# Morons who won't see good films **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 22, 2004, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554 "2004-01-22T01:39:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/1 "2004-01-22T01:39:07Z")
So I have this goat out back, and I’m training it to force-felch anyone I point at. The first target is going to be the next person I hear say, “I don’t want to see XYZ movie - it’s too sad.” Lately I’ve run into a lot of these cinematic wusses. The films they’ve refused to see include: _Schindler’s List Life is Beautiful The Great Escape Full Metal Jacket Pulp Fiction Bowling For Columbine Silence of the Lambs … and various others._ Instead, when they go to the movies they see Legally Blonde, or Dude Where’s My Car? You know, stuff that won’t make them feel bad. Or think. Or feel. Or learn. Or laugh. These people are partially responsible for how atrocious most Hollywood films are. And they refuse to see the rare gems that actually have something to say. Time for the goat’s next lesson. ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/2 "2004-01-22T01:46:05Z")
Well, _Schindler’s List_ is relatively mediocre, compared to _Night and Fog_ or _Shoah_. _La Vita i Bella_ also sucks. _The Silence Of The Lambs_ is okay. Hollywood films have always been mediocre. We just remember the good ones. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/3 "2004-01-22T01:46:14Z")
I agree with you. I’ve seen five from your list. The same seems to be true of books - I offered ‘nineteen eighty four’ to my mum, she said no thanks it’s too bleak and depressing. Even so, _I_ enjoyed it. Something doesn’t have to be happy to be enjoyable. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/4 "2004-01-22T01:53:35Z")
> [@Mach Tuck](#): > > These people are partially responsible for how atrocious most Hollywood films are. And they refuse to see the rare gems that actually have something to say. > > Time for the goat’s next lesson. Yeah, damn those fuckers and their freedom of choice. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/5 "2004-01-22T01:56:40Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > Yeah, damn those fuckers and their freedom of choice. Way to miss the point completely. It’s about them making stupid choices. I got a goat here with your name on it… ---
**Author:** ![deb2world](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@deb2world](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deb2world)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/6 "2004-01-22T01:58:19Z")
I am soooooOOOO sorry, but some of those films on your list I just didn’t like and I saw them and some of them I will never see cause they ain’t my cuppa tea. I will try to do better next time and live up to your expectation, but I can’t guarantee it unless you give us an update on your list so that we know what films we just HAVE to see. /valley girl deb – I feel so bad now – 2world ---
**Author:** ![schplebordnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@schplebordnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schplebordnik)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/7 "2004-01-22T02:03:15Z")
And all those people who refuse to see _Triumph of the Will_ just because it glorifies a genocidal regime! Morons… ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/8 "2004-01-22T02:06:27Z")
Fucking A! I can’t stand this. For example, of the complete directorial catalog of Sylvester Stallone on DVD, and I can’t get anybody to watch it with me. I mean **Staying Alive** is a masterwork, and a hallmark of both John Travolta’s acting ability and Sly Stallone’s transcendant subtlety in directorial skill. I mean the way the play in the movie, Hell’s Alley, mirrors Travolta’s life, the Joyceian theme of man versus society, the struggle for integrity, the feathered hair, the leg warmers, what more do you want? Most directors find a niche and never leave it. Stallone though shows incredible bravery and scope. C.O.B.R.A. features Stallone as both Director and lead! He places a cop, a basic man, a throwback to the fifties who finds himself at odds with society and the modern atrocities that humans perpetrate on each other. His vision is simple. Crime is a disease, he is the cure. Stallone’s primitive basicness is contrasted by Brigitte Nielson who plays a supermodel. In one scene the whole thematic tableau is thrown out before us like a raw wound, as Nielson poses in a futuristic model shoot featuring lots of robots and tin foil while Stallone watches, in Jeans and a t shirt, chewing on a match, expressionless as his mirrored shades. In this moment it becomes clear that Stallone’s character Cobretti, is actually tortured by his own sensitivity. Of course I couldn’t leave this thread without mentioning the climactic battle scene between the bad guy and Cobretti which takes place in a factory. Only a Director of Stallone’s capacity could have that meat hook float through the scene no less than eight times, yet have it still be a total surprise when Stallone lifts the bad guy up on the meathook and impales him. Again, there’s Joycean twist as the meathook carries the bad guy away into the furnace that symbolizes the future, as Stallone watches through his mirrored shades. Nobody will watch these with me. Nobody understands. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/9 "2004-01-22T02:08:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Well, Schindler’s List is relatively mediocre, compared to Night and Fog or Shoah. La Vita i Bella also sucks. The Silence Of The Lambs is okay. You can’t compare those films. _Night and Fog_ and _Shoah_ are documentaries, and no dramatization, however skillful (and IMO _Schindler’s List_ is brilliant) can compare to the reality of the Holocaust. but I agree that _La Vita é Bella_ was bloody awful. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/10 "2004-01-22T02:08:15Z")
On the one hand, I agree with you in principle. On the other hand, your list of great films is kinda iffy. Come back when you’ve seen _Amarcord_ and _Ikiru_ and _Barry Lyndon._ Kiss kiss. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/11 "2004-01-22T02:09:35Z")
Who appointed YOU to be the arbiter of what is “a good movie” and “a stupid choice”? I’ll pick my own flicks, thankyewverymuch. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/12 "2004-01-22T02:17:48Z")
Actually It’s a normal fact of life - Quality is rare. 95 percent of everything is crap. ---
**Author:** ![Rabid\_Squirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Rabid\_Squirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rabid_Squirrel)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/13 "2004-01-22T02:32:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Way to miss the point completely. It’s about them making stupid choices. Wait a sec, you’re angry just because some/most/all people don’t see movies as a serious art form? My friends don’t like curry, but that doesn’t justify me to demand they try some. I’ve seen all of your movies except _Schindler’s List_. _Bowling For Columbine_ is a polarising anti-gun doco (ok, an oversimplification); _Silence of the Lambs_, _Pulp Fiction_ and _Full Metal Jacket_ have very graphic scenes; and _Life is Beautiful_ is a tad (or very) overdrawn and slow. Not to say that they’re bad movies - they are just not to everyone tastes. If they want to see _Dude Where’s My Car_, _Armegeddon_ or the latest Jame Bond flick, power to them. I also enjoy those movies, but I can appreciate those movies for what they are. They’re only there to entertain and not to make people think at great length; it’s the difference between a McDonalds combo and a 5 star restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/14 "2004-01-22T02:41:56Z")
Rabid\_Squirrel, It Looks like you missed the point again. No one is saying who should watch what. It seems to be a rant about people who dismiss a movie because it is more than a hollywoodised dumb clown of a brainless movie. I agree that there’s too much crap in the movie world and that for some reason this is getting worse because people continue to pay for mindless crap that gives them a rest from thought (not that they need it) ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/15 "2004-01-22T02:46:12Z")
You know what’s really frustrating is when you know that someone else would LOVE a certain movie and they still won’t bother to give it a shot. I’m not talking a bout recommending a movie in a snobbish way, just knowing the taste of a friend or family member and knowing that movie X would be exactly the kind of thing they would like and then never being able to get them to watch it. It’s like, “Dude, you love zombie movies but you’ve never seen the original _Dawn of the Dead_. You have to see it.” And they shrug, "eh…let’s get _Resident Evil 2_ instead. Arrgghhhh!!! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Sylkyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@Sylkyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylkyn)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/16 "2004-01-22T03:44:33Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > **\(and IMO _Schindler’s List_ is brilliant) can compare to the reality of the Holocaust. \** Thank you for beating me to the punch. _Schindler’s List_ was a marvelous movie…brilliant being the only word in the English language to describe it, until I can make up a new one. Not everybody’s got the same thinking going on, I agree. That doesn’t mean I think folks that don’t agree with me are idiots. I think it’s called “whatever floats your boat”. On preview, what DtC said is true, however…it _is_ frustrating when people won’t even give it a try. Although, truthfully, I’ve been guilty of committing the same sin. ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/17 "2004-01-22T03:44:55Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > On the one hand, I agree with you in principle. > > On the other hand, your list of great films is kinda iffy. Come back when you’ve seen _Amarcord_ and _Ikiru_ and _Barry Lyndon._ Kiss kiss. Dammit. I would kill somebody to get my hands on _Ikiru_ and _Amarcord._ For some reason, my library has the barest of Kurosawa and no Fellini. _Viskningar Och Rop_ and _Det Sjunde Inseglet_ are the best I can do for Bergman. I wish Criterion weren’t so expensive. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/18 "2004-01-22T03:48:32Z")
> [@Mach Tuck](#): > > Way to miss the point completely. It’s about them making stupid choices. > > I got a goat here with your name on it… How is seeing films AT ALL necessarily a good choice? How many operas have you been to? Ballets? Musicals? Professional hockey games? Professional boxing matches? Art galleries? Modern art galleries? How many horse races have you been to in the last year? How many times have you visited the National Baseball Hall of Fame? How many high school public speaking competitions have you been to? Have you watched Family Guy? WKRP in Cincinnati? Have you listened to all the albums by Odds? Kate Bush? PJ Harvey? The Tragically Hip? Muddy Waters? Weird Al Yankovic? The Boston Philharmonic? How many exhibitions of modern dance have you been to? Have you tried your hand at slo-pitch? Volleyball? Ball hockey? Flag football? Trampoline? What books have you read? Have you read “Jane Eyre”? Have you read “The Shining”? Have you read “The Red Badge of Courage”? Have you read “The Hunt for Red October”? Have you read the complete works of Dylan Thomas? What, you don’t LIKE some of those things? Well then _shut the fuck up!_ No, Lobsang, the OP is not about “wahhh, Hollywood makes too many dumb movies.” (So don’t watch them, you fucking idiot. If you went into “Dude, Where’s My Car?” expecting a masterpeice of cinema, you’re a goddamn nitwit. So don’t buy a damned ticket!) The OP’s REAL meaning is “I Am Smarter Than Most People.” It’s about the 15,000th Pit thread on that same subject. ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/19 "2004-01-22T03:51:59Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > How is seeing films AT ALL necessarily a good choice? > > How many operas have you been to? Ballets? Musicals? Professional hockey games? Professional boxing matches? Art galleries? Modern art galleries? How many horse races have you been to in the last year? How many times have you visited the National Baseball Hall of Fame? How many high school public speaking competitions have you been to? Have you watched Family Guy? WKRP in Cincinnati? Have you listened to all the albums by Odds? Kate Bush? PJ Harvey? The Tragically Hip? Muddy Waters? Weird Al Yankovic? The Boston Philharmonic? How many exhibitions of modern dance have you been to? Have you tried your hand at slo-pitch? Volleyball? Ball hockey? Flag football? Trampoline? What books have you read? Have you read “Jane Eyre”? Have you read “The Shining”? Have you read “The Red Badge of Courage”? Have you read “The Hunt for Red October”? Have you read the complete works of Dylan Thomas? > > What, you don’t LIKE some of those things? > > Well then _shut the fuck up!_ > > No, Lobsang, the OP is not about “wahhh, Hollywood makes too many dumb movies.” (So don’t watch them, you fucking idiot. If you went into “Dude, Where’s My Car?” expecting a masterpeice of cinema, you’re a goddamn nitwit. So don’t buy a damned ticket!) The OP’s REAL meaning is “I Am Smarter Than Most People.” It’s about the 15,000th Pit thread on that same subject. I have actually done almost all of those things. 🆒 :::Note to self, don’t piss **RickJay** off::: ---
**Author:** ![elfbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b782af/32.png) [@elfbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfbabe)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554/20 "2004-01-22T04:15:07Z")
> [@schplebordnik](#): > > And all those people who refuse to see _Triumph of the Will_ just because it glorifies a genocidal regime! > Morons… Hey, _Triumph des Willes_ was actually pretty interesting. I wrote a paper on Leni Riefenstahl in the tenth grade, and I watched parts of several of her other films for it, as well as all of TDW. I’m glad I saw it. It made the scene in _The Two Towers_ where Saruman is addressing the uruk-hai all the freakier. I wouldn’t have wanted to stand near Hitler while he was talking. Guy looks like he spat a lot. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morons-who-wont-see-good-films/225554.md?page=2)