Confusing Films

Giruilla

I watched Clear and Present Danger last night for about the third time and finally understood what the hell was going on! Its actually a brilliant film! I was much younger first time I saw it so didn't really get it, but still feel you still have to pay a lot of attention to every bit of dialogue in the film.
Just wondering what other films people have found really confusing, but still reasonably good? Maybe films that you didn't get the first time but deserved another watch to fully understand.
Some of mine would be:
Mission Impossible (I still don't quite get it)
Cache (Its really left more open to interpretation though)
Miami Vice (First half)
Hero (Found it too boring to concentrate)
JFK
Alexander:mad:
Also I've heard Syriana is fairly weird story wise.

Karl Hungus

You should see Mulholland Drive.

Giruilla

Karl Hungus wrote:

You should see Mulholland Drive.

Seen clips, looks off the wall! After watching Blue Velvet don't know if i could sit through another David Lynch flick!

djkeogh

Now thats a whole different Kettle of fish. Maybe try "The Usual Suspects".

hamsterboy

In that case......PRIMER will make your brain drip out of your ears.
Had to watch it twice and then had to get a summary off the web.
Still a bit confused

andy1249

If you cant handle the above then dont ever watch Memento !

Giruilla

andy1249 wrote:

If you cant handle the above then dont ever watch Memento !

Saw Memento, but that did make sense at the end didn't it? Its just during the film you've no idea whats going on!b The whole backwards development thing.

hamsterboy

andy1249 wrote:

If you cant handle the above then dont ever watch Memento !

Memento was pretty weird, though I did have a semblance of what was going on.
Trust me, watch PRIMER.
Pure Nuts

qz

Donnie Darko
The Matrix Revolutions! - wtf happened at the end?
[edit: Syriana]

journo75

Cache (Hidden) and Mulholland Drive are both confusing alright. I only got the gist of Cache from going onto the IMDb the next day. But I'd have to say that Fellini's 8 1/2 and (to the first-timer) 2001: A Space Odyssey are both quite weird! One of my mates thinks Apocalypse Now is just incomprehensible...

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Donnie Darko seconded (still like it though)

Mission Impossible...???

Giruilla

journo75 wrote:

One of my mates thinks Apocalypse Now is just incomprehensible...

Lol! Is there really that much to get? Boat up river looking for crazy dude, whilst big war goes on.

monkeyfudge

I'm still confused by how Darth Vader got to Bespin before the Millenium Falcon when he was informed of their location by Bobba Fett who followed the Millenium Falcon to Bespin.

dr.bollocko

What about the movie version of the book Naked Lunch by Burroughs. Its Cronenberg directed, and makes little to no sense, but is doubtless decidedly fantastic.

lodgepole

There's a big difference between a film like Mulholland Drive or Memento which are trying to be confusing, and a film like Syriana where the confusion is a result of poor film making.

monkeyfudge wrote:

I'm still confused by how Darth Vader got to Bespin before the Millenium Falcon when he was informed of their location by Bobba Fett who followed the Millenium Falcon to Bespin.

Boo-urns. Because they had big pimped out Star Destroyers and the Millenium Falcon was farting along.

Pigman II

monkeyfudge wrote:

I'm still confused by how Darth Vader got to Bespin before the Millenium Falcon when he was informed of their location by Bobba Fett who followed the Millenium Falcon to Bespin.

When did you see Vader in Bespin before the Falcon?

LANDO: "I had no choice. They arrived right before you did. I'm sorry." *

I take 'they' as simply meaning "the empire". As soon as Boba Fett determined where Han was going some local Imperials arrived and secured the place before the Falcon arrived. Then Vader caught up during the intervening time period (ie whilst Lando was entertaining Han Leia etc). For all we know Vader probably wasn't in Bespin until 5 minutes before the dining room scene.

* = in fact even as Lando utters this line the shot is predominatly of a group of stormtroopers (rather than Vader) which would seem to give further weight to this theory.

Sean7

Ichi The Killer is mental but I suppose if we start counting Japanese cinema we'll have a very long list. Still not quite sure about the ending of it though.

monkeyfudge

Sean7 wrote:

Ichi The Killer is mental but I suppose if we start counting Japanese cinema we'll have a very long list. Still not quite sure about the ending of it though.

The anime prequel kind of makes the film make more sense.

kinaldo

Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive make for good back to back viewing, although you'll have a major headache afterwards.

User45701

sorry to say this but ive seen jfk a few times whatss not to get its a pretty simple plot

Sean7

monkeyfudge wrote:

The anime prequel kind of makes the film make more sense.

I must look that up, haven't seen it.

monkeyfudge

Sean7 wrote:

I must look that up, haven't seen it.

Now it's not particularly good... but it does deal with the history of Ichi and his recruitment.

ShiverinEskimo

I had to watch twelve monkeys a couple of times.

Also need to watch Syriana again...got the jist of it but the finer details need further consumption.

johnny_ultimate

I just watched Enron at the local arts centre and didnt have a clue what was going on half the time. But then, my knowledge of enery supplies and coporate law is severely limited...
As for Donnie Darko, my recent viewing of the Directors cut - after five previous watches of the original - answered all remaining questions. But the first four times - damn confusing.
Edit : and cant forget Mullholland Drive. The cinematic equivelant of spontaneous combustion

dr.bollocko

I still reckon its gotta be David Lynch movies. Mulholland drive.
What the ****? and also Lost Highway, and Twin Peaks. They are great, but it does make your head spin to work out the connotations of the film, and they demand a lot of re-watching to really see where he was coming from...
I mean He did used to make movies that made sense, but then it became his total obsession to create some sort of movie version of a rubix cube.

Bodhidharma

The end of "American Psycho" - maybe i'm a dummy but i dont get it, i even read the book and still cant figure it out.

BopNiblets

Pi

I missed the start, and I was younger.

Pigman II

Bodhidharma wrote:

The end of "American Psycho" - maybe i'm a dummy but i dont get it, i even read the book and still cant figure it out.

I think Ellis was subtly implying in the book (possibly too subtly) that none of this was real and simply a product of the twisted imagination of a man who was unsatified with his own existence.

Harron in the movie adaptation (for me anyway) is certainly putting forward the idea that all the acts of depravity were simply Bateman having delusional fantasies that become unraveled at the end.

Trip Hazard

Stanley Kubricks 2001: A Space Oddessy

I bet no body can say ''Ah i get it now'' when the credits roll, because YOU CANT!!

garred

Mulholland drive is messed up, that film should be sent to a laboratory for diagnostics and investigation.
I guess this could be classified as confusing: Silence of the Lambs, it never explains how Hannibal gets the pen which he later uses to escape....confused the hell out of me.
A lot of the heavy political thrillers sometimes confuse me although it could be boredom and my brain turning off when trying to watch them- All the President's Men, Syriana, etc.

BlitzKrieg

BopNiblets wrote:

Pi

I missed the start, and I was younger.

really loved that film. Much better then Requim for a Dream.

Funnily enough I had the same situation as you, walked in about 5 minutes after it started.

Though I didnt find it confusing, there was headf*cking imagery but i wouldnt call it confusing.

Giruilla

garred wrote:

Silence of the Lambs, it never explains how Hannibal gets the pen which he later uses to escape....confused the hell out of me.

I thought he got that from when he calls Clarice back to the cage and whispers about Wild Bill in her ear, then he sort of slyly robs her pen?

garred

Giruilla wrote:

I thought he got that from when he calls Clarice back to the cage and whispers about Wild Bill in her ear, then he sort of slyly robs her pen?

Must check that out but I did'nt think so SPOILER*** THe scene where he is chained up in the airport hangar and the doctor puts his pen down on the table. He later asked where is his pen> ****SPOILER. I actually googled it and after a while of searching it is a query that a lot of people have about the film but no-one had the answer. Will watch that part again though.

durandal

^ That probably suffered from an edit that nobody caught.

Primer is without doubt the most confusing thing I've ever seen. Even on the worst of star trek that theme can be confusing, but this takes the concept and stabs you in the eye with it.

SoupyNorman

Mullholland Dr. (superb lesbian scene)
Lost Highway (scariest film ive ever seen)
Requiem for a dream ("ass to asssssssss")
Pi (not a fan)
Naked Lunch (just about the.....actuallly I'm speechless for a description)
Primer (I got the gist at the end but didnt fully understand)

and
.
.
.
Big Mommas house 2! (it confused me in that why did they even make it)

Custodian

Guy Ritchie's Revolver has to be one of the most confusing films I’ve ever seen, couldn’t make heads or tails of it at the end.

sunzz

Revolver was okay.

Primer - amazing film, if you take into account the timeline/failsafe aspect its pretty easily understood. Probs one of my fav films.

Mullholland drive.

pi

donnie darko - got it at the end easily enough but most of my mates dont have a ****ing clue.

eternal sunshine of the spotless mind - did my nut in, amazing movie tho.

Geranium

I don't mind films like Donnie darko or Mulholland Dirve being confusing, because you can have your own interpretation of it and just enjoy it for what it makes you feel rather than having to work it out. Things like memento etc. I don't find too great, because after you figure it out there's not much point watching them again, imo.

Ruu_Old

The one with Richard Gere, Unfaithful I think the name of it was. The end is a pain, did they

Move away or did he go to the cops? Just finished sitting at a bloody stop light!

johnny_ultimate

Just watched the head spinner that is Eraserhead there the other day. Not only the scariest film I have ever seen (that baby is certainly the most demented thing ever committed to film) but doesnt make a lick of sense until you read a proper academic analysis. For example, for some reason a radiator symbolises suicide or something I kinda get it after reading some internet thing, but then thats probably just one opinion. I think im just going to resign myself to not understanding lynch films and just watch them for the weird ass spectacles that they are

projectmayhem

sunzz wrote:

donnie darko - got it at the end easily enough but most of my mates dont have a ****ing clue.

most of my mates don't get donnie darko at all. i got it pretty much on first viewing, then could write a novel on it after the 5th or so

i'm the same with the matrix films. but i'm a nerd to the highest degree with the matrix series. i understand far too much of it. though one benefit of my nerd-dom is that it opened me up to philosophy

qz wrote:

Donnie Darko
The Matrix Revolutions! - wtf happened at the end?

if you're referring to neo, remember he represents a Jesus character, and so in the same way jesus gave himself up for the sins of the people, neo gives himself up to save the people.

he's connected to deus ex machina (read: the "source"... i.e. the code that runs the matrix, as it were), so when smith overwrites neo, smith is connected to "the source" and can be decrypted by DEM, and as such destroyed. the lights and stuff are all religious symbolism that relates to the regeneration of creation and what not.

after that the matrix is rehashed (see the discussion between neo and the architect... i.e. the concordantly, visa-vis conversation) and the citizens are set "free". the humans in zion (helped/represented by the oracle) and the machines in 01 (represented by the architect) reach a truce and any human is free to leave the matrix if they wish, as long as they can live in peace with the machines.

(i told you i was a nerd of the highest order)

BlitzKrieg

Due to its popularity on this thread.

I rented Primer tonight and gave it a watch.


I enjoyed it, but due to expectations being higher then what was delivered, I found it not as confusing as i'd hope. (wow, hoping to be confused, how strange.)

The only detail in the film that really got me confused was

The father of the girl coming back in time, its never explained how that came around, your meant to assume one of the timelines involve him jumping back to stop the original two or something, but I was more curious to what was done with this double, seeing as the original was still around and never got in the box and now another one was there, I originally thought when the notion of failsafe came up, they shoved his body in (hence the discussion of water and oxygen.)

but yeah, liked it.

But challange me with a more confusing film damnit!

humanji

monkeyfudge wrote:

I'm still confused by how Darth Vader got to Bespin before the Millenium Falcon when he was informed of their location by Bobba Fett who followed the Millenium Falcon to Bespin.

The Millenium Falcon's hyper drive was broken, so Boba Fett just had to figure out where they were heading and then phone up Darth and the lads and tell them to get there first with their working hyper drive. Man, I wish I had a life. *sigh*

Brow

I dunno bout everyone else but I found 'Jacobs Ladder' very hard to get what was going on. I had to look it up and still didnt really get it.

dr.bollocko

What about Dogville? Has anyone else ever seen this pretentious smelly turd of a movie?

Featuring Nicole Kidman as the "talent" amidst a bunch of work-a-day morons who couldnt act their way out bed in the morning. Essentially, the movie has no setting, instead of actual trees, hedges, houses or paths, there are just white lines drawn onto a bare floor to illustrate what could be there.
This is the idea that actually drew me to the movie, I liked that aspect of it, the post-modern unreality and simplicity is a nice touch and I figured this would be a refreshingly different take on a lovestory.

It was hailed by pretentious wannabe intellectuals as a "dark and heart wrenching story through the human soul and an exploration into the hopelessness of love". It was hailed by me as a sh1t-flavoured milkshake delivered warm in a cup made of old man pubes.
One of the worst ways of spending two hours you will ever come across.
Its not that its particularly confusing, its just strange and terrible and I hate it.

Endasaurus

A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Vanilla Sky

The Usual Suspects

Donnie Darko

Unoriginal choices I know!!

Redundo

Took me a couple of goes to fully understand The Usual Suspects. Also I took a couple of viewings to get all the angles in L.A. Confidential, too.


Just going back to the Silence of the Lambs query about the pen........

When Lecter is still in his glass-fronted cell, the head-psychiatrist fella is talking to him, telling him of the scam Agent Starling had pulled about Anthrax Island. He then goes on to make his own deal with Hannibal to get info on Buffallo Bill. He puts his pen down on Lecters bed, Lecter gets it then.

dr.bollocko

Wow. Thats quite an eye-opening use of spoiler tags...

monkeyfudge

dr.bollocko wrote:

One of the worst ways of spending two hours you will ever come across.
Its not that its particularly confusing, its just strange and terrible and I hate it.

It's actually around 3 hours long. Did you see one of the edited versions?

I thought it was a very good film with some wonderful performances in it, even from Kidman who I normally can't stand.

But I'm a big fan of Lars Von Trier... I haven't seen the sequel Manderlay yet though... I must pick up a copy of it.

dr.bollocko

But thats funny.
Because you couldnt be more wrong.

johnny_ultimate

monkeyfudge wrote:

It's actually around 3 hours long. Did you see one of the edited versions?

I thought it was a very good film with some wonderful performances in it, even from Kidman who I normally can't stand.

But I'm a big fan of Lars Von Trier... I haven't seen the sequel Manderlay yet though... I must pick up a copy of it.

I really liked both. I preffered Manderlay though - much more managable length (they had to change reels when i saw Dogville at the cinema ), and Bryce Dallas Howard is excellent in it.