Tuesday, June 18, 2013

What if fiction were more like real life?

My friend John asked, in the comments section of the previous post, why I was tying together The Twilight Zone and Brave New World, to which I replied:
...and They Live and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

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...
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.

(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:

Joe Allen said...

The best example of Horror Movie Reality Gap: "Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil"

wizardpc said...

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.

Old Radar Tech said...

Wiz, I've got a script for you... Slaton TX PD.

Scott_S said...

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."

global village idiot said...

If life was more like fiction, it'd have a better editor.

gvi

Anonymous said...

wizardpc, you might enjoy Rashomon, then. Not exactly what you're describing, but close.

jf

staghounds said...

He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not

A fantastic movie, as Audrey Tatou's often are.

1 With A Bullet said...

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.

Michael said...

Wizardpc, check out the book I Am Legend.

Professor James Moriarty said...

wizardpc,

Two movies almost like that:

Flags of Our Fathers (American POV)

And

Letters from Iwo Jima (Japanese POV)

Joe said...

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.

digital_sextant said...

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.

Windy Wilson said...

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.

Will from Bama said...

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.