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Live Art Analysis
The Big Knife by Clifford Odets
The play revolves around Charlie Castle, who is the main character in the play. He is presented to be very successful; however, he begins having challenges, especially from his wife. They have been in marriage for seven years, but the wife decides to leave him. Their marriage had been that of the contract; hence the wife refuses to renew it after the seven years. Charlie’s boss is furious about this; hence he makes a plan with his right-hand man Smiley to make Charlie sign by blackmailing him. They plan a hit and run plan on Charlie to sign a contract with his friend’s wife, and little did he know that he had caused trouble. He regretted having betrayed his friend, having lost his wife that he loved and losing his dignity at large. This negative image pushes Charlie to commit suicide in the long run. The characters move the audience all into until the death of Charlie, the main character in the play effectively. The big knife play is written by Clifford Odets, who tries to bring out the acts that are made by the Hollywood film bosses to their actors and how their decisions negatively affect them.
The most interesting thing in the play is that it keeps the audience active and moves them with emotions. On watching the play, I found myself being moved by all the aspects in the play very moving and touching. The body movements and gestures applied in this play make the flow of the story more compelling. The flow of the story aroused my emotions as I watched all through, making me moved by all the aspects and moves made by the characters. The costumes choices and all forms of aesthetics that are used in the play make it even more appealing. The sounding system was very clear enough, and I could hear everything hence making it a good play. The main character Charlie, for example, has the right choice of costumes that portrayed a real sign of the good life he lived. The choice lighting that is used also has a significant impact on the play as they matched with each scene in the play. At some point, I found myself shifting my sitting position to capture everything in the play.
In my view, the characters in each scene perform well. Each move and their tone depicted each moment in the play. The actors did well in enhancing effective performance in the play and brought out everything. The choice of the setting of the play is also perfect for the storyline. The setting, for example, gave an excellent breakthrough in portraying the lavish life that Charlie lived. He comes out with expensive garments and conducts himself in a manner that suggests he is wealthy. This gives more effective character play; hence it makes it suitable. The most touching and emotional bit of the play that made me moved and touched is the action of Charlie committing suicide after he realizes he had been tricked by his boss and firsthand man. This scenario is well-acted in the play by Charlie, and his death has a lot of emotional moves that make me an audience to feel emotional as I was watching the play.
The author’s message is well depicted and effective hence making it a successful play. The main message that the author intends to bring is the actual real-life representation of the Hollywood film industry. The characters used in the play bring out this clearly by using the main character Charlie. The big knife play brings out the actions that bosses to Hollywood production did to maintain their actors in the film industry. As depicted by Charlie’s boss as we can see the steps he took to retain Charlie in his firm. The boss even goes ahead to make a deal in a plot to blackmail him into signing a marriage contract with his best friend’s wife. Knowing in mind that this will be a form of betrayal act from Charlie to his friend, they still took the risk and didn’t consider the negative image it would paint on Charlie.
This play gives a storyline on the negative impacts that the Hollywood bosses decisions caused to the actors in their film industry. Charlie is used to representing the successful film actors who have been negatively affected by boss actions.
The decision and steps taken by Charlie’s boss lead to many problems to Charlie’s life hence later leading to his death. Many actors in the film production industry face the same challenges that are depicted by Charlie in the play. The artist’s points of view are well-drawn, and to me, I see this play as a success. The characters bring a clear picture of what the artist was trying to bring out; hence this makes the play effective in sending its message to the audience.
Work cited
Wertheim, Albert. “Hollywood as Moral Landscape: Clifford Odets’ The Big Knife.” Hollywood on Stage: Playwrights Evaluate the Culture Industry (2013): 39.