# One little thing you wish you could change in a movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [January 14, 2025, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944 "2025-01-14T00:39:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/121 "2025-01-15T20:02:57Z")
Spotlight. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/122 "2025-01-15T20:16:33Z")
In _Cabin in the Woods_, I’d get rid of the scene showing the eagle crashing into the (Forcefield? Hologram?) at the beginning of the movie. It would make the Athlete’s demise more, umm… _impactful_ later on. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/123 "2025-01-15T20:53:56Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > In _One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest_, Randle Patrick McMurphy was a burly Irish ginger – as good as Jack Nicholson was in it, he did not even slightly resemble the character Kesey wrote. I am not sure who they could have used. Kirk Douglas was perfect as McMurphy on Broadway in 1962, but he had aged out of the role by 1975. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/124 "2025-01-15T21:10:12Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Kirk Douglas was perfect as McMurphy on Broadway in 1962, but he had aged out of the role by 1975. I had seen an off-Broadway version of the play circa 1971. I don’t recall who play McMurphy (no one now famous, I don’t think), but he was more to the description given than Nicholson was a few years later. Added – It looks as if it might have been William Devane, who IS sorta famous. I also see that Danny Devito was in it, too, although I don’t recall him. He later played the same part in the Nicholson film. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/125 "2025-01-15T21:12:53Z")
Wikipedia mentions, “the play has had two revivals: first off-Broadway in 1971, directed by Lee Sankowich with Danny DeVito as Martini and William Devane as McMurphy.” So _possibly_ William Devane? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/126 "2025-01-15T21:14:01Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > It’s been taking out in a couple of times I’ve seen it. Don’t know how many “editions” of the movie there are Scenes often are cut for time. > [@](#): > > Canada’s national broadcaster CBC has defended deleting a scene featuring Donald Trump from the film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. > > CBC spokesman Chuck Thompson said eight minutes of the 120-minute film had been trimmed to make way for adverts. > > He said the edits were made in 2014, before Mr Trump was elected, and were not politically motivated. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/127 "2025-01-15T21:15:40Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Wikipedia mentions, “the play has had two revivals: first off-Broadway in 1971, directed by Lee Sankowich with Danny DeVito as Martini and William Devane as McMurphy.” So _possibly_ William Devane? You wrote this while I was adding my extra note, so it’s not as if I’m not acknowledging you. Our info seems to corroborate each other. (I looked it up on off-Broadway databases and the Wikipedia page on Devane). ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/128 "2025-01-15T21:46:59Z")
The very last line of **Miracle on 34th Street** (1947) has always bothered me; the way the line is delivered, along with John Payne’s expression, says (to me) _I single-handedly released Godzilla on an unsuspecting NYC_, instead of being a self deprecating _Shit! **I** did nothing; Kringle staged the whole thing! He didn’t need **my** help!_ Or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/129 "2025-01-15T21:49:26Z")
I quite like _Cloud Atlas_, but it could use some merciless excision in several of the lengthy action sequences, which interrupt the film with a bunch of superfluous nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/130 "2025-01-15T22:27:59Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > The very last line of **Miracle on 34th Street** (1947) has always bothered me; You’re not the only one! i asked: > [@Is "Die Hard" a Christmas Movie?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-die-hard-a-christmas-movie/675283/604): > > In the original film, Fred Gaily, after successfully proving that Kris was the one, true Santa, finds the house that Susie has been dreaming of. He and Doris think it is just a coincidence, until Fred sees a cane, a cane just like the one Kris had, sitting in the house. He gets a worried looks and says, " [_doubtfully_] Maybe… And… maybe I didn’t do such a wonderful thing after all." > > I never get that line. What does he mean? > > If Kris _was_ indeed the one, true, Santa, then he did a good thing! And ZonexandScout said: > [@Is "Die Hard" a Christmas Movie?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-die-hard-a-christmas-movie/675283/605): > > I don’t think that “wonderful” was intended to mean “good.” Rather, that he was musing about whether his successful defense/argument had been that miraculous. More along the lines of a defense attorney admitting that it was easy to get his client off because his client was actually innocent. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/131 "2025-01-15T22:38:54Z")
So it’s not just me! Do you think it would have played better if neither Doris nor Fred had said anything and just had big WTF? looks on their faces? Let the audience figure it out. Or not. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/132 "2025-01-15T22:41:08Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > So it’s not just me! That’s always bugged me, too. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/133 "2025-01-15T23:00:39Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > So it’s not just me! I would, first, want to leave the end ambiguous. Like Santa said in _Elf_, you can’t be shown, you have to believe! Was he the one, true Santa, or not? Well, we may never know. And I’d make Fred’s line more wonder, not “he released Godzilla on an unsuspecting NY!” (love that!), just leave it something like Fred: “No!” Doris “You don’t think…??” Fred “He can’t be!” and then drop it. The end Except written by a real screenwriter! ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/134 "2025-01-15T23:51:50Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > > [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > > > > [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > > > > > I honestly thought you were gonna say _“the camera pans under her bed to show two slippers.”_ > > > > That’s pretty much how the Andrew Lloyd Webber stage version ends. > > How does a camera pan in a stage play? I did say “pretty much” - what actually happens, at the end, a cabinet door opens to reveal the slippers. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/135 "2025-01-16T00:52:21Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Do you think it would have played better if neither Doris nor Fred had said anything and just had big WTF? looks on their faces? Like that scene in _Love Actually_ where Keira Knightley, while watching the wedding tape, delivers about 20 lines of dialog without saying a word? ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/136 "2025-01-16T01:24:54Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > “Parsecs”. > > There is absolutely no convincing “no-prize” explanation for that fuck up. To add insult to injury, Lucas changes dozens of things that weren’t even wrong with _Star Wars_ and doesn’t bother to spend a couple bucks to dub in a word that makes sense. Lucas’ response to the criticism on this is practically Soviet in style. It looks to me that he was stung by people calling it out as stupid and responded by refusing to concede that there was even an issue. To even acknowledge it, much less FIX it, would give the criticism validity. Maybe someone laughed at it to his face and so it became personal. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/137 "2025-01-16T02:20:24Z")
Not a specific movie, but: If your movie is set before modern science and technology, and you consider it vitally important that a character have blonde hair, and you cast a dark-haired actor in a blonde wig, then bleach the eyebrows, dammit! ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/138 "2025-01-16T02:24:52Z")
I haven’t seen that movie, but maybe there’s a YouTube clip of that scene. It’s research time; I’ll keep you posted. ---
**Author:** ![Quondam\_Mechanic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quondam_mechanic/32/3404_2.png) [@Quondam\_Mechanic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quondam_Mechanic)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/139 "2025-01-16T02:26:21Z")
Ahnold’s accent in _Conan the Barbarian_ would have been just fine if any of the other people in his village had had the same accent. Wouln’t have taken a scholar of the works of Nietche to figure that out, either. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944/140 "2025-01-16T03:09:22Z")
Since others have mentioned **Back to the Future** , one thing that always bugged me was: instead of the whole hook on the car hitting the cable at the exact moment solution, why not just have a reasonably long cable connected directly to the car ? Then the car just needs to be going 88 mph _before_ the time the lightning is going to hit. Removes the whole (unbelievable) timing to have the hook hit the cable at the _exact_ time the lightning hits. (it also bugged me that they only knew the time the lightning would hit down to hours and minutes - no finer granularity. Which of course, the long cable idea totally solves). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-little-thing-you-wish-you-could-change-in-a-movie/1012944.md?page=8)