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Downloaded from
YTS.MX
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[upbeat music playing]
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX
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Hi. Unlike you, I'm Rob Lowe,
and I love movies.
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The fact is, I'd rather be watching
a movie than doing this right now.
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But let's pretend I didn't say that
and just enjoy each other's company.
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Thousands of movies
are released every year.
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That's a lot of stories,
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even though
according to screenwriting theory
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there are only seven basic plots:
overcoming the monster...
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and the other six.
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It's little wonder that stock characters,
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familiar story beats,
and convenient plot devices
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have crept in over time.
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Tonight, we celebrate the clichés
that have made cinema what it is today:
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struggling for relevance
in the aftermath of a pandemic.
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Over the next hour,
we'll be looking at Tinseltown's habit
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of using
these handy cinematic tropes in...
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Attack of the Hollywood Clichés!
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{\an8}We'll be asking questions like,
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{\an8}"Why do women being chased
by large, scary dinosaurs
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have to do it in high heels?"
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{\an8}As we build to some
of my favorite clichés,
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{\an8}we'll be looking at some of the most
dramatic moments in cinema.
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{\an8}Some of the most controversial.
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{\an8}Sister is teaching the mothers
how to wash their children.
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{\an8}[Lowe] How other clichés have been raised
to a form of high art.
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{\an8}[tires screech]
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{\an8}And of course,
how Hollywood deals with sex.
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{\an8}And violence.
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{\an8}And where better to begin
than with a familiar beginning,
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from the world of romantic comedy,
it's the meet cute.
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That magical moment in movies
when the love begins.
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People watch romcoms to get high.
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{\an8}They wanna experience
that first sensation of love
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{\an8}so that when they see those two people
meet for the very first time,
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when that moment, that spark,
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that chemistry happens,
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{\an8}it feels so real to them
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{\an8}that they have that sensation
in their body.
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{\an8}There's always some funny, contrived
reason why you have the two people
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who are gonna fall in love meet,
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because it has to be interesting.
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{\an8}They can't meet
the way regular people meet.
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{\an8}-Lady, keep driving.
-[screams] Get out!
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{\an8}Some kind of embarrassing,
comedic, unlikely scenario...
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that brings the two together.
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I live just over the street.
I have, um, water and soap.
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You can get cleaned up.
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[Pugh] If that happened in real life,
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{\an8}you would throw
the rest of your juice in their face.
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{\an8}You'd be like, "No, get away from me."
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In five minutes,
we can have you spick and span
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and back on the street again,
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in the non-prostitute sense, obviously.
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[Lowe] Whenever two people
fall in love in a film,
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{\an8}whatever the genre, the clichés
of cinematic romance are ever present.
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I hate the water,
and I hate being wet, and I hate you!
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Good!
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{\an8}They don't like each other,
are engaged or married to someone else.
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{\an8}Jack, I'm engaged.
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I'm marrying Cal.
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There has to be a struggle
to go through or else it would be boring.
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[Lowe] Of course, this being the movies,
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{\an8}male strategies vary from annoying
persistence to outright harassment.
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{\an8}Well, how about this for a coincidence?
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A lot of films which are shown
from the male point of view
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feature what you would
really call stalking.
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{\an8}You wanna dance with me?
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{\an8}No.
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{\an8}Why not?
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Because I don't want to.
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-Well, will you go out with me?
-What?
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-No!
-No?
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-No!
-No?
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-Hey, pal, she just told you.
-Why not?
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{\an8}Like in Twilight, when he
climbs up through her window
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and says, "I like watching you sleep."
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{\an8}Do you do that a lot?
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{\an8}Just the past couple of months.
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{\an8}Stalking is sexy only applies
when it's men stalking women.
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When women are persistent
or stalking male characters,
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{\an8}they become the villain.
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{\an8}I just wanna be a part of your life.
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{\an8}And this is the way you do it, huh?
Showing up at my apartment?
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What am I supposed to do?
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You won't answer my calls,
you change your number.
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I'm not gonna be ignored, Dan.
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[Lowe] Every story needs a lead character
who commands attention,
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someone as unique, special,
and one-of-a-kind
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as the lead in every other movie.
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Since all aspects of your protagonists
have to be remarkable,
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it's not enough for them
to just have a job.
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Whatever that job is,
they gotta job the shit out of it,
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especially if their job is the job:
the cop's job.
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{\an8}-You think I'm crazy?
-Yeah.
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{\an8}[Lowe] In Hollywood,
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{\an8}if you want crimes solved
and the bad guys brought to justice,
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top of the law-enforcement tree
is the maverick cop.
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Now, that's a real badge, I'm a real cop,
and this is a real fucking gun.
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{\an8}The maverick cop is a badass,
he doesn't listen to the chief.
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{\an8}You wanna play some bullshit cowboy cop,
go do it in somebody else's precinct.
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They are completely dysfunctional.
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{\an8}He's probably an alcoholic,
terrible father.
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{\an8}You're my daughter, in my house,
and you'll respect me, got that?
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-Don't call me a fuck-up.
-Why shouldn't I?
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Mom calls you one.
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They only care about the job.
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{\an8}No bullshit. You wanna kill yourself?
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You know why I don't do it? The job.
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{\an8}Destroying everything in their path.
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{\an8}-[gunshots]
-[alarms blaring]
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[Lowe] Maverick cops keep coming,
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but the poster boy for loose cannons
of law enforcement remains:
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Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry.
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{\an8}[Harry]
You've got to ask yourself one question:
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{\an8}-"Do I feel lucky?"
-[alarm blaring]
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Well, do you, punk?
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[Nicholson] Dirty Harry is a really toxic
example of this cliché.
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{\an8}That film tries so hard
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{\an8}to put us on the side
of this beaten-down cop
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who really just wants to let go
and shoot a bunch of people.
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-[clicks]
-[man gasps]
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He exists by his own rules
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{\an8}and he does what he has to do
to get criminals.
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{\an8}It's painted that the legal system
is either incredibly stupid
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{\an8}or run by bleeding heart liberals.
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{\an8}What I'm saying is that man had rights.
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Well, I'm all broken up
about that man's rights.
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{\an8}[Lowe] Maverick law dictates
that there's only two things
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{\an8}these cops care about,
and they're both shiny.
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[chief] Your badge and gun, officer.
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[Ross] It's a key moment in films
where the maverick cop
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hands in their gun and badge, like,
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"You are no longer someone
who should be in this position."
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{\an8}We know, the audience knows,
he's the only one who should have it.
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{\an8}You're making me do this.
Give me your badge.
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Just take a couple...
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[Lowe] In recent times,
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Hollywood has moved away
from making maverick cop movies,
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{\an8}reflecting the disenchantment
with police officers
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{\an8}who take the law into their own hands.
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{\an8}We are led to believe
that they're gonna do the right thing
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{\an8}morally and ethically.
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The reality is,
that doesn't appear to be the case
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with a lot of police officers.
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{\an8}It is something
that should be rethought by filmmakers,
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TV producers, and it is being rethought.
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{\an8}[Lowe] But the maverick cop
hasn't taken an early retirement.
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{\an8}On TV, there's room for clichés
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to be worked into
three-dimensional characters.
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Kate Winslet's Mare of Easttown
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has a complex internal life,
but don't worry,
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she's still a cop who drinks hard,
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bends the rules, gets suspended...
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Gun and badge.
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...but still gets her man.
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-[gunshots]
-[grunting]
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Hollywood loves a winner,
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but not every character
in your story can be a hero,
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unless it's set in the Marvel Universe,
which only 96% of movies are.
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Some characters are so destined to lose
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from the moment they walk on screen,
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that they might as well turn up
wearing a coffin and get it over with.
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{\an8}You're a secondary character in a film.
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{\an8}Thanks, John.
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{\an8}[Lowe] You've got a dangerous job.
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You're planning on calling it a day.
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Tomorrow I'd like you to--
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-I'm resigning tomorrow, Frank.
-What?
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[Lowe] Big mistake.
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Al!
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[dramatic sting plays]
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[Schamus] Dead man walking,
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{\an8}American cinema loves to cue
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{\an8}people who are going to die by making
sure we know this is their last job.
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{\an8}They're about to retire, right?
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{\an8}I got three more days,
I wanna make the most of it.
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Maybe there's a retirement party
planned for you later.
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How about a speech?
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[King]
And you've just got one more shift to do.
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[gunshot]
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[Lowe] And there are other classic ways
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to guarantee
death is just around the corner.
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One way, you'll hear a character
talk about his family,
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{\an8}about his aspirations...
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{\an8}And I will marry a round American
woman and raise rabbits.
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If they start reflecting
on what they gonna do next... dead.
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{\an8}Often in war films as well,
it will be the G.I. or whatever,
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{\an8}gets out a photo of his girlfriend...
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and it's probably been in his pocket
for a while. Big mistake.
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-Please. Please.
-[dramatic music playing]
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{\an8}-[bells tolling]
-[Lowe] So once you're dead onscreen,
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{\an8}your funeral will be attended
by loved ones
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{\an8}and a solitary figure who,
for some reason,
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{\an8}stands and stares from a long way away.
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{\an8}It also allows the director
to get the wide shot of the ceremony.
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{\an8}But The Fast and the Furious
takes it to another level.
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{\an8}While Paul Walker
watches a funeral from a distance,
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Vin Diesel is watching Paul Walker
watch a funeral from a distance,
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from a distance.
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Of course, once the funeral is over,
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{\an8}the grave site is the perfect setting
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{\an8}to show a character's
fragile emotional state.
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{\an8}-[dramatic music playing]
-I love you.
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{\an8}[Forrest]
Hey, Bubba. It's me, Forrest Gump.
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{\an8}[Lowe] And also a handy way
of explaining where we are in the plot.
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I remember everything you said
and I got it all figured out.
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{\an8}[Lowe] Ed Harris does both.
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{\an8}And just in case you're not sure
who he's talking to...
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{\an8}There's something I've gotta do, Barb.
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...the filmmakers
carved it on the headstone for you.
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"His wife."
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{\an8}But it's not always just talking
going on in the graveyard.
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{\an8}Looks like there's one extra stiff
in the cemetery this morning.
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One of the things I love most about cinema
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is the way it transports you
from your everyday life
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into an entirely fictional fantasy land
like Narnia, or France.
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{\an8}-[French folk music playing]
-The French have a word for clichés,
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{\an8}but in cinema, one of the most
clichéd cities is Paris.
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{\an8}But how can we tell we're in Paris?
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Because the director makes sure
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we can see the Eiffel Tower
through the bedroom window.
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{\an8}The loft window.
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{\an8}The train window.
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{\an8}From the balcony.
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{\an8}Through a clock.
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{\an8}Unfortunately,
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{\an8}that means the Eiffel Tower is on the top
of every invaders' to-destroy list.
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Actors love working with props
231
00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:01,875
because like all good co-stars,
they never hog the scenes.
232
00:11:01,958 --> 00:11:03,750
And they're usually paid less.
233
00:11:03,833 --> 00:11:05,333
An everyday seeming prop
234
00:11:05,416 --> 00:11:08,541
can make even the most godlike figure
seem like a regular Joe.
235
00:11:08,625 --> 00:11:11,875
Admit it, this grocery-bag baguette combo
I'm holding
236
00:11:11,958 --> 00:11:14,708
has made me seem 26% more relatable.
237
00:11:14,791 --> 00:11:17,416
I haven't bought or eaten bread
in over ten years.
238
00:11:17,500 --> 00:11:18,916
The bag is only a cover
239
00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:22,250
to stop me from inadvertently absorbing
the carbs through my skin.
240
00:11:22,333 --> 00:11:24,083
All movie stars insist on it.
241
00:11:24,625 --> 00:11:27,750
{\an8}Often, lead actors
have to come across as regular Joes
242
00:11:27,833 --> 00:11:29,375
{\an8}who do their own shopping,
243
00:11:29,458 --> 00:11:33,541
{\an8}and a highly visible baguette sticking
out of the bag is parfait pour la job.
244
00:11:34,125 --> 00:11:36,458
{\an8}It can also be ideal for hiding behind.
245
00:11:37,083 --> 00:11:39,083
{\an8}The intensity of the performance
246
00:11:39,166 --> 00:11:41,541
{\an8}is matched only
by the quantity of the bread.
247
00:11:41,625 --> 00:11:44,375
Still warm.
It's the best bread I ever tasted.
248
00:11:45,041 --> 00:11:46,250
[Lowe] What a professional.
249
00:11:47,250 --> 00:11:51,833
One expressive prop
that actors love is the apple,
250
00:11:51,916 --> 00:11:54,833
despite it having
a shocking 19 grams of sugar.
251
00:11:57,375 --> 00:12:00,625
Tell me when you got enough
so I can spit this shit out.
252
00:12:04,958 --> 00:12:08,541
Eating in a scene
definitely is the cocky move.
253
00:12:08,625 --> 00:12:12,958
{\an8}It's kind of like the ultimate
"I'm here and I don't care."
254
00:12:13,041 --> 00:12:15,041
{\an8}[Lowe] Defending the Starship Enterprise.
255
00:12:16,750 --> 00:12:18,708
{\an8}Killing off an enemy army.
256
00:12:19,625 --> 00:12:22,791
{\an8}Or snacking between meals
while meeting a superior officer.
257
00:12:22,875 --> 00:12:24,375
{\an8}Lieutenant Commander Galloway.
258
00:12:24,458 --> 00:12:26,708
[Lowe]
An apple is the clichéd way of saying,
259
00:12:26,791 --> 00:12:28,750
"I'm too cool for school,"
260
00:12:28,833 --> 00:12:31,208
while lowering cholesterol
and promoting gut health.
261
00:12:32,625 --> 00:12:34,166
The way your movie is cast
262
00:12:34,250 --> 00:12:36,458
depends on what kind of story
you're telling.
263
00:12:36,541 --> 00:12:39,208
Some stories require a director
to thoughtfully curate
264
00:12:39,291 --> 00:12:41,958
an ensemble
of subtly different personality types,
265
00:12:42,041 --> 00:12:45,125
and some movies
just need a big guy who kills people.
266
00:12:45,208 --> 00:12:46,875
{\an8}[gunshots]
267
00:12:46,958 --> 00:12:49,416
{\an8}Cinema likes
to tell us that the individual
268
00:12:49,500 --> 00:12:50,666
can take on the system,
269
00:12:50,750 --> 00:12:55,208
{\an8}and one way it tells us this is possible
is via the one-man army.
270
00:12:55,291 --> 00:12:59,083
{\an8}You can see this right back
in the sort of Robin Hood,
271
00:12:59,166 --> 00:13:01,166
{\an8}Errol Flynn films.
272
00:13:01,958 --> 00:13:05,708
{\an8}You can see it going right through
the Western genre.
273
00:13:06,500 --> 00:13:08,958
{\an8}You see it, arguably, in James Bond.
274
00:13:11,666 --> 00:13:13,000
{\an8}It changed in the '80s
275
00:13:13,083 --> 00:13:17,875
{\an8}when your bodybuilders came into fashion.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, most famously,
276
00:13:17,958 --> 00:13:23,166
{\an8}Stallone, they all of a sudden
didn't really look like blokes we knew.
277
00:13:23,250 --> 00:13:24,500
{\an8}They looked superhuman.
278
00:13:26,208 --> 00:13:29,875
{\an8}When you get Stallone
behind that weapon of mass destruction.
279
00:13:31,791 --> 00:13:34,416
Twenty men being blown to smithereens.
280
00:13:34,500 --> 00:13:39,083
{\an8}Totally satisfying experience
in carnage and destruction,
281
00:13:39,166 --> 00:13:43,000
{\an8}with an absolute disregard
for human beings,
282
00:13:43,083 --> 00:13:45,000
um, which you want in those movies.
283
00:13:45,083 --> 00:13:48,833
{\an8}I think the invincibility
and the indomitability
284
00:13:48,916 --> 00:13:52,208
{\an8}of the '80s action movie macho hero
285
00:13:52,291 --> 00:13:56,791
{\an8}became the key
for them becoming franchises.
286
00:13:56,875 --> 00:13:58,583
{\an8}And then Die Hard came in,
287
00:13:58,666 --> 00:14:02,541
{\an8}a film that starts out
relatively realistically.
288
00:14:02,625 --> 00:14:05,166
Bruce Willis seems like an ordinary bloke.
289
00:14:05,250 --> 00:14:08,000
Drop it, dickhead. It's the police.
290
00:14:08,083 --> 00:14:09,333
Hang on, John!
291
00:14:09,416 --> 00:14:11,791
[Newman]
But then, by the time of part five,
292
00:14:11,875 --> 00:14:14,875
{\an8}basically, he could
take Superman down in part five.
293
00:14:16,958 --> 00:14:20,125
{\an8}The skills
are being physically very capable,
294
00:14:20,208 --> 00:14:22,458
{\an8}more than normal human beings.
295
00:14:24,125 --> 00:14:27,041
{\an8}They tend to be very much
the strong, silent type.
296
00:14:27,125 --> 00:14:30,166
The one place
where the one-man army will speak up
297
00:14:30,250 --> 00:14:33,666
{\an8}is immediately after
or just before killing somebody.
298
00:14:33,750 --> 00:14:34,916
{\an8}We're married.
299
00:14:35,625 --> 00:14:38,791
[O'Hara] The master of the form
is Arnold Schwarzenegger.
300
00:14:38,875 --> 00:14:40,000
Consider that a divorce.
301
00:14:40,625 --> 00:14:43,666
Sure, your main character
can run around firing guns
302
00:14:43,750 --> 00:14:47,458
and bazookas at every school bus
like the hero they are,
303
00:14:47,541 --> 00:14:49,291
but if they wanna earn our respect,
304
00:14:49,375 --> 00:14:52,833
there comes a time when they'll
have to throw down those firearms
305
00:14:52,916 --> 00:14:54,541
and pick up their fists...
306
00:14:55,875 --> 00:14:56,958
with both hands.
307
00:14:59,416 --> 00:15:01,500
[Newman] Throughout the silent era,
308
00:15:01,583 --> 00:15:04,916
characters on screen had to
express themselves physically
309
00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:07,666
{\an8}because people got bored
with the intertitle.
310
00:15:07,750 --> 00:15:09,833
{\an8}They laughed at the flowery prose.
311
00:15:09,916 --> 00:15:12,833
{\an8}So, what you get was lengthy fight scenes.
312
00:15:14,166 --> 00:15:17,208
{\an8}Officially,
the first staged fist-fight for film
313
00:15:17,291 --> 00:15:20,875
{\an8}was the big fight
on top of and inside a train
314
00:15:20,958 --> 00:15:22,875
in The Great Train Robbery.
315
00:15:22,958 --> 00:15:25,208
{\an8}[Lowe] Fast forward 100 years or so,
316
00:15:25,291 --> 00:15:27,375
{\an8}and we still have guys
beating up on each other
317
00:15:27,458 --> 00:15:30,750
{\an8}on moving trains,
just in slightly more expensive suits.
318
00:15:31,916 --> 00:15:34,458
Something that I've loved
seeing in the last ten years
319
00:15:34,541 --> 00:15:39,291
{\an8}is fight scenes getting more gritty
and gross to watch.
320
00:15:39,375 --> 00:15:40,833
{\an8}[man grunts]
321
00:15:40,916 --> 00:15:44,000
{\an8}The other kind of fantastic,
I think, cliché,
322
00:15:44,083 --> 00:15:46,916
{\an8}that makes it more manageable
for us as an audience
323
00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:50,666
is when all of the attackers
come out one by one.
324
00:15:50,750 --> 00:15:52,333
{\an8}[grunting]
325
00:15:52,416 --> 00:15:56,666
{\an8}In Oldboy,
in the amazing scene in the corridor,
326
00:15:56,750 --> 00:16:00,791
you're placing your attention
on one kill at a time.
327
00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:06,916
It's kind of very related
to video games, I think,
328
00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:10,083
where this idea
that you might have all the skills
329
00:16:10,166 --> 00:16:14,375
{\an8}and you're punching through,
but it just never ends.
330
00:16:15,333 --> 00:16:18,500
{\an8}[Lowe] The master of these "take a ticket
and wait till you're called" fights
331
00:16:18,583 --> 00:16:20,458
{\an8}is the legendary Jackie Chan.
332
00:16:21,208 --> 00:16:23,000
{\an8}So Jackie Chan was my favorite.
333
00:16:24,041 --> 00:16:26,916
{\an8}The reason he was so popular
is he went against cliché
334
00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:30,458
{\an8}and became the hero
who gets beat up the whole movie.
335
00:16:31,291 --> 00:16:33,250
{\an8}It's absurd what he's doing,
336
00:16:33,333 --> 00:16:36,208
{\an8}and it's without wires,
and it's death-defying.
337
00:16:36,291 --> 00:16:38,250
{\an8}I feel like he's the person
338
00:16:38,333 --> 00:16:41,208
that has had the most influence.
And it's all in camera.
339
00:16:42,083 --> 00:16:46,083
{\an8}[Lowe] And Jackie Chan's influence
can be seen in movies ever since.
340
00:16:46,166 --> 00:16:51,333
{\an8}Now you have fist fights that,
um, defy physiology,
341
00:16:51,416 --> 00:16:52,583
{\an8}physiognomy.
342
00:16:52,666 --> 00:16:57,583
{\an8}If you hit somebody 50 times
and they get back up again,
343
00:16:57,666 --> 00:16:59,375
what is at stake?
344
00:17:00,458 --> 00:17:02,000
What is finally gonna kill them?
345
00:17:03,333 --> 00:17:05,916
{\an8}[Lowe]
The evolution of big-screen punch-ups
346
00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:09,041
{\an8}has seen the move more and more
from the balletic to the ballistic.
347
00:17:09,708 --> 00:17:11,583
[Pugh] It's that hand-to-hand combat
348
00:17:11,666 --> 00:17:14,916
where they're smacking
each other's hands so fast,
349
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:17,625
that if you want to see what's going on,
you have to slow it down.
350
00:17:18,250 --> 00:17:22,625
{\an8}[Newman] And then later on,
the recent rise of movies like The Raid...
351
00:17:23,291 --> 00:17:25,791
which are just nonstop fighting.
352
00:17:26,416 --> 00:17:28,750
You can actually have a story
that is just people fighting.
353
00:17:32,416 --> 00:17:35,416
[Lowe] From one type of intense
physical action to another...
354
00:17:35,500 --> 00:17:36,708
Wait, Tarzan!
355
00:17:36,791 --> 00:17:38,416
{\an8}[screams]
356
00:17:38,500 --> 00:17:40,375
{\an8}[Lowe] Sexy times and risqué nudity
357
00:17:40,458 --> 00:17:42,666
{\an8}have been a Hollywood mainstay since,
358
00:17:42,750 --> 00:17:44,291
well, pretty much forever.
359
00:17:44,375 --> 00:17:47,000
In early cinema,
while studios pushed the boundaries
360
00:17:47,083 --> 00:17:48,625
{\an8}of taste and decency,
361
00:17:48,708 --> 00:17:50,958
{\an8}there was a growing pressure
to clean up their act
362
00:17:51,041 --> 00:17:54,250
{\an8}and not present women
as being so free and promiscuous.
363
00:17:54,333 --> 00:17:58,125
Take off your clothes,
get in here, and tell me all about it.
364
00:17:58,208 --> 00:18:02,833
{\an8}In the early 1930s, you had things
like Barbara Stanwyck in Baby Face,
365
00:18:02,916 --> 00:18:07,166
{\an8}who slept her way through the layers
of this giant New York bank.
366
00:18:07,250 --> 00:18:10,416
{\an8}-Have you had any experience?
-Plenty.
367
00:18:10,500 --> 00:18:12,208
You had these Mae West characters
368
00:18:12,291 --> 00:18:16,416
who were living it large,
drinking, smoking, whatever.
369
00:18:16,500 --> 00:18:20,958
{\an8}When I'm good, I'm very good,
but when I'm bad, I'm better.
370
00:18:22,375 --> 00:18:24,875
[Lowe] After a series of scandals
in the early '20s,
371
00:18:24,958 --> 00:18:27,625
the press declared Hollywood
morally bankrupt,
372
00:18:27,708 --> 00:18:30,041
and a new code of conduct,
written by a priest,
373
00:18:30,125 --> 00:18:33,041
was championed by Republican
stick-in-the-mud Will Hays.
374
00:18:33,125 --> 00:18:35,666
[man]
Reputable producers signed up Will Hays
375
00:18:35,750 --> 00:18:37,666
to clean up the picture business...
376
00:18:37,750 --> 00:18:43,291
{\an8}That prohibited any sexual depravity
from being shown on screen.
377
00:18:43,375 --> 00:18:47,666
The vulgar, the cheap,
and the tawdry is out.
378
00:18:48,291 --> 00:18:51,625
{\an8}[Lowe] By the '30s,
the Hays Code imposed strict rules
379
00:18:51,708 --> 00:18:55,583
{\an8}dictating what movies could
and couldn't show, mainly couldn't.
380
00:18:55,666 --> 00:18:59,291
[Richard] One of the actor's legs
had to be on the floor.
381
00:19:00,416 --> 00:19:03,583
{\an8}How are you supposed to fuck people
with one leg on the floor, I don't know.
382
00:19:03,666 --> 00:19:06,375
{\an8}[Lowe] But filmmakers
soon found ways to bend the rules,
383
00:19:06,458 --> 00:19:10,583
{\an8}and the cinematic cliché
of sexual illusion became de rigueur.
384
00:19:10,666 --> 00:19:15,708
{\an8}How do you suggest the act of sex
without actually showing it?
385
00:19:17,708 --> 00:19:18,833
{\an8}Is it raining outside?
386
00:19:18,916 --> 00:19:22,500
{\an8}There's a storm outside,
so there must be a storm in your heart
387
00:19:22,583 --> 00:19:25,750
and possibly other regions too.
388
00:19:27,250 --> 00:19:30,583
{\an8}[Jonathan] You would go from them
in a sleeper cabin on a train
389
00:19:30,666 --> 00:19:32,250
to the train entering the tunnel.
390
00:19:32,333 --> 00:19:35,333
{\an8}The first few times that happens,
of course it's joyful,
391
00:19:35,416 --> 00:19:36,833
{\an8}because those who know, know,
392
00:19:36,916 --> 00:19:39,041
{\an8}and those who don't
aren't offended or troubled by it.
393
00:19:41,333 --> 00:19:42,708
[Helen] In the 1960s,
394
00:19:42,791 --> 00:19:46,708
the big studios had lost their grip
on all of the cinema chains.
395
00:19:46,791 --> 00:19:49,375
Independent cinemas had begun to sprout up
396
00:19:49,458 --> 00:19:52,791
and they were bringing in
exciting new films from Europe,
397
00:19:52,875 --> 00:19:57,958
{\an8}often which had exciting
and forbidden things like boobs.
398
00:19:58,500 --> 00:20:01,291
[in Swedish]
I'll never forget you, darling Kerstin.
399
00:20:01,375 --> 00:20:05,416
{\an8}As more European films
were visible to the American audience,
400
00:20:05,500 --> 00:20:06,333
{\an8}Hollywood realized,
401
00:20:06,416 --> 00:20:08,958
"If we're gonna compete,
we have to get rid of the Hays Code."
402
00:20:09,958 --> 00:20:13,083
{\an8}[Lowe] The solution was an age-based
film rating system,
403
00:20:13,166 --> 00:20:15,250
which put sex back on screen,
404
00:20:15,333 --> 00:20:19,333
much to the dismay of people aroused
by shots of trains entering tunnels.
405
00:20:19,416 --> 00:20:21,625
Sex in films
is never really very convincing,
406
00:20:21,708 --> 00:20:25,625
but at the same time,
it has its own stock set of clichés.
407
00:20:25,708 --> 00:20:28,041
{\an8}[Pugh] The music will be building,
408
00:20:28,125 --> 00:20:32,041
bodies will look amazing at all angles.
409
00:20:32,125 --> 00:20:36,041
Bras rarely ever fall off,
and you'll both finish at the same time.
410
00:20:36,125 --> 00:20:38,083
It's so passionate.
411
00:20:39,458 --> 00:20:42,458
{\an8}[Lowe] Today, on-screen sex
may only be a right click away,
412
00:20:42,541 --> 00:20:45,250
{\an8}but there's still one shot
Hollywood movies don't show,
413
00:20:45,333 --> 00:20:46,458
whatever the money.
414
00:20:47,125 --> 00:20:50,958
It's that intensity, the build of music,
the build of passion.
415
00:20:51,041 --> 00:20:53,666
We all know what's gonna happen,
we don't need to see the next bit.
416
00:20:55,333 --> 00:20:59,208
{\an8}[Lowe] So movies are once again
forced to fall back on suggestion.
417
00:20:59,291 --> 00:21:03,375
{\an8}A hand gripping the sheets,
a hand on a steamy window.
418
00:21:03,458 --> 00:21:06,250
{\an8}Or even fire being blown out
of the end of a spaceship.
419
00:21:06,333 --> 00:21:07,666
{\an8}A happy ending...
420
00:21:08,708 --> 00:21:10,416
is always guaranteed.
421
00:21:12,750 --> 00:21:13,791
Who wrote this?
422
00:21:16,125 --> 00:21:19,375
{\an8}Need a character to express surprise?
Give them a drink.
423
00:21:20,541 --> 00:21:21,666
{\an8}What's a hard-on, Daddy?
424
00:21:23,291 --> 00:21:27,583
It's almost hard to find a comedy
that doesn't have some variation
425
00:21:27,666 --> 00:21:29,208
of the spit take in it.
426
00:21:29,291 --> 00:21:32,000
{\an8}They used to call me anal girl.
427
00:21:32,083 --> 00:21:34,791
{\an8}A spit take is something
that doesn't happen in real life,
428
00:21:34,875 --> 00:21:38,458
but you're gonna buy it
just because it's so fun to watch.
429
00:21:39,291 --> 00:21:43,000
{\an8}[Lowe] The spit take tells the audience
they've just seen something shocking...
430
00:21:45,208 --> 00:21:46,625
Jeez, you smoke too?
431
00:21:46,708 --> 00:21:50,625
{\an8}...and is guaranteed to give any scene
an added spray of slapstick.
432
00:21:50,708 --> 00:21:52,666
{\an8}-What's this?
-Welcome. Oh!
433
00:21:52,750 --> 00:21:53,625
[groans]
434
00:21:55,208 --> 00:21:57,208
-Ma'am.
-Whale what?
435
00:21:58,291 --> 00:21:59,500
Welcome.
436
00:22:00,041 --> 00:22:00,958
[yells]
437
00:22:01,041 --> 00:22:03,125
Sorry, did I scare you?
438
00:22:03,208 --> 00:22:06,750
I didn't mean to.
I'm merely introducing our next cliché:
439
00:22:06,833 --> 00:22:08,125
The jump scare, which is--
440
00:22:08,208 --> 00:22:09,250
[yells]
441
00:22:12,541 --> 00:22:15,375
[Schamus] Val Lewton was a filmmaker
who ran a low-budget unit
442
00:22:15,458 --> 00:22:16,500
at RKO Pictures,
443
00:22:16,583 --> 00:22:19,833
and he helped raise
a whole generation of filmmakers
444
00:22:19,916 --> 00:22:22,958
who knew how to use mood
to really get to you.
445
00:22:23,583 --> 00:22:26,916
{\an8}In Cat People,
our heroine is being tracked,
446
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:28,708
{\an8}creating a sense of terror.
447
00:22:31,833 --> 00:22:34,041
And of course the final hiss arrives.
448
00:22:35,458 --> 00:22:37,250
-[engine rumbling]
-[hissing]
449
00:22:37,333 --> 00:22:39,625
Yet it's revealed
that it's actually a bus' brakes
450
00:22:39,708 --> 00:22:42,416
as it pulls up,
and the sequence ends that way.
451
00:22:42,500 --> 00:22:46,958
[Lowe] This was the first time
anyone had used a false scare in cinema,
452
00:22:47,041 --> 00:22:50,500
and the technique became known
as the "Lewton Bus."
453
00:22:50,583 --> 00:22:52,958
Now the jump scare comes in many forms:
454
00:22:53,041 --> 00:22:55,583
{\an8}Things trying to get through
closed windows.
455
00:22:56,708 --> 00:23:00,625
{\an8}People throwing themselves against fencing
when you're having a hug.
456
00:23:01,750 --> 00:23:03,458
{\an8}And full-length coats.
457
00:23:03,541 --> 00:23:04,625
{\an8}[gasps]
458
00:23:04,708 --> 00:23:06,541
{\an8}Don't worry, it's not real leather.
459
00:23:07,500 --> 00:23:09,416
{\an8}Given that the first false scare ever
460
00:23:09,500 --> 00:23:12,083
{\an8}was from a bus
in a film called Cat People,
461
00:23:12,166 --> 00:23:15,416
it's ironic that the filmmakers'
most clichéd one today is...
462
00:23:15,791 --> 00:23:16,916
-[screeches]
-[screams]
463
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:18,333
...the household cat.
464
00:23:18,416 --> 00:23:20,333
{\an8}-[cat screeches]
-[gasps, then groans]
465
00:23:20,416 --> 00:23:23,833
{\an8}Cats are evil, and the cliché
about them being scary
466
00:23:23,916 --> 00:23:26,708
{\an8}is one of those clichés
that's completely based in fact.
467
00:23:26,791 --> 00:23:30,125
{\an8}[Nicholson] Cats are just lurking
around the house hiding in closets.
468
00:23:30,208 --> 00:23:31,208
[screams]
469
00:23:31,291 --> 00:23:33,083
{\an8}So they can scare a person.
470
00:23:33,166 --> 00:23:36,208
{\an8}[Lowe] And their malevolence
isn't even limited to planet Earth.
471
00:23:37,250 --> 00:23:38,333
{\an8}[gasps]
472
00:23:38,416 --> 00:23:39,958
Cats are great for this,
473
00:23:40,041 --> 00:23:43,750
because they are beings who exist
with us in our domestic spaces
474
00:23:43,833 --> 00:23:46,958
but who couldn't give a shit
whether we live or die.
475
00:23:47,041 --> 00:23:48,375
[yelling]
476
00:23:51,625 --> 00:23:54,125
{\an8}[Lowe] If you happen to live
in a pet-free environment,
477
00:23:54,208 --> 00:23:56,500
{\an8}there's always an option
to make people jump with a mirror.
478
00:23:56,583 --> 00:23:57,708
{\an8}[shower running]
479
00:23:57,791 --> 00:24:04,083
{\an8}A mirror scare is one of
the greatest clichés in all of movies.
480
00:24:04,166 --> 00:24:05,291
[dramatic sting plays]
481
00:24:05,375 --> 00:24:06,791
They always work,
482
00:24:06,875 --> 00:24:11,708
{\an8}because the idea that you're alone
and you shut the medicine cabinet,
483
00:24:11,791 --> 00:24:15,333
and then suddenly there's something
behind you is terrifying.
484
00:24:15,416 --> 00:24:17,083
{\an8}[Ross] In American Werewolf in London...
485
00:24:17,166 --> 00:24:18,000
{\an8}[screams]
486
00:24:18,083 --> 00:24:20,083
{\an8}...it's an amazing moment.
It's great fun, though,
487
00:24:20,166 --> 00:24:24,416
that they can take something mundane
and give it that jolt, you know.
488
00:24:24,500 --> 00:24:25,458
You're not real.
489
00:24:25,541 --> 00:24:27,250
{\an8}Every time we see a mirror,
490
00:24:27,333 --> 00:24:29,708
{\an8}or see somebody in a bathroom,
we're worried.
491
00:24:29,791 --> 00:24:32,833
{\an8}We are our most vulnerable
in the bathroom.
492
00:24:32,916 --> 00:24:36,666
{\an8}It's a very private place.
I think that that's easy to exploit.
493
00:24:36,750 --> 00:24:37,666
[gasps]
494
00:24:37,750 --> 00:24:40,041
You can also do fake-outs with that.
495
00:24:40,125 --> 00:24:42,291
{\an8}You can put somebody into a bathroom
496
00:24:42,375 --> 00:24:43,625
{\an8}and you can build tension.
497
00:24:43,708 --> 00:24:46,041
{\an8}You don't have to have anything happen.
498
00:24:46,666 --> 00:24:47,750
[man screams]
499
00:24:47,833 --> 00:24:49,791
[Lowe] When you do hear someone
scream in a movie,
500
00:24:49,875 --> 00:24:52,541
{\an8}chances are it could be our next cliché.
501
00:24:52,625 --> 00:24:54,708
{\an8}But you probably didn't even realize it.
502
00:24:56,125 --> 00:24:57,333
{\an8}[screams]
503
00:24:57,416 --> 00:25:03,375
{\an8}The Wilhelm scream is a scream
that was recorded originally in 1951.
504
00:25:03,458 --> 00:25:06,833
{\an8}The guy's walking through the Everglades,
then the alligator grabs his leg
505
00:25:06,916 --> 00:25:09,416
{\an8}and he goes: [mimics scream]
506
00:25:09,500 --> 00:25:10,375
{\an8}[screams]
507
00:25:10,458 --> 00:25:12,375
Fast forward a couple of years later,
508
00:25:12,458 --> 00:25:15,125
{\an8}and some sound editor
is looking for a scream
509
00:25:15,208 --> 00:25:19,041
{\an8}because poor Private Wilhelm
is struck by an arrow.
510
00:25:19,125 --> 00:25:20,625
[sergeant] Wilhelm!
511
00:25:20,708 --> 00:25:22,458
Yeah, I'll just fill my pipe!
512
00:25:25,583 --> 00:25:26,500
[screams]
513
00:25:26,583 --> 00:25:29,625
Out comes-- Or let's say,
overlaid on top of him
514
00:25:29,708 --> 00:25:31,625
is the Wilhelm scream.
515
00:25:31,708 --> 00:25:34,083
[Lowe] Wilhelm's scream
began to show up in Hollywood
516
00:25:34,166 --> 00:25:37,916
{\an8}whenever a character was shot, pushed,
or obliterated by large plastic ants.
517
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:39,000
{\an8}[man screams]
518
00:25:39,083 --> 00:25:41,958
{\an8}But when it was heard
in a galaxy far, far away,
519
00:25:42,041 --> 00:25:43,875
{\an8}it became an insider joke.
520
00:25:44,500 --> 00:25:45,500
{\an8}[screams]
521
00:25:45,583 --> 00:25:47,541
It pops up in Star Wars,
522
00:25:47,625 --> 00:25:50,000
then George Lucas, Steven Spielberg,
523
00:25:50,083 --> 00:25:52,000
and everybody gets in on it.
524
00:25:52,833 --> 00:25:53,958
{\an8}[screams]
525
00:25:54,041 --> 00:25:57,333
{\an8}It's an industry joke.
Uh, Tarantino uses it...
526
00:25:57,416 --> 00:25:58,583
{\an8}[screams]
527
00:25:58,666 --> 00:26:01,291
{\an8}He's not using that by accident.
528
00:26:01,375 --> 00:26:05,375
{\an8}That's him absolutely tapping
into the cliché of the sound.
529
00:26:05,458 --> 00:26:07,083
{\an8}[man screams]
530
00:26:07,166 --> 00:26:09,166
There's something about the pitch of it,
531
00:26:09,250 --> 00:26:12,000
and it's strangely kind of reassuring
532
00:26:12,083 --> 00:26:16,125
{\an8}that even in scenes of mayhem,
you will hear the Wilhelm scream.
533
00:26:16,208 --> 00:26:17,458
{\an8}[screams]
534
00:26:17,541 --> 00:26:19,291
{\an8}It's such a ridiculous in-joke now.
535
00:26:19,375 --> 00:26:21,708
We need a new scream, in my opinion.
536
00:26:21,791 --> 00:26:25,166
Hollywood likes to think of itself
as a paragon of equality,
537
00:26:25,250 --> 00:26:27,041
but apparently if you look closely,
538
00:26:27,125 --> 00:26:30,083
using a microscope,
which was invented by a man,
539
00:26:30,166 --> 00:26:34,000
{\an8}there are occasional minor differences
in the way men and women are depicted.
540
00:26:35,250 --> 00:26:37,000
{\an8}[roars]
541
00:26:37,083 --> 00:26:39,916
{\an8}The Smurfette principle
refers to the lone woman
542
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:42,416
on a testosterone-infused adventure
543
00:26:42,500 --> 00:26:45,500
who ensures the filmmakers
tick that diversity box.
544
00:26:45,583 --> 00:26:47,208
{\an8}[Smurf] Hi, Smurfette!
545
00:26:47,291 --> 00:26:50,458
{\an8}[Lowe] The term originates
from the iconic Smurf world,
546
00:26:50,541 --> 00:26:53,833
where Smurfette is the only lady
in a land full of Smurf dudes.
547
00:26:53,916 --> 00:26:55,166
[Smurfs whooping and whistling]
548
00:26:55,250 --> 00:26:58,958
{\an8}This is a trope you'll see in everything,
from kids' cartoons...
549
00:26:59,041 --> 00:27:00,833
{\an8}What are you doing? Get down.
550
00:27:00,916 --> 00:27:02,291
{\an8}I'll teach that boy a lesson.
551
00:27:02,375 --> 00:27:04,291
...to The Avengers...
552
00:27:04,375 --> 00:27:06,166
{\an8}I'm always picking up after you boys.
553
00:27:06,250 --> 00:27:08,583
{\an8}...to any kind of action film.
554
00:27:08,666 --> 00:27:10,791
{\an8}["Cherry Bomb" playing]
555
00:27:10,875 --> 00:27:14,541
{\an8}It is the most cynical construct
in a movie
556
00:27:14,625 --> 00:27:18,708
{\an8}where they'll stick a woman in there
to have the guys ogle her.
557
00:27:18,791 --> 00:27:19,708
What?
558
00:27:20,333 --> 00:27:24,250
Or they'll stick in a woman
to look at the guys askance
559
00:27:24,333 --> 00:27:26,250
and tell them how immature they are.
560
00:27:26,333 --> 00:27:29,291
{\an8}I don't understand the physics
of how my toes hurt.
561
00:27:29,375 --> 00:27:30,666
{\an8}[laughing]
562
00:27:30,750 --> 00:27:33,708
Children. I work with children.
563
00:27:36,958 --> 00:27:39,708
{\an8}[Lowe] Whether you're a token female,
or leading lady,
564
00:27:39,791 --> 00:27:43,458
{\an8}chances are you'll find yourself
running to or from danger
565
00:27:43,541 --> 00:27:44,625
in high heels.
566
00:27:44,708 --> 00:27:45,958
[roars]
567
00:27:46,958 --> 00:27:49,333
[Stock] You've automatically
given a handicap to the women.
568
00:27:49,416 --> 00:27:52,666
They can't run in these heels,
but they don't discard them.
569
00:27:52,750 --> 00:27:54,250
Even in recent films,
570
00:27:54,333 --> 00:27:57,458
{\an8}they're still staggering around
in the middle of the road.
571
00:27:59,041 --> 00:28:01,458
The idea of women running in heels
572
00:28:01,541 --> 00:28:04,750
goes back to the issue
of Hollywood glamorizing women
573
00:28:04,833 --> 00:28:07,541
{\an8}to the point
which is completely impractical.
574
00:28:08,875 --> 00:28:11,833
[Lowe] With fast editing
and a leather outfit from a fetish store,
575
00:28:11,916 --> 00:28:14,916
your heroine can become
even more cartoonishly depicted.
576
00:28:17,625 --> 00:28:20,833
Where I do take issue
is when a character decides
577
00:28:20,916 --> 00:28:24,583
what I need if I'm gonna fight
a bunch of people is high heels.
578
00:28:24,666 --> 00:28:29,125
{\an8}Like Catwoman. You cannot fight
in those. You'll break an ankle.
579
00:28:29,208 --> 00:28:32,541
It takes a female character
who's a badass action hero,
580
00:28:32,625 --> 00:28:33,791
and it makes her phony.
581
00:28:33,875 --> 00:28:37,583
Another pet peeve. Sex scenes
with bras and fighting with heels.
582
00:28:37,666 --> 00:28:40,250
No, I'm not doing it. Not doing it.
583
00:28:42,583 --> 00:28:46,333
{\an8}[Lowe] Time for another of Tinseltown's
stock female character clichés:
584
00:28:46,416 --> 00:28:48,166
{\an8}the manic pixie dream girl.
585
00:28:48,583 --> 00:28:51,625
Blah, blah, blah, blah!
586
00:28:52,291 --> 00:28:55,541
I make a noise or I do something
no one has done before
587
00:28:55,625 --> 00:28:58,958
and then I can feel unique again,
even for a second.
588
00:28:59,041 --> 00:29:03,333
{\an8}She is always extremely pretty,
she's always "quirky"...
589
00:29:03,416 --> 00:29:07,625
I gotta go bury this hamster
before the dogs eat him. Wanna help?
590
00:29:07,708 --> 00:29:09,500
{\an8}-Having a weird pet.
-[yells] Rat!
591
00:29:09,583 --> 00:29:12,250
{\an8}[Ellen] That's a classic manic
pixie dream girl trait.
592
00:29:12,333 --> 00:29:14,916
{\an8}This is Rodolfo, he's a ferret.
593
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:18,333
{\an8}I am probably best known for coining
the phrase manic pixie dream girl,
594
00:29:18,416 --> 00:29:22,875
{\an8}and I coined that phrase in an article
that I wrote about a movie
595
00:29:22,958 --> 00:29:24,500
{\an8}called Elizabethtown.
596
00:29:24,583 --> 00:29:28,375
{\an8}And in Elizabethtown,
there is an unusually pure example
597
00:29:28,458 --> 00:29:29,875
{\an8}played by Kirsten Dunst.
598
00:29:29,958 --> 00:29:34,375
{\an8}And she is manic in the sense
that she talks and talk and talks.
599
00:29:34,458 --> 00:29:37,416
I'm so happy we're here
having this conversation
600
00:29:37,500 --> 00:29:39,333
at 3:00 or whatever time it is.
601
00:29:39,416 --> 00:29:42,875
It's such a great time.
Everyone's sleeping but us.
602
00:29:42,958 --> 00:29:46,333
It's nice to have a conversation with you
and that you're really listening.
603
00:29:46,416 --> 00:29:49,541
Then dream girl,
this idea that it's a male fantasy
604
00:29:49,625 --> 00:29:52,625
that we can be depressed,
we can have nothing going,
605
00:29:52,708 --> 00:29:53,916
{\an8}and this woman will find us
606
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:57,416
{\an8}and she will set about
giving our life meaning.
607
00:29:57,500 --> 00:29:59,458
I'm not used to girls like you.
608
00:30:00,541 --> 00:30:02,625
That's because I'm one of a kind.
609
00:30:02,708 --> 00:30:04,916
She shows him how to have fun
610
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:09,083
and he offers her
absolutely nothing in return.
611
00:30:09,166 --> 00:30:14,625
It's a very, very potent fantasy for men
that there's one woman out there,
612
00:30:14,708 --> 00:30:17,708
one magical woman out there
that will save you.
613
00:30:19,875 --> 00:30:22,916
{\an8}Often around two thirds of the way
into a movie, the writer realizes
614
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:25,250
there's still a lot of story to tell
and not enough time.
615
00:30:25,333 --> 00:30:27,833
But it's okay. Just like in Beverly Hills,
616
00:30:27,916 --> 00:30:31,125
you can simply cut out any flab
you don't like using scissors.
617
00:30:31,208 --> 00:30:33,583
Enter montage mode.
618
00:30:33,666 --> 00:30:36,583
{\an8}Well, when we first started talking
about montages,
619
00:30:36,666 --> 00:30:40,291
{\an8}it would be about Eisenstein,
and the Battleship Potemkin,
620
00:30:40,375 --> 00:30:44,333
{\an8}and just ways of cutting
together images from different angles...
621
00:30:44,416 --> 00:30:45,666
{\an8}[dramatic music playing]
622
00:30:45,750 --> 00:30:48,458
{\an8}...that taught us that a movie
was not something
623
00:30:48,541 --> 00:30:51,708
you shoot straight ahead like you would
if you were sitting at a play.
624
00:30:51,791 --> 00:30:54,333
Battleship Potemkin
really introduced audiences
625
00:30:54,416 --> 00:30:57,291
to editing for the first time,
and what you can do with editing.
626
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:01,583
{\an8}[Lowe] This technique caught on,
627
00:31:01,666 --> 00:31:04,333
{\an8}and quickly grasping
the new cinematic language,
628
00:31:04,416 --> 00:31:07,125
filmmakers began
montaging their brains out.
629
00:31:07,208 --> 00:31:12,291
[narrator] Apartment buildings, factories,
forests, ocean liners...
630
00:31:12,375 --> 00:31:14,250
They're shorthand, really, montages.
631
00:31:14,333 --> 00:31:18,291
{\an8}Getting across quite a lot of story
in a short space of time.
632
00:31:18,375 --> 00:31:19,375
Groovy.
633
00:31:20,583 --> 00:31:23,583
{\an8}[Lowe] With the arrival of one
famous sequence in the '70s,
634
00:31:23,666 --> 00:31:26,666
the montage began
punching above its weight.
635
00:31:26,750 --> 00:31:31,375
{\an8}The training sequences in Rocky are
the gold standard of training sequences.
636
00:31:32,750 --> 00:31:36,416
{\an8}I don't think anyone has ever
beaten a training sequence,
637
00:31:36,500 --> 00:31:38,250
a hard-at-work sequence, than Rocky.
638
00:31:38,333 --> 00:31:42,708
[Lowe] By Rocky IV, 31.9%
of its running time was montage.
639
00:31:42,791 --> 00:31:44,416
Almost a third of the film.
640
00:31:44,500 --> 00:31:46,666
The rest was mainly him hitting someone.
641
00:31:50,458 --> 00:31:53,333
{\an8}[Bogutskaya] The fact that movies
can make us really feel
642
00:31:53,416 --> 00:31:58,166
the work that goes into making something
seem very beautiful and very effortless,
643
00:31:58,250 --> 00:32:00,708
is, I think, an underappreciated cliché.
644
00:32:00,791 --> 00:32:04,625
{\an8}-[man] ♪ We're gonna need a montage ♪
-[chorus] ♪ Montage! ♪
645
00:32:04,708 --> 00:32:08,750
{\an8}The greatest of all montages is in,
of course, the South Park guys'
646
00:32:08,833 --> 00:32:10,125
Team America: World Police.
647
00:32:10,208 --> 00:32:12,625
♪ You need a montage ♪
648
00:32:12,708 --> 00:32:14,208
[Edelstein] What's brilliant about that
649
00:32:14,291 --> 00:32:18,416
is that not only is it sending up
the cliché of the montage,
650
00:32:18,500 --> 00:32:21,625
but at that point in the story,
we do need a montage.
651
00:32:21,708 --> 00:32:22,833
[sirens wailing]
652
00:32:22,916 --> 00:32:25,291
[Lowe]
Little in the movies gets the pulse racing
653
00:32:25,375 --> 00:32:28,458
{\an8}quite like a car
following another car really fast,
654
00:32:28,541 --> 00:32:30,916
{\an8}but not quite fast enough to catch up.
655
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:35,083
Ever since the white-hot adrenaline rush
of 1903's Runaway Match,
656
00:32:35,166 --> 00:32:38,625
{\an8}action films have turned again
and again to the car chase.
657
00:32:38,708 --> 00:32:41,833
{\an8}In the hands of a skillful director
and skillful stunt drivers,
658
00:32:41,916 --> 00:32:44,583
{\an8}and in the right script,
it can be the defining moment in the film.
659
00:32:44,666 --> 00:32:45,833
[engine revving]
660
00:32:46,500 --> 00:32:49,875
You know, Bullitt, of course, it is,
it's the defining moment of that film.
661
00:32:50,875 --> 00:32:53,750
[Lowe] Over the years, finding new ways
to pump gas on the car chase
662
00:32:53,833 --> 00:32:56,250
has been a challenge for all movie makers.
663
00:32:56,333 --> 00:33:00,708
{\an8}The French Connection is a car
chasing an above-ground subway train,
664
00:33:00,791 --> 00:33:04,166
and every squeal, every can that gets hit,
665
00:33:04,250 --> 00:33:07,500
every woman pushing a baby carriage...
666
00:33:08,416 --> 00:33:11,916
it makes your stomach drop
at the potential for catastrophe.
667
00:33:12,750 --> 00:33:15,791
[Lowe] But what's really under the hood
of a classic car chase?
668
00:33:15,875 --> 00:33:18,416
{\an8}The first thing I think of
when I think of car chases
669
00:33:18,500 --> 00:33:20,083
{\an8}is, like, shot of the handbrake...
670
00:33:20,916 --> 00:33:22,750
{\an8}car skidding around the corner.
671
00:33:22,833 --> 00:33:24,583
{\an8}That always has to be there.
672
00:33:24,666 --> 00:33:28,458
{\an8}There are carts and all types of debris
just flying everywhere.
673
00:33:31,500 --> 00:33:34,375
A place where a car shouldn't be,
put the car there.
674
00:33:36,208 --> 00:33:39,000
{\an8}Going down stairs,
or you find something to...
675
00:33:45,125 --> 00:33:47,208
[John] Car chases are really hard to write
676
00:33:47,291 --> 00:33:49,250
because you're describing
looking this way,
677
00:33:49,333 --> 00:33:52,666
{\an8}turning, things smashing,
and you're looking for, like,
678
00:33:52,750 --> 00:33:54,666
{\an8}what's slightly new you can do about it.
679
00:33:55,708 --> 00:33:59,500
{\an8}Go has, I think, actually
a really good car-chase sequence in it.
680
00:34:01,541 --> 00:34:04,125
His car is stuck in an alley
in a really interesting way.
681
00:34:05,250 --> 00:34:09,541
{\an8}[Lowe] Car chases have such wide appeal
that whole franchises are based on them.
682
00:34:10,625 --> 00:34:14,083
{\an8}The Fast and the Furious started out
in the world of illegal racing,
683
00:34:14,166 --> 00:34:16,791
{\an8}but its car chases
have been genetically modified
684
00:34:16,875 --> 00:34:20,083
{\an8}into some of the most
ambitious sequences of all time.
685
00:34:21,250 --> 00:34:24,208
The car chase is no longer
people on a road going very fast.
686
00:34:24,291 --> 00:34:26,708
It has to be dropping out of a plane.
687
00:34:26,791 --> 00:34:29,791
{\an8}[dramatic music playing]
688
00:34:29,875 --> 00:34:32,708
{\an8}Cars jumping out of giant buildings.
689
00:34:35,291 --> 00:34:39,958
{\an8}Computer generated imagery nowadays
means that miracles are cheap.
690
00:34:41,208 --> 00:34:44,458
The physics have completely disappeared.
691
00:34:44,541 --> 00:34:47,916
{\an8}So now Vin Diesel can jump from one car
692
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:52,458
{\an8}and save his girlfriend mid-air
and survive.
693
00:34:52,541 --> 00:34:55,833
You know that there
are no physical consequences
694
00:34:55,916 --> 00:34:59,333
to what you're seeing,
so nothing seems at stake anymore.
695
00:35:00,083 --> 00:35:03,583
{\an8}[Lowe] But other recent films
haven't gone for CGI techniques,
696
00:35:03,666 --> 00:35:07,083
{\an8}producing nerve-jangling sequences
the old-fashioned way.
697
00:35:07,875 --> 00:35:11,125
{\an8}[Daniel] Baby Driver's subverting
the cliché of car chases.
698
00:35:11,208 --> 00:35:15,041
Often the music is
subservient to the imagery,
699
00:35:15,125 --> 00:35:17,833
the imagery is driving
what you're writing to,
700
00:35:17,916 --> 00:35:21,250
in that they're both
literally, like, together.
701
00:35:21,333 --> 00:35:23,875
[energetic rock music playing
over earbuds]
702
00:35:27,291 --> 00:35:30,458
With Baby Driver, it felt like a dance
the way that they move the car
703
00:35:30,541 --> 00:35:33,041
and the way they photographed it,
it was beautiful.
704
00:35:34,666 --> 00:35:37,916
The synchronization between
the movement of the car chase
705
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:42,291
and the songs, it felt more like a musical
than it felt like a car chase.
706
00:35:48,250 --> 00:35:50,291
{\an8}[Lowe] Hollywood does not
have a great track record
707
00:35:50,375 --> 00:35:52,916
when it comes to intelligent
portrayals of race.
708
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:57,083
Something that I am perhaps
the first cisgendered white man
709
00:35:57,166 --> 00:36:00,041
brave enough to acknowledge in public.
710
00:36:00,916 --> 00:36:04,291
Call me a trailblazer,
heck, call me a savior if you must.
711
00:36:04,375 --> 00:36:07,125
It's not for me to say,
more for you to think.
712
00:36:08,291 --> 00:36:12,541
{\an8}Early representations of the white savior
may have been well meant...
713
00:36:12,625 --> 00:36:14,291
Miss Jean Louise, stand up.
714
00:36:15,208 --> 00:36:17,041
[Lowe] But from today's perspective...
715
00:36:17,708 --> 00:36:19,083
Your father's passing.
716
00:36:19,166 --> 00:36:22,500
...can be seen as the cinematic
Band-Aid for white guilt.
717
00:36:23,250 --> 00:36:26,833
{\an8}The white savior is a narrative
where a white person comes along
718
00:36:26,916 --> 00:36:30,333
{\an8}and saves a Black person
from their struggle or suffering.
719
00:36:30,416 --> 00:36:33,750
{\an8}What makes you think
colored people need your help?
720
00:36:34,666 --> 00:36:36,333
-Why do you care?
-Minny.
721
00:36:36,416 --> 00:36:38,500
Maybe you just wanna get
Aibileen in trouble.
722
00:36:38,583 --> 00:36:42,583
The Black characters are tools
for the white people to become better
723
00:36:42,666 --> 00:36:45,083
or, like, more fully show their humanity.
724
00:36:45,166 --> 00:36:49,875
{\an8}If you go back to, you know,
The Nun's Story with Audrey Hepburn,
725
00:36:49,958 --> 00:36:53,166
{\an8}she is literally standing there
as this white nun
726
00:36:53,250 --> 00:36:56,958
{\an8}telling Black women
how to wash their children.
727
00:36:57,041 --> 00:36:59,625
Sister is teaching the mothers
how to wash their children.
728
00:36:59,708 --> 00:37:02,875
{\an8}That was probably the most
egregious examples of this.
729
00:37:02,958 --> 00:37:05,833
{\an8}[Lowe] The white savior has appeared
in many guises since then,
730
00:37:05,916 --> 00:37:08,416
{\an8}even as recently
as this Oscar winning tale
731
00:37:08,500 --> 00:37:11,333
of a white man
saving a world-class jazz pianist.
732
00:37:11,875 --> 00:37:14,375
Gentleman says that
I'm not permitted to dine here.
733
00:37:14,458 --> 00:37:17,541
No, you don't understand.
He's playing tonight. He's the main event.
734
00:37:17,625 --> 00:37:20,833
I'm sorry, but it is the policy
of the restaurant.
735
00:37:20,916 --> 00:37:23,458
[Jones] Green Book won Best Picture
in the same year
736
00:37:23,541 --> 00:37:27,166
{\an8}to add insult to injury that Black Panther
was out and BlacKkKlansman were out.
737
00:37:27,250 --> 00:37:29,875
{\an8}So if you're interested
in stories about Black people,
738
00:37:29,958 --> 00:37:31,625
then there they are right there.
739
00:37:34,208 --> 00:37:38,625
[Lowe] The yin to the white savior yang
can be seen in Disney's 1946 movie
740
00:37:38,708 --> 00:37:41,750
{\an8}Song of the South,
depicting life on a plantation
741
00:37:41,833 --> 00:37:43,958
{\an8}just after the abolition of slavery.
742
00:37:44,041 --> 00:37:47,708
Its central character, Uncle Remus,
has become synonymous
743
00:37:47,791 --> 00:37:49,125
with our next cliché,
744
00:37:49,208 --> 00:37:50,708
the magical negro.
745
00:37:50,791 --> 00:37:55,083
The Uncle Remus character is there
to sort of help this young white boy,
746
00:37:55,166 --> 00:37:58,750
who lives on the plantation,
and he tells him these stories.
747
00:37:58,833 --> 00:38:02,125
{\an8}--without a song jumping right out of it.
748
00:38:02,208 --> 00:38:05,750
{\an8}♪ Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay... ♪
749
00:38:05,833 --> 00:38:08,333
[Jones] This is another
old trope of the "happy sambo."
750
00:38:08,416 --> 00:38:11,250
These terms are racist
and I'm using them in inverted commas.
751
00:38:11,333 --> 00:38:15,291
[man] Hollywood turns out for the
20th annual presentation of awards.
752
00:38:15,375 --> 00:38:17,916
The guy that played Uncle Remus
in the Disney version,
753
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:21,666
James Baskett, became
the first Black man to ever win an Oscar,
754
00:38:21,750 --> 00:38:24,666
although it was not a proper Oscar,
it was like an honorary Oscar
755
00:38:24,750 --> 00:38:26,833
because they didn't feel that
he was competitive enough
756
00:38:26,916 --> 00:38:30,291
to be in the Best Actor
or the Best Supporting Actor categories.
757
00:38:30,375 --> 00:38:32,958
[Lowe] The term was popularized
by the director Spike Lee,
758
00:38:33,041 --> 00:38:37,458
who identified that this offensive cliché
usually came with mystical powers.
759
00:38:37,541 --> 00:38:40,000
You often don't know
where this character came from,
760
00:38:40,083 --> 00:38:45,000
why they're there, they just kind of exist
to offer guidance or wisdom.
761
00:38:45,083 --> 00:38:46,666
{\an8}Don't worry about the vase.
762
00:38:46,750 --> 00:38:48,250
{\an8}What vase?
763
00:38:50,791 --> 00:38:51,916
That vase.
764
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:56,083
{\an8}I find the magical negro trope
very unrealistic,
765
00:38:56,166 --> 00:38:58,333
because I personally don't feel
like helping white people
766
00:38:58,416 --> 00:39:00,208
with their problems on a day-to-day basis.
767
00:39:00,291 --> 00:39:02,625
{\an8}[Lowe] The John Coffey character
in The Green Mile
768
00:39:02,708 --> 00:39:04,625
{\an8}is a simple uneducated man
769
00:39:04,708 --> 00:39:07,666
wrongly convicted
for the murder of two white children.
770
00:39:07,750 --> 00:39:10,750
On death row, he puts the time
that he has left on earth
771
00:39:10,833 --> 00:39:13,875
to the best possible use:
reassuring white folk.
772
00:39:13,958 --> 00:39:15,166
Hello, boss.
773
00:39:15,250 --> 00:39:16,375
[Jones] It's set in a prison,
774
00:39:16,458 --> 00:39:18,416
and then it's got
the white guard being forgiven
775
00:39:18,500 --> 00:39:21,208
for executing a Black man
for a crime he didn't commit
776
00:39:21,291 --> 00:39:22,333
by the Black man,
777
00:39:22,416 --> 00:39:25,666
which is just such
obvious kind of reassuring,
778
00:39:25,750 --> 00:39:29,958
soothing fantasy for white guilt
that I find it impossible to watch.
779
00:39:30,041 --> 00:39:35,291
{\an8}[Lowe] The magical negro cliché was even
taken to its ultimately divine conclusion
780
00:39:35,375 --> 00:39:37,166
{\an8}with Morgan Freeman in Bruce Almighty.
781
00:39:38,166 --> 00:39:39,250
I'm God.
782
00:39:39,333 --> 00:39:42,958
{\an8}Morgan Freeman plays a magical negro
exceptionally well.
783
00:39:43,041 --> 00:39:47,125
He was a magical God negro,
like he is the God of magical Negros.
784
00:39:47,208 --> 00:39:50,833
Man, Morgan Freeman has
redefined the magical negro, I think.
785
00:39:51,416 --> 00:39:53,333
{\an8}[Lowe] And in The Legend of Bagger Vance,
786
00:39:53,416 --> 00:39:56,833
{\an8}the magical negro perhaps
achieves his highest purpose:
787
00:39:56,916 --> 00:39:58,958
improving a white guy's handicap.
788
00:39:59,041 --> 00:40:00,958
I could've killed you out there.
789
00:40:01,625 --> 00:40:04,625
Oh, no, sir, see, I set myself
directly in front of you.
790
00:40:04,708 --> 00:40:08,083
Judging by how you was hitting them balls,
that's where I'd be out of harm's way.
791
00:40:08,166 --> 00:40:11,208
[Aisha] One of the things
that's just so offensive about it,
792
00:40:11,291 --> 00:40:12,916
that movie's set in the '30s
793
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:15,208
when lots of Black people
were getting lynched,
794
00:40:15,291 --> 00:40:17,666
uh, the KKK was everywhere,
795
00:40:17,750 --> 00:40:20,291
and yet this character
played by Will Smith
796
00:40:20,375 --> 00:40:22,375
{\an8}is just concerned with Matt Damon
797
00:40:22,458 --> 00:40:25,166
{\an8}getting his swing perfected
on the golf course.
798
00:40:25,250 --> 00:40:30,916
{\an8}It's just you, that ball, that flag...
799
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:34,000
Actors gotta get a check
just like everybody else.
800
00:40:34,083 --> 00:40:35,833
I've done jobs I don't wanna do.
801
00:40:35,916 --> 00:40:40,375
I don't think Will Smith is at home
re-watching The Legend of Bagger Vance.
802
00:40:40,458 --> 00:40:43,291
Some white person somewhere
in, like, Ohio is re-watching it,
803
00:40:43,375 --> 00:40:46,000
so I hope they're enjoying it.
804
00:40:49,458 --> 00:40:51,583
{\an8}[Lowe] Why bother dreaming up
a convoluted plot line
805
00:40:51,666 --> 00:40:55,458
{\an8}when a cliché guaranteed to drive
any revenge narrative can simply be...
806
00:40:55,541 --> 00:40:57,250
{\an8}You killed my father.
807
00:40:57,333 --> 00:40:59,208
{\an8}[Lowe] Whether it's a classic Western...
808
00:40:59,291 --> 00:41:00,500
{\an8}You killed my father!
809
00:41:00,583 --> 00:41:03,166
{\an8}...or even an arachnid-based blockbuster.
810
00:41:03,250 --> 00:41:05,041
You killed my father.
811
00:41:05,125 --> 00:41:06,708
{\an8}[Lowe] John Wick, on the other hand,
812
00:41:06,791 --> 00:41:09,958
{\an8}doesn't quite need as much incentive
for his killing sprees.
813
00:41:10,250 --> 00:41:12,208
{\an8}[in Russian]
814
00:41:18,416 --> 00:41:20,958
Animals in movies
often seem to sense things
815
00:41:21,041 --> 00:41:24,041
their human stars
they're sharing the screen with don't.
816
00:41:24,125 --> 00:41:26,708
Could it be they're somehow
more intelligent than we are?
817
00:41:26,791 --> 00:41:29,166
No, half those idiots
still shit while they walk.
818
00:41:29,250 --> 00:41:33,875
But they do have
an almost supernatural nose for danger.
819
00:41:34,916 --> 00:41:36,416
God's creatures:
820
00:41:36,500 --> 00:41:38,625
{\an8}The Geiger counter of the supernatural.
821
00:41:38,708 --> 00:41:40,083
{\an8}There's something wrong.
822
00:41:40,166 --> 00:41:44,125
{\an8}[Lowe] If something spooky's going on,
they'll be the first to let you know.
823
00:41:44,208 --> 00:41:46,625
{\an8}Horses, tap once for the dead,
824
00:41:46,708 --> 00:41:48,125
three times for the undead.
825
00:41:48,208 --> 00:41:50,416
[neighing]
826
00:41:51,166 --> 00:41:52,625
See? He knows.
827
00:41:52,708 --> 00:41:55,416
{\an8}[Lowe] Worried about your son
being the prince of darkness?
828
00:41:55,500 --> 00:41:58,416
{\an8}Simply cast a pack
of Beelzebub-sniffing baboons.
829
00:41:58,583 --> 00:42:00,291
-[howling]
-[screaming]
830
00:42:01,666 --> 00:42:05,666
{\an8}But in Hollywood,
evil's worst enemy is man's best friend.
831
00:42:05,750 --> 00:42:07,875
{\an8}The role of the dog is to warn you.
832
00:42:07,958 --> 00:42:11,083
The role of the dog is to say
there's something not quite right here.
833
00:42:11,166 --> 00:42:13,416
{\an8}-[whining, barking]
-What's the matter, E Buzz?
834
00:42:13,500 --> 00:42:15,041
{\an8}[Lowe] From unseen ghosts...
835
00:42:15,125 --> 00:42:16,291
{\an8}What are you doing?
836
00:42:16,375 --> 00:42:18,166
{\an8}...to wannabe vampires.
837
00:42:20,416 --> 00:42:22,666
{\an8}And it's not just the supernatural.
838
00:42:22,750 --> 00:42:25,958
{\an8}A sensitive pooch
can also sniff out earthly evil.
839
00:42:26,625 --> 00:42:27,708
[barking]
840
00:42:27,791 --> 00:42:30,125
Ted Bundy, you've been busted.
841
00:42:30,208 --> 00:42:31,625
[growling]
842
00:42:32,416 --> 00:42:34,875
{\an8}Of all the things
it's dangerous to be in movies--
843
00:42:34,958 --> 00:42:38,875
{\an8}Henchmen, stormtrooper,
a cop two days from retirement.
844
00:42:38,958 --> 00:42:41,875
{\an8}--right up near the top of the list
must be gay or lesbian.
845
00:42:41,958 --> 00:42:45,208
You know, Hollywood gets a rap
for making its gay characters expendable.
846
00:42:45,291 --> 00:42:46,375
{\an8}Listen to me!
847
00:42:46,458 --> 00:42:48,458
{\an8}[Lowe]
One of Hollywood's earliest exploitations
848
00:42:48,541 --> 00:42:50,125
{\an8}of gay and lesbian relationships...
849
00:42:50,208 --> 00:42:52,500
I have loved you the way they said.
850
00:42:52,583 --> 00:42:55,708
...was The Children's Hour,
an unsympathetic account
851
00:42:55,791 --> 00:42:58,291
of two teachers,
Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine,
852
00:42:58,375 --> 00:43:00,250
who are accused of a lesbian affair,
853
00:43:00,333 --> 00:43:02,625
which leads to one of them
committing suicide.
854
00:43:05,250 --> 00:43:09,375
{\an8}But while Hollywood may try to highlight
the issues of LGBTQ characters,
855
00:43:09,458 --> 00:43:12,166
it does kind of seem
to kill them in the process.
856
00:43:13,875 --> 00:43:18,166
{\an8}At times when it's touching
on the actual misery
857
00:43:18,250 --> 00:43:23,875
{\an8}or torture of gay people,
I think it's actually okay as a cliché.
858
00:43:25,416 --> 00:43:28,083
{\an8}So for instance, in Brokeback Mountain,
859
00:43:28,166 --> 00:43:31,041
{\an8}it's not a love story,
it's about persecution
860
00:43:31,125 --> 00:43:32,583
over many, many years.
861
00:43:32,666 --> 00:43:34,708
And so when that death finally occurs,
862
00:43:34,791 --> 00:43:37,625
{\an8}it's actually logically
dictated by the film.
863
00:43:37,708 --> 00:43:39,333
{\an8}[Lureen] He was only 39 years old.
864
00:43:39,416 --> 00:43:43,750
{\an8}Well, award season does really love
a biopic about a dead gay person.
865
00:43:43,833 --> 00:43:46,625
{\an8}They love a film
where someone dies tragically.
866
00:43:47,625 --> 00:43:51,250
{\an8}Yeah, I can attest to that
because I played a gay character
867
00:43:51,333 --> 00:43:52,708
in Can You Ever Forgive Me?
868
00:43:52,791 --> 00:43:56,416
{\an8}And the character I played,
Jack Hock, did die of AIDS.
869
00:43:56,500 --> 00:43:59,625
You did fuck your way
through Manhattan. I mean...
870
00:44:01,958 --> 00:44:03,458
I'd like that on my tombstone.
871
00:44:03,541 --> 00:44:05,500
So yes, that is obviously true.
872
00:44:07,625 --> 00:44:12,708
[Lowe] In fact, around 40% of LGBTQ
characters nominated for an Oscar
873
00:44:12,791 --> 00:44:14,833
don't make it to the end credits.
874
00:44:18,250 --> 00:44:23,458
{\an8}A great way to put a character in peril
is to rely on the tech and the tech fails.
875
00:44:23,541 --> 00:44:26,833
{\an8}In Mission Impossible,
when he's climbing that building,
876
00:44:26,916 --> 00:44:28,166
{\an8}you're like, "Cool."
877
00:44:28,250 --> 00:44:29,416
{\an8}But then you think,
878
00:44:29,500 --> 00:44:32,416
{\an8}now you're on the outside,
and that tech fails...
879
00:44:33,458 --> 00:44:35,458
And so now you immediately have drama.
880
00:44:35,541 --> 00:44:39,583
[Lowe] Who hasn't scaled a building
and forgotten to bring a glove charger?
881
00:44:39,666 --> 00:44:42,666
{\an8}Though most big tech fails
are more down-to-earth.
882
00:44:42,750 --> 00:44:44,416
{\an8}[engine grinding]
883
00:44:44,500 --> 00:44:48,916
{\an8}We've all gotten into a car
and turned that thing and it didn't start.
884
00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:51,000
[grinding continues]
885
00:44:52,875 --> 00:44:55,083
A few years ago,
everybody got a cell phone.
886
00:44:55,166 --> 00:44:58,375
This is my last communication--
Oh, the battery died.
887
00:44:58,458 --> 00:45:00,291
{\an8}[cell phone battery beeping]
888
00:45:00,375 --> 00:45:04,291
{\an8}The tech has to fail for the story
to be engaging and for us to be like,
889
00:45:04,375 --> 00:45:05,541
"What will they do next?"
890
00:45:08,666 --> 00:45:10,958
{\an8}[Lowe] Whether it be
cutting-edge climbing technology,
891
00:45:11,041 --> 00:45:15,333
a car, or a cell phone,
the tech fail always signals danger.
892
00:45:16,083 --> 00:45:16,916
[screams]
893
00:45:20,333 --> 00:45:23,875
{\an8}Angry and seated at a desk?
Then do the angry desk sweep.
894
00:45:23,958 --> 00:45:25,625
{\an8}Shit!
895
00:45:26,208 --> 00:45:29,875
{\an8}[Lowe] Has a maverick cop foiled
your master plan for making billions?
896
00:45:31,833 --> 00:45:35,458
{\an8}Are you a world renowned neurosurgeon
with busted hands?
897
00:45:37,416 --> 00:45:40,708
{\an8}Or a high-flying military lawyer
up against a five-star general?
898
00:45:40,791 --> 00:45:43,916
{\an8}Thank you for playing
"Should we or should we not
899
00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:47,000
follow the advice
of the galactically stupid!"
900
00:45:47,083 --> 00:45:50,083
[Lowe] But what the hell,
kick a chair while you're at it.
901
00:45:51,333 --> 00:45:55,000
{\an8}Maverick cop Jake Gyllenhaal
has a real challenge with this desk.
902
00:45:55,083 --> 00:45:57,458
{\an8}His stuff just doesn't go anywhere.
903
00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:01,250
No wonder the keyboard gets a beating.
904
00:46:04,041 --> 00:46:07,458
Every hero needs a villain
to go up against.
905
00:46:07,541 --> 00:46:10,000
It's taken us a while
to get around to him,
906
00:46:10,083 --> 00:46:12,583
but he's been expecting you, Mr. Bond.
907
00:46:14,833 --> 00:46:16,541
If your hero is good-looking,
908
00:46:16,625 --> 00:46:20,083
{\an8}this means the clichéd bad guy
has to be the polar opposite,
909
00:46:20,166 --> 00:46:23,666
{\an8}and the filmmakers usually
make it easy for us to spot who they are.
910
00:46:23,750 --> 00:46:26,625
Allow me to introduce myself.
911
00:46:27,958 --> 00:46:31,166
I am Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
912
00:46:31,250 --> 00:46:35,125
{\an8}We make them other than us.
We make them ugly, disfigured.
913
00:46:35,208 --> 00:46:38,833
{\an8}Some scar to say that they're evil,
even if they're a lion.
914
00:46:38,916 --> 00:46:40,208
{\an8}Murderer.
915
00:46:40,291 --> 00:46:43,333
{\an8}You're telling a story,
you're telling the audience
916
00:46:43,416 --> 00:46:46,583
that your character has been
involved in nefarious activity
917
00:46:46,666 --> 00:46:49,541
{\an8}and probably physical violence
in the past.
918
00:46:49,625 --> 00:46:53,625
{\an8}--and fulfill your destiny.
919
00:46:53,708 --> 00:46:56,416
{\an8}The disfigured villain goes way back.
920
00:46:56,500 --> 00:47:00,250
{\an8}Back to silent film.
You have, obviously, Lon Chaney
921
00:47:00,333 --> 00:47:01,791
{\an8}in Phantom of the Opera,
922
00:47:01,875 --> 00:47:05,083
with the hairpins
stretching his nostrils out.
923
00:47:06,458 --> 00:47:11,708
{\an8}The problem with that sort of
characterization is the fact that then,
924
00:47:11,791 --> 00:47:14,125
{\an8}in real life, it translates to people
925
00:47:14,208 --> 00:47:16,625
who have those physical disfigurements
926
00:47:16,708 --> 00:47:20,625
being seen by other people
as dangerous, as scary,
927
00:47:20,708 --> 00:47:22,125
as someone to shun.
928
00:47:22,208 --> 00:47:28,125
{\an8}Certainly that equating of disfigurement
in some way turning you into a psychopath
929
00:47:28,208 --> 00:47:30,833
is incredibly insulting.
930
00:47:30,916 --> 00:47:33,541
A lot of villains
are more cultured than the hero.
931
00:47:33,625 --> 00:47:37,083
{\an8}You know, you'll have villains
who talk about their love of Beethoven.
932
00:47:37,750 --> 00:47:38,916
{\an8}You don't like Beethoven.
933
00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:40,833
{\an8}[Mark] Loving the finer things in life...
934
00:47:40,916 --> 00:47:42,541
{\an8}You don't know what you're missing.
935
00:47:42,625 --> 00:47:44,583
...gives a sense
that there is another side,
936
00:47:44,666 --> 00:47:49,041
{\an8}another side to them, which enhances
the fact that they're, you know, evil.
937
00:47:49,125 --> 00:47:54,583
{\an8}I ate his liver with some fava beans
and a nice Chianti.
938
00:47:57,208 --> 00:47:58,708
They're often British.
939
00:47:58,791 --> 00:48:01,708
That tends to be
a real subcategory of villains.
940
00:48:01,791 --> 00:48:04,916
{\an8}In Hollywood, they thought
that an English accent
941
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:07,083
{\an8}was a shorthand for sophistication.
942
00:48:07,750 --> 00:48:11,291
{\an8}Do you intend to cooperate with us?
I'd like a simple yes or no.
943
00:48:11,375 --> 00:48:16,333
{\an8}If your baddie had an English accent,
then the hero was dealing with something
944
00:48:16,416 --> 00:48:18,041
that wasn't just plain brutish.
945
00:48:18,125 --> 00:48:20,208
There was something else behind it.
946
00:48:20,291 --> 00:48:23,291
Somehow casting an English actor,
because we're cheap,
947
00:48:23,375 --> 00:48:25,083
{\an8}and you can say the dialogue,
948
00:48:25,166 --> 00:48:28,708
{\an8}and you can say gibberish dialogue
with great conviction.
949
00:48:28,791 --> 00:48:33,625
{\an8}History, tradition, culture,
are not concepts.
950
00:48:33,708 --> 00:48:37,000
{\an8}These are trophies
I keep in my den as paperweights!
951
00:48:37,083 --> 00:48:41,916
The monologue is a cliché
because it's the stuff of drama.
952
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:46,916
{\an8}Everything that has transpired
has done so according to my design.
953
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:50,791
{\an8}It's the writer allowing the audience to
understand where this character comes from
954
00:48:50,875 --> 00:48:52,708
and why they're doing what they're doing.
955
00:48:52,791 --> 00:48:57,625
I had a villain's monologue
in the final sequence of Logan.
956
00:48:57,708 --> 00:49:01,083
I'm giving this verse
about why I've done what I've done
957
00:49:01,166 --> 00:49:02,708
and killed his family, all this.
958
00:49:02,791 --> 00:49:06,125
{\an8}I realized we needn't stop perfecting
what we eat and drink.
959
00:49:06,208 --> 00:49:08,291
{\an8}We use those products
to perfect ourselves.
960
00:49:08,375 --> 00:49:10,500
And halfway through my monologue...
961
00:49:11,875 --> 00:49:14,000
he kills me, deservedly.
962
00:49:14,833 --> 00:49:18,666
There comes a time when every movie
simply has to stop happening.
963
00:49:18,750 --> 00:49:21,125
And that time is known as the end.
964
00:49:21,208 --> 00:49:23,458
It's when all the narrative plates
you've been spinning
965
00:49:23,541 --> 00:49:26,916
have to suddenly weave together
in a better metaphor than this.
966
00:49:27,000 --> 00:49:29,833
It's time for
the movie's climactic endgame,
967
00:49:29,916 --> 00:49:33,333
and there are only
so many forms that can take.
968
00:49:35,375 --> 00:49:37,750
{\an8}The shower scene in Hitchcock's Psycho
969
00:49:37,833 --> 00:49:41,916
{\an8}with Janet Leigh is seen by many
to be the inspiration for our next cliché.
970
00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:43,958
And for locks on bathroom doors.
971
00:49:44,041 --> 00:49:48,833
Hitchcock popularized this notion
that it would be women going through
972
00:49:48,916 --> 00:49:53,125
{\an8}these horrific circumstances,
and he set up this expectation
973
00:49:53,208 --> 00:49:56,500
{\an8}that women would play
a central role in thrillers.
974
00:49:57,583 --> 00:50:00,250
{\an8}[Lowe] Eighteen years later,
Janet Leigh's daughter,
975
00:50:00,333 --> 00:50:02,208
{\an8}Jamie Lee Curtis, played a role
976
00:50:02,291 --> 00:50:06,500
{\an8}which made her an icon of the cliché
now known as the final girl.
977
00:50:09,083 --> 00:50:13,250
The monster versus the final girl,
Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween,
978
00:50:13,333 --> 00:50:15,708
symbolically stands as the first.
979
00:50:15,791 --> 00:50:17,916
She is the blueprint, the prototype.
980
00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:21,041
The final girl is the one girl
who doesn't have sex,
981
00:50:21,125 --> 00:50:23,333
{\an8}who's more innocent than her friends.
982
00:50:23,416 --> 00:50:26,791
{\an8}You must have a small fortune stashed
from babysitting so much.
983
00:50:26,875 --> 00:50:28,375
{\an8}Guys think I'm too smart.
984
00:50:28,458 --> 00:50:29,916
Because she's not having sex,
985
00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:33,333
she's somehow miraculously
more observant than all of her friends
986
00:50:33,416 --> 00:50:35,125
and senses something wrong first.
987
00:50:35,208 --> 00:50:37,708
If you want
a really good final-girl movie,
988
00:50:37,791 --> 00:50:40,416
you need to take a group of friends...
989
00:50:40,500 --> 00:50:44,125
{\an8}If you listen to the old timers in town,
they'll tell you he's still out there.
990
00:50:44,208 --> 00:50:48,083
{\an8}They've all gone off
on a weekend party somewhere.
991
00:50:48,166 --> 00:50:51,041
You need to give them
a spurious reason to go off
992
00:50:51,125 --> 00:50:54,458
{\an8}in different directions,
and get up to any kind of mischief.
993
00:50:54,541 --> 00:50:56,250
{\an8}[suspenseful music playing]
994
00:50:56,333 --> 00:51:00,291
{\an8}That's another cliché, another rule:
If you do the dirty deed,
995
00:51:00,375 --> 00:51:01,541
you're gonna die.
996
00:51:03,250 --> 00:51:05,916
{\an8}One by one they are dispatched.
997
00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:08,125
{\an8}[cackling]
998
00:51:09,583 --> 00:51:11,791
{\an8}There's always a lull in these movies
999
00:51:11,875 --> 00:51:14,583
{\an8}where everyone thinks
the killer might be dead.
1000
00:51:16,416 --> 00:51:19,625
Then it all comes crashing down
and she has to prove herself again.
1001
00:51:21,666 --> 00:51:25,458
{\an8}But she survives and she becomes
the audience surrogate.
1002
00:51:28,166 --> 00:51:29,875
{\an8}[woman screaming]
1003
00:51:31,583 --> 00:51:34,000
I think slasher films
and all their clichés
1004
00:51:34,083 --> 00:51:39,625
would be completely dead right now
if there hadn't existed Scream.
1005
00:51:39,708 --> 00:51:43,250
{\an8}[Lowe] Scream turned the cliché
on its blood-splattered head
1006
00:51:43,333 --> 00:51:47,541
{\an8}by dispatching assumed final girl
Drew Barrymore in its opening moments.
1007
00:51:49,291 --> 00:51:55,416
I think the Scream franchise
really addressed the horror fans
1008
00:51:55,500 --> 00:52:00,875
and their knowledge of the clichés,
and sort of turned it on its head.
1009
00:52:00,958 --> 00:52:02,500
{\an8}What's the point? They're all the same.
1010
00:52:02,583 --> 00:52:04,916
{\an8}Some stupid killer
stalking some big-breasted girl
1011
00:52:05,000 --> 00:52:07,833
{\an8}who's running up the stairs when
she should be going out the door.
1012
00:52:07,916 --> 00:52:08,750
It's insulting.
1013
00:52:08,833 --> 00:52:11,666
{\an8}[Lowe] But the final girl
has appropriately survived.
1014
00:52:13,041 --> 00:52:14,875
Today, she's better prepared.
1015
00:52:15,791 --> 00:52:17,083
{\an8}Fuck your family.
1016
00:52:17,166 --> 00:52:19,250
{\an8}[Pugh] We're now giving her power
towards the end,
1017
00:52:19,333 --> 00:52:21,750
{\an8}and we're making people
scared of her towards the end.
1018
00:52:21,833 --> 00:52:23,250
{\an8}Eat it, bitch!
1019
00:52:24,041 --> 00:52:27,166
{\an8}She is sometimes more deadly
than the people
1020
00:52:27,250 --> 00:52:29,958
that she's actually
kind of fighting to survive.
1021
00:52:31,958 --> 00:52:34,625
And technically,
has a much bigger body count
1022
00:52:34,708 --> 00:52:38,000
{\an8}than any of the would-be "killers"
in the movie.
1023
00:52:39,583 --> 00:52:43,333
{\an8}I think it's kind of evolved
as a cliché now
1024
00:52:43,416 --> 00:52:46,125
into almost
a kind of a comfort-food finale.
1025
00:52:47,291 --> 00:52:48,125
{\an8}Fuck.
1026
00:52:49,375 --> 00:52:53,041
[Lowe] Next up: that explosive
movie cliché, the ticking time bomb.
1027
00:52:53,666 --> 00:52:55,750
{\an8}[Hargrave] There's a bomb,
and there's a ticking clock.
1028
00:52:55,833 --> 00:52:58,208
{\an8}If the hero doesn't act,
large amounts of people die.
1029
00:52:58,291 --> 00:53:00,000
{\an8}So inherently dramatic.
1030
00:53:00,083 --> 00:53:02,958
{\an8}-How much time left?
-Twenty seconds!
1031
00:53:03,041 --> 00:53:06,833
{\an8}[Edelstein] Doesn't matter what movie,
when you watch the numbers click down,
1032
00:53:06,916 --> 00:53:08,583
your heart is in your mouth.
1033
00:53:10,416 --> 00:53:14,083
{\an8}[Lowe] In its classic form,
this cliché always comes down to the wire.
1034
00:53:14,166 --> 00:53:15,166
You think?
1035
00:53:15,250 --> 00:53:18,541
{\an8}Cut the red or the blue,
the red or the blue?
1036
00:53:18,625 --> 00:53:20,625
{\an8}[suspenseful music playing]
1037
00:53:24,250 --> 00:53:27,583
{\an8}It's one of the great
non-action climaxes ever.
1038
00:53:27,666 --> 00:53:28,833
{\an8}They look sexier now.
1039
00:53:28,916 --> 00:53:32,500
{\an8}Often it's someone trying to hack in
and stop the countdown.
1040
00:53:33,458 --> 00:53:35,541
[automated voice]
Cerberus has been deactivated.
1041
00:53:35,625 --> 00:53:39,375
If it's your hero defusing the time bomb,
you know he or she is gonna do it.
1042
00:53:39,458 --> 00:53:41,041
The fun thing for us is going,
1043
00:53:41,125 --> 00:53:44,875
{\an8}"How close to one
are they gonna take it, really?"
1044
00:53:44,958 --> 00:53:48,500
{\an8}And it goes to one so many times.
1045
00:53:54,166 --> 00:53:57,750
{\an8}[Lowe] The must-have at the end
of a romance is the lover's mad dash
1046
00:53:57,833 --> 00:54:01,833
{\an8}where one of the pair has a frenzied race
against time and geography
1047
00:54:01,916 --> 00:54:04,541
{\an8}to declare undying love to their partner.
1048
00:54:04,625 --> 00:54:08,875
{\an8}Often, that will involve
a last-minute lover's dash to the airport,
1049
00:54:08,958 --> 00:54:10,833
{\an8}or to stop a wedding happening.
1050
00:54:10,916 --> 00:54:13,125
{\an8}The Graduate's a classic one of that.
1051
00:54:17,208 --> 00:54:19,541
Oh, Jesus, God, no.
1052
00:54:20,208 --> 00:54:23,500
{\an8}[Lowe] Having chased and convinced
their other half of their eternal love,
1053
00:54:23,583 --> 00:54:27,666
{\an8}their reward is a passionate kiss,
usually in bad weather conditions.
1054
00:54:28,333 --> 00:54:32,541
[King] It's when you're so wrapped up
in kissing the person you love
1055
00:54:32,625 --> 00:54:35,708
that you're not even aware
of the terrible weather.
1056
00:54:35,791 --> 00:54:38,666
{\an8}And I think that's what happened
in Four Weddings and a Funeral,
1057
00:54:38,750 --> 00:54:41,708
{\an8}was these two people
having all these obstacles
1058
00:54:41,791 --> 00:54:46,708
not to be together,
and finally, in the rain...
1059
00:54:49,000 --> 00:54:51,250
{\an8}Is it still raining? I hadn't noticed.
1060
00:54:55,375 --> 00:54:58,458
{\an8}Greta Gerwig, the director,
did that for the end of Little Women.
1061
00:55:02,708 --> 00:55:07,625
{\an8}She wanted that end-of-the-movie shot,
and I remember chatting to her about this
1062
00:55:07,708 --> 00:55:12,458
and she was like, "I want it, I want it,
I grew up watching it, and I want it."
1063
00:55:12,541 --> 00:55:17,208
If things have gone right, at the end,
the audience is on the edge of their seat
1064
00:55:17,291 --> 00:55:19,291
wondering whether the good guy will win,
1065
00:55:19,375 --> 00:55:22,500
{\an8}while knowing, with every
fiber in their being, that he will.
1066
00:55:24,208 --> 00:55:27,833
{\an8}Hey, why don't you pick on someone
your own size?
1067
00:55:27,916 --> 00:55:31,291
{\an8}The morality tale
demands that the hero kills the villain.
1068
00:55:35,458 --> 00:55:37,041
The better the death,
1069
00:55:37,583 --> 00:55:41,250
the more satisfying
the vanquishing of the villain is.
1070
00:55:41,333 --> 00:55:44,833
{\an8}Someone falling from a great height
has been a classic way
1071
00:55:44,916 --> 00:55:46,541
{\an8}to finish your story.
1072
00:55:46,625 --> 00:55:49,166
{\an8}Brilliantly done in Die Hard, of course,
1073
00:55:49,250 --> 00:55:52,875
and it gives them a moment or two
to know that they're beaten.
1074
00:55:56,875 --> 00:55:58,958
It's a very satisfying moment
for the audience.
1075
00:55:59,041 --> 00:56:03,875
{\an8}It's to enable them to feel safe.
You vanquish the villain so you feel safe.
1076
00:56:04,708 --> 00:56:06,166
[screaming]
1077
00:56:07,583 --> 00:56:10,666
[Garfield] And the more dastardly
the behavior of the villain,
1078
00:56:10,750 --> 00:56:14,916
{\an8}the more karmic justice
we are praying for.
1079
00:56:15,000 --> 00:56:19,166
{\an8}There's a blood lust that a great villain
creates in an audience.
1080
00:56:19,250 --> 00:56:21,083
{\an8}Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker.
1081
00:56:27,750 --> 00:56:31,958
{\an8}At the end of a movie, we want
to have good overcome bad.
1082
00:56:32,041 --> 00:56:36,041
{\an8}That's what drives that desire
to watch a movie with great heroes.
1083
00:56:36,125 --> 00:56:39,500
That everything's gonna be okay
and the world's not scary.
1084
00:56:40,583 --> 00:56:43,541
{\an8}[Lowe] Until the contractually
binding sequel brings them back,
1085
00:56:43,625 --> 00:56:46,500
{\an8}the last few moments of the movie
are for the heroes to bask
1086
00:56:46,583 --> 00:56:49,875
{\an8}in their hard-earned glory
before riding off into the distance.
1087
00:56:52,250 --> 00:56:54,458
Well, as I said at the start,
I've been Rob Lowe,
1088
00:56:54,541 --> 00:56:57,583
and that's it
for our look at Hollywood clichés.
1089
00:56:57,666 --> 00:57:01,083
Nothing for me to do now except
jump on my horse and/or motorcycle
1090
00:57:01,166 --> 00:57:04,708
and ride off into the sunset
while rock music and/or hip-hop kicks in.
1091
00:57:05,375 --> 00:57:07,041
But that would ruin my suit.
1092
00:57:07,125 --> 00:57:11,000
So let's just abruptly roll credits
when I snap my fingers.
1093
00:57:11,666 --> 00:57:14,666
[electronic music playing]