I am all for hasty generalizations, but a recent New York Times article makes a generalization so hasty that it contradicts even the most half-assed scrutiny. In “What’s in a Film’s Title? A Lot More Words”, Brooks Barnes writes that “never before have … compound [film] titles been so ubiquitous”. Shrek Forever After, How to Train Your Dragon, Night at the Museum, and so on, are, according to Barnes, examples of studios extending the titles of movies to unprecedented lengths. This is simply untrue.
I just looked through the “Classics” section on Netflix, and in an instant I came across the following: The Birth of a Nation (1915); The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928); Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937); Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948); The Best Years of Our Lives (1948); The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951); What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (1962); Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967); Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1968); Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974); and dozens of others, all on one page. Those are all long, if colon-free titles.
But that isn’t the only thoughtless generalization Barnes makes. He also writes that:
Elaborate titles can bring danger. “The more a title describes the story, the less effective it generally is,” said Dennis Rice, a marketing consultant who has held top positions at Miramax, United Artists and Disney. “You want people to know what they’re getting. But you also want to leave them wanting to learn more.”
If that’s true, explain titles like Mr. Blanding Builds His Dream House (1948), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and Mr Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962). Each of those titles tells you what the movie is about (and they are kind of long, too). In more recent years, Snakes on a Plane (2006), and Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) each deliver exactly what they promise.
From what I can tell, Brooks Barnes was just walking to work one day, noticed someone changing the sign on a theater marquee, and thought, “Wow, that title won’t fit on there! Titles must be longer than ever”. Then he went home and wrote a newspaper article about it. Did he consider that the signs for movie theaters now have to accommodate a dozen or more titles? Meanwhile, old movie houses used to have great big marquees out front, where the feature’s title, and even its actors could be listed. Watch this 1972 WTOG station ID featuring images of downtown Tampa at night. At :30 you can see the front of the old Tampa Theatre, which on that night was showing The Legend of Nigger Charlie – proof that they not only had offensive movie titles back then, but long ones, too.
In an upcoming series of posts I am going to make my own generalization: summer is the season about which people have written the best songs. Stay tuned.
Filed under: Film, Musings on May 25th, 2010 | 3 Comments »
MONTICELLO – That Thomas Jefferson was a genius is self-evident at his home. But what do we make of the man who knew slavery was wrong, but owned scores of human beings who toiled here and at his other farms? Slave labor built this magnificent home–a UNESCO World Heritage site–situated in a stunningly beautiful part of Virginia, and yet we still revere Jefferson. There are many good reasons for this, and I will discuss them here soon.
