Not much else takes me out of a TV show or movie more than an extended dream sequence. Most recently, in the Sopranos ep 5.11. Seemed like most of the ep was an extended dream. Now they’re riding a car with a lot of characters who have died; now they’re having dinner w/ Annette Benning; now one character shoots another - but he’s not dead or is he?; now a character’s gun falls apart and the bullets are apparently chocolate… WTF?
I don’t even try to analyze my own dreams. I have no interest in doing so in my TV/movie watching.
If you like them - why? Do you feel they help you understand a character’s psyche or something?
They rank very high on my list of things I really hate to see in movies or TV shows. And they may be my actual most-hated device in fiction - other than the occasional case where they actually have plot meaning, like Dune, they are just so fucking lazy.
I will go against the grain here - I love the dream sequence in Office Space, as well as the two in The Big Lebowski. I have not paid enough attention to them in general to develop a distaste for them, however, but those examples stand-out as plusses for those movies, for me.
You know, I clicked on this topic to say I do hate dream sequences, EXCEPT for the Sopranos. I feel like it’s the only show to capture what dreams actually feel like. They’re mostly nonsensical and kinda forgettable.
Gaaaaah! (that was “Impotent Gutteral Rage”, by the way)
SO many TV episodes have started with something a) unlikely, b) aspirational, or c) horrific.
You’re watching “the guy” finally kiss/almost save/brutally murder “the girl”, and suddenly he wakes up (extra points for “in a cold sweat” or “screaming”).
I’m with you. I hate bad dream sequences, but a well-done dream sequence can be a great addition to a film, either for comedy, for weirdness, or in rare instances, to drive the plot.
The two you mention above are fantastic. Other good ones that stick out in my mind:
A Christmas Story - “you’ll shoot yer eye out!”
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure - clowns operating on bicycles hits both comedy and weird
American Beauty - I thought the movie was overrated, but Lester’s dreams were crucial for developing his character
Raising Arizona - the dream at the end of the movie was a perfect conclusion. A happy ending with everything resolved would feel fake, but you still walk out happy.
Trainspotting - the toilet plunge is hilarious, and the dead baby crawling on the ceiling is a great depiction of the paranoia of a bad trip
Pretty much every dream in the original Nightmare on Elm Street, although this might be cheating a bit since the dreams were the plot
The Red Lodge dream in the last original Twin Peaks episode - this had to be the strangest thing shown on network TV at the time
Dream sequences are okay in sci-fi or fantasy shows bc these stories take place outside the realm of possibility in the first place. But in a serious drama like The Sopranos; it’s just stupid.
My defense of a couple of the ones listed in this thread.
MASH. I didn’t care for most of the dream sequences, like Hawkeye floating in a pond full of arms and legs. Oh no! He has a hero complex and can’t save everybody! That wasn’t exactly news to anybody.
But Mulcahy’s dream made the whole episode. That soldier hung up on that cross and dripping blood on the scriptures. All you really saw was the soldier’s foot, but it was easy enough to imagine the rest. That was a powerful image, and it wasn’t something that they could have shown in the normal course of the show.
I also liked Margaret’s dream, the way her tuxedoed husband marched off in perfect lock-step with the soldiers. Reminds me a lot of The Wall.
As for The Sopranos, I think that the dreams were the perfect accent for Tony’s panic disorder. Most of them were crap, granted. The talking fish were merely humorous. But the one with Tony’s dead girlfriend (Gloria, was it?) who offered to show Tony either her hoo-ha or the rope burns around her neck was something special.
Like others have said, dream sequences are very often lazy writing. Sometimes, they’re just filler. But they can be useful and good for showing images and for conveying feelings or symbols that could not otherwise be portrayed.
Most dream sequences stand out as obvious, or, if occurring at the end of a film to explain it all away, as viewer-debasing cheats. While a dream sequence can take me out of a movie, I can forgive that if the sequence is exceptionally cool. Examples include (but are not limited to):
Sherlock, Jr. (1924) has movie projectionist Buster Keaton falling asleep and entering a movie.
Pink elephants on parade from Dumbo (1941) is an awesome alcohol-induced dream sequence.
Salvador Dali-designed dream sequences are the best things in Moontide (1942) and Spellbound (1945).
Los Olvidados (1950) is essentially a bleak neo-realist film with a few dream sequences that distinguish it.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) makes excellent use of dreams to link sequences of the film.
Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) features a funny parody of Enter the Dragon which ends on a Wizard of Oz-like note.
In Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), Linda Hamilton dreams the CG-end of the world.
Good point. The Red Room, which was part of the Black Lodge (I conflated the two), definitely started as Cooper’s dreams (I think?). But the last episode was maybe a real place.
Kind of like the diner scene in Mulholland Drive (and the rest of the movie). I’m not sure which parts were dreams, and I don’t think Lynch knew either.