Now and Then, Here and There - With a title like that you’d never think that it’s a brutal, depressing, and uncomfortable anime that doesn’t seem to have any bright spots until you start getting to the end.
The Longest Most Meaningless Movie In The World is only the fourth longest movie in the world (although it must be pointed out that it once was the very longest).
“Bladerunner” was the title of a completely different science fiction novel by physician Alan E. Nourse. It’s very good, and I highly recommend it, but it has nothing to do with dangerous killer androids or the people who “retire” them. William S. Burroughs did a treatment for it as a film, which Ridley Scott apparently looked through. He wasn’t interested in Nourse’s book (about black-market doctors in the future, and the men who provide medical supplies for them, including scalpels – hence, “Bladerunners”), but he liked the title a lot more than “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, so he purchased the rights. If you pay close attention to the closing credits, Scott thanks Nourse and Burroughs for the use of the title.
The problem with that one is a bad translation. The German title didn’t carry those connotations. It was more like The Horrible Young Lady. Which is still a weird title for the film, but not as weird as the English title.
Harlan Ellison’s “A Boy and His Dog” is hardly what it sounds like it would be. I wonder how many parents took their kids to a matinee of the movie made from it, and got quite the surprise…
I also knew some people who were disappointed that Ghost World wasn’t a horror story. For that matter, The Ring is neither about boxing nor an engagement.
This one is also a victim of the “Explanation for the Title Given in the movie isn’t the whole story” syndrome. They realize that they have to give a reason for the title, so near the end they throw in Whoopi saying “I think God gets pissed off when people don’t appreciate The Color Purple”, whereas the symbolism of Purple runs much deeper in the book:
For something similar, see the movie version of Stephen King’s Hearts in Atlantis (another good example for this thread), where the movie throws in some card-playing as a weak excuse for the title.
Gone with the Wind is another example of the Obscure Title that Has a Simplistic Interpretation in the Movie that Might Not Be What the Author Intended.
The title is so familiar that a lot of folks probably haven’t considered how ambiguous and uninformative it is to the uninitiated. Had I not been immersed in a culture filled with references to this flick, I never would’ve guessed it was about the Civil War.
As for the meaning of the title, the movie opens with the explanation that it refers to the antebellum way of life, gone forever with the wind. But AFAIK, there’s no evidence that Mitchell saw it that way:
“Burn Notice” and “The Wire” are misleading to me. Burn notice sounds like you’re notifying someone that you will be doing a controlled burn somewhere. The Wire sounds like a show about a newswire service. Or a guy that makes stuff out of chicken wire.
Isn’t the double entendre intended with that one? (Or did you think it was about Mr Spock, or elves or something?)