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Movie Distractions
I’m sitting here watching Elizabeth, The Golden Age while the snow falls and the dogs snooze. I can see why Cate Blanchett was nominated for her starring performance and why the film won awards for costume design and art direction. But, I’m totally put off by Mary Stuart’s thick Scottish brogue. Mary Queen of Scots was raised in France (her mother’s birthplace) and was a French queen at one time. She almost certainly spoke French and, if anything, had a French accent. It’s very distracting to someone even marginally familiar with the history.
James Delingpole and Toby Young discussed the odd and unlikely appearance of a Sikh soldier in the movie 1917 portrayal of WWI and the Western Front.
What do you find distracting in otherwise good movies?
Published in General
Dennis Moore!
I temper my expectations by budget and professionalism. My husband and I actually sat through a 1 hour production of David and Goliath that looked like it was made by a church group. Obviously low budget, but made it onto Netflix. It was entertaining in it’s lacking artistry, but it had integrity to its source material.
If it had been made with more money and A-list actors, I’m sure they’d get more realistic costumes than cotton muslin and polyester, but the integrity would be sorely lacking…
Which reminds me, I hate it when a movie uses stock airline footage. You see a DC-9 take off and somehow it turns into a 707 by the time it lands. To quote Joe Biden, “Come on, man.” I understand the budget constraints, but really . . .
Also, all those war flicks that just jam in any stock footage whenever they want. Allied and Axis planes fly interchangeably. A navy carrier bomber shows up over Nazi Germany, never happened. I admit to being an aviation geek but I am available to consult, y’all.
Oh, c’mon go for it.
M-47, isn’t it?
I hate slang anachronisms. There were a couple of Vietnam movies where the soldiers were using expressions that came about in the late 1970’s, when the war ended in 1975.
I also notice weird things, like the scene in Raiders of The Lost Ark, where Karen Allen’s character has been held hostage by the Nazis in a tent in the desert. And then Harrison comes to her rescue. Inside the tent, he holds out a flask of water and some bread and she reaches for the bread and devours it.
Really? In the heat of the desert, you’re gonna go for bread over water?
I also notice big huge holes in continuity. Where say for example, something meaningful to one of the characters has been lost for good. Only then it appears in a scene taking place several days later, with no explanation of how or why it is back. It’s like the director forgot the item was lost. And since he forgot it was lost, he doesn’t explain it now being found. (This probably happens because often the movie is shot with scenes out of sequence.)
Deleted scenes and re-shoots are causing a lot of that these days.
YES! I’m on record stating the best show of all time is Burn Notice. The one and only thing that bugs me is when Jeffrey Donovan tries to do a Southern accent.
To answer the question what I find distracting in an otherwise good movie… guys who served while watching military and police movies. I always have to remind my buddies I’m not their wife and they don’t need to try to impress me… HaHaHa! Seriously, I don’t get too bothered ny much. I heard them talking about that on London Calling. It seemed a bit minor to get bothered over. Even as a fan of history, I’m usually OK with some artistic license. It has to be really bad for me to get upset, e.g. The Two Popes.
Yes.
Scott Bakula…worst New Orleans accent ever.
I remember that from Titanic! Totally out of place and unbelievable. Took me right out of the story. I don’t remember the specifics, but I’m not re-watching it to find out. . .
Sometimes it works if the movie intends it, though. I’m thinking A Knight’s Tale.
Well, I’m not bothered as in “find out where the producer and director live and burn their houses down.” Just distracted from the story.
I saw a trailer for The Two Popes and I’m not going anywhere near that thing! What a mess.
Robert Duvall, a California native (I think), pretty well nailed the East Texas accent in The Apostle. But other than him, the only actors that seem to get the various Texas accents right (and there are more than one) seem to be native Texans (Tommy Lee Jones, for example).
He’s a Texan. That’s different than Southern.
So true. So amazingly true.
This is going in the opposite direction, but there is a great moment in Master and Commander where they are holding a funeral. The British crew says The Lords Prayer and the lone Irishman, a Catholic, stops as the Protestants continue with the “For Thine is the…” line. It was a fantastic little detail.
I’ll need to put on more makeup first.
Nice.
I do find the affirmative action casting to be incredibly distracting. They did A Christmas Story live a couple of years ago, and they had a black neighbor and an Asian neighbor. I found that to be SOOOO distracting because this was Indiana in the 1950’s, the likelihood of that much diversity is about zero. Also, we have a movie to reference and it wasn’t like that.
They do this so often right now. I am always taken out of the movie once I see it, especially since you never see it the other way. I just want to be entertained, I don’t want to be propagandized. At least back in the day they were more subtle about it, but now they have to beat you over the head with it.
Oh also the Bad a** chick roles are annoying too. They are so unrealistic. Like Charlize Theron could beat the crap out of 4 guys at once and walk away without a scratch. PLEASE I can’t take it.
I like Black Widow, though, and I think the character works because Marvel doesn’t take itself so serious.
Also, I can forgive a super hero who is given special powers (although that is being WAY overplayed these days) . But some superspy chick. Who is super bada** and can kick anyone’s butt. Also they weigh 110 lbs soaking wet, with skinny little arms and legs and no weapon. Whatever!!!
This is really it.
“We have to do this obviously awkward, illogical and ahistorical diversity casting, fully conscious of what we do and with full intent to do so, so that we can teach you racists to not think about race.”
It also helps that she doesn’t fight fair. No average woman is going to punch out an average man. The suspension of disbelief isn’t destroyed when a trained woman incapacitates goons with tasers, pepper spray, groin attacks, flash bombs, garrotes, tripping them and kicking them when they’re down, and even using guns. All fight scenes are choreographed, after all; real fights don’t film well.
I noticed that too.
Knitted chainmail. I couldn’t even get into Brother Cadfael because the first character introduced was wearing a suit of it.
You spend $20 million dollars on a military movie and can’t spare a few bucks to hire an expert to ensure the weapons, uniforms, insignia and decorations are period correct.
Spoilers!
In general, shots that are clearly made to accomodate 3D. We’ve started to get an eye for them and it’s soon clear that rather than shoot a situation organically, we’re given a concocted scene or action sequence that’s geared for 3D.
Millennials: This 3D stuff is gonna be great.
Boomers: We’ve seen this movie before.
Because that was essentially a theater production, staged for TV, those particular choices were probably as much due to the theater concept of color-blind casting. Theoretically, anybody can play any race. Interestingly though – this concept seems to only work one direction. We have yet to see Asians or whites cast in A Raison in the Sun, Porgy & Bess, or Hamilton. I agree with you that the result can be visually jarring.