Dead Man (with Johnny Depp) really rubbed me the wrong way as a pretentious flick. Thinking back, it had a lot of earthy elements in it, but I think they were pretentiously earthy.
" Fuck Inception, it's got to be the most straight forward film I've ever seen, why do people think it's 'complex'. God it boils my blood. When you you've watched and understood any of these, give me a call. "
Almost like a simple movie is creating the pretense of more going on than there really is. You know, like the theme of the thread.
" Ok I could maybe maybe see someone saying Inception is pretentious, even though personally I think that's a big stretch and pretty stupid to be honest, but I don't understand how The Dark Knight applies. That movie doesn't try to be anything more then what it is, a character driven crime thriller. Not liking a movie doesn't automatically mean it's pretentious. "
I was the first to say the Dark Knight so I guess I'll reply. Where did I say I didn't like it? I liked it, I just thought it was extremely pretentious, and I'll tell you why. I felt like during the months leading up to the Dark Knight, it was feeding off the whole Heath Ledger thing. His role was being heralded as the best acting in years, every time you heard "The Dark Kinght" it would be followed with "Ledger's final film" or his "magnum opus" or "swan song". And to top it off, his death was almost being attributed to the role he played. It was being said about his performance htat he got so into the character of the Joker that he couldn't sleep, he almost drove himself mad with insomnia and the overdoes of sleeping pills was a result of that. That, I think, is more of the major reason why people held this movie in such a mysterious shroud before seeing it - because they wanted to see just how affected this actor was by the character he was portraying. The statement I'm trying to get at though is that The Dark Knight should be known as it's own movie: not Heath Ledger's final film.
I know that the marketing for the movie didn't explicitly say any of this but you'd have to be blind and deaf to not have heard of or thought of that association.
Mind you, this was when the movie first came out. I think that for people who seen it in the years following it's release it would probably have a different effect but I just happened to be interested in the movie while this whole thing went down and so that was just the association that the movie had, there's no way around it.
Keep in mind the topic of this thread is the most pretentious movie YOU'VE seen.
Sagalla made a quote on the top of the 2nd page of the thread:
@Sagalla
said:
" @arab_prince: I suppose you think you are being clever. Pretentious means that you are making a dubious, or undeserved, claim for distinction. "
And I feel that a lot of the distinction that The Dark Knight got was for the fate of Heath Ledger and not for the actual movie.
@avantegardener: You don't understand Mullholland Dr., Vanilla Sky, 2001 or Memento? I thought they they were all pretty self explanatory in their endings.
Also,
@punkxblaze
said:
" Avatar.
What. "
"
What the fuck? That doesn't mean the movie was pretentious (no, I'm not arguing whether or not I think it is). What happened with Heath Ledger was not part of the movie, you can't call a movie pretentious based on the things that happened outside of the film. What... you... god... and no it's not difficult to avoid the association between the media and the film itself.
A lot of people are listing critically acclaimed movies. If a movie is attempting to impress importance that is actually -warranted-, then it's *not* pretentious...I guess.
pretentiousness - the quality of being pretentious (behaving or speaking in such a manner as to create a false appearance of great importance or worth)
A serbian film, It was supposed to be a metaphore for the serbian government or something, but I call bullshit on that. It's a terrible and Deeply disturbing film for the sake of being a terrible and deeply disturbing film.
I've seen most of the movies you listed and understood them perfectly.
Except Donnie Darko, which can't be "Understood". The writer/director threw a bunch of bullshit together and then a bunch of artminded douchebags watched it and made up a "meaning" to it, which fully isn't there in the movie, some people just looked at it long and hard enough to come up with something that could kinda-sorta-maybe fit if you squint hard enough.
Putting Donnie Darko next to the other movies in that list that I've seen would be like putting together a list of the top 10 videogames of 2010 and having #10 be "Page 3 out of my VCR manual"
"Avatar isn't Pretentious - it was badly written, but it wasn't trying be an "intellectual" film. It was a straight up adventure/action film combined with hefty doses of CGI wonders."
It is, though. James Cameron himself has said it's supposed to be some pro-environmental propaganda flick, and made it out to be the next greatest thing in cinema. And then you have the pedestal all its raving fans held it on as some sort of god-film that proved their up-their-own-asses view of how terrible humanity is and how they are above it and want to go live on Pandora. It was like a conduit for psuedo-intellectual bullshit.
That said, the movie is exactly what you just said it is when actually watched, and that simple fact buried beneath layers of unwarranted praise and self importance surrounding the film, is why I consider it to be a pretentious piece of shit.
" My god, nobody knows what pretentious means in here. "
Indeed. "
what the fuck is wrong with you guys? ive been reading this thread for several minutes trying to see SOMEONE who's saying "no one knows what pretentious means" to TELL US WHAT IT MEANS IF YOU THINK NO ONE KNOWS ITS MEANING, TELL US WHAT THE FUCK IT MEANS AND WHAT WE'RE DOING WRONG OTHERWISE SHUT THE FUCK UP
wow man.. about 10 people claimed we dont know what it means and they just stopped there.. the fuck is wrong with you guys today ? fuck !
WHAT DOES PRETENTIOUS MEAN? WE ALL LOOKED IT UP, WE CAN SEE WHAT IT MEANS, WE'RE APPLYING IT TO THE MOVIES WE FIND PRETENTIOUS, YET WE DONT KNOW WHAT IT MEANS. FUCKING PARADOX IS A FUCKING PARADOX.
The Fountain. It was like the director was sitting there thinking "how much symbolism can I possibly cram into two hours?" without pausing to consider whether or not the final product would actually benefit from it. I suppose it's the whole validation-by-rejection thing... the more people call it inaccessible, the more the director can feel smug and superior to the masses since they clearly don't "get him."
2001 A Space Odyssey and Mulholland Drive. Both for the actual movie and the critical acclaim surrounding them. They both seemed to be purposefully abstract to the point that at the end i just scratched my head confused feeling like I watched a movie about nothing. Though 2001's soundtrack is classic.
I can see the Dark Knight being pretentious. The movie's tone is way more serious than the batmans of old and screaming take my themes seriously while the older batman movies were way more campy. It's all opinion anyway.
yes i expected as much from you... well you gotta understand that when you go through 6 pages of people saying that other people have the wrong idea, yet they just leave it at that and contribute NOTHING or try to explain their point, its pretty fucking maddening.
but im sure at this point you feel like you're a part of a cool guild who knows what pretentious means, unlike the uneducated masses in this bad thread, so you'll continue acting.. like you are now. cool and unhelpful.. whatever, no one really knows what pretentious means. i guess its a cool word to tell others that they dont know what it means
My god no one in this thread knows what the fuck pretentious means !
" My god, nobody knows what pretentious means in here. "
Indeed. "
what the fuck is wrong with you guys? ive been reading this thread for several minutes trying to see SOMEONE who's saying "no one knows what pretentious means" to TELL US WHAT IT MEANS IF YOU THINK NO ONE KNOWS ITS MEANING, TELL US WHAT THE FUCK IT MEANS AND WHAT WE'RE DOING WRONG OTHERWISE SHUT THE FUCK UP wow man.. about 10 people claimed we dont know what it means and they just stopped there.. the fuck is wrong with you guys today ? fuck ! WHAT DOES PRETENTIOUS MEAN? WE ALL LOOKED IT UP, WE CAN SEE WHAT IT MEANS, WE'RE APPLYING IT TO THE MOVIES WE FIND PRETENTIOUS, YET WE DONT KNOW WHAT IT MEANS. FUCKING PARADOX IS A FUCKING PARADOX. "
@Ahmad_Metallic: Why would I ever think that I'm better than anyone? I'm just saying that I have a hard time seeing why a movie like The Dark Knight would be pretentious. And instead of flipping out as you seem to be doing, trying to keep calm. You should try it, it's rather relaxing.
@Azteck: see how you're being a dick? you still havent given me an answer : why dont people in this thread know what pretentious mean? what does it actually mean? you yourself dont seem to know what it means ! and stop telling me to relax, im relaxed
fyi i got nothing against you. from what ive seen, you're a cool guy. you're also swedish, that makes you superior by my personal standards.
" My god, nobody knows what pretentious means in here. "
Indeed. "
what the fuck is wrong with you guys? ive been reading this thread for several minutes trying to see SOMEONE who's saying "no one knows what pretentious means" to TELL US WHAT IT MEANS IF YOU THINK NO ONE KNOWS ITS MEANING, TELL US WHAT THE FUCK IT MEANS AND WHAT WE'RE DOING WRONG OTHERWISE SHUT THE FUCK UP wow man.. about 10 people claimed we dont know what it means and they just stopped there.. the fuck is wrong with you guys today ? fuck ! WHAT DOES PRETENTIOUS MEAN? WE ALL LOOKED IT UP, WE CAN SEE WHAT IT MEANS, WE'RE APPLYING IT TO THE MOVIES WE FIND PRETENTIOUS, YET WE DONT KNOW WHAT IT MEANS. FUCKING PARADOX IS A FUCKING PARADOX. "
Win. "
Not quite. Just because he looked up pretentious and applied it to a movie doesn't mean that movies pretentious.
" Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed."
Explain to me how movies like Dark Knight are pretentious. Or how Inception is pretentious. Or Pulp Fiction? They aren't everybody in this thread is just using a word they don't know to say something bad about a movie they dislike.
@Ahmad_Metallic: I wouldn't be able to explain in words what pretentious means if you asked me, but I know when it's used correctly or not. Sure, I haven't seen all the movies mentioned in this thread, and so I can only speak for a small part, but a lot of people seem to call things they dislike pretentious without it making any sense. For example, The Dark Knight isn't really pretentious because it's not trying to impose a greater importance upon itself. It's a movie, and a good one, but I have never seen any of the actors or the producers claim it to be more than it is (other than the normal sales talk that comes with all movies) If people feel that it is, it's largely their own opinion on the movie speaking rather than the movie actually being a certain thing.
However, a movie like 2001: A Space Odyssey I can sort of see where they're coming from because it's trying pretty hard to be artsy and so on.
Just out of curiosity, what about me being Swedish makes me cool?
It may not be the most pretentious that I've ever seen but it's the only one I can think of. Cameron's Avatar is incredibly pretentious. Apparently, 'man' is a terrible animal...well, except for the one man who united and saved all of Pandora that is.
I am Love. Rorie made it out to be a beautiful film, but it was a bunch of rich people living superficial lives and worrying about superficial things. I couldn't stand more than 30 minutes of it.
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