One of my favorite movies of the current decade is Damien Chazelle’s 2014 movie “Whiplash” tells the story of Andrew Neiman and how he follows his dream of becoming a top jazz musician.

The story is loosely based on an experience Chazelle had while learning to drum, which inspired him to write the script.

But he couldn’t get the movie financed. So, he made a short film and submitted it to Sundance Film Festival. And with the help of Jason Reitman, Chazelle’s script made its way to J.K. Simmons, who supported the project all along.

Whatsoever, the final movie can only be as good as the screenplay. And “Whiplash” is the kind of movie relying heavily on its script, following it tightly.

But even from this movie scenes were cut to make it even tighter.

Page vs. Screen

There aren’t many differences between the script and the shot movie, which was shot in astonishing 19 days.

Most effected by the scenes left in the cutting room where following points:

a bit of Fletcher’s Backstory

the relationship between Andrew and his father Jim

a small addition to Andrew and Nicole’s relationship

Flechter’s family

Scenes in the script showed Fletcher in his home listening to melancholic music and starring at a picture of a woman, a girl and him.

On the wall, a photo. In it, a younger Fletcher, and a WOMAN, and a NINE-YEAR-OLD GIRL. All smiles…

The picture showing his past as a lighthearted, “soft” person, as a family member, and father.

Andrew shutting out his Father

The last what we see of Jim in the movie is where he watches his son playing like never before. Out of his son’s view.

But, in the screenplay it goes even further, when Jim wants to take Andrew with him off stage--

STAGE HAND

(to Andrew)

You know each other? […] A beat. More silence. And then — ANDREW

No.

Nicole’s visiting

In the movie, when Andrew invites Nicole to watch him play, he gets rejected, which makes sense after how he broke up with her and that’s it for Nicole.

However, in Chazelle’s screenplay she actually watches Andrew playing:

Seated in one of the front rows — is NICOLE. We see that next

to her, holding her hand, is a YOUNG MAN…

Conclusion

Both Nicole’s visit and Andrew closing out Jim are two scenes I’m glad Chazelle and his team cut out. Nicole was already written out of the story with the new boyfriend and damaging Andrew’s relationship to his father even more wouldn’t have helped expanding the character.

However, giving Fletcher some kind of a smaller backstory would’ve served his character a lot. But, when seeing the movie, Simmons’ character works well to nearly perfect without it.

So, however you might see it, cutting is a double-edged sword…

Sources