CAM DON'T THINK YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE IS EVEN ALL THAT GOOD*
We live in an age of hyperbole. Just check out Buzzfeed.com right now for an example of that. Everything is touted as the "Best X Ever" or the "Worst X Ever" or the "X-ingest Y You'll Ever Z!" Naturally you take these proclamations with a grain of salt. And yet, the sheer number of articles describing Grave of the Fireflies as one of the "Saddest Movies of All Time" made me take notice. Even Emily, immediately below me, describes the film as "one of the most heartfelt, touching, and depressing story ever written".
I didn't necessarily expect it to be THE saddest movie ever. But it should at least make the top ten. I mean, an orphaned brother and sister slowly starve to death in WWII-era Japan? Jesus christ, that's horrifying. That kind of thing ought to elicit a tear, at least. But as the credits rolled on my first viewing, I found my eyes curiously dry. What had happened? The movie had been so lauded by critics and fans alike. It had a massive reputation behind it. Were all of those people wrong? Was I wrong? Or did the problem lie with the film's own reputation?
I feel like a number of films, Grave of the Fireflies included, suffer from the expectations placed upon them by their own reputation. These films are renowned in modern society, touted as masterpieces, films you simply MUST see. These are high standards for any film to live up to. For example, Vertigo is a pretty great film. It's a fantastic film. But it it the Greatest Film of All Time? Jeez, it wasn't that great...like ALL TIME, all time? I don't feel comfortable just passing that title out, you know? Suddenly I've got some reservations about this flick. And that's the fate that some of our best cinema suffers, to be crushed under the weight of their own prestige, to be met with a thousand cries of, "That was it?" If you've ever finished a movie not knowing what the big friggin deal was, it has fallen prey to this phenomenon.
Part of this can be attributed to the Seinfeld is Unfunny effect. These films considered 'the best' often broke new ground and pushed the limit of what the medium could do. The films then found their most popular innovations copied time and time again, until modern audiences look back on a movie and find it cliche for using the overdone trope that it originally invented.
An example of this is the phrase "What's Up, Doc?" In 1940, audiences saw the hunter, heard the hunter say he was hunting rabbits, and then they saw the rabbit. 1940 audiences were expecting that rabbit to scream, run, pick a fight, play dead, anything except strike up a casual conversation with the guy trying to kill him. So, when Bugs did that, he brought the house down - a response that led to it becoming his Catch Phrase. Nowadays, not only does nobody find, "What's up, Doc?" funny, most people don't even realize it was ever supposed to be funny in the first place. It's just that thing Bugs always says.
So what do you guys think? Can you think of any films that failed to live up to expectations? Has anything we've seen in History of Animation fallen prey to Seinfeld is Unfunny syndrome? Do the thing, with the comments, down below.
*CAM DON'T THINK YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE IS EVEN ALL THAT GOOD is not a real twelve part series**
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Hey Cam!
ReplyDeleteTo my own surprise, I also found my cheeks to be dry at the end of the film. To be honest, I thought I was a heartless monster for not thinking it was sad enough to cry over - but you're right, my expectations were set very very high after hearing "It's the SADDEST movie EVER". In comparison to a few dozen World War I/II era films and stories I've experienced, this maybe ranks at number 10 or 11, while the tops for me would be Saving Private Ryan and Night (both first-hand accounts of real people). I don't think it was necessarily the animated cartoon effect that failed to meet expectation, but I think my expectations were unrealistically high after all the hype. I don't think you're wrong at all, in fact I agree! I do, however, see the story as absolutely horrifying and sadly not fictitious, as this probably accounts for hundreds of children during that era. The film made my heart sink to my toes, but the tears fails to spill.
Yo Cam,
ReplyDeleteI somewhat agree with your ideas of the "Seinfeld is Unfunny" syndrome and I do admit that I did advertise that people would cry at the end of this film. For me, I did cry the first time I watched this because of how personal it was for me, especially for Sieta. I am not trying to accuse you of being an unemotional jerk, but I feel like for people that have more emotional attachment towards the characters/story affects the person EQUALLY as expectations from comments by other sources. The second time I watched this, I did not shed tears, but I did feel a deep emotional sadness within me, and I believe that everyone that watched this film also felt the same way. (And if you didn't then you are pretty stone cold...)
Cam you make a super good point about this. Sure, I cried a little at the end, but how the movie was built up for me with reviews, friends telling me, and other things, I guess the magic died with the expectation. I feel like that's why a lot of people are becoming despondent with recent movies in theaters because many trailers now are a) giving you an expectation and b) telling you the whole story and thereby giving you a taste of what to expect. That's another problem that comes in the form of movie critics; unless you've already seen the movie, your opinion is going to be influenced by what you first hear about the movie and then when you finally see it you become controlled by that expectation and if it doesn't come true then WOW YOU HEARTLESS MONSTER BLUHLHUBLHU
ReplyDeleteBut I digress. It's a gorgeous, heartbreaking film that does get expectation to ruin it for a lot of people, so it's always better to go in blind of all emotion and opinion.
I am going to have to agree with you on this one, but I will provide some alternative reasons. I had never seen this movie before, and just like many, I didn't cry at the end. One reason why is probably because I was watching it with a bunch of other people and my masculine ego keeps me from shedding any kind of tears in front of people. I think that if I had watched it on my own, there would have been a higher chance of me crying. Also, the expectations that it would make me cry, made me not cry. You feel me? The simple thought that this movie is super sad and will make me emotional made me become a rebellious 15 year old and go out of my way to prove them wrong. So, hypothetically, if I had been watching this film for the first time with no prior knowledge or outside opinion, I may have cried. However, you do have a good point about expectations vs reality that has become pretty relevant in today's media. Especially with the whole internet culture of "everything funny has already been created so nothing is funny".
ReplyDelete