The Top 10 Most Misunderstood Movies Ever Made
Anthony Burch has a very amusing (and frighteningly accurate) list of the 10 most misunderstood movies ever made. Go down the list and see, for each film, "what everyone thinks the message is" and then "what it actually is". I especially like the commentary for Pulp Fiction, Raging Bull, Donnie Darko, Gone With the Wind, and Scarface.
posted by Loren Rosson III @ 3/14/2007
3 Comments:
Thanks for that. I wish I had seen more of the movies on the list, and now I want see some of the again.
Re "Pulp Fiction": you mean the message is not: "I, Quentin, am such a kewl filmmaker"? ;-)
Re "Godfather": I had been thinking "honor among thieves" but Burch's "violence begets violence" (a theme continued in the sequels) is very apt.
Re "Gone with the Wind": I took the movie to be about painting the portrait of a comely Southern sociopath.
Re "Scarface": I thought the message was "Don't get high on your own supply."
That was indeed a great list .. My favorite one would have to Little Miss Sunshine ... Anyone who can watch the ending of that great movie and not get the "life rules" message is truly missing the point
I think there's one he missed, probably over many on the list, certainly over Pulp Fiction:
Full Metal Jacket
What People Think it Is: A kickass war movie
What it Actually Is: A scathing satire.
A quick perusal through, for example, comments on the IMDB on Kubrick's masterpiece will attest to how many fans of this movie thoroughly miss the point, ". . .the duality of man. . .that Jungian thing." It's perhaps best illustrated by the division of the film into two major movements, one hellacious (boot camp) and one comparitively serene (Vietnam).
Joker is the only hero of the movie precisely because he maintained that duality--he hesitated before euthanising the VC sniper. Contra Hartman, this did not make him a "dead marine." Joker himself notes at the end of the movie that "I am alive."
He is to be contrasted with the "successful" marines, those robbed of their duality. Pyle, who assassinates his drill instructor. The helicopter gunner, who has no qualms about shooting women and children, and Animal Mother, who just needs someone to "throw hand grenades at him for the rest of his life" "Under fire, he's one of the finest human beings in the world."
Post a Comment
<< Home