What Wes Anderson's First Film Teaches Us About The Rest

// Let's look at Wes Anderson's work before the things that are now stereotypically considered Wes Anderson were present. When examining his first film, Bottle Rocket, we see many ideas, themes, and subtle visual techniques that Wes will use and develop throughout his filmography.

With the support of Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union.

Movies Shown:

#DirectorsBeforeSeries #VideoEssay #ThomasFlight

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Thomas Flight
Video Essays
Video Analysis
Film Analysis

[vincentkrommenhoek]

Wes Anderson is a master of making heavy tragic situations light and funny

[piotr]

I've watched tens of these Wes Anderson video essays, and you've managed to bring something new to the discourse. Well done.

[riverpinkston]

Can we all agree that Fantastic Mr. Fox is one of the dopest kid movies of all time?

[notabot]

bottle rocket is underrated - one of the best debut films ever

[FumblsTheSniper]

“By the way” is the dialogue equivalent of “little did [they] know”

[iblame_nargles]

As if my love of Wes couldn't get any stronger, this puts so many of my favourite scenes of his into perspective. Seeing as you've done one of my favourite directors already, Guillermo Del Toro and Edgar Wright would be great to see.

[THEDONTTELLSHOW]

Dignan is the greatest character Wes has ever created. We need to revisit him, and see how his 10, 20, 30 year plan is going.

[Freestylephilately]

a character in his films also has some type of injury or ailment - margot's finger, max's bloody noise or magnus broken arm, francis broken noise, etc

[ETibbs]

Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, the list of directors could go on and on. There are so many whose debuts you could examine! This is a great start to a series!!

[UmbrellaGent]

It would be great if you made that kind of video for other directors. Keep up the great work.

[aidenswag]

Bottle Rocket is undoubtedly one of the most quirky and awesome movies I have ever seen.

[Horror-Man]

Watched all 8 Wes Anderson films (before Isle of Dogs) about 2 months ago and Bottle Rocket was by far my favorite. So underrated.

[jonquijano]

When I saw Rushmore in 1998, I was a high school senior. That movie filled me with a feeling that I didn't have a name for. That feeling brought me back to every movie Wes Anderson made since, as well as to Bottle Rocket.

That was over 20 years ago now...

Has there been a wide-release filmmaker who has succeeded so thoroughly as a pure artist, while being stuck in a time of almost infinite nihilism and apathy? Even as the public stays indoors (even pre-COVID), streaming one TV episode after another, Wes Anderson keeps going. Theaters always fill for his films. At this point, it's almost anachronistic.

Someday we can look back and hopefully realize that he wasn't just one of the greats, but maybe surpassed even the greatest of them.

Wes Anderson films are as deep as Kubrick's.
As visually dynamic and musical as Scorsese's.
As worldly as Fellini's.
As emotional as Truffaut's.
As tricky as Hitchcock's.
As lyrical as Tarantino's.
As mournful as Bergman's.
As hopeful as Spielberg's.

He's not for everyone, but all those names up there make plenty of people puke too.

I just consider myself lucky to have a giant like him to co-habit this planet with as the wildfires rage all around us.

[Greenblueorange]

My favorite is definitely The Royal Tenenbaums because it's a movie I can just watch over and over again. I like that there's a lot of things implied that aren't really said (though, I know that's not exclusive to the Tenenbaums) like Chas and Margot's relationship even though I think they only have one interaction during the while movie. At the beginning, the young Chas was the one asking questions to Royal about the play, but the questions were sort of intuitive and very interested. Or at the end when the whole family is watching the play and Chas is just super into it. I think that's another aspect of the Anderson style too maybe, how fleshed out the characters are without needing to really explain.

As I'm thinking about it, almost every Wes Anderson character seems like they could have a whole other rich movie exploring them and another aspect of their life.

[williampoole]

The shooting at 6:30 is one of the most Wes Anderson things I've ever seen

[martinholden]

Smart, perceptive, direct- good descriptors of WA’s work, and this essay. Thanks for sharing. All the best.

[gabrielesimone]

I think it's my favorite of his films. I loved Rushmore, but this one is pure genius

[jxomxo]

I absolutely love how from his first film, Wes already set himself apart from any other director with his strategic camera angles and placements to his quick-witted dialogue. Most directors would change their style over time and then find their what they do best, but I love how Wes knew, from the beginning, exactly the types of films he wanted to make and how he would make them.

[AWSVids]

“Hey, you want to watch that Wes Anderson movie where the kids act like adults and the adults act like kids?”

[jwheeler]

Looking at a director’s first film is a great way for aspiring filmmakers to see how exactly you can do a lot with a little.