Ten Movie Cliches
..that should die. As they note in comments, he left out the Evil Corporation, and tired trope that businessmen are heartless monsters. I’ve written about the latter in the past.
Of course, if you got rid of all these cliches, Hollywood would pretty much be out of business.
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on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 at 7:55 am by Rand Simberg and is filed under Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary.
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January 21st, 2009 at 9:09 am
One commenter spotted another:
How about the “Insightful/witty/smartassed child”? Is there anything less interesting than a child spouting lines that would never be thought or spoken by anyone younger than 30?
(The kid is usually a preteen, which makes the cliche even more annoying.)
There’s also this one: teenager with the full confidence and maturity of an adult. Rogue from the first X-Men movie was a notable departure from this stereotype.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:46 am
Just about any Tom Cruise character.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:27 am
Rand,
thanks for giving a link to that site. Great articles over there, and dead on.
January 21st, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Also, the brilliant underappreciated maverick scientist, engineer, or geek. He’s rejected by the mainstream academy because he threatens their egos, but then the Big Problem comes along, and all the King’s horses and all the King’s men can’t fix it, the entire research establishment is flummoxed….but Our Hero, with just his trusty iMac (no Hollywood good guy uses Windows) and a few moments hard thought at the movie climax, can Save The Day.
Blech. Not only is this obnoxious culturally, it gives a horribly wrong idea about science. It conveys the impression that science is all about having blue-sky weird sudden intuitions, like you get when eating certain mushrooms, when the reality is that anyone can have brilliant new ideas — and science is the laborious, methodical process of winnowing out the ideas that work from those which merely sound wonderful.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:03 pm
And to continue Carl’s line of thought, how is it if you have any scientific knowledge at all, you become an expert in everything remotely scientific. I think Buckaroo Banzai nailed this stereotype cold (the protagonist not only was a top notch scientist in a zillion fields, surgeon, etc, he also had his own rock band, corporation, cool dimension traveling car, etc).
You see it in action all the time. Someone knows a little biology and suddenly they’re writing papers on superstring theory or building time machines. Mad scientists in particular are good at every science. You need to weld a particle beam death ray to a rabbit? Get the guy with a PhD in Crazy.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:31 pm
There is one assumption that, if negated, would instantly wipe out the plots of 90% of Hollywood movies: you can (and should) love only one person at a time.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:50 pm
“Of course, if you got rid of all these cliches, Hollywood would pretty much be out of business.”
What’s the downside?
January 21st, 2009 at 5:50 pm
They disperse among the general population, Barbara. As it is, God has so arranged things that all the crazies and antisocials spontaneously congregate in one small location. It’s not His fault that we fail to take advantage of this and erect a large electrified fence around them.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:57 pm
As it is, God has so arranged things that all the crazies and antisocials spontaneously congregate in one small location.
Like this?
http://www.amctv.com/videos/the-prisoner-1960s-video/
Be seeing you.
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:28 am
In the case of San Francisco with water on three sides, we still haven’t finished the job…
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Be seeing you
No you won’t. I won’t be walking the wire doing guard duty, because I don’t like getting cold and wet, and it’s boring.