Brendan M.
02-08-2008, 09:34 AM
This is my first rant on this board (yay for me!). I'm usually an easy going guy and don't need to vent about things, but I've finally found something that really bothers me.
People who need the whole movie explained to them straight forward instead of having to pay attention to it themselves. Have you ever sat down and watched a movie with someone who constantly interrupts your viewing experience to ask stupid questions about what's going on in the movie? Questions that are so obvious that they themselves know the answers to them but they need to ask them out loud anyway just to be reassured? I think there is a widespread epidemic of ADD going around lately.
I'm a fan of Park Chan-Wook (you can tell from my avatar) and I really like in a lot of his movies, he knows how to tell a story visually. I like how a photo album and a pair of angel wings that were seen earlier in the film were used to reveal the big plot twist at the end of Oldboy. I like how the key chain on the antagonist's cell phone in Lady Vengeance revealed something deep and disturbing about the character. Now a days we have a lot of Keven Smith and Tarantino wannabes who rely too much on dialogue to have to explain everything that's going on
in the movie. People forget that one rule that they were all taught in film school. "Show, don't tell." Or maybe they changed that now once everyone got stupid.
Anyways, I made a short film recently myself with little to no dialogue and the story was mostly told visually in the style of Park Chan-Wook who I admire. To most people it was obvious what was going on in the story, but there was one person who I sat down and watched it with and she couldn't have been more annoying during it.
Her: "Why did he put his wedding ring on? Does that mean he was cheating on his wife?"
Me: "Yes"
Her: "Who's calling him on the phone? Is that the girl with the cell phone?"
Me: "yes"
Her: Is she holding a bottle of perscription pills while she's sleeping because she killed herself?"
Me: "Yes, yes, yes! Every question you've asked me so far I've said yes to so please just assume that the next question you have, the answer will be yes and you will have figured out the movie yourself and feel like an intelligent person like the rest of us."
And I've dealt with people like this during movies with the simplest of plots like Evil Dead, Batman Begins, Fight Club, even Die Hard. Hell, even my own dad asks some pretty stupid questions during movies.
But you know what the worst thing is? I went to Sundance film festival a couple weeks ago and there were people there who asked these kinds of questions to the filmmakers at their Q&A!
In Hell Ride, the character played by Eric Balfour knows little about his mother and nothing about his father. Larry Bishop's character talks about how he was involved with her at one point and then at the end.. (I'm hoping that I'm not spoiling it for anyone but its not really that big of a revelation once you see the film) Bishop starts refering to Balfour as "son". Then there was that one guy in the audience at the Q&A who just had to ask:
"So were you two like father and son at the end?"
Bishop and Balfour: "Yes."
They answered him before he could even finish his sentence. Then my sister sitting next to me quietly says outloud to herself "No shit Sherlock!"
We have a generation of kids right now who think the Godfather is boring and then they go to theaters to see movies like Meet the Spartans and Step Up 2 (Is it just me or was there ever even a Step Up 1?).
Maybe some places should start handing out ritalin to people before the movie begins.
People who need the whole movie explained to them straight forward instead of having to pay attention to it themselves. Have you ever sat down and watched a movie with someone who constantly interrupts your viewing experience to ask stupid questions about what's going on in the movie? Questions that are so obvious that they themselves know the answers to them but they need to ask them out loud anyway just to be reassured? I think there is a widespread epidemic of ADD going around lately.
I'm a fan of Park Chan-Wook (you can tell from my avatar) and I really like in a lot of his movies, he knows how to tell a story visually. I like how a photo album and a pair of angel wings that were seen earlier in the film were used to reveal the big plot twist at the end of Oldboy. I like how the key chain on the antagonist's cell phone in Lady Vengeance revealed something deep and disturbing about the character. Now a days we have a lot of Keven Smith and Tarantino wannabes who rely too much on dialogue to have to explain everything that's going on
in the movie. People forget that one rule that they were all taught in film school. "Show, don't tell." Or maybe they changed that now once everyone got stupid.
Anyways, I made a short film recently myself with little to no dialogue and the story was mostly told visually in the style of Park Chan-Wook who I admire. To most people it was obvious what was going on in the story, but there was one person who I sat down and watched it with and she couldn't have been more annoying during it.
Her: "Why did he put his wedding ring on? Does that mean he was cheating on his wife?"
Me: "Yes"
Her: "Who's calling him on the phone? Is that the girl with the cell phone?"
Me: "yes"
Her: Is she holding a bottle of perscription pills while she's sleeping because she killed herself?"
Me: "Yes, yes, yes! Every question you've asked me so far I've said yes to so please just assume that the next question you have, the answer will be yes and you will have figured out the movie yourself and feel like an intelligent person like the rest of us."
And I've dealt with people like this during movies with the simplest of plots like Evil Dead, Batman Begins, Fight Club, even Die Hard. Hell, even my own dad asks some pretty stupid questions during movies.
But you know what the worst thing is? I went to Sundance film festival a couple weeks ago and there were people there who asked these kinds of questions to the filmmakers at their Q&A!
In Hell Ride, the character played by Eric Balfour knows little about his mother and nothing about his father. Larry Bishop's character talks about how he was involved with her at one point and then at the end.. (I'm hoping that I'm not spoiling it for anyone but its not really that big of a revelation once you see the film) Bishop starts refering to Balfour as "son". Then there was that one guy in the audience at the Q&A who just had to ask:
"So were you two like father and son at the end?"
Bishop and Balfour: "Yes."
They answered him before he could even finish his sentence. Then my sister sitting next to me quietly says outloud to herself "No shit Sherlock!"
We have a generation of kids right now who think the Godfather is boring and then they go to theaters to see movies like Meet the Spartans and Step Up 2 (Is it just me or was there ever even a Step Up 1?).
Maybe some places should start handing out ritalin to people before the movie begins.