Suspended Belief
OK,
I was going to write about something else. But this just came up.
We're watching Annie. Yes, the 1982 musical. Ten year old Annie just started singing "Tomorrow" to FDR, and Ali thinks this might be a little too hard to believe. A little too hard to believe that a little girl would just burst into song to demonstrate to the president what she does to cheer herself up when she's blue.
Now, of all the films to cirticize for being too far removed from reality to appreciate, I have to say that, for me at least, Annie is way down towards the bottom of the list.
Can we take a survey of the LEAST believable films that people have seen?
Maybe we should have some ground rules. Obviously any fantasy film or sciece fiction is going to be high on the list of films requiring too much suspended belief. Most fiction requires some level of suspended belief. Let's say that movies set their own ground rules. Once within the framework of its own reality, though, a movie should be believable. For instance, if a movie were made about a superhero who was invincible and could manipulate reality without effort simply by willing it to be different, and a bad guy somehow manages to challenge him and put his life in danger (the second and third Matrix movies, anyone?), that requires too much suspended belief.
Alright, let's hear it.
posted by Seth at 6/26/2005 07:09:00 PM
9 Comments:
Hi Seth... Funny you should ask... we just saw National Tresure. I wont go into detail in case anyone still wants to see it...but lets just say: yeah freakin right.
10:19 PM
I dunno about your example. First of all, Annie is a musical, so part of the groud rules is that people burst into song, including oppressed orphans cleaning out the orphanage. In addition, I don't find it that unbelievable that a spunky, uneducated girl like Annie would start singing in front of the President.
6:22 AM
I think you misunderstood me, Isaac. I said it was at the bottom of my list of movies that are hard to believe. In other words, it didn't bother me at all. I didn't find it hard to believe, regardless of whether or not it was a musical in general. Here was a little girl, who was fortunate enough to meet the president, who was discussing with her the sad state the country was in, and she was singing him a song that she sings to herself in order to cheer herself up. But Ali thought it was weird that a little girl would burst into song with the president, and that inspired me to write about it.
10:10 AM
My bad. I have to read more carefully. To atone, I'll contribute an example.
I'd hesitate to try to point out the best example of anything, but how about The Rock as a minor example? If that green stuff is as bad in small quatities as indicated:
- The missile that crashed into the water probably should have caused a horrible environmental disaster. (I'll accept "Maybe it did."
- Goodspeed should have had some serious skin meltage after his close encounter with the stuff.
Also, after green stuff plus atropine plus being blown off a height into the water (which probably should have broken bones) plus almost drowning, Goodspeed should have had to leave Alcatraz on a stretcher, at best, instead of getting to have a stand-up meeting with the Connery character.
11:53 AM
Speaking of the rock when breaking back in, Sean Connerry rolled through those fire balls claiming he had timed them perfectly when he left, he then went and opened the dor to let everyone in. Why did he have to roll through the fiores when leaving? Why couldnt he just leave through the door
12:32 PM
most moviesa are unrealiatic- the good guys always hit their target with one bvullet, while teh bad guys fire 15 timeand hit nothing. If they do manage to hit the guy, hes all better within 5 minutes
12:33 PM
wow... good point shu... about the rock. i never thought of that.
something like that always totaly ruins the movie for me.
but i have to agree with isaac on annie. within the rules of a musical, people are allowed to break into song unexpectedly. and shu, in james bond or whatever, part of the rules of the movie is that bond will hit his targets in one shot and they'll all miss him. those are the rules you accept at the begining of the movie. like the force, or the fact that uma thurman can take on 88 samurai sword weilding bodyguards (ok, i know there werent really 88. they just called themselves that.)
3:50 AM
Hi, Seth!
I have to chime in here with Forrest Gump. Lovely movie, but I don't think it has much basis in reality.
12:20 AM
I love Annie, believable or not, and I absolutly LOVE The Rock. But perhaps that is the actors more so than the storyline?
A movie I did not like in terms of believableness was The Forgotten. Because that movie started off somewhat believable (some kind of cover-up perhaps) and then turned CRAZY and annoying.
Well, there is my two cents.
4:06 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home