One thing I often like to think about after watching a movie is what else has or will happen(ed) to the characters. By watching a movie we accept the reality of the characters being presented to us. By this token I believe that we must also accept that these characters continue to live after the end of the film. In many cases we only see a small slice of their existence or a chapter of their lives but obviously there is a lot more going on than just that.The Breakfast club was on TV a few days ago and it got me wondering. Did John Bender become a fuck up (more so) in 5 years like the principal had predicted. The Breakfast club is the perfect example of my theory because it shows all the characters for only 1 day of their lives. Since none of the characters die in the film we must assume that they all go on with their lives in a virtually endless amount of possibilities. Virtually endless because we naturally place certain controls on the way the story would progress based on the amount of information given to us in the hour and something on screen (of course all of this applies to the pre story as well. But in that case we do find out information of what has happened and we (rarely) see the future).
This is probably why in 99.9% of the cases a sequel or prequel will never stack up to the original. A part of human nature is to tie up loose ends and have things left in a neat little package so even if it occurs subconsciously we create our own satellite stories to the films we watch (maybe that's what makes a good film good, it engages us and lets us become a part of the process). So when someone comes along and creates a sequel it crushes any and all of what we may or may not have created in the dark regions of our brains. This doesn't apply to trilogies or stories that are meant to span over several films.
You may be thinking I'm crazy and that a movie is just a movie and it begins and ends there but whatever.
tags:movies, films, entertainment
my literature teacher at the school of viual arts used to tell us that nothing exists outside what is shown. he was a forefather of roland barthe's semiotics theory...so that would explain his point of view.
ReplyDeletei often think about characters' lives outside what i'm shown.
The breakfast club came out when i was a sophomore in high school--i was allie sheedy's character!!wit--is that something i should be admitting?
I think I may love you. Now I know I'm not so crazy.
ReplyDelete(PS: For a post above: would the fact that the Ramones never became commercially successful add something to it?)