# The Language of Cinema Cliche: This is how you know that ...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 19, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317 "2005-03-19T15:10:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 11
### Author:  [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2005, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/201 "2005-05-04T13:41:44Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#):
>
> “That’s a Smith and Wesson, Doctor. And you’ve had your six.”
nitpick _with great respect, I assure you._
“That’s a Smith and Wesson, **professor** , and you’ve had your six.”
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2005, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/202 "2005-05-04T14:05:21Z")
> [@rackensack](#):
>
> Actually, that scene was the first that occurred to me after reading the OP, and I really believe it’s a counterinstance. I mean, Ron Shelton obviously needed to have Crash Davis _doing_ something during that scene, or it’d have been way too static. The ironing bit gives him a reason (excuse) to be standing around in his skivvies when Annie bursts in. But one of the most important ideas in this movie is that Crash really is a grownup deeply involved with a child’s game, unlike most of the other members of the Bulls, who really are still children in many ways. Is there any other member of the Bulls that you can imagine bothering to iron their shirts? Crash takes the time and invests the energy to try to do things the right way, whether it’s on a baseball field or off. Even Annie, who’s the closest to Crash in maturity of all the other characters, still has to grow up to some degree in order to bring the movie to its conclusion.
I believe that what you say is not contradictory to what I said. In other words, it is showing a man who by all rights should be leading a productive life, is, instead, sort of in slacker mode. Showing that he has the traits of a responsible member of society underlines the fact that he is in a position (lost his job/playing in the minors) that doesn’t match.
Anyway, I’ll have to say that I am overall pretty disappointed in the direction that this thread took. I really was looking for cliches that movies use to communicate information: Movie shows you X; therefore, you know Y. In other words, I’m looking for a series of sort of “go to” images that (lazy, perhaps) film directors have available to them when they want to get some kind of idea across to the audience.
Most of the resopnses here were of the kind – “This is what always happens in the movies, when it isn’t necessarily so in real life” – a rather uninteresting series of observations to my mind.
I suppose I can hope that the resurrection of this thread might get me more of what I was looking for.
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