The one that always throws me is ‘Legends of the Fall’. Doesn’t begin to suggest the actual plot line.
I did hear a tale about a railway enthusiast who went to see Chariots of Fire, and was annoyed to find that it wasn’t about steam trains. (Well, in some languages the expression for “train” or “railway” literally means “fire / smoke chariot” – kereta api in Malay / Indonesian, gharri-ya-moshi in Swahili.)
About these two, I’m pretty sure that “clockwork orange” was an expression in British English long before it was picked up as a title for the book. It’s a little like the movie You Can’t Take It with You. No, that’s not as obvious a plot outline as, say, The Wizard of Oz, but it’s about a family whose members are determined to make the most of life while they’re alive, and not worry about tomorrow, because there’s no use squirreling away a lot since you can’t, well, you get the idea. It’s the perfect title for the movie, and the phrase long pre-dates the film. “Clockwork orange” isn’t an American expression, so Americans find the title obscure. If I knew the expression, I wouldn’t go in expecting to see anything to do with clockwork or oranges. I would expect something about appearances being incongruous with what is going on inside a thing or person.
“Gods and monsters” is a lifted straight from The Bride of Frankenstein. It’s not hard to guess the films will somehow have something to do with the universal Frankenstein movies.
Americans would stream into theaters to watch a movie called BATMAN, but be mystified if it turns out to be a quiet British film about an Army officer’s valet.
Which was a really dumb move by the director given that Adam Beach was right there.
There is no evidence that the term “clockwork orange” was an expression in British English or any other dialect or language before the book was published. Anthony Burgess made several inconsistent statements about the origins of the title. One was that it was simply his own metaphor. One was that it came from a Malay word. One was that it came from a Cockney expression “as queer as a clockwork orange,” but no one has ever found any other mention of the phrase, and they’ve looked pretty hard. If you have any evidence that it was in use before the publication of the book, please let everyone know, because it would be an important discovery:
Love that movie, so tense, and the Tangerine Dream soundtrack is killer. And the title is ever so misleading. You can see the word “Sorcerer” in the film itself for about three seconds; it appears on the side of one of the two trucks, hand-painted or maybe written in chalk. No indication of why it’s there, and I don’t remember anyone ever saying the word during the film.
Right. There’s no evidence that the term existed before the movie. And even if it did, there would be no reason to assume it was about a dystopian future.
This is another one of those cases where the title is seen to fit after seeing the movie, or if you already know something about it. It really gives zero idea about the movie otherwise. I actually had no idea of what this movie was about until I looked it up. I think that there are few people who are familiar enough with The Bride of Frankenstein to recognize the phrase immediately (I’ve seen the movie several times, and the phrase didn’t ring a bell), and even if you recognized it it wouldn’t give you a clue that the movie was about the director rather than another Frankenstein movie.
Yes, we get it. Nearly all these movie titles fit once you have seen the movie. But you might think the movie is about something totally different from just the title.
Mm, no, I think you are. These are some of the best-known metaphors in literature. Without seeing a film called The Lion in Winter, or knowing anything about it, I couldn’t have told it was specifically about Henry II. But I certainly should have expected it would be about a once-powerful warrior, or ruler of some kind, in the later years* of his life. If it had not been that, it would be a better answer here.
- Almost said “twilight” there.
Most people probably thought 300 was going to be a bowling movie.
If you just looked at the title, “Birth of a Nation” would seem to deal with the American Revolution, not the Civil War and its aftermath. D.W. Griffith or someone probably thought that was a more innocuous title than the book ‘The Clansman.’ The title refers to The United States becoming, after the war, becoming ‘one nation’ instead of a union of sovereign states.
And, piggybacking on ‘Birth of a Nation,’ author Thomas Dixon later wrote a book called ‘Fall of a Nation,’ which was apparently also made into a movie–now considered lost. It had nothing to do with ‘Birth of a Nation’ and was not a sequel in any way. Dixon just reused part of the title of the movie for his next novel to cash in on recognition.
“Man on the Moon”-Not an astronaut to be had.
“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”
Nobody was going to the Forum, and it really wasn’t funny.
No, you quite obviously don’t get it from the example you give:
Yes, we get it. Many of the titles are metaphorical. But you really couldn’t have told much about the specific subject from the title. You’re extrapolating because you already know the subject.
No tornado or hurricane in Gone With the Wind. Pretty nice fire, though.
The Seventh Seal… not even one seal in this garbage. No sea lions or even manatees. Very disappointed. One star.
Not an REM fan?
Monsters Ball
For what it’s worth, the R.E.M. song title itself is misleading.