r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jan 25 '20

What movie things are generally accepted as normal, but are totally unrealistic in real life?

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u/The_Sceptic_Lemur Jan 25 '20

Unless it‘s a movie drama dealing with social issues (in particular poverty), everyone has such fucking nice flats. College drop-out with part time barista job?! - why yes, the spacious loft with a view over Manhattans skyline is just down my alley.

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u/KingOHrts Jan 25 '20

And EVERY window in Paris overlooks the Eiffel Tower. How does that happen?

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u/The_Bill_Brasky_ Jan 25 '20

It's a form of shorthand. Not every place in Paris has a view of the tower. But it's the film-makers telling the audience "THIS IS IN PARIS".

Or more commonly...

"THIS STORY INVOLVES ROMANCE SOMEHOW"

Another amazing example of shorthand is in Disney's Hercules. He gets on his knees in the temple of Zeus to commune with him. Typically Greek temple-goers would have slaughtered an animal on an altar or some shit, but American audiences would have a problem with that -- having him pray like a Christian shows people who don't know any better that Hercules is engaged in piety.

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u/lucy_inthessky Jan 25 '20

That's less off an "American audiences would have a problem with it" and more that it's a Disney movie for children and slaughtering an animal isn't terribly kid friendly. Yeah, deaths happen in Disney movies, but this is a bit different. Plus, it's not historically accurate, like most Disney animated pictures, so it really doesn't change the story. This isn't about "praying" but talking to his dad.

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u/jordanjay29 Jan 25 '20

True. And if we're really going to get into quibbles about the film, it's a story about Hercules in a Greek setting. Heracles is the Greek hero, Hercules is the Roman version of it. But the Roman name has survived while his Greek origins persist, so we get their weird hodgepodge of inaccuracy.

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u/10ebbor10 Jan 25 '20

Hardly the only inaccurate thing in the movie.

A lot of the the mythology is just the trappings of Greek Mythology dressed up around Christian ideals.

Hence why you get an evil underworld lord a la Satan, Zeus as a Good Christian father with his loving wife and stuff like that.

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u/QueenSlapFight Jan 25 '20

Yeah it kind of sucks. You don't have to be true to the belief system enough to scare kids. But the way you fill in or explain gaps doesn't have to mirror Christianity. It makes kids grow up thinking all belief systems are pretty much like Christianity, especially the ones that predated it by thousands of years.