# Great movies that need better titles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 28, 2020, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751 "2020-04-28T17:12:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/41 "2020-04-29T14:34:48Z")
[_Quick Change_](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100449/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) may not have been a _great_ movie, but it was definitely a good movie. If you’re like me, though, you may be struggling here: “_Quick Change_…_Quick Change_…which one was that again?” Oh, right, it’s the one with Bill Murray, Randy Quaid, and Geena Davis; Bill Murray dresses as a clown and robs a bank (but he’s a sympathetic bank robber and we’re rooting for him and his friends to get away with it); his bank robbery plan goes off without a hitch, but then the protagonists struggle mightily with just _getting to the damned airport_ and various wacky high jinks ensue. Yeah, you know…_Quick Change_ 😕 I’m not going to be able to completely fulfill the requirements of the OP, though, because I can’t really come up with a _good_ title. _Clown Bank Robbery_? _The Clown Caper_? _Escape from New York_? ([No, I suppose not.](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082340/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)) But _Quick Change_ isn’t it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/42 "2020-04-29T15:14:36Z")
**Sorceror** was a great William Friedkin movie (mentioned in another current thread), a remake of the French film _The Wages of Fear_ with a thoroughly wrong title. It sounds like a Fantasy film, a Dungeons and Dragons epic, rather than about a bunch of down-and-out losers trying to transport nitroglycerine through the jungle without setting it off. I didn’t know where they got that title from for _years_. (It’s the name of one of the trucks, although they don’t point this out or have a lingering shot of the name painted on or anything. Nor is it important to the plot). > **[Sorcerer (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorcerer_(film))** > > Sorcerer is a 1977 American thriller film directed and produced by William Friedkin and starring Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, and Amidou. The second adaptation of Georges Arnaud's 1950 French novel Le Salaire de la peur, it has been widely considered a remake of the 1953 film The Wages of Fear, although Friedkin disagreed with this assessment. The plot depicts four outcasts from varied backgrounds meeting in a South American village, where they are assigned Sorcerer was original... **VisionQuest** sounds like another fantasy movie, but it’s a coming-of-age film about a teenage wrestler. It’s adapted from a book of the same name, but you’d think they’d have changed it to improve the audience > **[Vision Quest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_Quest)** > > A vision quest is a Native American rite of passage. > Vision Quest may also refer to: **October Sky** isn’t awful, but what was wrong with _The Rocket Boys_, the title of the book it was based on? I doubt if anyone would think that this was a juvenile SF movie, like _Destination Moon_. Yeah, it’s really clever that “October Sky” is an anagram of “The Rocket Boys”, but what was wrong with _The Rocket Boys_? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/43 "2020-04-29T15:25:19Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > “Edge of Tomorrow” is probably the poster child for bad titles. It sounds like a cross-over between “Edge of Night” and “Search for Tomorrow”. Which is why it’s kinda been retitled “Live Die Repeat” on the packaging. I’ll nominate “Manhunter”- the first movie version of Thomas Harris’ “Red Dragon” Which reminds me the 1962 B&W Mario Bava vampire movie starring Barbara Steele which was titled “Black Sunday” in the U.S. but was titled in Europe the equivalent of “Mask of the Demon”, which is more accurate. “Black Sunday” of course was the title of Thomas Harris’s thriller about a blimp set by terrorists to explode at the Super Bowl. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/44 "2020-04-29T15:30:03Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Sorceror** was a great William Friedkin movie (mentioned in another current thread), a remake of the French film _The Wages of Fear_ with a thoroughly wrong title. It sounds like a Fantasy film, a Dungeons and Dragons epic, rather than about a bunch of down-and-out losers trying to transport nitroglycerine through the jungle without setting it off. I didn’t know where they got that title from for _years_. (It’s the name of one of the trucks, although they don’t point this out or have a lingering shot of the name painted on or anything. Nor is it important to the plot). > > [Sorcerer (film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorcerer_(film)) As a huge fan of this film, I’m right there with ya on this call. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/45 "2020-04-29T15:30:24Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Sorceror** was a great William Friedkin movie (mentioned in another current thread), a remake of the French film _The Wages of Fear_ with a thoroughly wrong title. It sounds like a Fantasy film, a Dungeons and Dragons epic, rather than about a bunch of down-and-out losers trying to transport nitroglycerine through the jungle without setting it off. I didn’t know where they got that title from for _years_. (It’s the name of one of the trucks, although they don’t point this out or have a lingering shot of the name painted on or anything. Nor is it important to the plot). > > [Sorcerer (film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorcerer_(film)) Also, I am sure some people thought “Sorcerer? From the guy who directed The Exorcist? Cool! An occult thriller!” ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/46 "2020-04-29T15:32:54Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > No Country for Old Men > > Im not sure what would be better…maybe ‘Greed’ or ‘Vengeance’? One problem with “Greed,” is that there’s a really famous silent film called “Greed” which is 8 hours long. I don’t think anyone will ever greenlight a film called greed, for fear of people thinking it’s a remake of the earlier film, and also exhaustingly long. > [@TriPolar](#): > > Naked Lunch But the original book is called that, and if you want traffic from Burroughs fans you have to use his title. > [@Ludovic](#): > > _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone_. Oooooo. Yeah. That one is on the US publishers of the book. It does make me shudder, though. > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > _A New Hope_ is a terrible name for The Movie Formerly Known As _Star Wars_. I mean, if a new movie came out with that title, no one would want to see it; it would bomb. Yup. Thanks for saying it. > [@Sefton](#): > > The Jimmy Stewart drama _Call Northside 777_ would probably have done better with a name like _Presumed Innocent_. Now, this is one of my favorite film titles. I guess we’re running out of people who immediately recognize “Northside 777” as a phone number. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/47 "2020-04-29T15:39:46Z")
> **[The Victors (1963) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057652/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_138)** > > The Victors: Directed by Carl Foreman. With Vince Edwards, Albert Finney, George Hamilton, Melina Mercouri. Intelligent, sprawling saga of a squad of American soldiers, following them through Europe during World War II. The Victors is one of the most brutal dark uncompromising war films I have ever seen. However, its title, The Victors, makes it seem like a celebration of Allied soldiers when its anything but. And yes I get the irony but had it had a title that better reflected the true nature of the film I feel it would be far better known. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/48 "2020-04-29T15:50:16Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone_. > [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Oooooo. Yeah. That one is on the US publishers of the book. It does make me shudder, though. Slight hijack here: I think retroactively Sorcerer’s Stone is better than Philosopher’s Stone. The common complaint I hear is that the Philosopher’s stone is a real thing but the Sorcerer’s Stone is made up. But if you look at the rest of the books, _they’re all about made-up things._ And there’s always a bit of mystery before you read it. You don’t know what the Chamber of Secrets or the Deathly Hallows are. but if you know what the Philosopher’s Stone is upfront it kills some of the mystery. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/49 "2020-04-29T15:51:12Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I hear it’s a good movie, but I’ve never watched it because the title is so bad. > > _Being John Malkovich_ Hah! I’d put it on my list for best movie titles, along with _The Good, the Bad and the Ugly_. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/50 "2020-04-29T16:44:27Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Naked Lunch > [@RivkahChaya](#): > > But the original book is called that, and if you want traffic from Burroughs fans you have to use his title. [Whoosh.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sL102pyaLg) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/51 "2020-04-29T17:07:40Z")
_Scent of a Woman_ may be a good movie, but I’ve never felt any desire to watch it because I’ve found the title so off-putting. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/52 "2020-04-29T17:37:33Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > [Citing the movie based on William Burroughs’ **Naked Lunch**] > > But the original book is called that, and if you want traffic from Burroughs fans you have to use his title. Yeah, but you could make the same argument about _A Princess of Mars_, and they _still_ changed the title to **John Carter**. Without the “of Mars” until the end titles. (Yes, I know it’s a different Burroughs. It’s a joke, son. Read Philip Jose Farmer’s short story _The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod_ to get an idea of how William Burroughs would have written something by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Farmer said he tried it the other way around, too, but it didn’t really work.) ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/53 "2020-04-29T18:09:16Z")
**The Hudsucker Proxy** is my favorite Coen Bros. film. But I’m sure the title has put some folks off. I probably would have never watched it based on the title alone. I’m not sure what a better title would be; I mean, it’s 100% accurate. Just not something you’d pick off the video shelf back in the day. And as far as **The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly** goes–that’s up there with one of the best titles of all time. Plays right into the archetypes of the genre. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/54 "2020-04-29T18:16:19Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > _Scent of a Woman_ may be a good movie, but I’ve never felt any desire to watch it because I’ve found the title so off-putting. Until I saw the scene from whence the title comes, I thought it sounded rather romantic.Now I don’t find it “off-putting” exactly, just much less romantic. Either way, it doesn’t really suit the film. The Colonel seemed to have lots of problems besides lack of feminine companionship. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/55 "2020-04-29T18:22:17Z")
> [@divemaster](#): > > **The Hudsucker Proxy** is my favorite Coen Bros. film. But I’m sure the title has put some folks off. I probably would have never watched it based on the title alone. I’m not sure what a better title would be; I mean, it’s 100% accurate. Just not something you’d pick off the video shelf back in the day. The Coen Brothers are big on enigmatic titles that don’t give much of a clue as to what the movie is about. _Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink,_ etc. But yeah, that one’s probably the worst. Something like _The Hoop_ might have given a better hook to the plot. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/56 "2020-04-29T23:52:59Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly\*. What the hell does it even mean? It isn’t a particularly accurate description of the three leads. > > They could have chosen a title that fits the pattern of the first two… Yeah, to connect it to\* A Fistful of Dollars\* it could have been _A Fistful of Ugly!_ or _The Good Cents, The Bad Pesos, And The Ugly Dollars…_ ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2020, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/57 "2020-04-30T00:08:36Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Slight hijack here: I think retroactively Sorcerer’s Stone is better than Philosopher’s Stone. The common complaint I hear is that the Philosopher’s stone is a real thing but the Sorcerer’s Stone is made up. But if you look at the rest of the books, _they’re all about made-up things._ And there’s always a bit of mystery before you read it. You don’t know what the Chamber of Secrets or the Deathly Hallows are. but if you know what the Philosopher’s Stone is upfront it kills some of the mystery. The issue is that the Sorceror’s Stone _is_ the Philosopher’s Stone, and I’m not aware of other things in that universe that have such a strong correspondence but are called something different (yet not obviously humorous). Maybe there are and I am just unaware of their mythological origins myself, or maybe I just didn’t pay much attention to Harry Potter after I decided that they were condescending to me. The actual first movie was pretty good, though. Great visuals. The closest thing that is so annoying to me is the names in _A Song of Ice and Fire_. There are a lot of names that are _close_ to perfectly good normal names, and some are even pronounced like real world names in the TV series, but they try too hard to be ever so slightly different thus exotic. (His names that _are_ exact real world names, or completely-made-up names, are fine with me.) ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2020, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/58 "2020-04-30T00:35:46Z")
> [@LLCoolL](#): > > **Silence of the Lambs** - “Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?” The backstory of her childhood trauma is, IMHO, too silly to name the movie after. Disagree, I think it’s a great title. It’s a succinct representation of the entire motivation for Clarice’s character and the whole plot of the film. “You think if Catherine lives, you won’t wake up in the dark ever again, to that awful screaming of the lambs.” > [@RivkahChaya](#): > > One problem with “Greed,” is that there’s a really famous silent film called “Greed” which is 8 hours long. I don’t think anyone will ever greenlight a film called greed, for fear of people thinking it’s a remake of the earlier film, and also exhaustingly long. Steve Coogan’s film [Greed](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8972256/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1) opened in the US on Feb 28 and was one of the very last films I was able to see before the theaters shut down. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2020, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/59 "2020-04-30T00:53:15Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > [Whoosh.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sL102pyaLg) I’m being “whooshed” for not watching _The Simpsons_? Please. I was a film projectionist and we showed that film at the **art house** where I worked, and made a TON of money from it. The movie didn’t play in places where random kids would have gone to see it just because it was an R film or had the word “Naked” in it. _The Simpsons_ joke is disingenuous. We got lots of foot traffic from people familiar with Burroughs. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2020, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/60 "2020-04-30T04:43:09Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m being “whooshed” for not watching The Simpsons? No, you’re being whooshed for not spotting that \*\*Tripolar \*\*was joking. And it’s a chestnut on this forum in threads of this type. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751.md?page=4)