# "neat" touches in films **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 4, 2001, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933 "2001-08-04T22:13:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Chocobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Chocobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chocobo)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/61 "2001-08-06T07:07:53Z")
[Nerd] Note to self: Read the _second_ page before posting.[/Nerd] Anyways, a nice little addition was a scene in X-Men where just after kicking the butt of two of the X-Men, Toad (Ray Park) crosses his makeshift staff (a piece of wood he grabbed, or something like that) behind his back, just like a lightsaber, which he wielded as Darth Maul in EP1. That was a nice touch. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/62 "2001-08-06T07:46:29Z")
In Blade Runner when Deckard and Rachael go back to his apartment after he gets knocked around a bit by a replicant, a tiny swirl of blood backwashes into his drink when he takes a sip. I always thought that was a neat detail. ---
**Author:** ![warmgun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecccb3/32.png) [@warmgun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/warmgun)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/63 "2001-08-06T07:49:19Z")
Saw one tonight: ‘Fight Club’, he ordered a yin-yang table at the begining of the movie and you saw it in the rubble when his apt gets blown up. ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/64 "2001-08-06T08:11:39Z")
in **Traffic** , Benicio del Torro actually uses a mexican accent. Not a big deal, but it amazes me in how many movies, the accent is all wrong. They mostly use actors who obviously don’t speak Spanish or speak Spanish with a different accent than that which is intended. This simply ‘ruins’ a movie for me. ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/65 "2001-08-06T12:41:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Johnny L.A. \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > The line that the monks are chanting tranlates to “This is the beginning of the chant, this is the end of the chant” > > Is that true? I always thought they were saying, “He is Jesus the Lord. Give it a rest.” \*\* I’d Always thought it was “Pie Jesu Domine (smack) Donna Eis Requiem (smack)” i.e (loosly) “Give us your peace Lord Jesus” Personally I think **Johnny L.A.**'s is the most appropriate… Gp ---
**Author:** ![BobSchroeck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@BobSchroeck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobSchroeck)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/66 "2001-08-06T17:49:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Johnny L.A. \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > The line that the monks are chanting tranlates to “This is the beginning of the chant, this is the end of the chant” > > Is that true? I always thought they were saying, “He is Jesus the Lord. Give it a rest.” \*\* That seems far more likely. I don’t really speak Latin, but I can puzzle a lot of it out, and I have a good memory for the sounds of the monks. They are chanting something much like: Dei Iesu Domine Dona ies requiem \ The first line is **clearly** “God Jesus Lord” or something built around that which I can’t figure out because I never had the chance to learn noun declensions and verb conjugations in Latin. The second line has always puzzled me, but I think your translation is on the money. “Requiem” is clearly related to “requiesat”, which is the “R” in “RIP”/“Rest in peace”. “Dona” is a tense of the Latin verb “to give”. While on the topic of **Holy Grail** , the best funny detail therein (in my opinion) is really only noticeable by Arthurian scholars and folks who have read Malory’s _Morte d’Arthur_ closely – and it is that Lancelot’s mistaken “rescue” of the prince and slaughter at the wedding is not an exaggeration or a gag. It’s how Lancelot acts in Malory – right down to the embarassed apologies afterwards. Despite how he looks in later retellings and movies, Lancelot is _seriously_ unstable. – Bob ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/67 "2001-08-06T18:34:19Z")
Similar to the King Kong scratch, I love a little bit in The Phantom Menace when Watto scratches his feet together subconsciously. His stubble is also a “neat” touch. A lot of the transitions are fun in Highlander. I especially like the one where the camera dollies up through the roof of the parking garage and emerges from the ground in medieval Scotland. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/68 "2001-08-06T18:35:56Z")
One of the nicest homages I’ve seen in a movie was in _Batman_, in the scene in which the cartoonist hands the reporter a sketch of a bat in a business suit. If you look at the signature, you’ll notice that it’s a pretty good imitation of Bob Kane’s. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/69 "2001-08-06T19:37:20Z")
Watching the numerous scientific principles Rosencrantz and Guildenstern discover in _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead_ makes the movie far funnier as well as slightly more tragic. A few years ago there was a fairly bad Patrick Swayze movie called _Soldier_. In a brief pan you saw the soldiers sitting (profile) on their bunks. Down their arms were tattoos naming the battles they’d been in. The names of the battles were taken from numerous books. In the first _Superman_ movie, Reeves needs to change his clothes and dashed past a modern phone “booth”. He pauses just long enough to look it up and down; moves on. I thought it was the funniest moment in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/70 "2001-08-06T19:44:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Balance \* > \*\*One of the nicest homages I’ve seen in a movie was in _Batman_, in the scene in which the cartoonist hands the reporter a sketch of a bat in a business suit. If you look at the signature, you’ll notice that it’s a pretty good imitation of Bob Kane’s. \*\* It _was_ Bob Kane, and it was Bob Kane’s hand. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/71 "2001-08-06T20:11:22Z")
I just recently re-watched “The Truman Show,” so that is what I will comment on. The boat that Truman goes out in at the end of the movie is the _Santa Maria_. Pretty appropriate name for a ship where Truman himself is making his voyage of discovery. Of course, the character’s name (True Man) sets him apart from everyone else (who is fake). The bridesmades at his wedding all had similar names. (I think they were Jodi, Jean and Jeneane, but I could be mistaken about that). Similarly his wife and best friend had similar names (Merle and Marlon). The “star” that falls from the sky at the beginning of the movie is Sirius (the dog star). I found that interesting in terms of how Truman doesn’t like dogs in the movie. Later, when I think a bit more about other movies, I’ll post about them. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/72 "2001-08-06T22:14:44Z")
Even better, **bup**. I trust that you didn’t mean that Kane himself did a cameo as the cartoonist, right? Denis Lill is credited as “Bob the cartoonist”. I didn’t realize that it was actually Kane’s hand, though in retrospect I should have. ---
**Author:** ![orr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e47c2d/32.png) [@orr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orr)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/73 "2001-08-06T23:38:27Z")
The first thing that came to mind after reading the topic title was **Trading Places**. I always thought the scene where the two Duke brothers where explaining commodities training to Eddie Murphy was neat. They got more and more condescending as they explained it “And this is bacon, which you can get from pigs!”. Finally Eddie Murphy breaks character and looks directly into the camera for a second as if to say, “Can you _believe_ these two?”. ---
**Author:** ![Danimal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Danimal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danimal)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/74 "2001-08-07T00:33:54Z")
Richard Burbage, a contemporary of William Shakespeare, was the first actor to triumph in the role of Richard. There is a story that during one performance of Richard III, Burbage made an assignation with a female theatergoer smitten by his performance; Shakespeare overheard and hurried to the lady’s home, taking Burbage’s place while the actor finished the play. When Burbage arrived and was asked who he was, he indignantly shouted “Richard the Third!” The servant returned a few minutes later with a message from Shakespeare: “William the Conqueror came before Richard the Third!” There is a lovely little reference to this story in _Shakespeare in Love._ Joseph Fiennes is in a pub and sees a lady who says something like “I remember you - William the Conqueror!” I also like the touch in _A.I._ where all the little mirror-dolls that hang over David’s bed have the hearts cut out of them. ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/75 "2001-08-07T00:43:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Danimal \* > \*\*There is a lovely little reference to this story in _Shakespeare in Love._ Joseph Fiennes is in a pub and sees a lady who says something like “I remember you - William the Conqueror!” > \*\* Yeah, I loved that. There’s a site devoted to cataloguing all the references in that movie, but it missed that one. I tried to send it in, but the email address didn’t work, more’s the pity. Another SiL bit I liked was the shot of Will writing his name over and over, using different spellings – the spellings being the same ones as the few extant Shakespeare signatures. Bob, re Lancelot – my sister saw the movie with me a few days ago, and she said exactly the same thing. (We’re both Arthur buffs. :D) ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/76 "2001-08-07T01:54:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Pushkin \* > **Ray Harryhausen** AFAIK did the special effects for a **King Kong** movie, the one where Kong fights a T-rex This was the very first Kong movie, and it was Willis O’Brien who did the FX. Harryhausen was only a kid at the time. Ray became an apprentice to O’Brien for _Mighty Joe Young_. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/77 "2001-08-07T02:36:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BobSchroeck \* > Dei Iesu Domine > Dona ies requiem Nobody’s gotten this completely right, so here’s the Straight Dope. The lines are “Pie Jesu Domine”, “dona eis requiem”. Literally translated, “O pious [saintly, holy] Jesus, Lord”, “give to them rest”. “Them” refers to the souls of the dead. The lines occur at the end of the “Dies Irae” from the old Latin Requiem or funeral mass and probably in other spots. ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/78 "2001-08-07T03:10:41Z")
At the end of **Ghostbusters** , after the Stay-Puf Marshmallow Man blows up, the Busters reappear. Everyone is covered in goo, except for Bill Murray. Not a spot on him. The others kinda look at him, in a middle shot, but nobody ever asks and he never explains. A very appropriate result for someone who was more scam artist than scientist. I love movies where don’t hit you over the head with the jokes. (Well, except for **Airplane!** , but that was so crammed with jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/79 "2001-08-07T04:28:23Z")
**Zev** : Remember, his full name was Truman Burbank. Burbank, of course, is the Southern California town where NBC has a significant TV studio. Jay Leno shoots his show there. Also in the Truman Show, one of the shots in the Control Room shows Ed Harris giving a go-sign for the show’s musician to start playing the score. The musician is played by composer Philip Glass, who has several of his pieces on the soundtrack. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933/80 "2001-08-07T05:53:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zev\_steinhardt \* > \*\*The bridesmades at his wedding all had similar names. (I think they were Jodi, Jean and Jeneane, but I could be mistaken about that). Similarly his wife and best friend had similar names (Merle and Marlon). > \*\* In **Pleasantville** , all of the bowling teams had names that matched up like that. Also, IIRC, the mayor had scored a perfect 300. Actually, there are a ton of nice touches in that movie. Clocks and calendars are among the first objects to change into color, which is appropriate because time had no meaning in Pleasentville when it was entirely black and white. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neat-touches-in-films/74933.md?page=5)