On Movie Titles
If you ever have trouble getting interested in the same bland crop of Oscar winners and nominees we seem to get every year, just imagine all the film titles prepended with “Tyler Perry’s” to spice things up. Tyler Perry’s The English Patient. Tyler Perry’s Shakespeare In Love. Tyler Perry’s The Hurt Locker. Seems to work every time.
Here’s a list of fairly recent (last 10-20 years) movies that I wonder if you can expertly deduce what they have in common: Saving Private Ryan, Chasing Amy, Finding Forrester, Serving Sara, Saving Silverman, Killing Zoe, Finding Nemo, Owning Mahowny, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Being John Malkovich, Driving Miss Daisy, Boxing Helena.. (McSweeney’s has a more extensive list). Strong Bad from Homestar Runner made the astute observation that a good canonical title for an “indie” movie might be city (comma) state. Similarly, I think a good canonical title for mainstream movies like the above list would be Present Participle Proper Name. If I ever make a movie it’s totally gonna be called Present Participle Proper Name.
Well, that about covers it, I suppose (seeing as how the vast majority of movies are either “Tyler Perry’s” (such-and-such) or Present Participle Proper Name). There are very few exceptions nowadays.
UPDATE:
Special thanks to this here toy here.
Chasing Amy and Being John Malkovich aren’t really mainstream (are they? cause if you disagree, it would just be you being argumentative).
I can’t see the Coen brothers going for a present participle proper name title. Funny to even try and imagine that and makes one wonder if it’s the director choosing the name or if it’s the studio.
1. I disagree. Those are totally mainstream. Why do you think they aren’t?
2. Raising Arizona
Another ‘studio choosing the name’ phenomenon I seem to be convinced is very widespread is that of the Movie Title That Seems Like It Really Should Begin With An Article, Like ‘The’ Or ‘A’, And Probably Did In The Original Script, But Doesn’t On The Movie Poster, Probably Because The Studio Insisted They Remove It (Out Of Fear That The American Public’s Short Attention Span Would Prevent Them From Getting Interested In It If Its Title Was Too Long).
Unfortunately I couldn’t think of any examples, so I deleted that paragraph from the above post.
I’d say Jersey Girl is pretty mainstream and Clerks and Clerks II aren’t so much. Not really.
Then I’d say Chasing Amy is more Clerks than it is Jersey Girl.
And you’d agree with me. Absolutely. But you might not admit it…
Right (I completely forgot Raising Arizona).
Of course nowadays, (and it has been so for many years now) the Coen brothers would never choose a Present Participle Proper Name title. Laughable to even think of it;)
Funny. Years ago friends and I would joke about “Gerund Rock” — bands with names like Throwing Muses, Smashing Pumpkins, et.al.
Then there is the movie sequel template: (Movie) III: The ______ing.
ex.: Rocky VII: The Punchening