EXHIBITS
Almost Famous and Authenticity: William's Struggle with Authenticity
William's Struggle with Authenticity
In the beginning of Almost Famous, William Miller learns that his mother has not been entirely honest with him. While he knew that he had skipped a grade, he believed that he was twelve years old while the other kids in his grade were thirteen. His mother, at the prodding of his sister, reveals that in addition to skipping a grade, William also started kindergarten a year early. He is eleven.
This lie, while not entirely earth-shattering, shows that from a young age, many of William's choices were made for him by his loving (and somewhat overbearing) mother.
When William takes to the road with Stillwater, he is exposed to many different lifestyles heretofore hidden from him by his mother. Away from the constant insistance that William will become a lawyer, he actually has options.
Through figure placement and sound-image relationships Cameron Crowe presents Penny Lane, Russell Hammond, and Lester Bangs as potential future paths for William.
When William meets Penny Lane for the first time at a Black Sabbath and Stillwater concert, both of them are shut out of the venue, hoping to get backstage passes and talk to the bands. In the first shot that holds both William and Penny in the same frame, William and several band-aids are shown at the top of a ramp. While Cameron Crowe could have shown a shot of William, followed by a separate shot of the band-aids, followed by a shot of William, he did not. Instead, William and the girls are all shown in the same frame with a bit of distance between them. All of the figures in view are equidistant from the camera, in focus, and somewhat obscured by the dim lighting. The similar presentation of all the figures suggests that William and the girls are not so different. The space between them hints that William would only have to close the gap in order to become the same kind of disposable fan (Crowe 00:18:36).
William meets Russell Hammond minutes later as the Stillwater van screeches into the parking lot, and the band rushes for the venue-doors. As Stillwater passes the star-struck William by, nearly all of them pass on the far side, so William remains between them and the camera. Russell, on the other hand, walks between William and the camera. He momentarily comes into focus and eclipses William. This overlap suggests the overlap in William and Russell’s characters, and combined with later moments in the film suggests another potential future for William (00:21:09).
When William accompanies Penny to a gathering of musicians at a local hotel, he witnesses a steamy exchange between Penny and Russell. Before their ice-room tryst, William watches the two of them exchange glances as another band aid narrates. Although her words are supposed to apply to Penny and Russell, they seem to work on the level of Penny and William’s relationship as well, particularly her resounding last line: “She will eat him alive” (00:34:21). The dual nature of this dialogue sets William and Russell on the same plane. Both will fall for Penny Lane, and it will not end well for either one.
William’s final conversation with Lester Bangs uses figure placement to create a parallel between two characters. Every other time William spoke to Lester Bangs on the phone, he was in the presence of other people. In the final phone call, William is alone, just as Lester has been all along. William cries to Lester about his struggle to fit in and thanks him for being available. Lester Bangs deepens the parallel between them, saying “I’m always home, I’m un-cool” (01:44:26).
During a band meeting, the sound-image relationship strengthens the parallel between William and Lester without Lester even being there. In the scene, Stillwater contemplates accepting new management. At first, the band members are very opposed to new management, but when the proposed manager begins his pitch, they begin to nod along. The manager details a plan to make more money for the band, but what he sees as important doesn’t align with the values that the band preached at the movie’s outset. Their acceptance of this new manager implies their fall to money-grubbing wannabes, rather than the fan-loving musicians they claimed to be. When the decision is made, a voice-over decries the current state of rock and roll in Lester Bangs’ voice. This voice-over is paired with a shot of William with a furrowed brow. Layering Lester’s voice over William’s face suggests that William has adopted Lester’s thoughts as his own. Before voice-over ends, the meeting scene cuts to a shot of Penny Lane dancing in a deserted, litter-filled concert venue, suggesting that she would share William’s feelings about the band’s new direction and thereby strengthening the parallel between them (1:17:24).
Just after getting off of the phone with Rolling Stone magazine, newly deflowered, homesick, and burdened with laundry, William tries to interview Russell Hammond again after many unsuccessful attempts. His knock is met with immediate dismissal. William collapses onto a chair in defeat and cries. As the tears fall, only diagetic sounds can be heard: faint chatter from within Russell’s room and William’s sniffles. In a film that revolves so heavily around music, the sudden absence of sound draws attention to this turning point where William finally comes to terms with the fact that he has been used rather than accepted, and decides to stop trying to fit in (01:09:17).
William does not entirely reject any of the potential futures that Cameron Crowe lined up for him. When William warns Penny about Russell’s intentions, he calls himself mysterious (01:21:51), something that she had called him first while pushing his brows into a furrow (00:24:27). Since Penny Lane is actually named Lady Goodman, the air of mystery that William wants could be an echo of her. William ends up a little like Russell, for both of them still want to be with Penny in the end, though neither of them can. Choosing to write an “honest and unmerciful” article, William embodies Lester Bangs as well. His choice to live for himself and to be unaffected by the manipulation of the film’s other characters is, in essence, a decision to be authentic.