[Music]
in inglorious bastards quentin tarantino
wrote a funny sequence where a german
officer mixes up the story of king kong
with the story of the american slave
trade every question he asks has the
same answer for both aftershocks
in america
the german officer and intern tarantino
clearly think king kong is an allegory
for the slave trade yet the creators of
king kong have repeatedly denied this
interpretation of the movie saying there
are no hidden meanings it's just a story
to them this disconnect between creator
and audience brings to light one of the
most important questions in film
discussion is an interpretation still
valid if it's not what the artist
intended the answer has broad
implications for analyzing art if
meaning is objective then discussion
becomes much more narrow critics must
take the artist's word as law and only
look for meanings that the artist
consciously intended on the other hand
if meaning is subjective a critic can
find any message they want in a film and
that means anybody can throw around any
theory they want english teachers can
over analyze curtains no matter what the
artist says so where is the line let's
have a look at how artists talk about
and make their movies to figure out the
best mindset towards analyzing and over
analyzing film some directors do clearly
state their intentions for a movie in a
rare interview from the coen brothers
they mention that the big lebowski is
based on noir detective novels from the
30s and 40s but with a humorous twist it
has the main character in over his head
a complicated and morally ambiguous
narrative and an unreliable supporting
cast but instead of smoking cigarettes
like most noir heroes he smokes
marijuana one of the several humorous
twists on the conventional detective
stereotypes for deeper movie ideas many
directors create a movie with an idea in
mind but not only will directors hide
the meaning of their movies they may
even film the movie deceptively in
american psycho director mary herron had
william defoe portray his character in
three different ways the first way the
character thinks patrick bateman killed
paul allen i just wanted to know if you
know
the second he thinks he didn't do it
people just disappear and the third he's
unsure to think that one of his friends
killed him for no reason whatsoever
would be too ridiculous
isn't that right patrick
herron edited these portrayals together
to have the character constantly switch
his opinion of bateman between takes the
choice creates a movie full of
uncertainty and it adds to the frenzied
toxic male dominance within the movie
angley used the exact same technique in
brokeback mountain i played it as though
i knew what was going on with jake's
character jack and that he had been
cheating on me with men and i knew about
the gay bashing and i also played it as
though i had no idea am i that this is
how my husband died and those takes got
merged in the final film so i don't
actually know aang knows the truth in
his head and it's not important to me
because i think the ambiguity is what is
the strength of that scene and what's
heartbreaking about it when filmmakers
create a movie with multiple meanings
they tend to keep their intent a secret
anyone else have a theory about what it
could be
you see that's it's good i'm not going
to say what it is
no you may not i never talk about themes
it's a very big shame
when something is finished and then
people want you to translate it back
into words it never will work it never
will go back into words and be
what the film is it's like describing a
piece of music you don't hear the music
you just hear that see the words it's
better to let people conjure up their
own ideas
having seen and experienced the film i
mean they want you to say i think you
know this is a story of the duality of
men and the duplicity of governments or
something like that and you know i hear
people try to do it sometimes in
interviews it usually is [ __ ] or if
the work is good it's it's sort of uh
well it's usually irrelevant kubrick
might be the best director to look at
when discussing over analyzing because
his movies are some of the most analyzed
in american cinema the documentary room
237 focuses entirely on fan theories
about the shining some of the ideas
suggested in the documentary are pretty
ridiculous like when they claim kubrick
airbrushed his own face into the clouds
as the family drives to the hotel after
hearing about his intense shooting
schedules and extremely detailed
production design fans have seemed to
build a mythos around kubrick believing
he put specific meaning into every
little thing despite all of the sort of
apocryphal stories about me almost all
of which are untrue you don't have
unlimited resources and they do watch
the budget and you know you do have to
account for what you're doing the
stories about kubrick largely ignore how
he himself described his shooting
process he says he actually doesn't
always put a particular meaning in his
directing choices i'm pretty good at
generalized statements but when i'm
asked what is this i still can't tell
somebody what has the glory is about i i
find it's much more of an intuitive
process more like what i would imagine
writing music is like rather than a sort
of
structuring an argument this intuitive
approach doesn't make kubrick's films
any less meaningful it just means while
he's making the movie his intent isn't
always immediately obvious to him he
instead makes choices that feel right
instead of constantly dealing with
hidden meanings i never deal with
subtext when i'm writing ever ever ever
i keep it about the text i keep it about
the scenario because i know there's a
lot there but i don't want to i don't
want to know it right now so where does
that leave room for analysis in both
cases where directors hide the meaning
and where they don't work with a
specific meaning in mind the viewer
can't know the objective truth but that
doesn't mean analysis is hopeless the
very basic things
especially from where mr orange is
coming from i'm dying and i want to go
to the hospital but just in writing
those words just all this stuff just
started pouring out and that was when i
realized it was a father-son story going
on in this interview tarantino reveals a
crucial truth about filmmaking he shows
us how he subconsciously put a deeper
meaning in his movie it doesn't matter
if directors work with one meaning in
mind or work purely on intuition
everybody brings their prior experiences
with them in the creative choices they
make and that doesn't stop at the
director every person involved in the
process of filmmaking places their world
view into the work and a good analysis
reveals these hidden meanings to me it's
very obvious i mean of course king kong
is a metaphor for the slave trade i'm
not saying the makers of king kong meant
it to be that way but that's what that's
the movie that they made whether they
meant to make it or not this analysis
works because it fits with the time
period the movie was made it's not only
convincing but the analysis also makes
the movie more impactful some
interpretations seem to miss that
analysis should add something meaningful
to the movie in this particular
interpretation king kong shows how white
people of the 1930s may have feared the
free black population in america not
only is that interpretation well
supported but it also invites the viewer
to think about the movie in a fresh and
interesting way even if it is true that
kubrick airbrushed his face into the
clouds how does that add to the movie
and strangely enough maybe some stories
are better enjoyed without analysis
kubrick once said if you submit to a
completely logical and detailed analysis
of a supernatural movie it will
eventually appear absurd the true
measure of a great supernatural thriller
he says isn't in its hidden meaning but
in if the audience had a good fight
believed the film they were watching and
retained some sense of it with brokeback
mountain the true analysis of jack's
death isn't what matters the fact that
anglie leaves the audience uncertain of
jack's fate makes his ending that much
more heartbreaking there's no sense of
closure for us or for ennis so maybe the
next time you watch the ending of 2001 a
space odyssey don't obsess over the
details kubrick actually did reveal what
he was going for in that ending i tried
to avoid doing this ever since the
picture came out because when you just
say
the ideas they sound uh foolish whereas
if they're dramatized
[Music]
i'll link his interpretation in the
description but before you click on that
watch the ending one more time and think
about the emotion it evokes because even
with a particular meaning in mind
kubrick built that ending based not
around his own meaning but around how he
wanted it to make you feel so when your
teacher overanalyzes blue curtains in a
story the problem isn't that it's not
what the artist meant the problem may be
that the teacher got so caught up in
analysis that they missed what made the
book so great in the first place
[Music]
a big problem with over-analyzing film
comes from under-researching if an
analysis is inconsistent with the rest
of the movie or doesn't have a lot of
concrete evidence it doesn't hold up
well in most areas of film criticism
education is key to coming up with the
best analysis when it comes to actual
film production the same principles
apply to learn more about filming
professional footage with tools you
already own you can sign up for the diy
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