I had a roommate who eventually went into the the State Highway Patrol quote the "You can't handle the truth" speech as if it were gospel.
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Let's list all the movies that weirdoes constantly misinterpret
- Thread starter Birdie
- Start date
I am curious to know what the message from the matrix was and how it was misinterpreted.
I thought it was basically trying to provoke thinking along the lines of "what if everything we know is a simulation?".
Also AI is bad, see terminator 1 and 2 for further information.
I mean for the most part it is just an action movie with an interesting premise and some fancy cinematography.
I thought it was basically trying to provoke thinking along the lines of "what if everything we know is a simulation?".
Also AI is bad, see terminator 1 and 2 for further information.
I mean for the most part it is just an action movie with an interesting premise and some fancy cinematography.
Same. He even wore a "coffee is for closers" shirt to work a couple times.
Natasha bringing up her sterility was meant to supplement the broader problem she had (that she'd been effectively trained and raised as a weapon to kill rather than as a normal person), not a blanket "I can't have children, therefore I am a monster."
Been a while since I've seen the movie, so maybe I'm misremembering but I didn't get that - on the flip side, I totally recognize that Whedon bringing up Natasha's sterility in that conversation probably wasn't the best idea.
Incidentally Twilight features one of the werewolves, Leah who spends the entire series moping that she's worthless because she can't have children, and literally everyone around her is like "yup you sure are," so that's cool.
I've seen people try to backfill the creators transitioning as turning the Matrix into a trans analogy but I think that's really, really a stretch.
I don't see the Fight Club misinterpretation that lots of people in here see. The take aways I often see with Fight Club are the anti consumerism and "do what makes you happy" messages. Both of those are what I think the movie is trying to say and there is nothing wrong with those takes. Where is everyone seeing this toxic masculinity take because I never see it anywhere?
Mr. Robot.
Elliot isn't some cool hacker fighting for the people. He's a mentally ill person way out of alignment with society and trying to find his way back.
Elliot isn't some cool hacker fighting for the people. He's a mentally ill person way out of alignment with society and trying to find his way back.
Basically the matrix can be interpreted as an analogy of late stage capitalism.
Don't worry, this is the true message :
Seriously. The machines had the right idea. It was Morpheus and Smith that had to go and fuck it all up. For a way worse version of reality that was no more real anyway.
See everyone, this is exactly the type of person I'm talking about.
I still shudder when I think about the people in the theater cheering at his "you're locked in here with me" bit from the movie. Yeesh.
Every time I see these sorts of people post I wonder where the hell they go to the DMV. I don't think it matters whether or not I love the DMV, but it sure as hell beats the act of trying to haggle a car buy.
Wait a minute the far right are reading They Live as pro anti semetic? Patrick Bateman as a hero?
Fuck me people really are dim aren't they. And use that to validate being a bit of twat.
Fuck me people really are dim aren't they. And use that to validate being a bit of twat.
Watchmen. People thinking Rorshach is a hero instead of a bigoted psychopath.
To be fair it's not just the far right people who get the wrong message, but they sure do like to weaponize those wrong messages.
Not only that but he was miserable the whole time. Even with his big house, beautiful wife, and all his wealth and power he wasn't happy. Makes no sense that people idolize him.
To be fair it's not just the far right people who get the wrong message, but they sure do like to weaponize those wrong messages.
Not only that but he was miserable the whole time. Even with his big house, beautiful wife, and all his wealth and power he wasn't happy. Makes no sense that people idolize him.
It feels like over time and with so many think pieces written about it, Fight Club's (seriously obvious) satirical elements are more readily acknowledged and interpreted correctly by first-time viewers.
That said, there was a time where the film's primary audience certainly seemed to be late teen/early 20-something dudes who thought of it as that cool movie with Tyler Durden being a role model. My first undergrad stint in college, from 2004-2009, definitely led me to meet a few guys who loved to get into fistfights during weekends so "they could feel alive" and they revered Fight Club.
The netflix show "You" has a contingent of fans who romanticize Joe's obsession with Beck despite it being clear from a minute in that he's an incredibly dangerous individual.
honestly i feel like if the director of midsommar and hereditary isnt intentionally making his films border on and touch into horror comedy then he is like precipitously close to making a movie that ends up a complete laughingstock
Yeah, I get what Whedon was trying to go for with Natasha always going on about "red in her ledger" from her time when she was an assassin highlighting that she's not that much different from Bruce...Whedon just botched it with that unnecessary line and it's not hard to see why Women didn't like it.
Honestly like I said before Whedon did not write Black Widow well in Age of Ultron.
If you watch the clip, Bruce tells Natasha that he can't hide where he is not a threat nor can he offer a normal family life as he physically can't have kids. Natasha explains to Bruce that neither can she was forcibly sterilised as part of her graduation program she ends it with the line;
"You still think that you're the only monster on the team?"
It's fully clear what Whedon was trying to say, there was no misinterpretation and it's just bad sloppy writing.
If you're going to ignore previous context and only focus on the last sentence she says before calling herself a monster, I'm going to do the same and only focus on the last two words.
"...even killing. You still think you're the only monster on the team?"
But yeah, OBVIOUSLY she's calling herself a monster because she can't be a perfect housewife and give her husband 2.5 kids.
I'm pretty sure he's mentioned that there's intended black humor in Midsommar.
Not so much in Hereditary though iirc
I can see people watching R&M and thinking Rick is great (I enjoy the show but dislike how Rick is ultimately portrayed as awesome), but can you really watch Bojack and not think that bojack is a piece of shit? (who may remind you of bad aspect of your - the viewers - personality and make you empathize with him, but a piece of shit nonetheless)
That was going to be my post. I do feel a lot of movies- even when satirical - kind of want to have their cake and eat it too. Falling down (this guy is a loser incapable of dealing with his failure- but look at him kick a nazi's ass and fire an rpg- how tragic!), starship troopers (nazi imagery is bad! But kind of cool too?), metal gear solid (war is bad! But do you see all our lovely gun models?) . That movie about the good looking serial killer... I could go on forever. I enjoy some of those but feel like a hypocrite. Compare to a movie like the adversary - admittedly a drama, based on the story of a liar who killed his family when his house of cards collapses. Movie is bleak. Main character is depicted largely as an unredeemable coward. You might empathize with him but there is definitely nothing cool about him.
OP
OP
I'm just thinking how "take the red pill" has become alt-right lingo 101
Blade Runner - Deckard was the bad guy (basically a cop) hunting down slaves (replicants) and...
The Straight Story - Alvin is not just a kooky old man hoping to reconnect with his brother. He's an unreliable narrator (not a narrator of the film, but in general) who may or may not have been abusive, and isolated himself from his entire family, except for his daughter that needs him as much as he needs her.
The Revenant / Birdman - people mistakenly think they're good films. Still trying to figure out how/why. ;)
if he's indeed a replicant himself, he's also a goddamn traitor
The Straight Story - Alvin is not just a kooky old man hoping to reconnect with his brother. He's an unreliable narrator (not a narrator of the film, but in general) who may or may not have been abusive, and isolated himself from his entire family, except for his daughter that needs him as much as he needs her.
The Revenant / Birdman - people mistakenly think they're good films. Still trying to figure out how/why. ;)
When I worked at a telemarketing place, a lot of the people I worked with viewed the movie Boiler Room as inspirational.
Falling Down, easily. The main character, Foster, is the bad guy(abuses his wife, flies into rages, goes on a rampage, threatens people) not the lone white guy fighting against diversity.
This reminds of another good one; Don Draper. A deeply flawed character who's an absolute prick and barely grows as the series progresses (and if you believe some interpretations of the finale, doesn't grow at all). But a lot of people (read: young men) only see him as a sharp-dressed "creative genius" with a bitch wife.
Bojack and Draper both fall into the category of "Assholes who are fascinating to watch but if you had to live around them for a week you'd murder them."
That's basically how I read the scene tbh and now knowing that Arster confirmed this isn't surprising. Fwiw I didn't really like it either way - it didn't feel cathartic according to the interpretation and on the other hand didn't feel sufficiently menacing.
actually, they weren't aliens. they were beings from another dimension.
wait, what movie is this
Here's a spoilery interview about it
Looking back I kind of like it more now just because it frustrates the fuck out of me lol
And indeed, the very same people who go on about how "you couldn't make Blazing Saddles today, no freeze peach!", would be first in line to be massively offended and bitching about its mockery of racists.
Super interesting to read! Even though I didn't like the film, I'll give it to Arster for drawing out some killer performances through the film leads.
-To be fair, it is really BAD satire. We aren't supposed to like the federation...but as a society they are arguably better off than modern america. Universal racial and gender equality is a pretty big step up from even 20 years after the movie came out, and the bugs are one dimnensional killing machines....which is weird because the book specifically points out that the bugs CAN communicate and form alliances, but have chosen not to with humanity, so peace is moot. There doesn't appear to be any major disfunction in the federation aside from corny propaganda videos. Take away the heavy handed nazi imagery and the movie is just a B list aliens ripoff. But of course the nazi imagery doens't work since the federation is very much not a racist organization.
-Rick and morty is an excellent example of what this thread is talking about. Like 6 episodes in they do an ep where a civilization absorbing alien hivemind breaks up with rick because he's too toxic for it. Rick has never been a role model and the show has been open about it from day one.
-This is kindof a complicated example because it is an example of people misinterpreting a movie to mean something they DON't Like.
Batman V superman is often accused of being fascist...when the entire point of the movie is a condemnation of xenophobia and authoritarianism. It's a story about a helpful, hardworking immigrant who just wants to make the world a better place and is persecuted by a xenophobic billionaire who uses fear of the other to promote his own agenda. So many people in the film question whether superman should be making these 'state-level interventions' when Batman and Lex (IE people who are not the other) have been doing those for years and nobody cares. Batman's whole arc is about how xenophobia and his belief that he alone knows what is best for the world nearly turns him into what he swore to stop and damn near kills the world in the process.
-The classic Star Trek TNG episode, The Drumhead seems to be a favourite amongst the redhat crowd. You can even find clips on youtube under the title 'picard owns SJW' despite the fact that picard and you know, the entire federation, are all about that sweet social justice. The episode is about how a search for a supposed saboteur turns into an excuse to trample over civil rights and attack people for their bloodlines.
-There are so many people on facebook sharing memes about wanting a relationship like Joker and Harley. I mean how does that even work?
- A disturbingly large portion of the fallout fanbase really seems to think the Legion are the good guys. For those who haven't played the game, they are essentially ISIS in roman cosplay. The writers even said they regretted making them as transparently evil as they did because it made the faction choice for a good aligned character so much easier.
the fuck is this post?
The Matrix is basically Political Activism: The Movie. You can choose to go with ignorance, but it won't work since the system is wrong, and rejecting it is the only way forward. It literally end on a Rage Against The Machine song, ffs.
How.. fuck it, moving on.
Indeed. Might as well include Der Untergang at this point, since the point of that is definitely NOT 'Hitler reacting'.
But in the trend of "nazi's gonna nazi", we might also consider Triumph Of The Will and the many shots and movies it has inspired with completely different takes on WHY they used them, yet not entirely unrelated either.
Examples: Star Wars (with TFA being the 'didn't get it' sequel), Starship Trooper, American History X, etc.
Other typical interpretation error: "it's a satire", when it's not.
Falling Down has already been mentioned in this context, but Nightcrawler (2014) fits the bill, as well as Network, Glengarry Glen Ross, and I presume Pain & Gain also fits this considering it's not really a 'satire' in any reasonable person's mind.
edit: I also feel that a lot of these 'misinterpretations' are usually done on purpose to deflate a work's importance or the topic that it deals with.
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Also on Der Untergang, the point of portraying him as more human (and having moments where he is perfectly normal and pleasant like being nice to his nervous new secretary) and not a cartoonish supervillain always evil all the time was absolutely not to show Hitler in some kind of better light, if anything, he is a far worse person because he's shown as more human.
100% this. I talk to people all the time who totally miss the point the movie is making.