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Fahim Farook
f
A Telugu movie I watched recently has had me thinking about unreliable narrators âŚ
I can see how an unreliable narrator would work easily in fiction â if the book is in first-person perspective, then we rely on the narrator for all the information we receive and so, if the narrator misleads us (either intentionally or unintentionally) weâd be none the wiser.
But in movies, while the whole movie might follow a single character, we still get a slightly more omniscient viewpoint â while we do see what the character sees and who they interact with, given the medium, Iâd expect the reactions of others to be not filtered through the characterâs own viewpoint.
The most memorable unreliable narrator movies that I can think of are âThe Sixth Senseâ, âFight Clubâ, âThe Usual Suspectsâ, and âMementoâ. And most of these work because the narrator themselves does not know that they are unreliable â what we see is what they âknowâ at a given moment. The only exception would be âThe Usual Suspectsâ, but since the story there is narrated by someone, what we see is what they say. So that works.
The movie which prompted all these thoughts had somebody being portrayed as a kind and generous human being â they werenât motivated by money, they help people, they donât drink or gamble, and so on. But later on, we learn that the person is not at all what they seemed originally.
Now, I do realize that people sometimes hide their true-selves. They show one face to the world while hiding who they really are. But I would expect there to be some clues if you look close enough â especially in a movie since that involves the viewer more and makes them feel satisfied at having spotted the clues when the big reveal comes đ
For example, if somebody pretends to love a person, of course, theyâd call that person and declare their love all the time. But unless they both had a common circle of acquaintances, I wouldnât expect the person pretending to be in love to go around telling everybody how much they are in love. Thatâs just too much work in my opinion đ
This particular movie had certain elements like that which made no sense later on when the big reveal came. They positioned one person as good, as somebody who wanted to help people. They positioned another person as bad, as somebody who would do anything for money. And then at the end they just go ahead and say, âOh, the good guy is bad, and the bad guy actually would do anything to help someone in trouble.â It just didnât work for me âŚ
Yes, this might not make much sense to anybody reading since some context is missing â it probably is just too much of a stream-of-consciousness thing. But since Iâm thinking so much about it at the moment, I figured Iâd just jot it down ⌠đ
#Movies #Structure #Reflections
I can see how an unreliable narrator would work easily in fiction â if the book is in first-person perspective, then we rely on the narrator for all the information we receive and so, if the narrator misleads us (either intentionally or unintentionally) weâd be none the wiser.
But in movies, while the whole movie might follow a single character, we still get a slightly more omniscient viewpoint â while we do see what the character sees and who they interact with, given the medium, Iâd expect the reactions of others to be not filtered through the characterâs own viewpoint.
The most memorable unreliable narrator movies that I can think of are âThe Sixth Senseâ, âFight Clubâ, âThe Usual Suspectsâ, and âMementoâ. And most of these work because the narrator themselves does not know that they are unreliable â what we see is what they âknowâ at a given moment. The only exception would be âThe Usual Suspectsâ, but since the story there is narrated by someone, what we see is what they say. So that works.
The movie which prompted all these thoughts had somebody being portrayed as a kind and generous human being â they werenât motivated by money, they help people, they donât drink or gamble, and so on. But later on, we learn that the person is not at all what they seemed originally.
Now, I do realize that people sometimes hide their true-selves. They show one face to the world while hiding who they really are. But I would expect there to be some clues if you look close enough â especially in a movie since that involves the viewer more and makes them feel satisfied at having spotted the clues when the big reveal comes đ
For example, if somebody pretends to love a person, of course, theyâd call that person and declare their love all the time. But unless they both had a common circle of acquaintances, I wouldnât expect the person pretending to be in love to go around telling everybody how much they are in love. Thatâs just too much work in my opinion đ
This particular movie had certain elements like that which made no sense later on when the big reveal came. They positioned one person as good, as somebody who wanted to help people. They positioned another person as bad, as somebody who would do anything for money. And then at the end they just go ahead and say, âOh, the good guy is bad, and the bad guy actually would do anything to help someone in trouble.â It just didnât work for me âŚ
Yes, this might not make much sense to anybody reading since some context is missing â it probably is just too much of a stream-of-consciousness thing. But since Iâm thinking so much about it at the moment, I figured Iâd just jot it down ⌠đ
#Movies #Structure #Reflections
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Gaveen Prabhasara
gaveen@hachyderm.io
Spoilers for: American Psycho, Big Fish, Bridge to Terabithia, and Life of Pi
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@f I can also think of American Psycho, Big Fish, Bridge to Terabithia, and Life of Pi. Except for the first the narrator knows they are unreliable. In the latter two at least the narrator chooses the fantastic to deal with trauma. In Big Fish, the narrator is know to embellish the stories about his life but others come to accept him which makes him "immortal" in a sense.
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Fahim Farook
f
Spoilers for: American Psycho, Big Fish, Bridge to Terabithia, and Life of Pi
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@gaveen I havenât watched either âAmerican Psychoâ or âLife of Piâ. Iâve watched the other two but have vague recollections of âBridge to Terabithiaâ (my overall impression of the movie, the only thing that remains, is one of sadness â so not keen to go back to that one âŚ) and donât remember anything at all about âBig Fishâ, except perhaps a vague feeling that it might be related to Elmore Leonard perhaps?
Iâll have to look that up âŚ
But Iâm trying to think of any movie where the narrator was intentionally unreliable and knew it and it wasnât really a tale told by them (as was the case in âThe Usual Suspectsâ) just to see how something like that might work in film ⌠Not sure it would though đ
Iâll have to look that up âŚ
But Iâm trying to think of any movie where the narrator was intentionally unreliable and knew it and it wasnât really a tale told by them (as was the case in âThe Usual Suspectsâ) just to see how something like that might work in film ⌠Not sure it would though đ
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