Suspension of disbelief
Jun 15, 2008 Ars Longa, Sisyphus
It was okay when we tolerated movie musicals, but for “cautionary thrillers”? Uh uh:
Early on in “The Happening”, it becomes obvious that people are being affected by airborne toxins, yet no one in the movie even tries to cover their mouths with a shirt or something. They sell safety masks at CVS and at Home Depot. Wouldn’t that make a little more sense than trying to outrun the wind?
..and there are machines that can help us escape the bonds of earth and outrun the wind, called ‘airplanes’.
These cautionary thrillers can’t work unless they make the intended victims helpless prey, and in doing so they make people appear to be dumber than mice. Sure, these things would be a threat if people were that helpless, but they’re not, so what is the point?
Um, propaganda?
June 15th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Thanks for the link!
It is propaganda, but even propaganda can make a good story, like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. But a movie can’t work if the characters have no basic common sense. In the old 50’s radioactive beast movies, the women were usually useless – they’d go into the moldy basement, they’d open the door, see the monster, scream, faint and/or die. In this movie, everyone played that role.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
But a movie can’t work if the characters have no basic common sense.
Exactly. Sometimes cr*p is just cr*p.