...and They Live and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.In good fiction, we always identify with the protagonist that Sees The Truth, and rarely with the mind-numbed extras who hold him down until the guys in the white coats get there with their syringes, but there are a lot of the latter and only one of the former.
Popular culture is full of scary stories of being The Only (Sane/Real/Free/Human) Person. What would it look like if someone really was that person? Like somebody going crazy on an airliner, I imagine...
(Similarly, there's the Horror Movie Reality Gap that has always bothered me: What are the cops going to say when they show up at the cabin in the woods and Bruce Campbell has chainsawed up his girlfriend, but says he did it only after she became possessed by demons? He's not going to go back to work at S-Mart, I can tell you that...)
14 comments:
The best example of Horror Movie Reality Gap: "Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil"
I've always wanted to make a pair of movies where the good guys in one are the bad guys in the other. Same characters, same chase and fight scenes, but the protagonists are flipped.
Everyone thinks he's the good guy. It's all about perspective.
Wiz, I've got a script for you... Slaton TX PD.
Around the 3:21 mark I saw him do some counter baton with a gun. I slowed it down and paused it - it's a blue gun cut to live gun.
At first I was like "fucking clownshoes did that asshole just use a live weapon to counter a baton strike?!?!" After I reviewed it I was like "fucking clownshoes put that in a video and now someone is going to try it at home and pop their friends melon."
If life was more like fiction, it'd have a better editor.
gvi
wizardpc, you might enjoy Rashomon, then. Not exactly what you're describing, but close.
jf
He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not
A fantastic movie, as Audrey Tatou's often are.
The Last-Sane-Man-in-an-Insane-World scenario can be darn funny too. Take 'Green Acres' for instance.
That said, the director's cut (original ending) of Brazil is the best.
Wizardpc, check out the book I Am Legend.
wizardpc,
Two movies almost like that:
Flags of Our Fathers (American POV)
And
Letters from Iwo Jima (Japanese POV)
Makes me think of 'The Last Ringbearer' - an unauthorized Middle Earth novel from Sauron's perspective in which the humans/elves/dwarves are the aggressors.
You should also check out the under-rated Bill Paxton film FRAILTY -- another movie relevant to the notes above.
Also, of course, this narrative appears in Greek mythology as the Cassandra story -- the person who sees the truth but is cursed to not be believed.
If fiction were more like real life I don't think as many people would find it satisfying to read. As Mark Twain said, "Of course truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense." Rarely does truth tie up neatly by the end of the story.
Joe @ 2:54 am:
Wow, I had never heard of "The Last Ringbearer"! As a fan of LOTR, I guess I am going to have to check it out. Thanks for mentioning this.
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