Movies (or media in general) where you believe the lesson was lost on most audiences

L Thammy · Nov 10, 2018

I was recently thinking that Monty Python had some of this going on in how it was embraced by nerds. For one thing, the humour is based on the unexpected, which fans then ruin by memorizing every line of Holy Grail and reciting the whole thing.

The other thing is that I think a lot of people just took it as totally random and ignored that a lot of it (not all, but a lot) was satirical. Like when they'd mock the red scare, or gay culture and homophobia, or government spending, and whatnot. I read an interview with John Cleese where he mentions getting annoyed at people who think they just got high and churned them out because they actually put a lot of time and effort into creating what they did.

MarioW · Nov 10, 2018

Team America: World Police

As a NZer, I went to see this with a Canadian in San Francisco. We appeared to be laughing at meaningfully different places throughout than the American audience.

Deleted member 42758 · Nov 10, 2018

Edit... duplicate

Azzanadra · Nov 10, 2018

Any movie involving Wall Street:

The Wold of Wall Street, Wall Street, The Big Short, plenty others that I am missing

Plenty of people watch these films think its "cool", that that sort of lifestyle is ideal- not at all realizing that what these films actually do is paint the morally bankrupt and vacuous pursuit of money above all else, and the the larger overarching degeneracy that is hurting America.

It also seems like people actually get inspired by these movie to pursue that sort of career/lifestyle.

Soneji · Nov 10, 2018

People who think Swimming Pools by Kendrick is about having a good time drinking, taking shots when the song says drink. Just terrible.

Nikus said:
South Park?

It is definitely the piece of media where the lesson was lost on a large portion of ERA.

PlanetSmasher · Nov 10, 2018

This is Scarface: The Thread. So many idiots seem to think the movie is a story about someone living his life to the fullest and being the biggest badass of all time and it's just...not. It's about a psychopath who destroys his own life and winds up dead because he doesn't know when to stop.

subpar spatula · Nov 10, 2018

500 Days of Summer.

Altazor · Nov 10, 2018

Breaking Bad.

Walter White is a monster and he pretty much ruins the lives of everybody who's unlucky enough to cross his path. You're not really "supposed" to root for him during S5. I mean, the series is not even subtle about it - it's not even subtext, it's just plain text! He fucks up everybody's lives, he loses everything he built up in the end and the only small measure of actual amends he does is ridding the world of a bunch of neonazis he himself let loose in the first place.

Khanimus · Nov 10, 2018

Fight Club and Breaking Bad are both at the top of the list.

The former isn't about "cool guys fighting to get their frustrations out", it's about extremist indoctrination. Look at the prevalence of modern fucking hate groups coercing young men to join their ranks.

And Breaking Bad, Walter is the fucking bad guy. Even from the start, and he may be better than some people early on, but his moral declination slides with no fucking breaks.

Zukkoyaki · Nov 10, 2018

Talladega Nights

Being from small-town Missouri, I've known countless people who are completely oblivious to the fact the movie is making fun of lower class, poorly educated and cultured white people exactly like them.

TAJ · Nov 10, 2018

Wall Street is the champ. I almost hate it just for how destructive it's been.

L Thammy · Nov 10, 2018

Khanimus said:
Fight Club and Breaking Bad are both at the top of the list.

The former isn't about "cool guys fighting to get their frustrations out", it's about extremist indoctrination. Look at the prevalence of modern fucking hate groups coercing young men to join their ranks.

It's also about being in the closet.

Deleted member 42758 · Nov 10, 2018

Stouffers said:
In The Lion King, how did Simbas father come to power? I assume it was by killing the previous pride head.. so why was the uncle the bad guy if he was just doing what lions do?

HStallion said:
The movie could have used some more patricide. Also why don't we see the lions ripping a Zebra to pieces while its still alive?

Yeah what the Lion King really needed was more unadulterated animal violence to keep its core themes grounded beneath all that fucking singing and dancing.

Bumrush · Nov 10, 2018

Stouffers said:
In The Lion King, how did Simbas father come to power? I assume it was by killing the previous pride head.. so why was the uncle the bad guy if he was just doing what lions do?

I mean...with the speech Mufasa gives to Simba about inheriting the kingdom, it's assumed that he also inherited the kingdom.

Nairume · Nov 10, 2018

L Thammy said:
I was recently thinking that Monty Python had some of this going on in how it was embraced by nerds. For one thing, the humour is based on the unexpected, which fans then ruin by memorizing every line of Holy Grail and reciting the whole thing.

The other thing is that I think a lot of people just took it as totally random and ignored that a lot of it (not all, but a lot) was satirical. Like when they'd mock the red scare, or gay culture and homophobia, or government spending, and whatnot. I read an interview with John Cleese where he mentions getting annoyed at people who think they just got high and churned them out because they actually put a lot of time and effort into creating what they did.

The lumberjack song being rooted in actual British anxieties about British migrant workers in Canada during the 18th and 19th centuries is mind blowing

HStallion · Nov 10, 2018

crops55 said:
Yeah what the Lion King really needed was more unadulterated animal violence to keep its core themes grounded beneath all that fucking singing and dancing.

Gotta show the full circle of life. Some Hyenas stripping the flesh off of Mufasa's corpse would have really rounded the idea out

Titik · Nov 10, 2018

Starship troopers. It's not meant to celebrate totalitarian governments.

Violence Jack · Nov 10, 2018

Has to be American Psycho. The director had so many fans come up to her telling them that they could relate to the Patrick Bateman character, that she was utterly shocked that they all missed the message.

peppersky · Nov 10, 2018

It's really baffling that people always quote Walter White's "I am the one who knocks" line like it is some badass shit considering he is literally just verbally abusing his wife in that scene.

OrangeNova · Nov 10, 2018

Kalmakoffee said:
First me, it's Scott Pilgrim

Most people I know love this series for the obscure pop culture references and it's satire and mockery of hipster culture. But I think most people miss the main point of it; Scott and Ramona are terrible, terrible people.

And I'm sure there other examples but right now this is what immediately came to mind, and I'd love to see what other people bring up.

The part in Book 6

where you find out Stephen stills is gay, and came out in Book 5... But because Scott is such an asshole everything had to be about him, so it was just in the background of a panel.

I think is one of the best examples in the books.

SindbadtheSailor · Nov 10, 2018

Finding Nemo

The film's use of clownfish prompted mass purchase of the fish breed as pets in the United States, even though the story portrayed the use of fish as pets negatively and suggested that saltwater aquariums are notably tricky and expensive to maintain.[60] The demand for clownfish was supplied by large-scale harvesting of tropical fish in regions like Vanuatu.[61] The Australian Tourism Commission (ATC) launched several marketing campaigns in China and the United States to improve tourism in Australia, many of them utilizing Finding Nemo clips.[62][63] Queensland used Finding Nemo to draw tourists to promote its state for vacationers.[64] According to National Geographic, "Ironically, Finding Nemo, a movie about the anguish of a captured clownfish, caused home-aquarium demand for them to triple."[65]

The reaction to the film by the general public has led to environmental devastation for the clownfish, and has provoked an outcry from several environmental protection agencies, including the Marine Aquarium Council, Australia. The demand for tropical fish skyrocketed after the film's release, causing reef species decimation in Vanuatu and many other reef areas.[66] After seeing the film, some aquarium owners released their pet fish into the ocean, but failed to release them into the correct oceanic habitat, which introduced species that are harmful to the indigenous environment, a practice that is harming reefs worldwide.[67][68]

nel e nel · Nov 10, 2018

Mass Effect 3

dennett316 · Nov 10, 2018

crops55 said:
Yeah what the Lion King really needed was more unadulterated animal violence to keep its core themes grounded beneath all that fucking singing and dancing.

I think you missed HStallion's heavy dose of irony, not sure they should've been quoted with that other member who seemed to think an animated movie was a wildlife documentary.

Chopchop · Nov 10, 2018

Inception, as defined in the movie, is the act of inserting an idea into someone's mind. It doesn't mean "something inside something else".

The movie explains this within its first ten minutes or so, but we still got a few years of people going "omg inception" every time they saw something nested in something else.

null said:
"greed is good" ruined a generation that ruined us all.

Our generation has glorified being an aggressive, selfish, greedy asshole, mostly because too many people have missed the point on these tongue-in-cheek depictions of such behavior.

Vincent Alexander · Nov 10, 2018

The point of a movie seems like it is its theme. It's message. This feels like a thread where people don't like interpretations of characters...?

Kalmakoffee said:
First me, it's Scott Pilgrim

Most people I know love this series for the obscure pop culture references and it's satire and mockery of hipster culture. But I think most people miss the main point of it; Scott and Ramona are terrible, terrible people.

And I'm sure there other examples but right now this is what immediately came to mind, and I'd love to see what other people bring up.

I uhh...don't think that is the point of Scott Pilgrim. The point is that people have baggage, but people can grow. They can change. They can mature. Ramona calls herself out for having not been the best in the past, but she needs someone in her life who can see past her history and love her for who she is, and not who she was. (I'm talking movie only. Never read books)

Window · Nov 10, 2018

Chopchop said:
Inception, as defined in the movie, is the act of inserting an idea into someone's mind. It doesn't mean "something inside something else".

The movie explains this within its first ten minutes or so, but we still got a few years of people going "omg inception" every time they saw something nested in something else.

People are referring to the dream within a dream scenario from that film in the inception meme. Of course people know what the meaning of the world inception is and why the movie is called that considering its premise.

As for the topic, Goodfellas.

TheDestructiveSquirrel · Nov 10, 2018

and

T'Chakku · Nov 10, 2018

Kalmakoffee said:
Legit confused by the people who walked outta that movie and thought "You know what? A race war would be the solution to black people's problems!"

Cross said:
Black Panther.

No, Killmonger isn't right.

Speaking of things being lost on some people...

Steel · Nov 10, 2018

Wulfric said:
The Matrix

DING DING DING! Winner!

Sch1sm · Nov 10, 2018

thank u, next - Ariana Grande.

People use it as another way to say men are trash, when the whole message is gratefulness for what she's learned from her relationships.

Deleted member 10747 · Nov 10, 2018

jack_package_200 said:
Fight Club

Tyler isn't the good guy, dipshits

Why would anyone think that?

Jon Carter · Nov 10, 2018

No one knows how to interpret Battleship. The obvious answer, especially knowing Peter Berg, is it's probably just the kickass U.S. Navy kicking evil invader alien asses.

But the way the film is written is odd. The Navy shoots first, based on a misunderstanding. The aliens retaliate and set out to only kill or destroy what is necessary to accomplish their mission, which is to contact either their home planet or other alien friends. The film makes a point to show the aliens sparing people whenever they can, and there's a scene where an alien uses telepathy to show the main character a vision of a destroyed planet and an alien ship flying away from it.

The story is supposed to be that aliens are coming to invade or destroy Earth and need to contact their home planet to ask them to join them, but it kinda feels like the real story is that aliens left their home planet as it was getting destroyed, set out to go to Earth with no evil intent, and when shit hit the fan, decided to contact their alien friends to come rescue them ASAP.

Wikipedia went with the surface level reading, but there's quite a few people online noticing that the story feels more like a disguised critique of the military. Probably disguised well enough that Peter Berg didn't notice, but the hints are there.

Buttchin-n-Bones · Nov 11, 2018

subpar spatula said:
500 Days of Summer.

Yeah this one is pretty notable. Even I take the wrong lessons from it sometimes

BDS · Nov 11, 2018

I don't want to restart this old argument for the 400000th time, but I truly and genuinely believe that a significant portion of the audience either did not understand, or chose to reject, the fundamental concepts and themes of The Last Jedi.

jack_package_200 · Nov 11, 2018

BDS said:
I don't want to restart this old argument for the 400000th time, but I truly and genuinely believe that a significant portion of the audience either did not understand, or chose to reject, the fundamental concepts and themes of The Last Jedi.

100%

Lunar15 · Nov 11, 2018

The best answer for this is Fight Club, since that movie is a huge deconstruction of empty masculinity in modern society, but it's weirdly held up as this pinnacle of masculinity.

Since that was already used though, I'm going to contribute Glengarry Glen Ross. I work in a sales department and the amount of times that movie gets quote is insaned considering it's actually a scathing take on how sales can be cutthroat and ruin peoples' lives. You're not supposed to walk away from that going "Boy, these people had it right!"

Z-Beat · Nov 11, 2018

Fight Club

The Watcher · Nov 11, 2018

TalonJH said:
The Last of Us. Joel is the bad guy(but that's okay, lots of us would make the same choice)

I hated making that decision and resent the game for forcing me to do it. It makes sense from Joel's POV, but I'd most rather have had the choice.

gforguava · Nov 11, 2018

Jon Carter said:
No one knows how to interpret Battleship. The obvious answer, especially knowing Peter Berg, is it's probably just the kickass U.S. Navy kicking evil invader alien asses.

But the way the film is written is odd. The Navy shoots first, based on a misunderstanding. The aliens retaliate and set out to only kill or destroy what is necessary to accomplish their mission, which is to contact either their home planet or other alien friends. The film makes a point to show the aliens sparing people whenever they can, and there's a scene where an alien uses telepathy to show the main character a vision of a destroyed planet and an alien ship flying away from it.

The story is supposed to be that aliens are coming to invade or destroy Earth and need to contact their home planet to ask them to join them, but it kinda feels like the real story is that aliens left their home planet as it was getting destroyed, set out to go to Earth with no evil intent, and when shit hit the fan, decided to contact their alien friends to come rescue them ASAP.

Wikipedia went with the surface level reading, but there's quite a few people online noticing that the story feels more like a disguised critique of the military. Probably disguised well enough that Peter Berg didn't notice, but the hints are there.

Yup.

Battleship, either through some clever and sneaky filmmakers or just plain incompetence, absolutely takes the view that humanity are a bunch of violent monsters and the aliens are passive victims. The film flat out states that humanity sent out a 'welcome message' into space and when the aliens show up their communication ship is destroyed when it hits one of our satellites, the whole film is a clusterfuck caused by humanity's horrible and violent nature.

It is astounding that more people don't see it, every action taken by the aliens is towards one goal(getting a message to their friends for some help) and they go about it while explicitly trying to avoid killing as many people as possible.

And the film ends with the humans victorious as "Fortunate Son" plays over the credits, which is arguably the most famous anti-war song ever, you couldn't make it more blatant if you tried.

Deleted member 42758 · Nov 11, 2018

dennett316 said:
I think you missed HStallion's heavy dose of irony, not sure they should've been quoted with that other member who seemed to think an animated movie was a wildlife documentary.

I was adding to it....

Bengraven · Nov 11, 2018

I remember people having white awakening moments watching American History X.

Superpupperbabysassy · Nov 11, 2018

admiraltaftbar said:
Do the Right Thing, people wonder if Mookie did the right thing (the answer is yes).

No he didn't. He destroyed someone's place of business just because he didn't like his personal beliefs. That is beauty of that movie. At different ages, people get different perspectives of what the right thing actually is.

Surfinn · Nov 11, 2018

JB1981 said:
The Last Jedi "let the past die."

Ding ding ding

Stouffers · Nov 11, 2018

Starship Troopers

99Luffy · Nov 11, 2018

Medabots was a parody of the monster trainer genre. It was parodying shonens long before one punch man.

cervanky · Nov 11, 2018

JB1981 said:
The Last Jedi "let the past die."

Surfinn said:
Ding ding ding

BDS said:
I don't want to restart this old argument for the 400000th time, but I truly and genuinely believe that a significant portion of the audience either did not understand, or chose to reject, the fundamental concepts and themes of The Last Jedi.

Do you mean the take-away from the movie is that we should let the past die, or do you mean something else? What part do audiences misunderstand

I feel like the movie kinda took that safe middle ground approach with this theme, I'm not sure there's a coherent enough ideology to really fail to grasp (not attacking Rian over this, it's just Star Wars in general).

Like, correct me if I'm wrong here, but the message of the film was to take some things from the past, discard what didn't work, and use that to build the future....right?

I just feel like that's...barely anything. I don't know what's not to get.

Lunar15 said:
Since that was already used though, I'm going to contribute Glengarry Glen Ross. I work in a sales department and the amount of times that movie gets quote is insaned considering it's actually a scathing take on how sales can be cutthroat and ruin peoples' lives. You're not supposed to walk away from that going "Boy, these people had it right!"

Wow, geeze. Yeah, that whole movie is a tragedy, and I don't understand how that could be missed.

Surfinn · Nov 11, 2018

cervanky said:
Do you mean the take-away from the movie is that we should let the past die, or do you mean something else? What part do audiences misunderstand

I feel like the movie kinda took that safe middle ground approach with this theme, I'm not sure there's a coherent enough ideology to really fail to grasp (not attacking Rian over this, it's just Star Wars in general).

Like, correct me if I'm wrong here, but the message of the film was to take some things from the past, discard what didn't work, and use that to build the future....right?

Wow, geeze. Yeah, that whole movie is a tragedy, and I don't understand how that could be missed.

People thought the lesson was to let the past die. That is not the lesson. It's a failed ideology from the villain. One of the overarching themes was that if you don't learn from the past you'll never build a better future.

cervanky · Nov 11, 2018

Surfinn said:
People thought the lesson was to let the past die. That is not the lesson. It's a failed ideology from the villain. One of the overarching themes was that if you don't learn from the past you'll never build a better future.

Gotcha, yeah. That was Luke's failed ideology too, in his own way (until he was convinced otherwise by Rey).

It's kinda baffling then how people would miss that, you'd have to turn your brain off in the last act. Luke even says he won't be the last of the Jedi in a movie named "The Last Jedi", as a kind of gotcha-twist that that way of thinking is wrong.

Reading through this thread, it seems like people tend to grab hold of catchy phrases or compelling scenes isolated on their own and they don't critically evaluate them in the greater context of the work.
Like:
"I am the one who knocks!" in Breaking Bad
"Always Be Closing" in Glengarry Glen Ross
"Let the past die" in TLJ

Something in a scene strikes a nerve or is well-performed and emotionally resonant on its own, but people just don't connect the dots to everything around it.

cakely · Nov 11, 2018

Kalmakoffee said:
First me, it's Scott Pilgrim

Most people I know love this series for the obscure pop culture references and it's satire and mockery of hipster culture. But I think most people miss the main point of it; Scott and Ramona are terrible, terrible people.

And I'm sure there other examples but right now this is what immediately came to mind, and I'd love to see what other people bring up.

Adaptation.

Most people I've discussed the movie with don't realize that the movie itself is supposed to be the result of a screenwriter going completely off the rails. They all say something like "wow, that movie took a really dumb turn in the second half."

Wes D. Mess · Nov 11, 2018

bruce-springsteen-born-in-the-usa-cover-billboard-650-extended.jpg

one of the greatest songs for american "patriots" but I doubt many know what the song is actually about

Movies (or media in general) where you believe the lesson was lost on most audiences

Spacenoid

PikPok

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The Abominable Showman

Refuses to Wash his Ass

Spacenoid

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SaGa Sage

Drive-in Mutant

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Actually knows the TOS

One Winged Slayer

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