derek lavanian

Derek lavanian; age 37;teaches english; high school; 12 years and very happy with his job. He is poular with the students as well as his co-workers. He has been recently receiving awards and accolations after years of hard work and experience working as a special ed. Instructor and special Olympics coach.(there will be flashbacks to these particular memoirs. The movie will be based on flashbacks so to strengthen the understanding og derek’s character. His family, Armenian immigrants from iran. Dad worked very hard to get to upper middle class. He was the first to earn a college degree from his family. His father, antonius, was a mechanical gemius that tutored razmik, Derek’s father throughout childhood. Razmik had two sisters and two younger brothers. He was the oldest of his family; amazing human being, unusually nice and almost heaven sent. An ideal father with morals and feels a little cheated because he came to America at 15 to escape martial law. Missed his family but attained strength through his moral convictions and a fascinating character of wit, charm, and hard work. Quiet but when he talked, everyone listened. Derek would remember this as a child. Flashback to a time where he thought his dad was the greatest person in the world. In fact, unusually emotional and extremely burdened by the fact that he is the way he is. Derek had an amazing imagination, which you will see how this negatively as well as positively affects his actions and motives throughout his life. Again, professional career:great! Had several girlfriends throughout his twenties. It kinda all seemed to crescendo at around 33. He hit an amazing high by making 300,000 in the stock market! He lived well and burned both ends. Coked out and semi delusional, he trades all his money away. His life, once again hell(previously at age 25, he lost 32,000 to a bookie and his parents had to bail him out. This often isflashbacked to show lack in will of understanding who he really is? Derek Lavanian doesnot know himself. Simple. His life, teetered on the verges of either extreme euphoria or downright a hellstyle life, he has to try and find himself and truly feel an attachment to not only his family but his world. Derek’s love for his family is unquestionable. Sure, parents have issues with their sons/daughters, but derek’s is very extreme. In all this mess, his addictions begin to kick in. All is actually well for about 3 years. Then, relapse, gambling and again, another spiral downward heelish life for a beloved son and poet of "Wilson High," Derek is delusional on the poker table from smoking crack In his car. The scene emphasizes this fact but only shows a novice intro. For a character whom the audience will really relate to from flashbacks, actions throughout his whole life. For example, a dialogue at his work, then reverting back to dialogue with his mother, symbolizing the paradox of behavior and the extreme mood swings within himself, without showing clnical signs of, I call "monoabuse," someone who self inflicts pain without knowing but maybe having an understanding of it. ‘
Opening Scene:
Crowded commerce casino; 5 in the morning; Derek looks terrible. But noone vares because he’s in an environment where people just want his money. So he is constantly going to the cashier, withdrawing $500.00 from his checking account. He is in a state of major relapse addiction personality disorder. He realizes he has a disease but can never get over the fact of how he became a loser gambler. He would always win in the first three four hours, then gamble for 20 and lose it all. He keeps repeating this over and over in his head! YOU CAN SEE HIS ANGST, FRUSTRATION And desperation. He doesn’t realize why he’s doing these things. One of the most important things in derek’s life is his father’s approval. He wants his dad to love him but feels that’s impossible because he burned his bridges, regardless of how many times his father told him it wasn;t so. We have classic parental/son clashes all throughout the movie, Just like the peaks and valleys in his personal life, tis the same with his parents. He doesn’t like to swear but finds himself constantly swearing. He realizes he is in a very bad place and begins to accept the fact that maybe he was either born this way, something may have hurt him in his life to lead him to mental destruction, maybe it was the fact that he was teased until 10 where he put on size..Another flashback..he always asked for his father’s attention. Always wanting to be with him, but unfortunately, Derek’s bad habits lead him astray from his father, not that he deosn’t love him, but on the contrary, he loves him so much, heels feels extreme guilt, to balance the paradoxical contrary of love and guilt. Derek’s obsession with his addictions lead him to believe he doesn’t deserve to live, even thoug he isn’t suicidal, but he’ll probably die young from the stresses of his hellish life. Again, his family being morally convicted; derek’s brother, levon, 6’0 same height somewhat thinner but disciplined, been out of the service for 9 years; was a member of the 54th airborne; flashback’s here wil allude to levon’s conversations with Derek before and after the war. Levon also has problems..he’s married but had a sexual affair with a marine in the war. He felt love and admiration for marine sergeant lucas mor..but lucas was killed and levon came home to his wife. His problem is that what if lucas never died. What would happen? Several scenarios are discussed with the brother’s. Sometimes, Derek would be high, oftrn times suspected by his brother but really never discussed. Flashback’s will help the movie, again, solidify theme: an individual who self inflicts pain , realizes it, but his extreme guilt of his own corruption, delusifies him, and he goes back to a comfortable spot in his life; the life of misery. He really lives two lives! Sometimes, like a venn diagram, the two behaviors cross with the drugs and the gambling. But Derek has so many other addictions; prostitution, gambling, he’s had fantasies of killing them after having sex. He almost comes close when he chokes a female prostitute and blamed it on a fantasy to asfysxiate the girl before orgasm. He generally a great human being; he’s already a legend in corona, ca. where he has been teaching and doing community work; until again, his relapse (and this is where the scence starts-called relapse) I’d like to title the major events of the movie, For example, relapse, hell in a bottle(this is wherederek goes through viscious cycles of drugs, prostitution, back to drugs, then poker bars, drives to vegas, staying up four days. He also realizes his friends are like him! Later in the movie, he begins to go to research society to help him..which changes his life around and he becomes one the most amazing artists in his time. He will be eventually honored in so many ways’ he writes a play, becomes a semi-successful playright. He dabs in poetry and sees genius(this is after he stopped all his addictions. The phase at which he has to go through a "second hell" recovery, is called "you really thought you didn’t have to." Again derek’s life is a constant struggle on the verges of insanity. Hesmokes three packs a day throughout his addictive stage and in between relapse, his mind was alays on stocks, gambling, vegas, hookers, and drugs. His close friend, a chemical dependant, who is also a teacher, is like him but 5 years older. Now the whole psychology behind this gets twisted; due to his extreme but hidden sometimes exposed emotional rollercoaster, every bit of dialogue between Derek and his brother are very influential; even more twisted, Derek only sees the negative commentary on druggies, pushers, hippies, and the homeless. He struggles because he is now at a stage where he can help his brother. You see, the relationship up until recovery, is not reciprocitical; levon gives advise but according to Derek, he thinks he’s always right, Again, the audience can determine/infer by dialogue, mood and action of character events throughout the play. His father and brother, very influential affect him which in turn makes Derek feel confused because all the characters they would criticized ends up as derek’s friends. Again, subjectively inferiing: learning lesson or destructive and complete delusional decision making. I tem to believe the former. When these emotions consciously intercept his mind, he quickly becomes aware and this leads him to do something to escape; he smokes a lot of crack with his teacher friend, also realzing he has exact similar problems. He starts noticing how a person can hide thoughts and feelings and starts to question what is right and wrong? His solution makes him a strong believer of the human connection. Immediately after the poker scene, the next setting is the classroom and him discussin john donne and hamlet’s to be or not to be..alot of attention is spent between the classroom(30 min), the prostitute(20 min) brother, family mom, dad, flashbacks and his hellish life, the rest of the movie. Ok,,flashbacks in brief:
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Derek’s consciousness is the reason for his problems. He is emotionally weak but in contrast, is passionate and a democrat. He had a political and moral change when he went through one of his relapses, losing $300,000 from the stock market. He moved back home, lived in one of the rooms, and again, went through a painful guilt for two years. Eventually, he got his place, vowing to stay clean, his delusions come back. Fro whatever reason for now, Derek feels he is just not lucky. But in every aspect of the term, related to him, is good. Mom.dadbrother, yet, when flashing back, he realizes that he is affected more than anyone else in the family. He realizes he used to have nightmares not about monsters, but his parents dying. His father’s hard life and his mother’s own set of problems with her ownself, he realizes not to ruminate and self inflict pain to himself. He sits down and begins to look at his life. Ironically and pathetically, his high on crack makes him so emotional that he can really write. He realizes everything is based on the emotional health of his being. His. According to Derek, caused him to be w eak. Now, throughout the story, a prostitute, a girl he meets working in commerce, gambler but not compulsive, helps Derek find himself. Her name is mary; they meet and begin courting and turns to be a fruitful relationship; irony, again paradox related, the gambler worker helps him; the prostitute helps him, he has a homeless friend that insists he go get help. Irony; homeless telling successful teacher to get help.. He starts reading Shakespeare. Again, a flashback into his mind, interpreting the thoughts and beliefs Shakespeare influenced and how it helped him change. His brother, his mom, his father, ironically can’t really help Derek because there is extreme emotional attachment, not anger, but guilt. He feels his family has done so much that he cant’ bear seeing them, creating an anxiety within himself and creating tension, and the chain reaction continues. His brother, having to deal with his own sets of issues, realizes that he must emotionally grow and takes derek’s advise as to looking in his past and finding something from there to bring back in the present, not as a "so called magic bullet" but as a reminder of his emotions and this would create emotional rescue. Both Derek and Levon allude to a time where they both saved a 10 year old from drowning, both forgetting because to feel the need not reflect on the positive but the negative. Things begin to get better, his brother’s marriage gets better and both synchronically bond and accept who the other is. As Derek goes through therapy, the philosophy classes, he takes a class on identity, realizing a lot of this has to do with the struggle of his culture/race. He flashbacks and imagines his great grandfather’s his parents, reminisces almost therap[eutically cleansing his soul. Lot of dialogue between Derek, the prostitute, his friends, family, and shows the web of support one can have, yet to anyones fathom, not understand what an addict is.
By the end, the movie will educate you on addictivie personalities and all the dramatic irony, symbolism, allegorical references, as well as flashbacks to really define his personality. In the end, he marries mary and they open an alternative addiction center that helps people with their problems by redefining their past, may it be 5,1015,2030, or whenever it was when you went sour. To go back their,through therapy or counseling, andpaying it forward. The movement transformed the country into awareness.
Derek gets all sorts of flashbacks of advice given to him by his mother.
His mother, the emotional cornerstone of his life; his mom controls him not her will but by his will. She may control him but she has to go back and look at some issues in her life. The movie again also transforms his parents and his father realizes his own life and all the movments he had;Did that catch up to him? Did he have abandonment issues? He is very emotionally attached to his father like Derek is his. Now, the must be define, two of his close friends, on a struggling actor who has similar lifestyle as Derek and similar exact, which both friends to really reveal how spiritual they are and hoe Derek had completely denying it making fun of it and then has a spiritual awakening, which first felt by his brother when he went through his guilt. Levon, emotional with his wife; Derek, emotional with his mom which leads to a social imbalance and personal struggle to figure it out. He does though the philosophical society, realizing his cousain, which introduced it to him, was the catalyst and exerciser that really awakened Derek from his night mare life.