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[Lord_Balkan]

I love analyzing movies, and irregardless of director intent, movies contain many metaphors and (sometimes hidden) themes/ communications. What are some of your favorites?

Here are some of mine. I apologize in advance, I am just kind of splatting my thoughts out as I think them so they may not read as structurally / logically sound as I'd like. Also I love horror movies so that is what my list mostly consists of.

- Last House On The Left (Wes Craven)

Spoiler

Growing up on the south side of Chicago, this one hit closer to home to me than usual. How far will seemingly normal / nice people go when put in disastrous situation. As nice and civilized humans think they are, horrible and disgusting actions can be provoked when pushed to the edge.

- The Shining

Spoiler

I'm sure many people have heard of this one before but the themes of Native American genocide and less subtle themes of possible dangers of an upper class ruling elite.

- Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Spoiler

There is a not so subtle onging theme of playing your part here. Heather needs to play Nancy, Wes needs to play director and so on. Irregardless of religious connotations, there may be some sense of fate here. The more you ignore it (or your problems) the worse it gets. Facing your fears is the only way to not get swallowed by them.

- Don't Torture A Duckling

Spoiler

Many probably won't know about this one but basically someone is killing a bunch of young boys (probably 11-14ish) in a small country side Italian town. The themes in this one are so strong and I feel are relevant to this day. The town is untrustworthy of outsiders and superstitious. They judge a young woman because she is in touch and open with her sexuality. Another crazy woman admits to the murders saying she used voodoo / witchcraft to accomplish it because the boys were teasing her and digging up the grave of her baby that has passed. Because of the townsfolk xenophobia and superstition, they enact mob justice against this poor misguided woman. The themes of fearing the outsiders completely cloud their judgement to see the actual evil being committed within. These themes of mob justice mixed with fear of others seem really relevant even in this digital age (possibly more so in this digital age).

- Videodrome

Spoiler

Videodrome is such a weird movie with weird visuals and I love it. The one scene that sticks out to me is when the main character is confused in his apartment and his secretary (i think?) comes in. There is a big black and white spotted poster on the wall which resembles TV static. Just the idea that this group of people want to wipe out all the people that enjoy violent media. I love movies that play with this idea of 'ultraviolence'. This, A Clockwork Orange and Tenebre play with these in different ways. I think I like this theme here because it is similar to Last House On The Left in the way that it exposes hypocrisy within humans- Eliminating violence by being violent.

- Arizona Dream

Spoiler

I saw this movie recently and I can't say I love it, but some things really stuck out to me. We have a cultural saying from where we come from and it translates to 'A brother can't feed a brother, but its hard not having one'. I think that proverb properly encapsulates this movie. Johnny Depp didn't really like his uncle but at the same time did. He ignored him until his last moments, but he still needed him. Jerry Lewis says early in the movie that he planted a cactus next to a grown tree saying that it needed its support. I think that is directly what this was about. Depp didn't want to be with his uncle, but it was hard living without him.