Enduring Movie Themes

[dean]

Ok so I had an interesting conversation the other day about how timeless some stories and themes are.  Texts where the basic themes are similar all the way from ancient myth to modern day storytelling via the cinema etc.

So I decided to try and come up with a bit of a list, but since I'm the lazy sort, I figured it would be a nice post for here.

Basically I'm looking for themes of movies, not genres.  You can pretty much place them in genres since many genres tend to have their own constant themes, but of course alot of them can be placed in other movies.  I'm essentially looking more into the themes that create the movie instead of the type of movie itself.

Some examples could be:


Sci-fi/horror: Science Gone wrong [your basic freak is created and goes nutball.  A notable alteration of this theme could be Weird Science, as a nice aside!]


Action/Thriller: Mistaken Identity/Running Man.  Your typical case of man/woman gets confused as someone else and is forced to flee  and try and prove their identity.


Aw man... I had more on the tip of my tongue, but now I can't think of any.  The perils of watching tv and posting at the same time!  Brain turns to mush.

I guess that's why I'm looking for examples, plus any thoughts on these themes as well [such as if they are a tired theme, or a classic enduring theme!]

[Doc Daneeka]

Giant CGI snakes, GOD, WHEN WILL IT END??!!

[Jack]

The Alien theme:  a group of people are trapped in a confined space with a (nearly) unstoppable creature.  It's become a genre unto itself, probably due to the fact that the confined space means the budget doesn't have to be terribly high.

The revenge theme:  someone is wronged and spends his life generally getting back at those who wronged him.  Popular in Westerns.

The good vs. greed theme:  Bad guy defined by greed, completely uncaring towards his fellow man, challenged by the hero who is looking out for the people.  Also popular in Westerns, but it's pretty much universal throughout a lot of genres.  Everything fro Die Hard to all those nature run amok (caused by greedy corporations/military fiddling with DNA) movies.

[Dr. Whom]

Curiosity killed the cat: People find a derelicht ship/spacecraft/mine, forgotten city, some book or artefact (etc etc). They blithely ignore all warnings, prophecies, keep out signs or what have you. They wake up some ancient evil/monster and unleash death and destruction upon the world.

[Menard]

The Most Dangerous Game (a movie title and subsequent theme) - Otherwise bored hunter raises the stakes to hunt an actual human with an irresistible offer (financial, saving the life of a loved one, etc.). Repeated in movies and television.

Ten Little Indians (Title of an Agatha Christie novel and repeated movie theme) - A group of people, usually strangers, end up stranded together (or are invited to a location) where they are subsequently killed off one-by-one by someone within the group itself. Can be seen as the theme for a variety of genre films from And Then There Were None, which was based on the novel, to The Beast Must Die which is a horror movie take on it where one of the members of the group is a werewolf.

We Are Family (all my sist...oh scuse me) - "Keep breeding in the same family long enough and something's bound to snap." (Just Before Dawn 1982). Though mostly an overdone subject for horror movies, we have seen this theme spin off into other genres and television shows where a family (oh gee, who would have guessed it would have been backwoods hicks again) has particular values (ain't it great to see such attention to family values) which disclude anybody not of their blood. An episode of Hawaii Five-0 did a take on this with Slim Pickens as the head of a hillbilly family who killed and robbed people using the logic that it was not stealing if they were dead, and it was not killing if they weren't family.

Revenge for a Rape - Title of a movie which starred Mike Connors and a variegated theme. Interesting that this theme never really came into its own in movies until the late 60s and early 70s. Yes, it is a take on the revenge theme itself, but this one makes it personal. In several ways, this actually combines elements of different themes which includes revenge, the underdog overcomes the odds, plus it goes for the throat of male chauvanists. It is, however, sometimes hypocritical as the very issue of revenge also becomes its selling point to its target audience. The Mike Connors movie Revenge for a Rape also leads us into our next theme.

Mistaken Identity - Don't ya just hate it when after the hero has dispatched a clan of rednecks just asking for it, it turns out that the fool killed the wrong guys? Often a revenge theme, it has been used in other genres and themes where the subject of the film is on a mission and discovers, too late, that they have been chasing a red herring all along.

Of Mice and Men - A John Steinbeck novel, a movie based on the novel (3 times), and a theme which was especially popular in cartoons. "Tell me about the bunnies, George." . George and Lenny, two of the entertainment world's most beloved characters to immitate. How many times have we seen a Bugs Bunny cartoon which featured the abonimable snowman searching for his very own bunny rabbit, or the two cats trying to catch a kangaroo? The characterizations, however, did not limit themselves to cartoons, as we have seen numerous duos or individual characters based in some part on George and/or (especially) Lenny. Though not dimwitted, Hoss on Bonanza was essentially a Lenny; a big, lovable character who was just as big hearted. Baretta had a Lenny in the form a mentally slow fella who had a bad habit of stealing things because he wanted to give them to others (ironic that Robert Blake also starred in one of the Of Mice and Men movies).

I'm back and ready to party - Uh, not really. The revenge from the grave theme has permeated many horror films: Black Sunday, Nightmare Castle, 976-EVIL 2, The Haunting of Morella, and, as the last entry suggests, has been a theme of gothic literature for some time all the way back to Horace Walpole (who is credited with writing the first gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto). The appeal of this theme is probably what also has lead to the revenge theme being so popular with movie makers; it is an easy story to tell.


That's just a few suggestions of possible themes off the top of my head. Some may consider them to be more of takes on a theme.

[zombiedudeman]

Nature gone mad: Nightmare City, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, and Day of the Animal come to mind, it's like an environmental issue where nature has weird reacions to something man does.

Love against everybody's approval: Very typical love story where the two lovers love even in the face of adversity

[ulthar]

Action: How about the lone good guy (and perhaps a girl or older mentor) against some kind of much larger entity - a government, a corporation, society at large.  The lone good guy, against ALL odds, has to win.

[raj]

And in the romance category: boy finds girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back.

Isn't there a famous quote out there, that there are only five basic plots?

Oh, and for zombie movies: people fight zombies.

[Him]

Sci-fi / Fantasy: An ancient prophecy predicts a young hero will one day appear and put an end to all evil in the world.

[LilCerberus]

Considering what originally spawned my pursuit of classic cheese, I somehow feel obligated to make some mention of Tmac, & how he's developed some amusing categories for assorted gratuitous yet obligatory situations.

Among my favorite cliches, is the American/city person who inherits an English manor/country mansion, along with an ancient family curse, or films that try to expand on the Cat People/She Wolf theme, but with much less (if any) plot.

One that's always annoyed me, is the upper middle class American suburbanite who goes to another country/the ghettos/New York or LA, or anywhere else they're clearly out of place to exact revenge on the criminals/terrorists who murdered his wife/daughter/son/ family, ect.

[dean]

And in the romance category: boy finds girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back.

Isn't there a famous quote out there, that there are only five basic plots?

Oh, and for zombie movies: people fight zombies.

Well zombie fighting is a classic and forever enduring theme one would hope!

Also, I did remember some sort of quote dealing with that same idea of only being five basic plots, and I suppose I'm hoping to narrow down the field in that regard.  Alot of themes are offshoots and alterations of a basic idea I suppose.

Oh and I remembered another one that I was going to mention:

The Odd Pair.  Two opposing world views thrown together.  Works particularly well in Buddy Cop films with by the book vs renegage maverick such as Tango and Cash, or the East Vs West cultural divide of Rush Hour etc.

Can also be put to good use in comedies and possibly even an interesting source for a thriller/drama [though none come directly to mind right now.]

[Scott]

Menards Agatha Christie  theme is a great one. TEN LITTLE INDIANS (1965) is a the best of "Who done its" and AND THEN THERE WHERE NONE (1945) is another. Been trying to view THE BEAST MUST DIE (1974), but just haven't got to it yet. 



On the comedy side of this theme you have MURDER BY DEATH (1976) which is hilarious.



THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932) is going to the top of my to view list. Haven't seen it yet.

[ulthar]

There are a couple of culture-specific dated themes that have popped up.

The "abused woman exacts revenge" theme from the late 80's mid 90's marked the uprise of social awareness toward domestic violence.  An example would be SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY and its myriad of clones.

Of similar timeframe, marking the rise of females in male dominated professions are the "woman gets job in male dominated workplace and shows them how it is REALLY done" movies.

And finally, "uneducated or newly-educated-but-inexperienced lower tier worker makes it big" movies like THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS, WORKING GIRL and DON'T TELL MOM THE BABYSITTER'S DEAD.

These are themes you likely don't see in older, classic literature since the women/lower classes rising up like this was probably virtually unheard of and would not have resonated with those audiences.

[Him]

edit: Posted message in wrong thread

[Yaddo 42]

The Red Harvest /Yojimbo Theme: Crafty loner/outsider saves a troubled town/village (usually isolated) by pitting the two evil factions controlling the location against each other.

The Seven Samurai Theme: outmatched humble locals recruit various dangerous/unsavory types to fight their oppressors. The recruited saviors usually either find a higher purpose than a paycheck or die nobly in the effort, redeeming themselves along the way.

The Rashomon Theme: A story is retold from the various conflicting viewpoints of the people involved. the truth of the events, if ever really revealed turns out to be something other than the straight story of anyone of the participants.

The disgusted/retired/burned out/injured/cashiered/betrayed/obsolete veteran is called out of retirement for "one more mission" theme. Sometimes he is offered something he wants, sometimes something or someone he loves is taken away from him, sometimes his sense of duty or honor is played upon, sometimes he is offered a challenge or a chance at revenge on an old foe or a suitable proxy.

The Siege theme: A group of disparate (and and sometimes desperate) people, who often don't know or like each other, must band together to face a challenge that should overmatch or outnumber them. See way too many Howard Hawks and John Carpenter and zombie films. A sub-category of this film involves treachery or cowardice or self-preservation by a member or members of the group prove their undoing or provide a twist.

The "Bad News Bears/Mighty Ducks" theme: mostly in sports movies, a group of outcasts and/or the underappreciated are pushed together and must face long odds and a lack of assests to find comraderie and self-esteem in competition against a much more organized, conventially talented, and usually arrogant team or group. They usually win due to the efforts, luck, or twist of fate of the least member among them who redeems himself or proves himself the equal of his mates. Rarely they lose anyway, but still triumph "inside" where "it really counts." You can also include most battle of the bands films, summer camp films, or films with a school competition/science fair/talent show/race/THE BIG TEST.

The tournament Theme: Seen in tons of martial arts films. We follow a individual or team through an organized contest with competing factions. SOmetimes the tournament is a cover for a secret or more sinister purpose which the hero must expose or undo. Sometimes outside forces or underhanded elements will try to derail the protagonist(s) by cheating or other means not part of the contest itself. Sometimes the heroe(s) are not wanted or allowed in the contest in the first place but either exploit some loophole, prove their worth to the organizers, or make it on some unlikely whim or turn of events, say mistaken identity or the late arrival of the true entry.

Dean, I think your first suggestion is often called the "They Tampered in God Domain" theme.