A League Of Morons: Burn After Reading

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A League of Morons: An Analysis of Burn After Reading As Burn After Reading (2008, dir. Joel and Ethan Coen) begins, the camera slowly pans across the United States from outer space before zooming in to the CIA headquarters in Washington DC, establishing an epic scale for the story to come. But once the characters start talking, these seemingly important intellectuals are revealed to be egotistical idiots. The world of Burn After Reading revolves around vanity; three characters of different classes clash in their attempts for prestige and pride. Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is a proud Princeton alum who has been disavowed from the CIA because of a drinking problem. Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) is a personal trainer who believes only losers …show more content…

When he is fired from the CIA, he tells his wife (Tilda Swinton) that “independent thought is not valued there. They resist it; they fight it.” This superiority drives him to promote his memoirs of his work in the CIA, even though nobody cares about them. His delusions to escape insignificance are exemplified by a scene where he attends a Princeton reunion. Cox sings with his former classmates, all of them also aging white men. The messy meeting of intoxicated elders provides a visual notation that their intelligence is obsolete. The self-congratulatory graduates cheer for their legacy, but the prominence of liquor implies that these men rely on alcohol to maintain a sense of …show more content…

After being fired, an offer of a job “in state” falls on deaf ears, as Cox fixates on and retaliates against an accusation of a drinking problem. He believes to be above dependency. Yet, after his wife leaves him, he frantically chants at an exercise tape “I’m bigger than ever. I’m back... You fuckers, I’m back” while an empty whiskey bottle sits beside him. After he loses career and marriage, Cox becomes a man driven by a pursuit of prestige and a fear of rejection. His sense of self-importance climaxes when he shoots Ted Treffon (Richard Jenkins), a man he’s only seen once, in a poorly conceived, drunken act of rage against the world that has isolated him: what he calls a “league of morons.” Linda Litzke also demands significance, though not from intelligence. Instead, Litzke is fueled by physical appearance. Her first scene in the movie focuses on a doctor drawing up plans for liposuction. The camera focuses on individual body parts from the neck down, cutting from shoulder to buttock to gut, establishing Litzke’s self-obsession with her body and its flaws. We have yet to see her face. Based on the camera’s focus on individual body parts, we understand from our first encounter that Litzke prioritizes physical

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