The metaphors you see in popular movies

[MessiahDecoy123]

Some metaphors are obvious others are subtle.

What are some metaphors you see in a popular movies.

Remember there are no wrong answers. Art is open for interpretation.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I think Star Wars OT is a metaphor for the anti-Vietnam War movement.

The empre = US government

rebels = protestors

ewoks = Viet Cong

etc.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Scarface is about the true nature of the American dream and an unforgiving vision of capitalism.

Avatar is how imagined roles (on the internet mostly) can become real.

Inception is about directing/writing movies, planting ideas in the audience and how difficult it can be.

http://www.chud.com/24477/never-wake-up-the-meaning-and-secret-of-inception/

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

Spider-man 3 is about how you should not rely on drink and/or drugs to get you through the tough times in life, because even though they feel great at first, and can do the job of taking your mind off your troubles, they can alter your personality for the worse, and can be very difficult to quit.

Unbreakable is about finding a job that makes you happy, that makes you actually want to get out of bed in the morning.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I think Equilibrium is supposed to suggest that political correctness goes overboard. But I interpreted as a criticism of the psychotropic drug industry and how alot of so-called disorders are a natural, necessary part of human nature that shouldn't be surpressed or stigmatized.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I hear Alien was analogy for women's fight with cancer. They even go so far as making Ripley bald headed in Alien 3.

 

[Victarion]

Can you elaborate on that Avatar metaphor?

 

[cherokeesam]

I think Star Wars OT is a metaphor for the anti-Vietnam War movement.

The empre = US government

rebels = protestors

ewoks = Viet Cong

etc.

Eh, I don't really see a direct corollary between the OT and the 'Nam protests....there's a big difference between civil disobedience to protest unjustified foreign invasions versus a full-blown rebellion against a tyrannical government. Star Wars has more in common with historical revolutions like the American, French, Russian and Chinese.

As for the NT, the historical analogue to the rise of the Empire is, of course, the exact same model that Rome followed as Augustus Caesar destroyed the Republic and assumed total power as a tyrannical Emperor. But that same model can be applied to other instances of the rise of fascism, including Nazi Germany, of course. It's no secret that many people even drew parallels between I-III and the erosion of democracy and civil liberty in post-9/11 America; but the irony is that Lucas could have only made those allusions in Ep. III in 2005 --- even though there are eerie parallels in I and II, those were scripted and shot well before 9/11/01.

 

[DACrowe]

I don't really get the Avatar or Return of the Jedi ones either.

Anyway, here's one:

300, in both film and comic, is an Islamaphobic rant about how awful Easterners are and how superior Western culture and civilization are. The striking irony of this is that the Persians, who Miller clearly is trying to say are no different than the extremist jidhadists of today, were not even Muslim or part of that culture....because it didn't exist yet. The biggest laugh was when at the end they say they "spared the Western world from tyranny and superstition." Yes, because for the next 2,500 years the west was the very virtue of enlightenment and democracy.

V For Vendetta, the film, was clearly a thinly veiled anti-Bush movie that warned America through fearmongering neoconservatism was slipping away towards fascism.

The Godfather series, particularly the first two, is about the American Experience and the clash of cultures in that melting pot. Vito Corleone comes to America and makes his family wealthy and climbs the (criminal) ladder of the American dream through the values of his homeland, but the more successful and homogenized/Americanized his family becomes in future generations the more they lose their culture, their history and ultimately their family. By the end of the second film they have transcended even past the reach of the US Congress, but they have lost everything that makes them a family....which is why Vito made the choices he did when he came to America in the first place. Oh, the irony.

The original Star Wars trilogy is about the primordial struggle of the father and son. The son must defeat his father and surpass his failings to be a true adult and be at peace.

 

[Ultimatehero]

In Time, clearly economical status especially in big cities like NYC and LA.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Can you elaborate on that Avatar metaphor?

Well in Avatar a machine transports you into an alien body where you can have an entirely foreign identity.

The same goes for when you use the internet and people treat you like the person you project on line. Your work identity can be entirely different from the person you become when play in on-line communities the same way Jake's corporate purpose conflicts with his identity as a Na'vi.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Eh, I don't really see a direct corollary between the OT and the 'Nam protests....there's a big difference between civil disobedience to protest unjustified foreign invasions versus a full-blown rebellion against a tyrannical government. Star Wars has more in common with historical revolutions like the American, French, Russian and Chinese.

As for the NT, the historical analogue to the rise of the Empire is, of course, the exact same model that Rome followed as Augustus Caesar destroyed the Republic and assumed total power as a tyrannical Emperor. But that same model can be applied to other instances of the rise of fascism, including Nazi Germany, of course. It's no secret that many people even drew parallels between I-III and the erosion of democracy and civil liberty in post-9/11 America; but the irony is that Lucas could have only made those allusions in Ep. III in 2005 --- even though there are eerie parallels in I and II, those were scripted and shot well before 9/11/01.

In the OT, the rebels are a diverse group of rag tag people and aliens while the empire is mostly a white, male establishment.

That applies to WW2 to a certain extent except that America was not a rag tag group of rebels during the 1940's and the axis power leadership weren't purely white. Also the main goal for the empire was create an omnipotent war machine to unite the galaxy. Yoda and Obi Wan were more like two philosophical hippies trying to win the battle for Luke's mind. Luke equaled the average American caught inbetween the war machine and the rebels.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

and how can the ewoks not represent the Viet Cong.

They defeat a vastly superior military force with primitive customs and tactics.

Return of the Jedi came out around ten years after the Vietnam War ended after the Viet Cong had done that same exact thing.

 

[Marvin]

Blade
Euro trash white wanting to amp the Black man.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I see the vampires in Blade as the IMF leadership and a bunch of MTV interns who want to take over the world.

 

[Marvin]

Anyway, here's one:

300, in both film and comic, is an Islamaphobic rant about how awful Easterners are and how superior Western culture and civilization are. The striking irony of this is that the Persians, who Miller clearly is trying to say are no different than the extremist jidhadists of today, were not even Muslim or part of that culture....because it didn't exist yet.

Ergo, the metaphor.

Anyways, it's an interesting statement Miller makes because some would go on to argue that the nature of islam(submission" is not only violent but seeks conquest. And that it is entirely a product of arabic culture with a hint of the abrahamic verse. Not how I feel, but I think the metaphor works well.

The biggest laugh was when at the end they say they "spared the Western world from tyranny and superstition." Yes, because for the next 2,500 years the west was the very virtue of enlightenment and democracy.

It's easy to look at all the flaws of the west and point the finger but one can't ignore some semblance of truth. Greece invented democracy, Rome perfected it. Then the Water systems and roads and so forth. Sure the west has it's problems and is far from violent, but the middle east is often times seen as some sort of barbaric time bubble. Not as bad as some parts of africa but still, in need of some modernity.

Many more kids in the west enjoy the spoils of western "enlightenment/democracy" then many kids in the "east." For better or worse.

 

[Sloth7d]

The Count of Monte Cristo was about writer in the 18th century tack a religious moral at the end of his story to pander to the masses even though that couldn't further than the truth of what the story is about.

 

[DACrowe]

I see the vampires in Blade as the IMF leadership and a bunch of MTV interns who want to take over the world.

You could actually do a thread just on the metaphors vampires are used for in popular culture (though it's usually always sexual). Example:

-Dracula (book): Vampires represents the threat of foreigners and evil men to the virtuous "new woman" of the Victorian era. Vampires threaten to turn them into wanton ****es and destroy the "superior" western world at its supposed peak of Victorian society with its Old World horrors and superstitions.

-Bram Stoker's Dracula (film): Vampires represent sexual liberation of women from the stuffiness and gilded cages of Victorian society while also threatening the modern age of STDs, AIDs, etc. They also represent a person who has lost their way and turned their back on God...a monster alone and miserable for eternity.

-Twilight: Vampires represent...well Prince Charming. The perfect super-together family who do everything together (much like the author's Mormon faith espouses) and want to wait until marriage to have sex or they will turn the heroine, Bella/the female reader/viewer, into a monster due to pre-marital relations. Huh-huh.

 

[DACrowe]

Ergo, the metaphor.

Anyways, it's an interesting statement Miller makes because some would go on to argue that the nature of islam(submission" is not only violent but seeks conquest. And that it is entirely a product of arabic culture with a hint of the abrahamic verse. Not how I feel, but I think the metaphor works well.

I still think in its historical setting it is clumsy and also ignorant of even Muslim/Arabic culture a thousand years ago that was quite advanced before its regression around the time the West was leaving the middle ages and entering the Renaissance and eventual Enlightenment.

It's easy to look at all the flaws of the west and point the finger but one can't ignore some semblance of truth. Greece invented democracy, Rome perfected it.

They were still both superstitous cultures with their gods and animal sacrifices. Also, Roman culture pre-Constantine was of the levels of lechery that Miller depicts heinously among the Persians.

And Rome hardly "perfected" democracy considering they essentially surrendered it to Augustus who changed the original word for dictator to a permanent ruler as emperor or "Caesar." Then Rome eventually fell and for over 1000 years there was no democracy and most of that is known, somewhat unfairly, as "The Dark Ages" (due to its violent and intellectually submissive and superstitious culture).

Then the Water systems and roads and so forth. Sure the west has it's problems and is far from violent, but the middle east is often times seen as some sort of barbaric time bubble. Not as bad as some parts of africa but still, in need of some modernity.

And until 600 years ago the Arabic world was more advanced in mathematics, medicine and science. There is no denying that through nation building, competing states, and a loss of confidence in the Catholic Church after the "Black Death," Europe grew and flourished while the Middle East regressed...but still only 300 years ago we were hanging women as "witches," keeping Africans as slaves 150 years ago and so forth. Until the World Wars, France and Britain hated each other because of their traditional invasions of each other going back to 1066 through the 'Hundred Years War' of the 1400s and into Britain becoming a protestant enemy of Catholic France (and Spain) because their king wanted to bang Anne Boleyn.

Many more kids in the west enjoy the spoils of western "enlightenment/democracy" then many kids in the "east." For better or worse.

But saying that 2500 years ago when 300 Spartans died to stop a Persian invasion that the West was spared from superstition (enter the Catholic Church, the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, etc.) and tyranny/i.e. non-democratic leadership (basically every Western leader in some form from Augustus to the American Revolution) is just silly.

 

[Marvin]

I tend to agree, I was definitely looking at the post modern landscape, to look at anything prior to the last century and a half or so would be a mixed bag of sorts. However you mentioned how the modern movie was metaphoric to the past so I just assumed it was then to now. Moreover, the story is clearly told from a western character stand point and one can't deny that greeks all the way to robin hood himself thought the arabs or saracens were children eating freaks. If anything it adds to the story that the audience sees what the men thought they were seeing. Perhaps one day there will be an inverse telling of the battle @thermopylae, in which the half naked white devils are the monsters.

It's hard to pin point which era of arab vs west you are defending. However I will say that yes for the most part the Arabs were more advanced in many ways, and had they not mixed themselves up they'd be the superpower, but to look at them now...

Lastly for all their blunders(namely a few mad men), the Roman Republic was a hell of a thing, and it was the logical progression of the Greek democracy. None of which wouldn't have happened if the Persian monach actually conquered the Greek states at that time.

 

[DACrowe]

I tend to agree, I was definitely looking at the post modern landscape, to look at anything prior to the last century and a half or so would be a mixed bag of sorts. However you mentioned how the modern movie was metaphoric to the past so I just assumed it was then to now. Moreover, the story is clearly told from a western character stand point and one can't deny that greeks all the way to robin hood himself thought the arabs or saracens were children eating freaks. If anything it adds to the story that the audience sees what the men thought they were seeing. Perhaps one day there will be an inverse telling of the battle @thermopylae, in which the half naked white devils are the monsters.

Funny. I think the story of Thermopylae is a wonderful tale of the few making a last stand against the many and saving their people. A wonderful story and event. I'm just laughing at turning it into "Our culture is so much better than yours and always has been" pissing contest. First because Islamaphobia, like most prejudices, is stupid but second because historically the West has not always been democratic or free-thinking or even more advanced than the Middle East as the movie suggests.

It's hard to pin point which era of arab vs west you are defending. However I will say that yes for the most part the Arabs were more advanced in many ways, and had they not mixed themselves up they'd be the superpower, but to look at them now...

I'm not defending anything so much as saying Miller's vision of wolrd history is laughable.

Lastly for all their blunders(namely a few mad men), the Roman Republic was a hell of a thing, and it was the logical progression of the Greek democracy. None of which wouldn't have happened if the Persian monach actually conquered the Greek states at that time.

The Roman Republic was a natural progression. The Roman Empire was something else entirely. Democracy for all intensive purposes disappeared with the rise of Augustus from the world until the American Revolution...unless you want to count the Magna Carta and/or British Parliament post-Glorious Revolution as its return, but I do not.

 

[Superhero 101]

X-men-Don't be afraid of what others think of you

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

I hear Alien was analogy for women's fight with cancer. They even go so far as making Ripley bald headed in Alien 3.

No, it's about rape.

 

[Rocketman]

Spider-Man 3 is a metaphor for how not to make a movie.

 

[Marvin]

Funny. I think the story of Thermopylae is a wonderful tale of the few making a last stand against the many and saving their people. A wonderful story and event. I'm just laughing at turning it into "Our culture is so much better than yours and always has been" pissing contest. First because Islamaphobia, like most prejudices, is stupid but second because historically the West has not always been democratic or free-thinking or even more advanced than the Middle East as the movie suggests.

I'm not defending anything so much as saying Miller's vision of wolrd history is laughable.

The Roman Republic was a natural progression. The Roman Empire was something else entirely. Democracy for all intensive purposes disappeared with the rise of Augustus from the world until the American Revolution...unless you want to count the Magna Carta and/or British Parliament post-Glorious Revolution as its return, but I do not.

The major irony is realized when one considers Sparta's key role in the destruction of Athens(birthplace of democracy) after many attempts at invasion. Not only did they later team up with the Persians against Athens but they took them out. The metaphor here being shown in the tossing of their week children over the cliffs lol.

As a myth I see no need for it to be historically accurate whatsoever. Greek heroes vs the brown monsters with many heads. Same old story.

French killed their king and got their democracy started back up no?

Anyways I actually think Twilight presents an interesting metaphor for Teen Sex. Edward wants to wait till marriage..that's all I know.