They're not spoilers, dammit
Mar. 2nd, 2010 02:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendi(Inspired by a couple of recent conversations)
Warning: This post contains things that some people consider spoilers.
Let's talk about spoilers and good movies:
A spoiler is something that reveals a twist or surprise in a movie before you've seen it. Not a perfect definition, but good enough for government work.
So knowing that Rosebud is a sled, that Harry Lime is the Third Man, that Malcolm Crowe is killed by his former patient, that Teddy is just using Leonard to kill drug dealers, that Dil has a penis, are all "spoilers."
Right?
So how many times have you seen Citizen Kane, Memento, or The Sixth Sense? Do the movies suck now? Are they all just cinematic one-note O'Henry stories or Twilight Zone episodes, built around shocking you and then allowing you to forget them and move on to the next piece of disposable culture?
Or are they three elegantly crafted films that work on multiple levels?
Does knowing that Tyler Durden isn't actually there make you unable to enjoy Fight Club? Is The Usual Suspects any less brilliant knowing that Verbal is a sociopath? Does it matter that the Planet of the Apes is actually earth?
Let's switch gears.
Did you know that Romeo and Juliet die in an act of Teenage Stupidity? That Ophelia kills herself? That Rochester keeps a Bonus Spare Wife in the attic? That Jesus resisted the Last Temptation? That Neil Klugman and Brenda Patimkin break up? That Billy dies trying to be a hero?
Does knowing any of that bother you (and yes, with that selection, I know you likely won't like every book listed, but hopefully at least one is something you recognize as a classic)? Does it make the book any less good?
Look, I recognize the value of the spoiler. I fully support and endorse Scalzi's statute of spoiler limitations, to give the art the time to have the initial impact. In fact, I've deliberately avoided spoilers of everything from TV shows to movies I was planning on seeing. I completely appreciate the thrill of that first discovery, and in a perfect world, it would be possible to always experience that thrill.
But in the end, art is something worth talking about (call it appreciation, analysis, whatever). And if you can't discuss plot twists, then the art likely doesn't hold up very well anyway (see every other movie that's used the "Fight Club bad guy who wasn't really there*," ending, from the tepid My Bloody Valentine remake to High Tension). The Sixth Sense is a perfectly-crafted movie (amazing, in light of the director's utter lack of perfection in recent years). And it's just as well-crafted the second or third time through.
And if you insist we can't talk about the spoilers, you're basically saying you don't want to talk about movies at any level approaching real analysis. And that's not how I handle things, either on LJ or in real life. So yeah, I'll avoid mentioning things about recent movies without a tag (you probably want to see Avatar before being told that it's all about a cookbook, and that the aliens are planning to eat us.) But eventually, I'll start treating filmmaking like art. Deal with it.
(And yes, this goes for television, too. Boone's death happened five years ago, and seriously informed Locke's actions for the next few seasons; if Lost were a novel, Boone would be dead on page 40, and the cover copy would probably spoil it.)
*And yes, I know that this twist predates Fight Club.
Warning: This post contains things that some people consider spoilers.
Let's talk about spoilers and good movies:
A spoiler is something that reveals a twist or surprise in a movie before you've seen it. Not a perfect definition, but good enough for government work.
So knowing that Rosebud is a sled, that Harry Lime is the Third Man, that Malcolm Crowe is killed by his former patient, that Teddy is just using Leonard to kill drug dealers, that Dil has a penis, are all "spoilers."
Right?
So how many times have you seen Citizen Kane, Memento, or The Sixth Sense? Do the movies suck now? Are they all just cinematic one-note O'Henry stories or Twilight Zone episodes, built around shocking you and then allowing you to forget them and move on to the next piece of disposable culture?
Or are they three elegantly crafted films that work on multiple levels?
Does knowing that Tyler Durden isn't actually there make you unable to enjoy Fight Club? Is The Usual Suspects any less brilliant knowing that Verbal is a sociopath? Does it matter that the Planet of the Apes is actually earth?
Let's switch gears.
Did you know that Romeo and Juliet die in an act of Teenage Stupidity? That Ophelia kills herself? That Rochester keeps a Bonus Spare Wife in the attic? That Jesus resisted the Last Temptation? That Neil Klugman and Brenda Patimkin break up? That Billy dies trying to be a hero?
Does knowing any of that bother you (and yes, with that selection, I know you likely won't like every book listed, but hopefully at least one is something you recognize as a classic)? Does it make the book any less good?
Look, I recognize the value of the spoiler. I fully support and endorse Scalzi's statute of spoiler limitations, to give the art the time to have the initial impact. In fact, I've deliberately avoided spoilers of everything from TV shows to movies I was planning on seeing. I completely appreciate the thrill of that first discovery, and in a perfect world, it would be possible to always experience that thrill.
But in the end, art is something worth talking about (call it appreciation, analysis, whatever). And if you can't discuss plot twists, then the art likely doesn't hold up very well anyway (see every other movie that's used the "Fight Club bad guy who wasn't really there*," ending, from the tepid My Bloody Valentine remake to High Tension). The Sixth Sense is a perfectly-crafted movie (amazing, in light of the director's utter lack of perfection in recent years). And it's just as well-crafted the second or third time through.
And if you insist we can't talk about the spoilers, you're basically saying you don't want to talk about movies at any level approaching real analysis. And that's not how I handle things, either on LJ or in real life. So yeah, I'll avoid mentioning things about recent movies without a tag (you probably want to see Avatar before being told that it's all about a cookbook, and that the aliens are planning to eat us.) But eventually, I'll start treating filmmaking like art. Deal with it.
(And yes, this goes for television, too. Boone's death happened five years ago, and seriously informed Locke's actions for the next few seasons; if Lost were a novel, Boone would be dead on page 40, and the cover copy would probably spoil it.)
*And yes, I know that this twist predates Fight Club.