# not a mistake but it takes you out of the movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2009, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629 "2009-01-23T13:34:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/41 "2009-01-24T16:03:07Z")
> [@Agonist](#): > > Unless it’s done very well (and actually, you know, contributes to the plot), most nude scenes take me out of the picture, because they’re all just fanservice. I don’t see many movies, so coming up with examples is hard, but… Forgetting Sara Marshall, for instance, or the newer remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. Both had just a few seconds of nudity for no real reason other than “Look! He/she’s naked!” I have nothing against see beautiful naked women in a movie, but you’re right. I can’t seem to remember one single movie where nudity was necessary. I propose that, if they feel we must see the chick naked, they put it after the film is over. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/42 "2009-01-24T16:04:32Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > The Paris flashback scenes in _ **Casablanca** _. Seeing Rick so stupidly happy is _way_ too jarring. The “We’ll always have Paris” line tells us all we need to know about their brief, doomed love affair. Remarkable; this may be the only time I ever have, or ever will, agree with you about something. (Though Rick isn’t “stupidly happy”, just happy, which is jarring enough.) Great movie, but it’d be better without the flashback scenes. > [@Loach](#): > > Another thing that takes me out of the movie is the soundtrack. I mostly mean when I catch an older movie on TV. The worst offenders are from the late seventies and early eighties. Songs from the period are fine. Its the scores that are jarring. I caught Abscence of Malice on the TV a while back. Newman’s performance holds up very well and for the most part the movie does too. But the score is horrible. I had that experience recently with _To Live and Die in LA_. The movie really holds up (and is almost subversive; it shows how badly things could go if the protagonist really is a maverick cop who plays by his own rules). Good characters, solid action, and a brief scene of Janes Leeves (later Daphne on _Frasier_) as a slutty bisexual chick. But the incidental music is jarring to modern ears; jangly half-synth stuff that I was probably fine with in 1985, but now it sounds cheesy. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/43 "2009-01-24T16:12:46Z")
In _The Two Towers_, when Theoden King is mourning his lost son, Theodred, he says, “No parent should ever have to bury their child.” The modernity of his phrasing, not to mention the sentiment itself, struck me. If he were going to express such a feeling at all, a man in such a pseudo-medieval milieu would have said, “No father should ever have to bury his son.” But I don’t think he’d have even said that, no matter how great his grief, for in a pre-industrial, pre-antibiotics world, parents burying children would be too common to be remarked upon thus. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/44 "2009-01-24T16:19:31Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > I have nothing against see beautiful naked women in a movie, but you’re right. I can’t seem to remember one single movie where nudity was necessary. > > I propose that, if they feel we must see the chick naked, they put it after the film is over. Odd that you say that. I don’t mind nudity one way or the other, as long as it makes sense in the context. Sometimes the lack of nudity is jarring. Take Natalie Portman in Closer, or Jessica Alba in Sin City. Both are playing strippers; we see scenes of them at work. Their not being naked is jarring. Portman makes up for it by being able to act and being hot enough that she needn’t be naked to draw attention. But it was just silly not to have Alba naked. if she didn’t want to do the scene as it should have been done, they should have gotten another actress. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/45 "2009-01-24T16:23:51Z")
> [@cactus\_waltz](#): > > Yes yes! Poorly implemented sound effects is high on my list. Of course, that’s one of those things which I believe the common viewer doesn’t catch. Only, once you do get aware of them, they are very apparent. The episode of House mentioned above was very ridiculous because of it – Cubby is holding a baby that is very obviously plastic while we hear [CHILD CRYING] that is equally obviously a recording. Oh yeah, I agree. Dogs, too…lots of times you’ll see dogs who are obviously not growling or barking doing whatever, and sound effects of other dogs doing so in the background. Stupid ventriloquist dogs! ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/46 "2009-01-24T16:30:17Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Odd that you say that. I don’t mind nudity one way or the other, as long as it makes sense in the context. Sometimes the lack of nudity is jarring. Take Natalie Portman in Closer, or Jessica Alba in Sin City. Both are playing strippers; we see scenes of them at work. Their not being naked is jarring. > > Portman makes up for it by being able to act and being hot enough that she needn’t be naked to draw attention. But it was just silly not to have Alba naked. if she didn’t want to do the scene as it should have been done, they should have gotten another actress. Courtney Cox’s distinct _lack_ of nudity in _3000 Miles to Graceland_ is another good example. Her wearing a bra in the sex scene makes **no** sense. ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/47 "2009-01-24T17:13:03Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > I have nothing against see beautiful naked women in a movie, but you’re right. I can’t seem to remember one single movie where nudity was necessary. The Crying Game? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/48 "2009-01-24T17:17:47Z")
The \*Hoosiers \*/ Buddy paradox. Buddy was the smart-ass at the first practice who lips off and get’s kicked out. His friend Whit went with him, but his father brought him back later to get back on the team. Not Buddy. He just showed up one day on gum identification duty. It seems there was a scene explaining his return that was cut due to length or something. Seems like a pretty important piece of the puzzle to just chop off like that. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/49 "2009-01-24T18:12:33Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > That reminded me of another one, in **Attack of the Clones** : For me, it was in **The Phantom Menace** -in the pod racer scene, an alien announcer says something close to “That’s GOTTA hurt…no matter WHAT universe you’re from!” And the way he says it–the inflection, the pause at the end for the laff…it destroyed any chance I had of enjoying the rest of the movie. I’ve heard the phrase “it made me cringe inside” but never really felt it before but that line–something about it made me literally cringe. (not that the movie was a masterpiece before that line. Or after, for that matter. Just that any hope enjoying the movie vanished right there for me) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/50 "2009-01-24T18:22:45Z")
> [@MacTech](#): > > In the Battlestar Galactica “movie” **Razor** there’s the scene where Kendra Shaw is supervising the nuggets field-stripping/reassembling their rifles, there’s a closeup of the buttstock of the rifle, which has a _VERY CLEARLY_ visible Beretta logo, the firearm in question is a [Beretta CX-4 Storm](https://www.shopberetta.com/e2wItemMain.aspx?parentID=IT00006123&parentLink=2100000084:3100001363:3100001373) carbine > > normally, the BSG set dressers and props department do a good job of disguising the props, but this was so blatantly obvious that it momentarily pulled me out of the movie, who knew Beretta had such a frakkin’ good distribution system, they’re able to supply firearms for both Earth, and the Colonies, way on the other frakkin side of the galaxy 😉 I think that’s unarguably a mistake akin to a Timex on a gladiator, though. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/51 "2009-01-24T18:25:35Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > For me, it’s very specific words that throw me off. > > In the remake of _I Spy_, Owen Wilson said the bad guys could steal an invisible jet and put a “Weapon of Mass Destruction” on it. Invisible jet, I could handle. The WMD seemed added in because we were in Iraq at the time. > > In _Phantom Menace_, Naboo person saying “We’re a Democracy”. It just seemed so shoehorned; like it was too specific a term for a galaxy far, far away. What other term could they have used? It’s not as they had Keira Knightley saying “We’re a parliamentary democracy akin to the United Kingdom.” ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/52 "2009-01-24T18:26:02Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > In _The Two Towers_, when Theoden King is mourning his lost son, Theodred, he says, “No parent should ever have to bury their child.” The modernity of his phrasing, not to mention the sentiment itself, struck me. If he were going to express such a feeling at all, a man in such a pseudo-medieval milieu would have said, “No father should ever have to bury his son.” But I don’t think he’d have even said that, no matter how great his grief, for in a pre-industrial, pre-antibiotics world, parents burying children would be too common to be remarked upon thus. Enh, I’m not sure about that. For one thing, Theoden is royal, so he has access to better medicine than his peasants do. For another, Theoden obviously loves and values Eowyn, although she’s not his child, so he doesn’t just care about sons. Finally, Theodred was distinctly past the typical stage of child/infant mortality; he was cut down in his prime by violence, not accident or disease. And given the sad state of the world of Men at that point, semi-despairing over the future of your line is quite understandable. > [@Skald the Rhymer](#): > > What other term could they have used? It’s not as they had Keira Knightley saying “We’re a parliamentary democracy akin to the United Kingdom.” Pretty much. It’s not as if ‘democracy’ itself is a terribly specific word. All it means is ‘rule by the people’, and quite frankly, I think putting anything else in there would have been weird. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/53 "2009-01-24T20:26:18Z")
For me it’s films where it looks like everyone uses Apple computers. Unless they all work together and are using company-issued laptops, it’s less likely than all the principal characters being left-handed. Of course I can’t think of a single example, but you know they exist. > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > But I don’t think he’d have even said that, no matter how great his grief, for in a pre-industrial, pre-antibiotics world, parents burying children would be too common to be remarked upon thus. In addition to the excellent points raised by the distinguished root vegetable in a previous point, I’d like to state the following: 1) Theoden is getting over a bad case of possession and facing an oncoming apocalypse. He could be excused for being a little melodramatic, I think. 2) In our own time, parents in places where death at a young age is relatively common are still capable of displaying tremendous grief over the loss of a child. 3) The setting of “The Lord of the Rings” may resemble the middle ages in some ways, but it is not the middle ages. There is no hint in the book - including the main narrative, the additional tales contained in the appendices, or the genealogies - that it was at all common for parents to outlive their children. There are very few, if any, cases of anyone dying from infection or an ordinary disease in Tolkien’s world. There was reference to one plague (and it was a doozy), but nothing before or after that I can recall. Most “sicknesses” were supernatural in origin. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/54 "2009-01-24T20:44:10Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > For me it’s films where it looks like everyone uses Apple computers. Unless they all work together and are using company-issued laptops, it’s less likely than all the principal characters being left-handed. Of course I can’t think of a single example, but you know they exist. > > In addition to the excellent points raised by the distinguished root vegetable in a previous point, I’d like to state the following: 1) Theoden is getting over a bad case of possession and facing an oncoming apocalypse. He could be excused for being a little melodramatic, I think. 2) In our own time, parents in places where death at a young age is relatively common are still capable of displaying tremendous grief over the loss of a child. 3) The setting of “The Lord of the Rings” may resemble the middle ages in some ways, but it is not the middle ages. There is no hint in the book - including the main narrative, the additional tales contained in the appendices, or the genealogies - that it was at all common for parents to outlive their children. There are very few, if any, cases of anyone dying from infection or an ordinary disease in Tolkien’s world. There was reference to one plague (and it was a doozy), but nothing before or after that I can recall. Most “sicknesses” were supernatural in origin. I disagree with that last sentence, but I won’t argue because I don’t care enough. My main problem with what Theoden said is that I don’t beleived he’d have PHRASED it thusly. It’s the “No \*parent \*should ever outlive \*their \*child” rather than "No **father** should have to outlive **his son** that mostly bothers me. It’s too contemporary a phrasing. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/55 "2009-01-24T20:46:22Z")
Another response to the OP: I’ve long enjoyed watching films from the 1920s. I’ve never had any problem accepting the lack of color and audible dialog and the (sometimes) histrionic acting as artifacts of the time. But at some point recently it hit me that everyone I’m watching is dead. Of course I knew that most of the stars were long gone, but I didn’t think about it too much. But at some point it struck me that they’re _all_ gone. The hero? Dead. His buddy? Dead. The love interest? Dead. The rival for affection? Dead. That sad little orphan on the corner? Dead. Those 200 extras milling about on the sidewalk? Dead. (I know about the occasional [exceptions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_silent_film_actors), but for the most part, anyone who was in an 80-year-old film is more likely to be dead than alive.) It doesn’t stop me from watching the films and it in fact adds another level of poignancy, but I find that I’m often thinking about the _actors_ as people, wondering what they’re stories were, where they came from and what happened to them, as often as I’m thinking about the _characters_. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/56 "2009-01-24T20:46:37Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Odd that you say that. I don’t mind nudity one way or the other, as long as it makes sense in the context. Sometimes the lack of nudity is jarring. Take Natalie Portman in Closer, or Jessica Alba in Sin City. Both are playing strippers; we see scenes of them at work. Their not being naked is jarring. > > Portman makes up for it by being able to act and being hot enough that she needn’t be naked to draw attention. But it was just silly not to have Alba naked. if she didn’t want to do the scene as it should have been done, they should have gotten another actress. It’s not that I mind, keep the boobs coming, it’s more in a purely cinematographical way, sometimes it doesn’t make sense. Agreed on Portman and, even though I haven’t seen the movie it should be illegal to have a movie about a stripper played by Jessica Alba and not have her neaked, it’s misleading the consumer. ---
**Author:** ![A\_Dodgy\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a87d85/32.png) [@A\_Dodgy\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Dodgy_Dude)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/57 "2009-01-24T20:49:11Z")
Two things drive me nuts: any sounds in outer space - space ships flying (flying? well, whatever the right verb is), explosions, etc. Any movie vampire (you know, as opposed to \*real-life \*vampires 😃 ) that hold the corners of their mouths far apart so you can see their fangs. Very distracting. ---
**Author:** ![rucciface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ba9def/32.png) [@rucciface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rucciface)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/58 "2009-01-24T21:07:49Z")
When characters call each other by name in (seemingly) every line of dialogue. I know I can spend all day with someone and only use his name 2-3 times. Another one: When a character enters a door that you’d expect him to close behind himself (for example, the front door of an abode), but the door is left open because the camera has to pass through, too. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/59 "2009-01-24T21:08:40Z")
Anything that had to do with math or college in the movie **21**. Seriously, “true zero”? What the fuck does that mean? And why did a kid whose dream was to go to Harvard Medical School and become a doctor spend his undergrad years studying math and building robots? Not to mention he’s supposed to be some sort of genius, but is just now learning Newton’s method in his senior year at MIT. (\<–ETA That’s like learning how to add in your senior year of high school. Yep, genius!) I’m sure there were some terrible blackjack fuckups in that movie too, but I’m not qualified to judge them. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629/60 "2009-01-24T21:11:09Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I disagree with that last sentence, but I won’t argue because I don’t care enough. My main problem with what Theoden said is that I don’t beleived he’d have PHRASED it thusly. It’s the “No \*parent \*should ever outlive \*their \*child” rather than "No **father** should have to outlive **his son** that mostly bothers me. It’s too contemporary a phrasing. I disagree with your disagreement. I also think “child” as opposed to “son” is justifiable because Eowyn is also on Theoden’s mind. But I’ll give you “parent/their” as opposed to “father/his” or even “parent/his”. Chalk it up to a bad translation from Westron or Rohirric or Whatever. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-a-mistake-but-it-takes-you-out-of-the-movie/482629.md?page=4)