# Movies with deceptive or completely unclear titles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 10, 2012, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315 "2012-10-10T15:22:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/41 "2012-10-10T19:02:38Z")
> [@phreesh](#): > > Great choice. Do you know what Cloverfield actually meant? I didn’t catch the reference in the movie, but I wasn’t really paying attention. It really did feel like a left field title. IIRC, it was some sort of randomly assigned government code-name for the incident. The military has a long history of using them, they are neutral-sounding for security reasons. For example, Operation Market Garden in WWII had little to do with the growing of root vegetables. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/42 "2012-10-10T19:32:06Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Also, is **Little Nemo** screwing with us? I can’t tell. No, I am serious. Why _Citizen_ Kane? Calling him citizen makes it sound like he’s an immigrant trying to become an American. But there was no mention in the movie about Kane’s citizenship. Same thing with _The Godfather_. Why make the title about Vito Corleone being a godfather? It wasn’t a major part of the movie. It was like calling the movie _The Guy Who Bought Some Oranges_. Okay, Coppola had an excuse. He was adapting a novel that already had a title. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/43 "2012-10-10T20:12:34Z")
Rosemary’s Baby is never seen in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/44 "2012-10-10T20:18:36Z")
**With Six You Get Eggroll** ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/45 "2012-10-10T20:27:35Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > _Das Boot_. No shit. That movie had nothing to do with footwear of any sort! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/46 "2012-10-10T20:42:19Z")
**Reindeer Games**. IMDb plot description: “After assuming his dead cellmate’s identity to get with his girlfriend, an ex-con finds himself the reluctant participant in a casino heist.” So, there’s…deer? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/47 "2012-10-10T20:57:04Z")
**Man on the Moon** is neither science nor science fiction. **A Midnight Clear** is not really a Christmas movie. **Ice Harvest** has zero to do with Eskimos or a bizarre scheme to drag ice floes to the desert. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/48 "2012-10-10T21:14:53Z")
As Homer Simpson pointed out, **To Kill a Mockingbird** contains no useful information about killing mockingbirds. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/49 "2012-10-10T21:20:16Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Breakfast at Tiffany’s > Gone with the Wind. > Hilary and Jackie. > Life is Beautiful. > North by Northwest. [Gone with the Wind](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_with_the_Wind#Title)did put some thought into the title. I wonder if book buyers in 1946 would have been familiar with the poem? > [@Procrustus](#): > > Never seen it, not interested in a movie about a bunch of people in a fight club. I wasn’t interested either. I was pleasantly surprised. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/50 "2012-10-10T21:20:20Z")
Anyone seen [Happiness](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness_%281998_film%29)? Not exactly a feel good movie. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/51 "2012-10-10T21:21:00Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Same thing with _The Godfather_. Why make the title about Vito Corleone being a godfather? It wasn’t a major part of the movie. It was like calling the movie _The Guy Who Bought Some Oranges_. I still think you’re fucking with us, but alright… “Godfather” was his title in the mob. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/52 "2012-10-10T21:43:08Z")
> [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](#): > > **October Sky** makes no sense other than being an anagram for its source material, _Rocket Boys_. Apparently they changed it because they though women wouldn’t see a movie titled “Rocket Boys”. It was a good choice, though, since it could refer to the October 1957 launch of Sputnik 1. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/53 "2012-10-10T22:19:18Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Same thing with _The Godfather_. Why make the title about Vito Corleone being a godfather? It wasn’t a major part of the movie. It was like calling the movie _The Guy Who Bought Some Oranges_. _Can’t tell if serious_ People were calling him Godfather all throught the movie. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/54 "2012-10-10T22:28:21Z")
[Elephant](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363589/) ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/55 "2012-10-10T22:35:20Z")
The Neverending Story is a case of the title making sense in the book and not in the movie. The title is a large theme of the book. ---
**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:** [October 10, 2012, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/56 "2012-10-10T22:35:22Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > I still think you’re fucking with us, but alright… > > “Godfather” was his title in the mob. And “godfather” was not that obscure as a term for a mob boss even at the time the movies were made, even if they helped popularize it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/57 "2012-10-11T00:31:33Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > As Homer Simpson pointed out, **To Kill a Mockingbird** contains no useful information about killing mockingbirds. I as a kid thought the movie _Fiddler on the Roof_ had a, you know, real fiddler who was a sort of V for Vendetta freedom fighter (yes before VfV existed, but anyway). Turned out he is in the movie, but barely, as a figment of the lead character’s imagination, and not central to the plot at all. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/58 "2012-10-11T00:46:03Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > **Man on the Moon** is neither science nor science fiction. I don’t know if you’re joking but the song “[Man On The Moon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hKSYgOGtos)”, which came out several years earlier, is about Andy Kaufman. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/59 "2012-10-11T01:03:54Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I don’t know if you’re joking but the song “[Man On The Moon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hKSYgOGtos)”, which came out several years earlier, is about Andy Kaufman. The movie came out in 1999. YouTube didn’t exist until 2005. Anybody walking into a theater in 1999 without knowing what the film was about would not have had a clue from the title. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315/60 "2012-10-11T01:15:09Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > The movie came out in 1999. YouTube didn’t exist until 2005. Anybody walking into a theater in 1999 without knowing what the film was about would not have had a clue from the title. It was on VH1 about 750 times a day and in pretty heavy rotation on the radio when it first came out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-deceptive-or-completely-unclear-titles/637315.md?page=4)