Wednesday, November 14, 2007

That Is The Question

I recently saw Before The Devil Knows You're Dead. I assume the erudite readers of Pajama Guy know the title is the second part of a famous Irish toast.

Many film titles come from famous quotations (feel free to list any in the comments) but there's usually no reason to explain the origin unless it comes naturally in the plot. Unfortunately, this film demonstrates little faith in its audience and directly shows where the title comes from right at the start.

They must have had a conference at some point. "Should we tell them? They may be confused, otherwise?" Here's my advice. Even if you pick a quote that no one knows, leave it alone. The few who get it can pat themselves on the back, and the rest will either let it pass, or perhaps be piqued, which can only make your movie seem that much more interesting.

4 Comments:

Blogger New England Guy said...

OK but most of the time, these phrases are just inserted as memory enhancers to increase interest and often have nothing to do with the actual plot.

I believe that by about 1977, nearly phrase in the Star Spangl'd Banner, was the name of a thriller - either book or movie and the only unifying theme was that an American flag showed up somewhere.

I'll be back after a couple hours at IMBD with the results

10:59 AM, November 14, 2007  
Blogger LAGuy said...

Let's not forget Twilight's Last Gleaming.

The most common quotations are form the Bible (Stranger In A Strange Land, Absalom, Absalom and about a million others) and Shakespeare (To Be Or Not To Be, The Undiscovered Country, Outrageous Fortune, Slings And Arrows, What Dreams May Come--hey, when you're doing that check on the Star Spangled Banner, check out Hamlet's famous soliloquy as well).

The most annoying case of overexplaining to me was in The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, where there's explicit dialogue discussing the rest of that saying.

11:11 AM, November 14, 2007  
Blogger ColumbusGuy said...

I'm tired of all these pretentious allusions. Gimme an American original any day of the week, like, I don't know, Ring of Fire.

11:34 AM, November 14, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Chariots Of Fire, which won the best picture Oscar, comes from Blake's poem "Jerusalem."

Most Americans didn't get the reference, but there was no need to explain it to the British, since they all sing the hymn "Jerusalem" in church.

11:40 AM, November 14, 2007  

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