Revolutionary Revelation (Spoiler Alert!)

I finally watched Revolutionary Road last night and was quite impressed. For whatever reason, I expected it to be something of a 50s chick flick starring the classic couple Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio. I thought it’d be kind of like a Titanic 2: Had Jack Held On and Skipped a Few Decades. It was nowhere near as lighthearted and cute as I expected it to be. Rather, it made me actually think and draw connections to the wise words of the 20th Century French Philosophers I had recently grown so fond of, thanks to Professor Rudavsky and a less than lucrative major.

In the movie, Ms. Winslet’s wonderfully portrayed April is dissatisfied with her life. She is an aspiring actress who finds the American Dream—the perfect nuclear family in the perfect suburban neighborhood—to be blasé. She feels trapped by all of the institutions to which she has succumbed, including marriage, having children, and becoming a perfect stay-at-home mother. She yearns for something more—something authentic that allows her to be free of societal restraints. She decides that this authenticity comes in the form of moving to Paris, or really, anywhere besides the little suburban town she has grown so sickly used to.

Leo’s character, Frank, fleetingly endorses then dismisses his wife’s idea. He aspires to be a cashier while working as a docker. He is eventually offered a promotion, the reason why he rejects the idea of Paris (along with his wife’s happiness and his own chance to seek out what he actually wants in life). April constantly reminds Frank that there is no point in living when one has everything but hates his job, something he has to go to everyday that eventually defines him. This reminded me of Marx’s Estranged Labor. Marx described the unsatisfactory work of laborers who slaved away in factories, doing monotonous and repetitive tasks. Frank’s job is not too much different. This labor, according to Marx, takes the essence away from a human being. He becomes merely a machine. Sartre agrees, suggesting that falling into a societal role is inauthentic living. It is rejecting one’s freedom and ability to be a genuine individual.

There is a young man who routinely visits April and Frank with his parents. Aside from April, he is the only character in the movie who speaks his mind and says things as they are. He bluntly criticizes others, including Frank, with naked statements that are not glossed over by what is socially polite. This young man is a mental patient who has received electroconvulsive therapy multiple times. Because he does not conform and follow the social norm, he is deemed insane by his parents and society. Ultimately, April finds herself in the same position as the young man. She realizes that she does not fit in with all those around her who somehow find meaning and joy in their closed-off, monotonous lives. Upon realizing that Paris is not an option because of Frank and her third, unborn and unwanted child, April sees that she has only one escape. And that escape, to her, is more desirable than succumbing to an inauthentic life in which she feels like she is suffocating.

Suicide was April’s only escape. Most existential philosophers, however, do not condone it. They believe that there is a way for individuals to maintain their freedom without embracing death, even if it means living alone “underground,” watching the rest of society carry on above ground. Instead of killing herself, April should have used protection and moved to Istanbul! That would have made for an interesting Revolutionary Road 2. But honestly, I can see where April is coming from. While I love my suburban hometown and my family, I definitely want to explore bigger, better places. We all should. We only live once.