Continuing the analysis of frequently expressed opinions about a movie in an exit poll:
4.PREDICTABLE Hai: In majority of films, the end is predictable. Love stories will always end with lovers uniting either in this life (happy ending), or after death (sad ending). Action will always have the hero vanquishing the villain, Drama will always have underdog triumphing in the end, Romantic Comedies will always have hero professing his love in front of the whole world to his 'roothi hui' beloved, who runs back in her lovers arms jilting the loser standing by at the alter.
Horror will always have every one else hacked to death except the protagonist who will always some how escape and eventually cause the demise of the killer. We can go on and on about predictable endings. What should not be predictable are the surprise turns the screenplay takes in reaching from the beginning to the end. If the journey is engaging and keeps one entertained by what is unfolding on the screen, then Predictable hai should not be seen as a problem in judging a movie.
5. CLICHE'D Hai: One must not forget that Cliches become cliches because time and again in the past, those situations have worked. Heroine gets in jeopardy. Hero shows up in the nick of time and saves her. The two fall in love. Most repeated stock situation in cinema. Sometimes, one ends up using a stereotype or a cliche' because it becomes a shortcut of communication between the film maker and the audience. Without dwelling on an explanation, the film maker can then move on to more complex parts of the story. Therefor, cliches and stereotypes shouldn't always be looked down upon with disdain.
6.LINEAR Hai: This I call the Tarantino effect on the new breed of film makers. Ever since PULP FICTION, it is considered cool to break up an otherwise nice linear story and randomly move its parts out of sequence even at the cost of making any logical sense. This more often than not ends up creating confusion rather than suspense but if you have succeeded in creating the right buzz, people will be afraid to admit that they are confused lest they be perceived as less intelligent.
This happens a lot in the movie business, where a film maker's creation is judged by all and sundry. Every one has an opinion about what is good acting, what is good script, what is good photography, what is good music and what is good direction. All that is fine but the problem is that rather than expressing it as one person's opinion, it is spoken about as if it represents a global consensus.
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These are very interesting analyses of fundamental screenplay techniques (cliches, etc.). Keep up the writing!
ReplyDeleteWhy do movies have to be predictable? Not all real life love stories have the lovers uniting either in life or in death. And certainly not all evil is vanquished by good in this world...Its all right for popcorn movies to have these kind of endings, but if we are talking about serious cinema, movies have been made that do not follow these cliche'd storylines. And about linear stories being broken up a la Tarantino- not all movies are made just to narrate a story. Sometimes the non-linear presentation is an end in itself. Excellent non-linear movies have been made, and Pulp Fiction is certainly one of them. The intention is not to confuse the audience. If we impose the requirement that all movies should have an understandable, linear plot, movies like 8 1/2 would not be considered great. Although I agree with your last post, i have to say that these criticisms of movies are largely valid.
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