Movies with paradigm
shifts
For me, movies can be cleanly divided
into two categories. In the first are movies that you wouldn't care
to watch again, whether you liked them or not. In the other are those
you must watch again because your viewing experience will
be incomplete without having seen the entire film all over again.
A special class of movies in the latter
category are those with paradigm shifts. That is, the viewer's understanding
has been altered so profoundly that the entire storyline must be viewed
in a new context. This is different than just finding out who the
murderer is at the end of the mystery. When you come to a paradigm
shift, it is a radical alteration the audience's perception of events from
the beginning of the film through to the end.
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much and reading spoilers, portions of the text below is obscured.
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to highlight it.
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The
Crying Game - "It's
a boy!" Yes, the rationale behind the Pet Shop Boys having Boy George
sing the title song suddenly makes so much more sense. Arguealby
the grandfather of the modern paradigm shifter, this is one that has you
trying to get your head around what came before while asking you to keep
up with just where it is going. |
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Donnie
Darko - There's so much
that is gradually unravelled in this one, that people continue to watch
it over and over with new in insights. A plot synopsis would be longer
than the screenplay, so suffice it to say we have here a parallel universe
that needs to be fixed by time travel causing the timestream to loop back
upon itself. Did that help? No, didn't think so. |
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eXistenZ-
We exit the game.. or did we? This is an ending that just keeps wrapping
your mind up in knots trying to figure out where the film just took you.
The game wasn't what it was, was it? The entire premise of the film
is altered by the time it is over. Then you can watch it from the
very beginning and enjoy a whole new movie with your newfound knowledge. |
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Fight
Club - "Say my name."
"It's Tyler Durden, Tyler Durden!" If that's the case, who blew up
the apartment? Who's screwing Marla? Who's screwing with the
audience's head? The audience is as confused as our protagonist,
not that we know who he is anymore. Watching this movie again means
trying to figure out who is the "real" one in each scene. Is he brushing
his teeth or taking a bath? Okay, maybe not that scene. |
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The
Matrix - Neo takes the
red pill and wakes up. Up till this point the film was about a computer
hacker in LA. Suddenly Neo finds himself naked and hairless in a
vat of goo and now we're in an epic post-apocalyptic tale set in the far
future. This shift means re-evaluating the early scenes in the movie
as it turns out they were not exactly in Kansas anymore. |
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Mulholland
Drive - Each scene is
a revelation that makes you revise your thinking about the previous few
minutes. We thought we understood where Betty/Diane and Rita/Camilla
came from and their relationship, but things keep shifting. It's
fun to work this puzzle over from many angles, but nothing beats the first
time you see it and have your head twisted around a couple times. |
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The
Shawshank Redemption-
When the warden throws a stone through the poster in Andy's cell, suddenly
we have to go back and re-interpret every scene that has come before.
Just what was Tim Robbin's character up to all those years? How did
he do it? The movie spells it out almost too explicitly, but a second
viewing offers additional insights now that you know how it is all going
to end up. |
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The
Sixth Sense - Malcolm
Crowe (Bruce Willis) finally realizes he's dead. The role of this
character suddenly switches from observer to participant in the supernatural
events. The viewer must revisit various scenes in order to understand
the nature of his interaction with the living world. What's going
on when he has dinner with his wife/widow? We even wonder about the
implications for Cole's (Haley Joel Osment) actions. Did Malcolm
guide Cole or vice versa? |
If you think of any other
films with similar "shifts," let me know (but don't spoil the ending for
me). Email me.
