The Use of Irony in the Movie “Burn After Reading”

Burn After Reading Movie Review

Burn After Reading is considered as a film whose central theme is talking about knowledge and containment and sets to show a tale of wars against chaos. This movie review aims at explaining how irony is used on bureaucrats who are the primary targets of its satire and how this satire is pulled off in this movie by noting certain scenes that are practical evidence of the presence of satire on these selected targets (Coen, 2008).

Targets of Satire in the Movie Burn After Reading

One of the vital targets of satire in the movie, “Burn After Reading” are the bureaucrats who are ironically considered as a group of individuals who know what they do not know. The CIA are regarded as individuals with extraordinary powers of surveillance. However, despite these bureaucrats having such powers which are supposed to make them the most knowledgeable and informed individuals in the country, they still seem to ironically lack the knowledge to get rid of the random world chaos that exists within and outside this bureaucracy (Rowell, 2009). The level of confidence that is present among the CIA bureaucrats who are considered as the smartest individuals in the intelligence room is undoubtedly misplaced since they can only think of containment as the only best strategy of dealing with the present chaos.

It is evident that some characters such as Katie, Osborne, Chad, and Harry in this film are significantly suffering from the epistemological hubris. It is ironical for these characters to call each other names such as morons, stupid and idiots as they vie for different positions with the hierarchy of intelligence (Coen, 2008). That is because they are expected to maintain the highest level discipline and respect for each other considering the vital positions that they hold in CIA. By taking an in-depth investigation of the existing bureaucracy in this film, one can quickly discover the pragmatic lesson that is evident in the movie about the fact that containment does not in any way require omniscience. That is a lesson according to the movie “Burn After Reading film” most of the individuals outside the bureaucracy should learn early in advance to save themselves (Goodwin, 2017). The characters seem to be blinded by their intensive yearn for complicated explanations to the extent that they ignore the various unflattering and unexciting truths that are in front of them. For instance, after his demotion on the basis that he drinks a lot, Osborne protests arguing that this decision is highly politicized (Detmering, 2010).

The Use of Irony in the Film

Again, the irony is used in this film to describe how some actors seem to be very successful out of doing immoral things. Their success cannot be traced back to the good things that they have done in their lives, but in this case, this success has been attributed to the negative things that they have done to achieve their current status (Sutherland, 2017). For instance, the film portrays Harry Pfarrer as one of the most successful characters in the movie. However, this level of success can be attributed to the already laid down channel which most of the actors in this film used to channel their inner knuckleheads (Goodwin, 2017). Again, Harry has managed to screw Tilda Swinton who is Cox’s wife without either his wife or his former colleague Cox suspecting a thing which makes him pretty successful in the way he manages to get what he wants even if it means infringing the interests and rights of others.

Lastly, instead of the CIA agents acting swiftly to responding to the matters that are affecting the people, they instead ironically prefer to sit back and watch and only for them to act when it is too late. That makes them fail to meet their mandates as they should hence breaching their oath of office which states that they should always put people’s interest first. In the “Burn After Reading,” the CIA becomes peeved only when it is inconvenienced (Worley, 2011). For instance, Simmons becomes very angry when he realizes that Cox did not die from the gunshot wound but instead went into a coma (Rowell, 2009). However, putting into consideration that Cox is in a coma was a substantial assurance that all the top secrets that Cox had come to learn while working as an agent in the CIA would never be disclosed hence making Simmons become at ease. The ironical nature of the satire is depicted here through the way Simmons together with the other CIA agents exhibit a callous indifference to individual lives and security at the final scene whereby they are considered to be engaging in actions that are entirely contrary to what they are supposed to be doing (Goodwin, 2017).

Conclusion

Conclusively, it is evident that those individuals that are considered as the most intelligent individual are still the one who ironically portrays the highest level of stupidity as it has been elucidated in the film, “Burn After Reading.” The CIA agents are still the same individuals who exercise acts such as committing adultery, stealing, manipulating others and even killing to satisfy their desires at the expense of sufferings that they infringe on others. An excellent example of such a character in this film is Harry Pfarrer (Coen, 2008).

References

Coen, J. (2008). TIFF: Burn After Reading with the Coen Brothers, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, and John Malkovich. Press Conference, 2008 Toronto Film Festival. Reproduced by Jordan Riefe. The Dead Bolt. com.

Detmering, R. (2010). Exploring the Political Dimensions of Information Literacy Through Popular Film. Portal: Libraries and the Academy, 10(3), 265-282.

Goodwin, R. (2017). Coen: Framing Religion in Amoral Order. Journal of Religion & Film, 21(1), 28.

Rowell, E. (2009). Burn After Reading: Film Review. Film International, 37(1), 74-77.

Sutherland, B. R. (2017). Burn After Reading.

Worley, T. B. (2011). Mark T. Conard, ed.(2009) The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers.