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Symbolism and writing
Dec. 5th, 2006 10:03 amI was reading a post at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
potc_discussion about the writers' commentary track on the DMC DVD. The thing I've noticed that really stands out in all the posts I've read over the past few weeks, and interviews with the writers over the past several months, is there is SO much talk of symbolism in this movie. Everything in DMC is a symbol: Elizabeth's clothing, the wedding dress, the way the dress sinks, the color of Bootstrap's playing dice, ad nauseum.
The writers obviously know their cultural references, obscure and otherwise. They're smart men. But it seems to me they're concentrating a little too hard on showing off how smart they are with all of these, and not enough on telling a story that makes sense.
It's like buying shoes and jewelry and a hair clip and a pretty dress to go to a fancy dinner, and then realizing you're three sizes too large for the dress and shoes - and still cramming yourself into it, because BY GOD, YOU'VE BOUGHT ALL THIS SHINY, PRETTY STUFF AND YOU HAVE TO USE IT RIGHT NOW instead of trying to modify your body and saving it until later, or better dressing yourself. The symbolism and the setting are shoes and accessories, the actors are the pretty clothes - ready to form around the body - and the plot is the body wearing all of this. Except, for DMC, it seems like the writers went shopping at Saks to dress Dennis Hastert in size 10 ladies' togs.
Symbols should be those little spots that add that touch of deeper meaning - they're meant to enhance a story, not carry it. Tolkien employed his fair share of symbolism in LOTR, but it was all to enrich the overall story, which he kept constant through the three books (not counting The Hobbit). In CotBP, symbolism was used to enhance what was essentially the same tired old story of boy-gets-girl, and it worked beautifully - because there was a solid, identifiable story that served as the backbone of the entire tale.
EDIT: There's an interesting discussion going on in the new community I co-mod,cotbp_fandom, about what the writers have to say on the movie, at http://community.livejournal.com/cotbp_fandom/5999.html. (As a fair disclaimer, many of us have Big Problems with the plot and/or characterization of DMC.)
potc_discussion about the writers' commentary track on the DMC DVD. The thing I've noticed that really stands out in all the posts I've read over the past few weeks, and interviews with the writers over the past several months, is there is SO much talk of symbolism in this movie. Everything in DMC is a symbol: Elizabeth's clothing, the wedding dress, the way the dress sinks, the color of Bootstrap's playing dice, ad nauseum.The writers obviously know their cultural references, obscure and otherwise. They're smart men. But it seems to me they're concentrating a little too hard on showing off how smart they are with all of these, and not enough on telling a story that makes sense.
It's like buying shoes and jewelry and a hair clip and a pretty dress to go to a fancy dinner, and then realizing you're three sizes too large for the dress and shoes - and still cramming yourself into it, because BY GOD, YOU'VE BOUGHT ALL THIS SHINY, PRETTY STUFF AND YOU HAVE TO USE IT RIGHT NOW instead of trying to modify your body and saving it until later, or better dressing yourself. The symbolism and the setting are shoes and accessories, the actors are the pretty clothes - ready to form around the body - and the plot is the body wearing all of this. Except, for DMC, it seems like the writers went shopping at Saks to dress Dennis Hastert in size 10 ladies' togs.
Symbols should be those little spots that add that touch of deeper meaning - they're meant to enhance a story, not carry it. Tolkien employed his fair share of symbolism in LOTR, but it was all to enrich the overall story, which he kept constant through the three books (not counting The Hobbit). In CotBP, symbolism was used to enhance what was essentially the same tired old story of boy-gets-girl, and it worked beautifully - because there was a solid, identifiable story that served as the backbone of the entire tale.
EDIT: There's an interesting discussion going on in the new community I co-mod,
cotbp_fandom, about what the writers have to say on the movie, at http://community.livejournal.com/cotbp_fandom/5999.html. (As a fair disclaimer, many of us have Big Problems with the plot and/or characterization of DMC.)
