CURRENT MOVIE CLICHES

Kind of a way to economize learning the names of an ensemble cast for the audience?

You definitely have a point, but I find that kind of sexy. Still call my boyfriend “Burnside”.

In the military it makes more sense, like the Aliens example, but in movies where it's civilians, I just find it strange.

I thought they could still economize learning the names of an ensemble cast, just by the characters calling each other by their first names instead of memorizing a whole name.

Conversely, when there’s a British prep school the boys always address each other by their surnames only.

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

How about the "Harmless" Peeping Tom?:

Good one.


There is always a reflector/director problem with marking cliches. Is this verisimilitude or the manufacturing of a kind of "seeing"? The old debate about hard core rap music being whether the message glorified or merely represented what was happening on the street. As with all things, it's a bit of both, and the bit that perpetuates it deserves to be challenged (i.e., the purely "innocent"). I am forced to agree with the video essay that this is not only a cliche, but one the reinforces some bad ideas about acceptable behavior. What's worse is that this assumed innocence is (today) one click away from being widely distributed on the internet. It's all fun and games, until you find out someone has been filming your child or spouse in a changing room.

I didn't watch the whole video, so don't know if this was mentioned... but it made me remember in Revenge of the Nerds (1984 and one of my favorites, btw)... the part where the Nerds set up cameras in a girls' sorority to watch them doing all sorts of private things. The audience thought it quite playful & comical at the time.

Then, in real life, at my own alma mater (Rutgers U.) in 2010, a similar thing took place where one roommate set up a secret camera in a dorm room, and a tragic suicide was attributed to the video-spying which resulted in a major court case with no good outcomes for anyone involved.

Ironic how something depicted as so comical in a movie could end up being so calamitous and tragic in real life.

I remember reading a translation of an old epic English poem where the hero was advised by his mother that if he should see a beautiful woman along the road that he should basically rape her. No big deal. Old school epic poetry advice from a mother to a wandering hero. EDIT: Found it in The Medieval Myths by Norma Goodrich:

Originally Posted by Peredur, Son of York

“I’ll wait. Talk fast.”

“Go straight,” said she, “to the court of Arthur, where live the best, the most generous, and the most valiant of men. Whenever you see a church, say a Pater near it. If you see food and drink that you need and if no one is courteous enough or good enough to offer it, then help yourself. If you hear screams, go in their direction; there is no yelp more distinctive than that of a young woman. If you see a beautiful jewel, take that also and give it to somebody else. That way you will acquire a reputation. If you see a beautiful girl, make love to her. Even if she doesn’t want you, she will consider you more courteous and more powerful than as if you hadn’t seduced her.” P. 55

Fast forward a few centuries and we're watching sexual assault played off as harmless schoolboy pranks on flickering screens.



Body Double uses the peeper-creeper as the premise, with our protag (who looks like Bill Maher's thespian sibling) being lured in with a telescope fixed on a woman who, for no apparent reason, does a strip tease every night in the privacy of her own home.



Films offer us a little transgression, a little fun (Han did, after all, shoot first, that lovable scoundrel), but they do in a fantasy which can normalize. It's strange, people don't go on shooting sprees after watching The Terminator, but kids will lay down in the middle of the road when they see it in a film like The Program. People have enough sense not to try to fly like Superman, but they will copy a Jackass.

It makes you cringe when you think of the jokey-date-rapey gags in films like Sixteen Candles and Revenge of the Nerds.

I remember this. For some reason, I’m thinking an Asian person was involved though I may be mis-remembering.

When a tv/movie woman gives birth, where on earth do they find the newborn baby? Does a mother schedule her delivery according to the script? Always puzzles me.

But they’re never actually newborn. Always look far too old. But other than that, yes, they’re paid very well so I guess some people have less anxiety re newborns being away from them etc.

But some of them are new-born. Covered with blood & that white crud new-borns are covered with. Can’t imagine birthing a baby & handing it over to production.

Yeah, I don’t think that happens. They make them look covered in blood etc. I’m sure there’s LOTS of insurance admin involved too.

As long as whatever they use as slime is warm... it probably feels good to a baby!

Remember in Patch Adams... the old lady who's life-long fantasy was to be thrown into a pool of warm pasta? (It's kind of a returning-to-the womb fantasy.)

That’s quite the theory. But maybe.

No matter the reasoning behind it, I'd like to be thrown into a pool of warm pasta too!

Baby Delivery Cliches?



The rush to the hospital / mad dash drive


The bumbling empathy of the father telling the mother to breathe and push. If we're playing for comedy, the father's understating of the pain of the mother and overstating her ability to calmly push will be played for a laugh.



The "He/She has Your Eyes" line.



The moment of high drama when "something is wrong" right before it turns out to be alright. The baby is OK!



The estranged father looking in on the baby through the glass at his child among all the babies swaddled like breakfast burritos under heat lamps. Hand against glass, forehead leaning against glass, look of sadness and amazement.

Most clichés we criticize, but some aren't bad.

I'm not even sure if this considered a cliché, but I always liked when movies would put up pictures of the cast at the end with the names of the actors. I actually wish more movies did this.

Another variation on this that I enjoy (although it's usually limited to teen or college movies) is when they put up pictures of the characters at the end with a "whatever happened to" caption - telling the audience what the character went on to do or what became of them.

I also enjoy both these things, but I wouldn’t refer to them as cliches.