| Errors | Missing | Unverified | Supported |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 0 | 7 |
In Damien Chazelle’s Babylon (2022), audience rooting interests are deeply tied to the characters' purity of intent versus their corruption by the Hollywood "machine." Because the film is a sprawling epic about the "vampiric" nature of the industry, characters often transition from being sympathetic to being complicit, making the audience's perception shift over the three-hour runtime.
Sidney is widely considered the moral center of the film. Audiences root for him because he is a dedicated artist who remains professional and dignified despite the era's rampant racism.
As the audience surrogate, Manny starts as a "dreamer" with an infectious love for cinema. Viewers root for his upward mobility as he works his way from a "gopher" to a powerful studio executive.
While initially a hard-partying, womanizing star, Jack becomes a tragic figure the audience roots for as his relevancy fades.
McKay is the film’s literal and figurative monster, representing the "death" and "depravity" of Hollywood’s underbelly.
While not a single person, the "polite society" and studio heads who turn on the stars as soon as sound is introduced are the collective antagonists.
Nellie is the most divisive character in the film.
Elinor is the cynical "cockroach" who observes everything but builds nothing.
The summary mentions Jack accepting his obsolescence but omits his suicide, which is the definitive conclusion to his arc and a major reason for audience sympathy/tragedy.
The summary omits the film's final scene where Manny watches *Singin' in the Rain* (1952) and cries. This is crucial for the 'audience surrogate' argument, as it connects his personal trauma to the universal experience of cinema.
When discussing Manny's corruption ('cleaning up the industry'), the summary omits that he fires Lady Fay Zhu (a lesbian character) to appease the new morality codes, which is a specific and damning action.
In Babylon (2022), the audience generally roots for Sidney Palmer (the moral center who walks away with dignity) and Manny Torres (the dreamer/surrogate), though Manny's sympathy is tested by his complicity in the system's cruelty (e.g., firing Lady Fay Zhu). Jack Conrad is a tragic figure; while initially arrogant, his realization of his own obsolescence—crystallized in a conversation with Elinor St. John and followed by his suicide—earns him sympathy. The audience roots against James McKay (a grotesque villain representing Hollywood's underbelly) and the High Society/Studio System (represented by the Hearst party crowd) that discards the artists. Nellie LaRoy is divisive; her tragic background (institutionalized mother) and 'wild child' energy are appealing, but her self-destruction and endangerment of Manny alienate viewers. Elinor St. John is a complex antagonist/truth-teller who delivers the film's central thesis on the immortality of cinema.