Allegories and Explosions

I suppose since this is the first edition of this series you’re going to want some kind of explanation.  Well you can have it!  And more!

Movies, films, talkies, whatever you call them we all love them (hopefully, I mean you ARE on a pop culture website, you know that right?).  They let us see sights, feel feelings and think thoughts we might otherwise have never seen, felt or thought.  Unfortunately though, when you get right down to it, they’re pretty silly.  Take away the music and CG and film effects and what you have is really just a bunch of crazy nonsense.  With each episode of “Movies Are Silly!” I’ll show you a goofy aspect of films or film-making that you might otherwise have overlooked and actually enjoyed your movie.

Allegory is a powerful device, not only in film but in literature, art and music.  It makes us view a philosophical concept, a historical event or maybe a part of our own human experience in a new way; showing us different aspects we had not considered or old ideas presented in a new light.  It can enlighten the observer and improve the work itself.  Buuut, as soon as a battlemech draws an enormous combat knife to fight a giant blue monster that just flew in on his epic-level pterodactyl mount, wellllll, you may have lost sight of your allegory.

It’s not just modern big budget Hollywood films that fall into this trap either.  Movies have been trying to score bonus points by using allegories since the silent era.  Take, for example, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927).  It’s an ostentatious allegory for class struggle which for some reason includes a fake robot-woman who capitalizes on her beauty to drive men into murderous rampages and is subsequently burned at the stake.  And while this may be meant to parallel the “upper class” using sex to manipulate the “ignorant masses” I’d say it goes just a tinsy bit over the top.  Also, Joseph Goebbels really liked it and if Nazis are into it, well, need I say more?

“But movies need to attract audiences and for that they need to be interesting!” I can hear you whining already.  Well then why bother with an allegory at all?  Why create such an overt parallel if you’re going to abandon it as soon as it’s inconvenient?  Would Avatar be less compelling if the Na’vi were not such obvious stand-ins for native people X?  Maybe it wouldn’t have been such a horrible disappointing mess if they weren’t (astounding visuals though!).

I think I know what it’s all about it though.  Filmmakers feel (and they might be right) like they have to give audiences something familiar to keep them interested (or make them feel safe) and a well-trod idea or concept presented as an allegory is just the trick.  But that’s not what allegories should be about; they’re about improving the experience of film watching, not making people feel comfortable while they stuff popcorn in their face. Movies abuse allegories and we let them. And that’s just plain silly.