Subliminal Seduction: Movies and Your Subconscious

Movies and Your Subconscious

Could the power of a visual image be used to manipulate people via their deepest subconscious selves?

Creating a different narrative than what the film is actually supposed to be about?

I think it may be happening.

I joked in another thread that the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters might symbolize white power and white dominance and its destructive force and how it should be taken out.



This is, of course, not addressed in the actual movie.... but look at it. Look at that white doughy demon attacking the senses, showing the destructive force of whiteness.

Is there another side to Ghostbusters that we are not seeing?

Does anyone else besides me feel that there is another dimension (or dimensions) of seeing and reading and interpreting movies?

What have you seen in films that other people are not noticing?

I would like to know as I think it's a topic worth discussing.

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It's about nothing.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

The inclusion of Slimer was a means to desenaitize a generation to pornography. I mean look how pervasive it is today?

Then there's that whole mousey librarian-turn-screamer ghost fetish.

There's also the theory that it ends up demonstrating Randian Objectivism, which is at once tangible (the business effectively reduces the concept of the religious/paranormal to a crude science that can ultimately be beaten by better science, the secondary antagonist is an Environmental Protection agent looking to shut down their business, etc.) yet somehow not entirely agreeable.

I think some people may be reading too much into it. Just because a marshmellow happens to be white, does not mean that it is a symbol of white power if it's a giant marshmellow man monster.

If it was a yellow colored marshmellow banana man, would people think it was a symbol of yellow power?

OP is just joking.

One of the ideas suggested by others is I think clearly the films subtext, the idea of small time blue collar professionals up against the establishment.

Obviously the Ghostbusters themselves are educated men using advanced technology but the way there portrayed is generally more along the lines of firemen or pest exterminators, a divide that is obviously mined for a good deal of comedy in itself.

The film starts of with there being kicked out of University by the establishment. Then we see them struggling to start a small business and dealing with clients who want to short change them. They become successful before being taken down by the establishment again in the form of Walter peck. The climax though is the establishment realising it needs them and there becoming cultural heroes.

You could potentially add as well that the love story is a bit of a class divide as well with Dana being a classical musician living in an upscale apartment.

If theres a shift in the lead characters its perhaps moving more towards that blue collar position but equally I think part of the point is that its society accepting it needs them not their having to change for society.

I thought similarly during Blade:

The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man could symbolize the domineering white man who controls everything and is thereby “coming after” the Ghostbusters to keep them out of a job. Basically, the whole movie, even the ghouls themselves, symbolizes what you’re talking about — class structures and how they can be like the forces of evil, and how the Ghostbusters have to defeat them in order to have their place in society.

I would say all that was intended there was for Mr Stay Puff to represent an element of Ray's childhood turned against him that obviously cause shim to "go bye bye".

What you could I spose say is that the whole Evo Shandor Goza worship plot could be viewed as rather eltist, a high society cult looking to influence the world. The original idea was actually to have Goza appear as Evo Sandor played by peewee Herman which might have played this up more I spose. Maybe part of the reason it was dropped is that it came across as a little antisemtic?

I thought Mr Stay Puft was the nightmare of commercialism- nothing to do with white power (only in the sense that those men dominate big business).

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You cannot have it both ways. A dancer who relies upon the doubtful comforts of human love can never be a great dancer. Never. (The Red Shoes, 1948)

May have actu-snortblew my tea.

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the marshmallow man was an ultimate craving for many people in the movie universe that s why it became a monster that big