User:Emwadden/sandbox

The Room

The Room to say the least is known as “the worst movie ever created”. It’s about a man named Johnny that is madly in love with his fiancée, Lisa. Lisa finds herself falling out of love with Johnny and in love with his best friend, Mark. Mark and Lisa start an affair and everything changes from that moment and on. Although the film is very poorly produced it brings a popular uproar from viewers. Fiske’s Popular Discrimination can be brought to attention here. People view this film because of it being recognized as the worst film, they view it as comedy, for example, the bad acting. That being said taking a look closer within the film, we see that Lisa as a woman that is attracting other men and her fiancée Johnny, works every single day to support his wife and their household. “Because she is a woman” is shouted out every time a woman appears in the film. This is looking at the gender roles and the sexism brought out in The Room. The term Narcissism is coined by Freud and his theory on narcissism as, “The term narcissism is derived from clinical description and was chosen by Paul Nacke in 1899 to denote the attitude of a person who treats his own body in the same way in which the body of a sexual object is ordinarily treated -- who looks at it, tat is to say, strokes it and fondles it till he obtains complete satisfaction through these activities”. (Freud, On Narcissism, 102). The narcissist in The Room is Johnny. Johnny poor’s his heart out to Lisa he loves her so much but does not recognize that Lisa does not return the favour to him. He mentally devotes himself significantly to his fiancée. Throughout the film other characters are viewed as less welcoming in a sense compared to Johnny. Outside of the actual film, during the making of The Room the director of the film (whom plays Johnny) Tommy Wiseau, had full control over the production of the film, every single bit put into the film was the effort of Wiseau. His narcissistic attitude made it hard for others on set. Wiseau is very proud of his efforts in this film and regards it at as a serious drama. He seems to be completely indifferent to everyone’s opinions on the film and views his film as something special despite all the critics.

Freud, Sigmund, et al. Freuds "On Narcissism: an Introduction". Yale University Press, 1991.