Just got “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” on DVD and watched the theatrical trailer.
I remember Ebert complaining about how because modern movies spend so much money they are desperate to get a lot of it into the advertisements. Well I’m not sure how that explains this trailer-some of the war shots OK. But:
It shows the Bad getting caught&interrogated by the Ugly. Shows Bad’s escape. Shows Good catching Bad unawares as he digs at grave. Shows Ugly then catch Good anawares same place. Then shows all three in the classic three way duel shot (including the eye closeups). It shows the Good gets a shot off. So we basically have a three minute trailer whose last minute is a sum up of the last ten minutes of the movie.
I was thinking of putting this in the Pit but I had no intention of having to put “kinda weak/lame” next to the title. So instead I’ll ask if anyone’s DVD library shows the earliest example of a trailer completely wrecking the movie…
Well, I’m no super movie buff, but I have watched a couple of old favorites over the last month, and for kicks watched the trailers as well. The two specific trailers I recall were Red Dawn and Conan the Barbarian.
And you’re absolutely right - old school trailers are horrible. They divulge massive plot points, have little thematic consistency, and are generally pretty sloppily assembled.
I guess that was ‘just the way things were’ back in my childhood and I took it for granted that the movie would be better than the trailer. Of course, there were very few movies that involved guns, swords, explosions, pirates, aliens or monsters that I wasn’t absolutely enthralled with, up until I must’ve been about 16.
What is best in life, Conan?
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.*
Trailers have gotten sufficiently significant that a new genre of amateur film has emerged: the mock trailer. My personal favourite, and one of the coolest short films of all time, is Grayson.
A friend of mine got The Graduate on DVD, and for fun we watched the trailer included on the disc. It was a good thing I’d already seen the movie, because if I hadn’t the trailer would have ruined it for me. It gave away not only the ending, but every major plot point and all the memorable lines along the way – from “Plastics” to “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me” to “ELAINE!” It was like a Cliff’s Notes version of the movie.
In retrospect, maybe, but the twist in Psycho had nothing to do with
Marion Crane being murdered. The twist was that Janet Leigh, the star of the film, would be killed off a third of the way through. It was a creepy movie and you expected her to get menaced, but you also expected her to get away - because she was the star. Stars just didn’t get killed off early in those days.
I’m not surprised that Ebert got things wrong and thinks that this is a “modern” phenomenon… he ususally gets his facts screwed up, and always has.
I hope you’re talking about the Hitchcock version, and the delightful trailer where he gives you a tour of the motel and house? It’s wonderful, and yes, he gives away almost everything if you’ve seen the movie. But if you haven’t seen the movie, it’s very cryptic. Examples: he goes into the bathroom and says, “it’ all cleaned up now, you should have seen the blood.” In the room behind the office, he points to the picture on the wall and says, “This picture has great significance.” If you haven’t seen the movie, you’d never guess the “great significance” is there’s a peephole behind it.
It’s a trailer that is enormous fun after you’ve seen the movie, because it “gives away” almost everything without really giving away anything. Plus (spoiler if you haven’t seen the trailer) Janet Leigh screaming at the end makes you jump outta your skin.
It does leave one thing unspoilered. You have to watch the movie to find out thatEli Wallach is the Ugly, not the Bad, and Lee Van Cleef is the Bad, not the Ugly.It’s all in the misdirection, see… yeah, that’s the ticket…
So I guess you missed the umm, title of the thread. Your nemesis Zemeckis is merely following his movie trailer upbringing.
Thanks all for bringing up the Psycho trailer, sounds like a must see. Trailers are rarely clever like that. Yeah C K Dexter Haven, Ebert’s always talking out of his butt, and getting more emotional and delirious as he ages.
ps- Bryan, unfortunately having quicktime plug-in probs- soundtrack sounds OK.
Why blame Zemekis? Everyone in Hollywood says the same thing. The idea is that if people want to know what the movie is about, twists and all, if they’re going to put down their money.
Take a look at the trailer of “What Lies Beneath,” for instance.
Also, I’m a little slow. I assume this was a snide comment actually directed at me:
Otto:
I guess you sometimes forget that 40yr old movies can be spoiled. Sorry bout that. I’ll request a thread title change as the point of the thread is spoiler related.
If a mod see this post before my email can they please tack on the end: Warning-Multiple random unboxed spoilers
So instead I’ll ask if anyone’s DVD library shows the earliest example of a trailer completely wrecking the movie…