Pain and Gain

Pain and Gain Dir. Michael Bay (2013)

Michael Benjamin Bay was born on February 17^th 1965. He was adopted when he was two weeks old, by Harriet (Markowitz) and Sheldon James "Jim" Bay, who raised him. He has a sister, Lisa Bay.

He is a graduate of Wesleyan University, Michael Bay spent his 20s working on advertisements and music videos. His first projects after film school were in the music video business. He created music videos for Tina Turner, Meat Loaf, Lionel Richie, Wilson Phillips, Donny Osmond and The Divinyls. His work won him recognition and a number of MTV award nominations. He also filmed advertisements for Nike, Reebok, Coca-Cola, Budweiser and Miller Lite. He won the Grand Prix Clio for Commercial of the Year for his "Got Milk/Aaron Burr" commercial. At Cannes, he has won the Gold Lion for The Best Beer campaign for Miller Lite, as well as the Silver for "Got Milk". In 1995, Bay was honoured by the Directors Guild of America as Commercial Director of the Year. That same year, he also directed his first feature film, Bad Boys (1995), starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, which grossed more than $160 million, worldwide.

Michael Bay IMDb

Pain and Gain

Pain & Gain is a 2013 American biographical crime comedy-drama film directed by Michael Bay and starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, and Anthony Mackie. The film is loosely based on a story Pete Collins published in a 1999 series of Miami New Times articles and compiled in the book Pain & Gain: This Is a True Story (2013), which details the kidnapping, extortion, torture, and murder of several victims by an organised group of criminals comprising bodybuilders affiliated with the Sun Gym. The film's title is a play on the common saying, frequently used in fitness: "No pain, no gain". It was released on April 11, 2013, Pain & Gain received mixed reviews; critics praised the acting, script, and comedic chemistry among the main actors, but criticised the violence, directing, and historical inaccuracies. Against a $26 million budget, the film grossed over $86 million worldwide. While the film tied with Grown Ups 2 for 3rd place on the Village Voice Film Poll's Worst Film list, Dwayne Johnson placed 10th for Best Supporting Actor.

In the opening scene of Pain and Gain, we see one of the protagonists, Daniel Lugo (played by Mark Wahlberg), hanging off of bars attached to the side of a building doing sit ups. In this first opening, we see it is a sunny day and that the film involves a gym because we see the logo of a gym on the wall and on the t-shirt of Mark Wahlberg. Bay uses a close up camera shot using a camera placed in front of Wahlberg on the wall, so we see his facial expressions as he is doing his sit-ups. In the opening scene we also see police vehicles coming around a corner and Wahlberg’s character looks down at the and says “Oh S**t” then jumps down and starts to run. From this we can tell that his character could be a possible bad guy because he is trying to run away from the police. In the opening scene, we see him get hit by a police car and it all goes into slow motion, we then hear him speaking, telling us his name and he says that he believes in fitness. We also see the date in which all of the events are unfolding which was June 17^th 1995.

We then see a blank screen with a voiceover from another character in the film, saying that the film is based on a true story. The fact that it was based on a true story can make the audience become even more captivated by the film, or it can make them not like it because they think that it isn’t really based on a true story. The voiceover says the events take place from October 1994 to June 1995. When then see an establishing shot of the gym and at the bottom it says 6 months earlier. The opening scene is the exposition, it tells us what is currently happening and where we are. The 6 months’ earlier shot is the preposition as it takes us back and tell us where we are and what happened before we got to what we saw in the opening scene. The use of the lighting in the film is important too. We see a very bright and sunny place, but the main character is wearing a black Adidas tracksuit. The contrast in dark and light shows that the character is a bad guy or he has bad intentions but hides it away or he is in a place full of good people.

The film has a meaning behind it and it is The American Dream, Daniel Lugo played by Mark Wahlberg is The American Dream and is willing to do whatever he can to achieve it. The American Dream is the ideal that everyone in the USA is created equal, and that if they work hard they will achieve upward mobility. This is an alluring idea for potential immigrants (USA has been described as having been founded on immigration). Ominously, Pain & Gain is a film about an American gang robbing, torturing and killing wealthy immigrants.  The American Dream has changed over time. Some would argue that it now bears more resemblance to the California Dream. Described as the idea, after the gold rush, of the pursuit of instant wealth, this certainly seems more in line with the aspirations we see presented around us in modern society.

Daniel Lugo’s American Dream is very modern. Frustrated with his life, he organises the kidnapping of a wealthy client. From there, he intends to beat signatures and information out of the man to allow himself to take ownership of everything he has. He concedes that they got greedy in attempting a second kidnapping, although this suggests that they started with the best of intentions. It’s always about having luxury items, like sports cars and big houses, which isn’t in line with having what everyone else has. It’s about feeling entitled, lying and taking what you want. Lugo isn’t just using the American Dream to take advantage of others and to guide his actions. He’s a victim of it, too. Daniel Lugo is a hard worker, look at the size of him - even with the aid of steroids, that’s the result of hard work. When Lugo is confronted with wealthy, successful people, it’s at his gym, where they inevitably can’t keep up with him. He’s working harder than them; where’s his fortune? He also makes a mockery of the phrase ‘never shit a shitter’, because he finds himself utterly taken in by motivational speaker Johnny Wong, another man selling the new American Dream; the secrets to instant wealth and success. In fact, Wong disparages hard work as a means to getting by, insisting that grinding your way up is for suckers.

My interpretation of Pain & Gain is that the film’s central character, Daniel Lugo, represents the modern American Dream. He is a man who pursues immediate gratification and wealth using the modern American values of violence and ruthlessness.

Edwards, M. (2013) Pain & gain, murky morals and the American dream. Available at: http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/pain-gain/27082/pain-gain-murky-morals-and-the-american-dream (Accessed: 6 October 2016).