Analyzing a movie too deeply can ruin one's enjoyment of it?

Answer 1

It depends on how you define enjoyment. My best friend is a certified genius and his favorite movie is Shrek - he doesn't go to movies to think, and says so freely. That said, there are gems, absolute diamonds, that will go right over your head if you don't do a little pondering.

For instance, the baby carriage scene in The Untouchables isn't original - it's deliberately borrowed from a 1925 Soviet movie called The Battleship Potemkin, which is still often called the greatest film, ever. Another contender is a film made in 1927, Metropolis. And 2001, made in 1968, is still widely considered to have the best space SFX ever. It certainly looks more real than the computer-generated stuff made today.

Going back to Chicago, did you know Untouchables is essentially the same movie as Star Wars? They're both hero quests. When Kevin Costner asks Sean Connery for his help and the Connery character says no, it's exactly the same scene as when Obi Wan asks and Luke says, no, he'd rather stay on the farm. But they both go, and they both get real bloody.

One more you might find interesting: Airplane is considered by many to be a great work of cinema - Airplane. The jokes are nuts, but the same hero-quest structure is airtight: It's a quest about a guy who has to get over his fear of flying planes and get on with his destiny.

Knowing stuff like this may not be your thing. If this stuff interests you, you might enjoy pondering films more than you currently think. Movie critics say that if a film sticks in your head for three days, it's a great film. But you can also say that if a film sticks in your head three days, you might be a film critic in the making. My best tip is to check out Roger Ebert's site if you have any question about evaluating any film made in the last 25 years. I have no connection to that site, but I do think it's awesome.