son out there somewhere, but always wondered if he remembered him or if they would ever come into contact. Steve always feared this, thus he couldn’t face reality until it literally hit him in the face when Ned found him.
Steve wasn’t there for his son growing up, but was there while Ned’s mother was pregnant. He even might’ve seen Ned even as a baby, which is why he asked the question if Ned remembered him, with the shark as a metaphor of reality.
All Steve wants now is for somebody to care and to nurture him. Team Zissou notices a changed and dejected Steve and comforts him by placing their hands upon him, letting him know they care for him.
The shark swims away and has now become a memory just like a scene that was caught on tape for the ending of Steve’s film of Steve teaching Ned how to strike a Zissou-pose just like him, which displays nothing but a simple act of fathering.
Zissou would then dedicate his film to his late son. Jane is at the premier with her newborn baby boy, who is dressed exactly like Ned in Team Zissou apparel. When showing Team Zissou in the audience, you can see an empty chair that belongs to Steve, as he cannot bare to handle watching a mission that killed his son. Unlike the last premiere, the film receives a standing ovation, especially in honor of Ned.
Klaus’ nephew, Werner, is a child-version of Ned and Klaus, who appeared in the beginning of the film at the previous premiere. It is also where he handed Steve a crayon ponyfish. Steve knew all the species he would encounter, but his own son.
In the ending credits, when Werner is walking beside Steve and seems to be sporting a junior Team Zissou outfit, it looks like Steve and Elanor adopted Werner to be their son. We know Steve is infertile and to keep his and Elanor’s marriage balanced, they adopted a son together like they always wished. The way Steve carries Werner onto his shoulders was daddyish and that’s a thing a young father does to his toddler. Maybe Steve is now ready for fatherhood. We can only hope, but there is no replacing the ones Steve had lost, including his mentor, his best friend and quite possibly his own son.
There’s a reason why Seu Jorge’s character is always playing David Bowie songs. From Jorge covering Bowie tracks in Portuguese from “Life On Mars?” to “Queen Bitch” which all all appeared on Bowie’s 1971 breakthrough album, Hunky Dory, this album was released the same year his first wife, Angie Bowie gave birth to their son, Duncan Jones. According to Bowie in several interviews and documentaries, his son helped him cope with the many issues he was facing from his drug addiction to being in an awful marriage. Like Duncan changed and saved Bowie, Ned saved Steve.
The Life Aquatic has so much depth and content, it’s everything a Wes Anderson movie should be. All the characters are very detailed, even the ones who don’t receive much screen time, like those stupid perverted albino dolphins.
Steve was at a low point in his career, trying to reach for something greater than he has ever reached before reaffirming himself. Now he enters a new stage in his life. Ned went from being a pilot in Kentucky to being the captain of Steve — guiding him throughout the rest of his life, where he can always now be by his father’s side.
Next to The Darjeeling Limited and Bottle Rocket, this is Anderson’s most underappreciated, ambitious and definitive work, which is depressing because not only was it a box office flop, but critics viewed it as “pretentious.” However, when it comes to family and suffering, this is Anderson’s deepest and most tragic film.
The Darjeeling Limited (2007) (Not Finished)
This is a different one. From Anderson’s film above, we’ve seen fathers and sons reuniting, but having tragedy strike when they least expect it. In The Darjeeling Limited, tragedy has already struck the Whitman brothers and it is now just getting worse.
The film opens with a businessman played by Murray, who may very well be the dead father of the Whitmans, about to miss his train. While chasing after it, he is suddenly passed by Peter Whitman, the middle-child of the Whitman boys. As Peter makes the train to meet his two brothers, Francis and Jack Whitman, the businessman gets farther and farther away and never makes his train.
Their dead father can’t and will not make this train because it is specifically dedicated for his sons to reconnect and heal on, while carrying a lot of baggage.
Making his way through the train, Peter stumbles upon his younger brother, Jack, who is asleep like the typical little brother would be while boarding.
The Whitman brothers are on a “spiritual journey” through India. Francis, the oldest of the Whitmans and the one who planned the trip, says their journey is about trust and finding each other. Francis, like a parent does, is controllable over his brothers and always proposes agreements and rules for them to follow. The first three include:
- Becoming brothers again, bond and find each other.
- Seek the unknown and learn about it.
- Be open and say yes to everything, even if it’s shocking and painful.
Francis declares that his brothers are the two most important people in the world to him and it comes to shock with his siblings, because he has never said something like this before.
The Whitman brothers haven’t seen each other since their father’s funeral, thus they have been distant from one another just like the Tenenbaum family was for three years. The brothers are unable to talk to each other from all the hardships they have faced from growing up with upper-class anxiety, losing their father and their mother running away.
Francis injured his face in an “accidental” motorcycle crash, Peter has a fear of fatherhood and a future with his wife, Alice, who is seven and a half months pregnant and Jack is depressed over his ex-girlfriend, who was shown the short film, Hotel Chevalier. Francis’ near-death experience made him realize how important family is. Immediately after waking up after crashing his motorcycle, he thought to himself, “I wish Peter and Jack were here.”
As they all struggle with pain, they take and exchange painkillers with each other. From reading a short story, losing a tooth or having etiquette, they struggle to keep a consistent conversation occurring, which is typical of family, especially when having a meal.
While doing this, Francis takes over as the parent figure and orders them their food. Peter and Jack already begin to become frustrated with their controllable older brother, especially Peter. Francis then asks them if he had raised them growing up. Nobody answers. Francis realizes he asked a stupid question. He doesn’t give his siblings long enough time to respond because he finds his servant, Brendan, who resembles Tom Morello mixed with Arthur, who is helping Francis with the real reason why he invited his brothers to a trip.
While Francis is sorting things out with Brendan, Peter informs Jack that he is going to be a father. Jack is enthusiastic and happy, but notices Peter is not. Peter specifically tells Jack to not tell Francis and then puts an end to discussing it, since he does not want to get caught up into it, which alludes his fear of fatherhood due to how he and his brothers were raised. His father, being the businessman in the beginning, was always away and their mysterious mother didn’t seem like she was around much most likely due to an unhappy marriage with their father.
After finally finishing Jack’s short-story, which details his father’s funeral even though he does not admit to this until the end, but it’s very clear to his brothers. Peter then brings the short-story to the bathroom with him, as he sheds tears while rereading some parts remembering his father and the day that disconnected him from his family.
As Peter does this, Francis wonders how Peter has gotten a hold of some of his father’s belongings, such as the glasses that “legally” belong to all three of them according to Francis. These glasses are specifically significant to Peter’s character. Not only is his father’s death the hardest on him, by appearing as the most angriest and discontented, but his entire life has become distorted and unclear. He wears his father’s prescribed sunglasses, making the world blurry and lack direction to where he headed. His wife is literally about to have his child, but he is so broken up, he can hardly proper. Like his brothers, he’s addicted to these painkillers, doesn’t matter what type, because all this man feels right now is pain.
It’s a similar case with Richie in The Royal Tenenbaums. Richie wears giant sunglasses to hide from the world, while Peter wears prescribed sunglasses so he cannot see the world.
After trying to order their dessert (even though he knows exactly what they like) and now suggesting where to sleep, Francis takes over as the parent figure. As some might say Peter is the most broken down character in the movie, it’s really Francis who is.
He tries to be this loving brother, who tried to kill himself in a motorcycle accident (he doesn’t tell his brothers the truth until later) because of his disconnection from his family and father. Even throughout their trip, Francis hides his true feelings and cannot tell his brothers why they’re really on trip together. Francis knows if he told his brothers the truth as to why they are there in the first place, his brothers wouldn’t have come. This is exactly why he orders to keep his brothers’ passports so they can stay attached as brothers and not inconveniences to one another. Francis tries to be the father figure now and has a daily laminated itinerary planned for the trip that his brothers keep interfering with. Francis deals with the disobedience from his brothers like a tireless and fragile father, who can be argumentative and assertive at times.
We don’t really see Francis breaking down until the very end, when he realizes this trip has become a failure and he and his brothers become sick of each other, which is what brothers typically do. Being the oldest, he felt he has failed his brothers for not seeing them in a long time and the trust that is a part of a brotherhood. Francis tries to see his brothers as brothers, but they see each other strangers. Francis doesn’t only have physical pain to heal, but emotional pain too.
You get more of a detailed character from Jack, when you watch the magnificent short film Hotel Chevalier that precedes Darjeeling weeks before he meets his brothers. Jack is suffering from a broken heart and it seems like his solution to everything is to just run away. This is why Francis keeps his passport. He knows his brother well and as the oldest, Francis has seen his parents and now younger do this repeatedly. Francis becomes aware of this after Peter informing him that Jack has his own ticket and doesn’t plan staying the entire trip. Peter, being the most irritated by Francis most likely only informed so he isn’t stuck on the trip alone with Francis. Jack is still grieving over the breakup with his ex-girlfriend, who had a short reunion together in Paris when she visited him unannounced in the short film. Jack still deeply loves her clearly, but for whatever she has done to him (his brothers don’t like her at all) he cannot take her back. However, it has become difficult for him to try to forget about her. He brought to the trip the Voltaire #6 perfume she wears, showing how obsessive he still is for her. With his brothers finding out about this, before spraying it one last time they order him to destroy it in which he rightfully does.
He wrote a book dedicated to his father even though he was never able to read before his death, called Invisible Ink and Other Stories. The front cover of the book shows the perfume his girlfriend wears, showing how she acts as his muse and now without her, he has to look elsewhere for his writing, which is why he chose his family.
While dealing with his dramatic breakup, he becomes attracted to the Indian stewardess on board named Rita. While “getting” some more of those savory snacks, Jack persuades Rita to share a smoke with him to relief stress. After this, they use each other for sex.
Not only are the Whitmans depressed, but so is Rita. She feels trapped in her job and her relationship with the chief steward, when she tells Jack she needs to get off this train. Rita is doing exactly what the Whitman brothers are doing. Even though her real pain is unknown, she still needs to find herself like the Whitman brothers do.
When Jack and Rita are making love in the bathroom, Francis takes Jack’s passport and asks Peter if he can have his. While Peter refuses, he crosses his arms like a child while on the top bunk looking like the child version of himself. As Francis and Jack patiently wait for their brother to come back on their beds, when he finally comes back, he lies next to Francis. Francis asks him what happened to the savory snacks while he and Peter realize that Jack is glowing and that he “f**ked the Indian girl.”
When the Whitmans eventually get kicked off the train in the end, Rita hands Jack a gift and asks what’s wrong with him. Jack answers with “Let me think about.” Jack’s reply can be perfectly associated with all three of the Whitman brothers as the answer to this questions awaits for them in spirit.
(To be continued along with the PC above and the context below)
I think what attracted me the most to this film was how perfectly in-sync the Kinks’ tracks from their 1970 album, Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One. Around this time, I was getting deep into the Kinks’ discography and I remember distinctly staying home from school in 11th grade to buy this record at Record Archive and listen to it numerous times until my mother came home and I had to pretend I was sick. And Anderson’s choice to use “Strangers” when the Whitman brothers are walking through the young Indian boy’s funeral to a white small vehicle was perfect because even though the song is about Dave Davies’ friend battle drug addiction, here the Whitman's are fighting something painful too — the loss of a loved one and trying to find peace internally. We know Anderson has a taste for British Invasion bands, particularly the Rolling Stones. Along with Devo frontman, Mark Mothersbaugh, who typically selects the music for most of Anderson’s films, he and Anderson sure know how to pair the right track with the right scene. It may come off as looking pretentious like in The Royal Tenenbaums when Margot walks off the bus to meet Richie to Nico’s “These Days,” but still works for an evoking and touching scene, especially for teenage girls going through a hipster phase.
This one is more personal to me. Not only is it my favorite movie of all time, but everytime I watch it, I think of the Whitman brothers in the film (Francis, Peter, and Jack) as me and my brothers. The scene where the Whitman boys reunite with their mother, Patricia, gives viewers insight as to why the brothers are the way they are. Peter is afraid of becoming a father because he is unsure of how it will play out, which is why he abandoned his wife during her pregnancy to go on a spiritual journey to India with his brothers. Francis is the selfish and controlling one, but so fragile and depressing. Francis injured his face in a motorcycle crash and tells his brothers it was an accident, when really it was a suicide attempt. And Jack, clearly the youngest due to his behavior towards his brothers, has complicated feelings towards his ex-girlfriend. This all goes back to how the brothers were raised. In contrast from the cliche social theme of parents trying to reconnect with their kids like in The Royal Tenenbaums, here Francis’ real goal for this trip with his brothers isn’t just about a spiritual journey, but about reconnecting as brothers and finding their mother, who they haven’t seen in years. When they finally found their mother, who has now become a nun at a Christian Convent in the Himalayas. Before meeting her, she has told them that she did not want to see them. She is happy to see them, but deep down feels that they have intruded on her new life and she also doesn’t know how to connect with her sons anymore. Not even the brothers really knew how to at the beginning of their journey, which has to do with how they were brought up from a wealthy family that most likely didn’t pay much attention to them since there is no deep connection amongst the brothers until they try rescuing three young Indian boys who fell into a river, while Peter’s dies — symbolism of his protection and his worries of not being a good father. Of course their mother abandons them once again, which impacts them greatly, but they have accepted it now as adults and will move on.
Yes you are seeing more and more Margot’s and Ned’s out there, as they search for their real parents, but you are seeing more Richie’s. The suicide rate in the U.S. has been rising.
upper class anxiety richard cory poem says it best
According to an alarming study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States’ suicide rate among adults ages 16 to 64 increased to 34% from 12.9 deaths for every 100,000 people in the population to 17.3 by 100,000 from 2000 to 2016.
Many factors outside the workplace from relationship problems to physical and mental health can also influence the risk of suicide. These perfectly align with Richie for not being able to be with Margot and the distance between himself and his family all contributed to him wanting to kill himself.
Some argue that Anderson overuses the same themes and tropes throughout his movies and makes the same movie over and over again, but these critics must think of the world of Wes Anderson like it’s the Marvel Universe. Anderson’s dive into the realm of deep sorrow and idiosyncrasy may imitate each other, but there’s a reason why you can’t have a favorite Wes Anderson film; they’re all too intimidating, warm, enlightening and emotional, which makes Anderson one of the greatest auteurs in cinema.
