The Player

The Player

In the real world it is nearly impossible to get away with any sort of crime, especially a murder. There is always a witness and if that fails than the DNA testing will catch the crook. In Hollywood you can get away with anything, just as Griffin Mills did in Robert Altman’s film, The Player. In Hollywood a theme is the most important aspect of a film, aside from the actors, directors, producers, and the guys weaving the theme through one hundred and twenty pages of script. There can be many variations and sub themes but the main theme is always the most prevalent throughout the film. The Player may feature a variety of themes however the prevailing theme is power. Everything that Griffin Mills does is because of his desire to gain more and more power in Hollywood. There is not a moment in the film where the temptation of power isn’t driving the progress of the story, and its clear that it serves as the main theme in The Player.

The Player follows the life and career of Griffin Mills, played by Tim Robbins, a studio executive whose desire for power creates an array of problems that he must overcome in order to reach his goals. Griffin’s troubles begin when he receives a blackmail letter from one of the millions of writers he turned away and as the plot progresses we see that he could also potentially be losing his job. After a series of

obstacles Griffin finally reaches the last and most daunting challenge, which is the point in the film where he ends up at the police station for a line-up. However after a witness to the murder fails to correctly identify him as the suspect Griffin is in the clear, and has overcome all of the obstacles that were facing him. He ends up working as the head of the studio and his experiences before this didn’t teach him a thing because his craving for power blinded him from any sort of reality. If anything he became a more egocentric, power hungry man because of what he gained in the end. Griffin’s experiences are all related to the theme of the film, power. Every move he makes is because the thought of power is constantly going through his mind.

The struggle for power is very evident in most of the scenes throughout the film. When Griffin finds out that the studio has hired Larry Levy he is almost certain that he will lose his job. This incident takes place at the point at which act one transitions into act two and Griffin runs into a number of obstacles that he must overcome in order to achieve his goal. Griffin’s main career goal is to be the studio head that way he will hold all of the power and call all of the shots. It is obvious that the only thing fueling Griffin through his struggles to maintain his position at the studio, and to overcome the stress of the blackmailing and than the murder, is his desire for power. Griffin was willing to sacrifice everything he had in order to silence the threat from his blackmailer. Because of his insatiable desire to gain power, Griffin murders the man who stood between him and his ultimate goal. It is evident that he is struggling to stay afloat in the ruthless world of Hollywood. Griffin knows that in order to have a permanent seat in Hollywood he must hold a great deal of power. That knowledge leads his every step and serves as his only

guide to his goals. Griffin’s experiences in the film paint a clear picture of the underlying theme of power. Everything that Griffin accomplishes is not good enough unless it comes with more power. The idea of more and more power dictates his every move and clearly serves as the main theme in the film

In one of the very last scenes of the film when Griffin has finally reached his goal to be head of the studio, he flaunts his power because he is so proud of what he