In terms of the film's characters, I have to give it credit for allowing me to form negative opinions about the main character right off the bat; painting him as a whiny, selfish man-boy who's idea of a simple relationship is dating a high-schooler, five years younger than himself. This was the first of many qualities that quickly gave me a distinct impression of familiarity. Scott Pilgrim suddenly falls for another woman, Ramona Flowers, who agrees to date him but this ushers in the wrath of her Seven Evil Ex's. And while Scott's struggle seems to linked to not dying and winning over Ramona, the greater theme of his fights develop into something entirely different. It seems that Scott Pilgrim's selfishness and petty attitude about what's fair is something that the other people in his life have picked up on. All of a sudden, I don't feel so alone. This movie wanted me to realize how much of an asshole the protagonist is. Now the idea of main character who undergoes a personal journey under the proposal of finding true love, but in actuality just needs to get over himself - that sounds very familiar.
Long, long ago, in the year 2000 A.D., a movie called High Fidelity was released, starring John Cusack as the character Rob Gordon. Rob is a man who, as the opening scene reveals, has just been dumped by his girlfriend. She's moving out and he's visibly upset. He begs her to stay but she leaves. He screams out the window, "If you really wanted to mess me up, you should have gotten to me earlier!" Rob has been hurt before; his literally titled (desert island) Top Five Most Devastating Break-Ups consist of the his past relationships that went sour, leaving him rejected every time. You see, Rob Gordon also contextualizes his life through a facet of his predilections: his encyclopedic knowledge of music.
Where Scott Pilgrim's struggles are viewed as Boss Battles, where his opponents shatter into a pile of coins when K.O.ed, Rob categorizes his life in terms of popular music. When he resolves to search out his Top Five, to find out why they rejected him, he describes it as though it were a Bruce Springsteen song. While High Fidelity lacks the visual punch that Scott Pilgrim vs. The World uses to explicitly show off the video game aesthetic, it's no question to me that both Scott and Rob are using their fixations in a very similar manner. They aim to reinterpret their lives to fit with how they want to perceive them, skewed by selfishness and stubbornness. In both cases, the thing they really want remains out of reach as long as they refuse to take responsibility for their past instead of hiding behind childish things.
One thing that stuck out to me once I started to gather that both Rob Gordon and Scott Pilgrim were grown in similar soil, I noticed that the traits that they share don't extend fully into the plot structure of their respective films. High Fidelity travels the path that resembles an older, more mature version of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. I would like to emphatically stress that I don't mean that one is for adults and the other is for kids. But comparing both films reveals a schism in what the protagonists prioritize, and thus, a difference in what these movies believe their target audiences hold as important to their lives. And it's here I think we see that Rob Gordon is not a character for this generation, at least not for many - and at least not yet.
Rob owns a record store, where he's free to practice his self-indulgent musical obsession with his employees. He scrapes by, but does better than some. He muses about where his life is going and who he wants to spend the rest of his life with. But his life is filled with real problems. The urgency for Rob to solve his issues and get over himself is propelled by the rate that reality is catching up with him. Starting with the opening shot of Rob staring into nothing at all, monologuing about his melancholy, listening to "You're Gonna Miss Me" by The 13th Floor Elevators through his headphones as his recently ex-girlfriend, Laura, is packing her things to leave, things begin to escalate beyond the point where he can continue to drown out real life with pop-music. The first jolt hits him as Laura shuts off the song to confront him before she goes, and the hits keep on slamming against the thickness of his insulated skull. Each event that follows further penetrates his self-generated barriers. Eventually Rob has to reconcile his fantasy life with reality and the process shakes him hard enough to the point where he is able to articulate his mistakes and his true yearnings.
It's in this way that Scott's path diverges significantly from Rob's. Though their destinations are very similar, the challenges and priorities of Scott Pilgrim's existence make up a vastly different conversation. And I believe it's this dialogue that appeals to fans of Scott Pilgrim's story.
As we're introduced to Scott's character, it's revealed that his life is not exactly ideal. He's 22 and he lives in a one room apartment with his friend Wallace Wells (who he shares a bed with). He plays bass in a band, Sex Bob-omb, made up of his friends from high-school and they're starved for gigs. And he spends the majority of the film being the target of Ramona's ex's who are set on killing him. But upon closer inspection, his life really isn't all that bad. In fact, it's not even as bad as it should be. He lives with Wallace in a confined space, but Scott doesn't even have a job. He's basically freeloading off his friend's generosity without even the inclination to start supporting himself. His band may have limited popularity, but they spend their practices worrying about how much they suck (I guess that all depends on how much you like Beck, who composed all their songs for the film). And despite all their whining, they persevere in multiple Battle of the Bands competitions. Even Scott's most challenging obstacles, his fights with Ramona's Ex's, are represented with visual flair and reward him with literal cash for defeating each adversary.
Scott Pilgrim's life isn't really a difficult one, or at least it doesn't appear that way to people outside of his maturity level, and it's because his happiness isn't yet hinged on the things that grown-ups have to deal with. He's still grounded in young ideas and relatively immature goals. He's concerned with impressing Ramona (who, by the way, seems to have lived enough already to know what his problem is long before he figures it out) and rocking out and being awesome. And these things aren't inherently bad qualities either. I believe that there is a generation out there today that relates to these aspirations. But I doubt the same people relate with a character like Rob Gordon, because, like Scott Pilgrim, they respect different things. And this divide isn't so great either; one group has just been developing a little longer. When Rob Gordon eventually comes to terms with how (and with whom) he believes he's meant to spend the rest of his life, Scott Pilgrim is finally grasping that he has a life to live.
But despite their differences, Rob Gordon and Scott Pilgrim manage to learn a significant lesson about the depths of self-delusion that separated them from their lives. And while Scott Pilgrim vs. The World didn't resonate with me in the same way that High Fidelity did, that's for the best. Each film was tailored to fit a different generation of selfish bastards. People who see themselves in Rob Gordon are just a different audience with a difference set of values, and that's all right. What each film does well is that they recognize the importance of creating characters that a generation can organically relate to when telling a story about two men who desperately need to get over themselves. That's a hard line to sell to any audience, frankly, and it requires true artists to manage it as deftly as was done in these films.
It may have escaped a large amount of the viewers, but both High Fidelity and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World are packed tight with meticulous details meant to generate a sense of attachment to their respective universes, which are spawned from the minds of their protagonists. The beauty in Scott's "Extra Life" sequence at the apex of the film, which epitomizes the themes I'm talking about, comes from an understanding that, while someone who has never replayed a level in a video game may see that and come away unimpressed, the emotions it generates in someone who speaks that language is impossible to imitate. It has to be that sincere, and I recognize that it is.
But that commitment to its generation means that Scott Pilgrim vs. The World wasn't a film made for people like me. And in this case, I hold no grudge against it. What it achieved is remarkable in its own right, regardless of whether or not I am included. Especially if it prevents any young, cocky Scott Pilgrims from turning into old, cranky Rob Gordons.
stg.
awesome post!
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