Analysis of the Theme in Wes Anderson’s Movie, the Darjeeling Limited

The film “Darjeeling Limited” directed by Wes Anderson and published in 2007 is a comedy-drama film that follows the three characters, Peter Whitman and his two brothers Francis and Jack. The three brothers reunited on a train in India referred to as ‘The Darjeeling Limited’ and go on a spiritual journey to find themselves and seek the unknown after they have not noticed every single other in a year because their fathers funeral. Francis, the oldest brother organised the 3 to catch up and grow to be close once again soon after suffering a close to fatal motorcycle accident, organising what they do day-by-day as they travel across the country by train. Peter and Jack become frustrated by how controlling Francis is, as tempers commence to boil and arguments as well as a fight take place. They are thrown off the train and stick collectively in their journey to find their mum who had sent them a letter saying she did not wish to see them. They ultimately uncover her and she brings them in as if they had been by no means apart, the next morning they learn that their mum has gone and continue their journey on yet another train.

In the early stages of the film, the very first appearing motif we see is the train, as we learn that the three brothers are on a spiritual journey and the train signifies that by being the location that brings them all collectively and is also taking them on a journey across India to discover themselves. We see Francis, Peter and Jack in their suits in their cabin as they are asked for their tickets, followed by being provided a sweet lime and get a red dot place on the middle of their foreheads which indicates the begin of their ‘spiritual journey’ as they seek the unknown. They all continue to grieve over their fathers death as they are carrying with them a set of luggage marked with his initials as properly as other private products of his. These are all costly products and imply a lot to them as they speak about how significantly specific products are worth, for instance when Francis is acquiring his shoe polished at the initial quit the train requires and a kid runs off with his shoe he is extremely disappointed in losing one of his really expensive shoes. This nevertheless is a sign of Francis locating himself and what is essential on this spiritual journey as he replaces it with a inexpensive shoe that was bought from a neighborhood Indian marketplace and forgets about his costly footwear.

We expertise two journeys in this film the 1st 1 becoming a spiritual journey for the brothers and locating themselves and the second is discovering what is essential in life. An additional symbol seen to support the brothers change all through the journey is the towns and temples they visit, the towns enabling them to see how the poor communities live and what is essential to them and the temples enabling them to spiritually uncover themselves, or at least take methods towards obtaining themselves.

Soon after being thrown off the train since of a fight that broke out among Francis and Peter they began walking with all there luggage till they come across three kids attempting to help each other cross a river till the rope snaps and the youngsters face severe problems. Forgetting about their entire luggage and how significantly their suits are worth, Francis, Peter and Jack jump into the river and try and save the three youngsters. They manage to save two of the youngsters, however soon after the raft flips, Peter and the youngster get dragged down stream beneath water and off a tiny waterfall with the child he attempted to save, subsequently the kid dies. Peter carries him out and they all go back to the village to return the children to their family leaving their whole luggage behind. This symbolizes a massive step for the three brothers in locating what matters to them and what is critical in life. Their stuff is quickly returned to them and they are about to leave the next day on a bus when they are invited to the child’s funeral.

There is then a flashback one particular year to the last time the 3 brothers had seen each and every other prior to this trip around India, in the back of a limousine on the way to their dad’s funeral back when they were really materialistic. They stopped on the way to their dad’s funeral to pick up his nice auto from the mechanics and when they couldn’t take the automobile, they went by way of it and took things that belonged to him, Jack quoting “this bag is mine.” Skipping back to current time it is evident the modify the three brothers have undertaking from the starting of the trip when they were 1st on ‘The Darjeeling Limited’ as they are attending the small boys funeral that they could not handle to save, dressed in white Indian Kurtas with no materialistic things on and afterward all go into the river to cleanse themselves as so do all the other Indians in that neighborhood. Right after this, it appears like there journey to locate themselves and what is critical to them is coming to an end when they head to the airport. Upon arrival they take a handful of minutes and meet in the airport bathroom when Francis decides to take all his bandages off and show his brothers the scars he had suffered from his attempted suicide crash. They appear at his scares and Francis says maybe I nonetheless want a tiny more healing and one of his brothers says, but they have come a extended way. These quotes have a double which means as they have all come a lengthy way in their travels on a individual level and as brothers healing what’s on the inside not just the outside.

The quotes go hand in hand with their following actions as when they went to board the plane, ‘there was nonetheless far more healing to go,’ so they ripped up the plane tickets and went on to locate their mother and continue their healing and spiritual journey. They then arrived at their mother’s tiny palace and she brought them in like just yesterday was the last time they had noticed every single other. The brothers came in and had discussions as to why she left and her answer was ‘these folks need me.’ With this in mind, they went to bed and woke up to breakfast that was produced by their mother, nevertheless, to find she had left them and moved on once more. Obtaining the closure that they have now taken yet another step in the healing approach, they move on and the film ends with the three brothers with each other running after another train except throwing away all their luggage away so they can make the train and remain with each other which signifies them leaving behind what is holding them down and not getting cash-oriented any longer and allow them to continue their spiritual journey and locate themselves and what is a lot more critical to them, the unknown.

One more big motif seen in the film, is the fact that Peter can not let go of his father, at one particular stage stating that their dad had said he was his favourite when he didn’t truly say that and also throughout the whole film he constantly has his stuff. A single piece, is his fathers glasses he constantly wears to try and see the globe via his fathers eyes, even with the prescriptions still in them and Peter not getting eye troubles he can't let go till he finally lets go of what is holding him down and throws away his bags of luggage to continue his healing process with his brothers noticed at the end of the film.