Berlin Calling

      In the movie Berlin Calling they focus on one main character; Ickarus. Ickarus is a DJ that is on the verge of becoming famous, he is one great album away from breaking out. In the movie Ickarus is dealing with a huge drug addiction and an addiction to doing whatever he feels like. The addictions are a big part of becoming famous and having so many fans that look up to him, it also has to do with all the people in the clubs, his friends and his fans selling him drugs and feeding him words that he takes to close to heart. Drugs to Ickarus are like his gasoline, it seems like he feels if he doesnt have his daily dose of Ecstasy, Cocaine, LSD, PCP, Ketamine or Meth, then he wont be able to write popular songs which means to him that his fame will begin to decrease. He doesnt realize that the drugs are not what is writing his music, its his brain that comes up with the ultimate music.

      His fans follow in his footsteps by taking drugs an acting outrageous because they feel that if one man can become famous by doing that then they should be able to. His fans come to his shows and as soon as they step in the door they shoot up the meth, snort the cocaine or pop the pills because they think its cool. The drugs that are involved in this movie are Ecstasy, Cocaine, LSD, PCP, Ketamine and Meth. I kind of stated it in the earlier paragraph but just to touch base, Ickarus thinks that without the drugs there will be no music. He feels that the drugs are his life, they are like another Ickarus. There is the drug using, music writing Ickarus and then there is the caring, loving, gentle Ickarus. when he wants the music writing Ickarus to show his face he induces himself with drugs.

      In comparison there really isnt much difference, famous people in america use drugs all the time. Alot of famous people that use drugs usually end up getting arrested or overdosing and dieing. Some may say that this is just an opinion but if you look at the past few famous people that have died and read some of the news lately, dont get me wrong the news is not always right but 75% of the time they know what they are talking about. Comparing this movie to me is a little different, Im from a city just on the outside of the major cities in minnesota. Where im from we have an imaginary line that runs right through town, on one side you have all the country people and farms and on the other you have all the city people. In my high school we have about a 50% ratio of people that use drugs and people that dont. we dont have any clubs but many people from my town go into the big city to go clubbing so they are available but they are about and hour away. Where im from we dont have alot of choices on drugs but we do have people using them, in my household drugs are unacceptable and if you use them; even if you are a family member you will be frowned upon. where in the movie they are frowned upon but many people still do them anyways, more than 50%.

        In the movie the youth is lost to partying and clubbing. Youth almost seems to be mummified by the fact that using drugs, clubbing and acting stupid is the way to get people to see you. The only thing in the movie that really shows hard work is the act of Alice and the label director, they are almost like realizationists. They try to show Ickarus that he can write the songs and become famous without the drugs, when Ickarus loses it, fires the label director and ends up in the mental institute Alice steps and keeps faith in him that he can make it through the fight and eventually forget about the drugs. The label director shows faith by re-signing Ickarus and giving him another chance to be successful. I have not really seen any movie that i could compare to this very well but im sure that somewhere in the U.S. there is a movie that could almost be the american version to this movie.

       My reaction to this movie was in one word wow. It was hard to watch a man go from the one of the most popular people in germany to almost nothing all because of a drug addiction, there were times where i felt like i wanted to just jump in the movie and slap him and make him realize everything he had and everything he was losing. I also couldnt believe that the youth were also so strung up on the drugs and partying that it seemed liked they were just robots following and idle that was heading in the wrong direction. Not one youth realized how big of a mistake they were making. In the U.S. they do alot of clubbing but drugs in the club are prohibited now i know you cant stop everything but before you can enter a club they search you to make sure you dont have anything like that. The clubs in the U.S are not as wild and crazy as they were portrayed in the movie. The movie was a very good realization movie, it helped me realized that there are other parts of the world that are alot crazier than the U.S. and i was happy to see that Ickarus finally realized that the drug use was the wrong direction and that when he gave up the drugs he was still successful at doing what he loved, he could keep the fame without the bad influence.