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Anybody ever watch an older movie that has a scene or a line in it that has become iconic, only to be disappointed when they finally see it?
My most recent experience with this was two weeks ago, when I watched On the Waterfront. The legendary line is Marlon Brando telling his brother that he "coulda been a contenda."
It was, for me, kind of a "So what?" moment. No, he doesn't deliver the line with any special flair. It's just another line, delivered in pretty much the same tone as he gives every other line in the movie. Yes, he's a little sadder than in other scenes, but barely. If anything, it's worse because it looks so forced.
Well, I know I've just committed cinematic blasphemy, but I'm gonna ask if anybody else wants to join me. Anybody here ever been underwhelmed when they finally saw "The Scene" from a famous movie or TV show?
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For me I thought the "Luke, I am your Father." line in Star Wars whichever wasn't at all interesting. Maybe it was different for people when it was a surprise. *shrugs*
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I think that's happened almost every time I've heard a hyped famous line before seeing a movie. I think part of it is sometimes when people repeat it and laugh about it they are using more emotion than originally used. For example, my friend and I are always quoting movies line and cracking ourselves up. I can see how someone who had never seen the movie but had seen us in hysterics over it could be completely disappointed when he finally saw the movie.
I didn't see Silence of the Lambs until years after it came out. When I finally heard the "fava beans" lines I just thought "eh." Plus he pronounced "chianti" wrong.
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Princess Leia in the gold bikini. She wasn't that hot.
-------------------- Another lifetime I'd have fallen in love with you Swept away by my feelings, ashamed and confused But just now it's enough to be walking with you Let the mystery play as it will! -Lui Collins Posts: 2669 | From: Jouy en Josas, France | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by moonlight: I didn't see Silence of the Lambs until years after it came out. When I finally heard the "fava beans" lines I just thought "eh." Plus he pronounced "chianti" wrong.
Huh? Not only was I not aware that was a famous line, I wasn't even aware that was a line. What scene is it in?
I'd say the "I'm Rick James B----" line from the Chappelle Show was pretty meh. And yet, for some reason, it was so big that Maddox devoted a significant portion of an article (or was it a full article?) to defaming people who couldn't stop saying it (I had never heard anyone saying it).
-------------------- "Dear Lord, please protect this rockethouse and all who dwell within..." Posts: 1093 | From: Japan | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by moonlight: I think that's happened almost every time I've heard a hyped famous line before seeing a movie. I think part of it is sometimes when people repeat it and laugh about it they are using more emotion than originally used. For example, my friend and I are always quoting movies line and cracking ourselves up. I can see how someone who had never seen the movie but had seen us in hysterics over it could be completely disappointed when he finally saw the movie.
I agree, and it can also be the entire movie that has you going "Eh, what's the big deal?" I feel that way about Rocky Horror: what exactly is the big deal about this movie?
-------------------- "I have never in my life been more disappointed by a politician I voted for than I have been with George Bush. He is a total liberal."- overheard by me on the shuttle to the U of A game on Nov. 11th. Posts: 3878 | From: Tucson, AZ | Registered: Jan 2001
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I finally saw Brokeback Mountain over the weekend and the "I wish I knew how to quit you" line wasn't nearly as significant in the movie as it was in the commercial and all the parodies.
Although some lines actually get better because of references in other shows. The most memorable one for me is "Quaid, start the reactor" from Total Recall. It never meant much until it was in South Park. Now I laugh every time I see it.
Posts: 835 | From: Massachusetts | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Midgard_Dragon: For me I thought the "Luke, I am your Father." line in Star Wars whichever wasn't at all interesting. Maybe it was different for people when it was a surprise. *shrugs*
It's much better in the Lego Star Wars: The Original Trilogy video game. Luke is hanging there and Darth Vader pulls a "family photo" out and points at it (the characters in LSW don't talk). I laugh every time I see it.
-------------------- "Silly customer, you cannot hurt a Twinkie." -Apu (The Simpsons) Posts: 2026 | From: 10 miles South of Boston | Registered: Oct 2002
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quote:Originally posted by christmas tree kitapper: I feel that way about Rocky Horror: what exactly is the big deal about this movie?
The film itself is okay. Seeing it in the cinema with a bunch of other people also dressed up, shouting and throwing stuff at the screen, is great fun.
-------------------- seriously , everyone on here , just trys to give someone crap about something they do !! , its shitting me to tears. Posts: 16061 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Ramblin' Dave, quietly making noise: Princess Leia in the gold bikini. She wasn't that hot.
Blasphemer! You shall be thrown in to the Great Pit of Carkoon where the Sarlacc shall digest you for a thousand years.
-------------------- IIRC, it wasn't the shoe bomber's loud prayers that sparked the takedown by the other passengers; it was that he was trying to light his shoe on fire. Very, very different. Canuckistan Posts: 3694 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2005
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The appeal of Rocky Horror has more to do with the culture around it than the film itself. The fan base that grew around Rocky Horror allowed people to dress and act in outlandish ways and, for the span of an hour and a half, act like uninhibited extraverts. The biggest attraction was that when you went to watch Rocky Horror in a theatre filled with fans you were part of a group, and being part of a group is one of those desires that just about everyone has, particularly when you're younger. What's more, most Rocky Horror fans were happy to include anyone who wanted to join in on the fun. No one was ostracized because of how they dressed or what they looked like. That sort of acceptance can be a very welcome element in the life of a teenager who otherwise feels left out of everything.
On top of that, the movie itself was naughty, and the audience participation was naughty as well (a fairly tame kind of naughty, but still outside the realm of what is considered socially acceptable). When you participate in a screening you feel like you are pushing boundaries, that you are doing something normally forbidden. That has a big appeal to it as well. Finally, the movie allows people who are exploring their gender identity or sexuality to do so in an environment that has a safety net built into it. After all, it's all just playacting, right?
For the record, I believe that "Shock Treatment", the semi-sequel to Rocky Horror, is the superior film.
quote:Originally posted by moonlight: I didn't see Silence of the Lambs until years after it came out. When I finally heard the "fava beans" lines I just thought "eh." Plus he pronounced "chianti" wrong.
Huh? Not only was I not aware that was a famous line, I wasn't even aware that was a line. What scene is it in?
quote:Originally posted by moonlight: I didn't see Silence of the Lambs until years after it came out. When I finally heard the "fava beans" lines I just thought "eh." Plus he pronounced "chianti" wrong.
How does one pronounce Chianti if not key-anne-tea?
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quote:Originally posted by Macheath: For the record, I believe that "Shock Treatment", the semi-sequel to Rocky Horror, is the superior film.
I've only seen it the once, but I really enjoyed it, and don't understand the derision that it's usually greeted with.
-------------------- seriously , everyone on here , just trys to give someone crap about something they do !! , its shitting me to tears. Posts: 16061 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2000
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quote:Originally posted by moonlight: I didn't see Silence of the Lambs until years after it came out. When I finally heard the "fava beans" lines I just thought "eh." Plus he pronounced "chianti" wrong.
How does one pronounce Chianti if not key-anne-tea?
Well I guess I failed to realize there are a lot of different accents here, but I have always known it to be pronounced key-on-tea.
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A lot of the famous lines from Casablanca seem overhyped to me. In fact, so does the whole movie, but that's another thread.
Tom Joad's farewell speech to Ma in The Grapes of Wrath is another scene that I think has been anthologized too often. When I saw it in the context of the whole movie, it seemed overblown: up to this point, Tom's dialogue seemed pretty plain and realistic, and suddenly he comes out with this mystical semi-poetry.
-------------------- Si hoc comprehendere potes, gratias age magistro Latinae. Posts: 1720 | From: Charlottesville, VA | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Santa Mari-a: A lot of the famous lines from Casablanca seem overhyped to me. In fact, so does the whole movie, but that's another thread.
"This could be the start of a beautiful friendship." "Play it, Sam." (NOT "Play it again, Sam." The "Regret it" speech.
All delivered in the same lifeless, flat tone that Bogey spoke all of his lines in. Come to think of it, the same way all actors in the 40s and 50s spoke their lines.
Which is probably why...
quote:ChelleGame said this: The contender line in OTWF didn't impress me either, but I don't like the movie. I also fail to be moved by "Rosebud," in Citizen Kane.
Yeah. Actually, On the Watefront was really kind of boring.
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Can I write down an iconic scent that I liked? I enjoyed the "You Can't handle the truth" bit in A few good men. Jack Nicholson and even Tom Cruise were fabulous
an Iconic scene that let me down: "Here's Johnny" in the Shining. Jack Nicholson is awesome in the movie, but the whole bit where he's threatening Shelly Duvall with the axe comes off as slightly corny and silly
-------------------- "High-Five!" - Borat Posts: 1056 | From: Racine, WI | Registered: Jun 2006
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I must be missing the point: do you guys want these lines to be *expressed* in great flaring melodramatic emphasis, with horns blazing and spotlights burning?
You surely know the joke about how "Hamlet" is just a bunch of famous quotes all strung together.
Some memorable lines and scenes *are*, in fact, given emphasis by the director and the actor. Take, for example, "You can't handle the truth!" in "A Few Good Men," or "Fill your hands, you son of a bitch!" from "True Grit."
Other memorable lines are delivered in a more subtle manner, yet are still powerful, sometimes even electrifying. Most of Bogart's performance in "The Maltese Falcon" is that way; the line, "The stuff that dreams are made of" is memorable, but only because of what the characters have been through.
(Trivia: that isn't the last line of the movie. That actual last line of "The Maltese Falcon" is "Huh?")
The best "iconic" moments depend on context, not upon mere volume. Any idiot can bellow, "Stella!" Brando's performance was meaningful because he had already gotten the audience to invest their emotions in the character. Without that, it would have been as empty as a thousand-and-one "Noooo!" scenes in the lesser catalog of forgettable films.
(e.g., I am very fond of "The Man from Snowy River," but the huge echoing "Noooo!" scene, early in the film, is stupid, weak, artificial, contrived, and flat. I far prefer the girl's scream of pure terror, later in the film, when the day dawns and she realizes how close she came to death.)
Silas
Posts: 16801 | From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Midgard_Dragon: For me I thought the "Luke, I am your Father." line in Star Wars whichever wasn't at all interesting. Maybe it was different for people when it was a surprise. *shrugs*
No maybe about it. I feel sorry for anyone who didn't get to see the original three Star Wars movies in the theatre when they first came out. Even moreso as this was in the days before the Internet and spoilers were a lot harder to come by! Thankfully.
-------------------- If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it's just possible you haven't grasped the situation. - Jean Kerr Posts: 18428 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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moonlight, the pronunciation of chianti always bothered me, too. Especially since one would expect someone as refined as Lector to pronounce it correctly.
-------------------- saxea ut effigies bacchantis prospicit eheu | prospicit et magnis curarum fluctuat undis -Catullus Posts: 435 | From: Iowa | Registered: Mar 2006
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"Made it ma! Top of the world!" from White Heat.
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quote:Originally posted by Christie: No maybe about it. I feel sorry for anyone who didn't get to see the original three Star Wars movies in the theatre when they first came out. Even moreso as this was in the days before the Internet and spoilers were a lot harder to come by! Thankfully.
Well, I saw the original on video, then wasn't bothered enough to see The Empire Strikes Back at the cinema (I may still have been living in Germany at this point, and I don't think I saw anything at all at the cinema while I was there). When Return Of The Jedi came out, I saw it in a triple-bill, and don't remember being particularly overwhelmed by any of the films.
In fact, I've always thought that that revelation smacked of "huh?" and Obi Wan's "from a certain point of view" speech was retconning, long before I knew the word "retconning".
Not that Lucas would ever do that, you know. Just look at the prequels...
-------------------- seriously , everyone on here , just trys to give someone crap about something they do !! , its shitting me to tears. Posts: 16061 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Christie: No maybe about it. I feel sorry for anyone who didn't get to see the original three Star Wars movies in the theatre when they first came out. Even moreso as this was in the days before the Internet and spoilers were a lot harder to come by! Thankfully.
Well, I saw the original on video, then wasn't bothered enough to see The Empire Strikes Back at the cinema (I may still have been living in Germany at this point, and I don't think I saw anything at all at the cinema while I was there). When Return Of The Jedi came out, I saw it in a triple-bill, and don't remember being particularly overwhelmed by any of the films.
I can only think of a handful of films that involved and affected me the way the original Star Wars films did. I hope there are other films that did that for you because it is a pretty special feeling that I'm very glad I experienced. Magic .
I wonder though since you were only about 6 when Empire Strikes Back came out in the theatre though perhaps your feelings would have been different if you'd been a fair bit older?
ETA: did they have home videos in 1980?
-------------------- If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it's just possible you haven't grasped the situation. - Jean Kerr Posts: 18428 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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quote:was not until the late 1970s, when European and Japanese companies developed more technically advanced machines with more accurate electronic timers and greater tape duration, that the VCR started to become a mass market consumer product. By 1980 there were three competing technical standards, with different, physically incompatible tape cassettes.
-------------------- "Ladies and gentlemen, this is what is commonly known as money. It comes in all sizes, colours, and denominations - like people." Posts: 997 | From: Maidstone, UK | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote:was not until the late 1970s, when European and Japanese companies developed more technically advanced machines with more accurate electronic timers and greater tape duration, that the VCR started to become a mass market consumer product. By 1980 there were three competing technical standards, with different, physically incompatible tape cassettes.
I'm not sure what I meant by "they"! Earthlings maybe ...oh well...
Anyway I found a great site that talks about vcr's from a UK perspective.
-------------------- If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it's just possible you haven't grasped the situation. - Jean Kerr Posts: 18428 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Christie: [QB]I can only think of a handful of films that involved and affected me the way the original Star Wars films did. I hope there are other films that did that for you because it is a pretty special feeling that I'm very glad I experienced. Magic .
I saw Time Bandits on the same day that I saw Star Wars (so it would actually have been at least 1981 that I saw Star Wars, which would have made me 7ish), and I adored that.
The two other huge films from my childhood were Tron and Ghostbusters, when I was 8ish and 10ish, respectively. Both were, and still are, magical.
I just never really got into the whole Star Wars thing. Don't get me wrong, I thought they were fun, but they were never anything particularly special to me (in my childhood, I'd have rated both Hawk The Slayer and Krull higher). When playing "Star Wars" on the primary school playground, it was never my first choice. And to this day I'll never understand why people would fight to be Han Solo, but nobody (except me) ever wanted to be Luke.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Han Solo can shoot a gun, wheras Luke can do magic and has such good reflexes that he can deflect bolts that travel at the speed of light with a thin sword. How is Luke not the cool option?
quote:I wonder though since you were only about 6 when Empire Strikes Back came out in the theatre though perhaps your feelings would have been different if you'd been a fair bit older?
I dunno. I'd have been 9ish when I saw all three at the cinema (which was the first time I saw The Empire Strikes Back), and I'd have marked that out as roughly the right age-range. And I'd have put Time Bandits as skewed at a higher age-bracket.
quote:ETA: did they have home videos in 1980?
Not mine, I have to say, but a neighbour's. And, yes, they were loaded.
-------------------- seriously , everyone on here , just trys to give someone crap about something they do !! , its shitting me to tears. Posts: 16061 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2000
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Ah good memories. My school never found out who broke their V-2000 by fast forwarding through a dull documentary while the teacher was out of the room. (How the hell was I supposed to know that you had to stop the tape before pressing fast forward? One of the rich kids told me it would work.)
-------------------- "Ladies and gentlemen, this is what is commonly known as money. It comes in all sizes, colours, and denominations - like people." Posts: 997 | From: Maidstone, UK | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote:Originally posted by trollface: Correct me if I'm wrong, but Han Solo can shoot a gun, wheras Luke can do magic and has such good reflexes that he can deflect bolts that travel at the speed of light with a thin sword. How is Luke not the cool option?
Mark Hamill's weak, whiny, watery, wimpy, wallowing, wet-behind-the-willy, walk-through performance ("Carrie!") comes to mind.
"I wanna be a Jedi Knight like my father." "I'm a pretty good pilot too, you know."
Solo got all the good lines. "This ain't like dustin' crops, boy!"
Silas
Posts: 16801 | From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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Yeah, but...he can do magic. When role-playing in that manner, you don't keep the people's personalities, you just take on their roles.
Simply put, if I were given the option of either a) being able to do magic and acrobatics or b) having a rusty spaceship and a hairy boyfriend, I'd go for option a every time.
-------------------- seriously , everyone on here , just trys to give someone crap about something they do !! , its shitting me to tears. Posts: 16061 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2000
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I saw Napoleon Dynamite for the first time just yesterday and I feel a bit like was described in the OP. Sure, it was a funny movie and I enjoyed certain scenes, but it just seemed like everyone I'd talked to had made it out to be such a huge deal that I was expecting something much more monumental than what it was.
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