I've been reading this one thing and another thing (the former featuring a most excellent question posed by one Howard Kenty [last question], regarding a fancy trick shot in the film Contact, and I must add that Mr. Kenty is quite the discerning cinephile, as well as being a luxuriously bearded sociopathic robot).
So I have to say, I really don't get this suspension of disbelief thing at all, that's mentioned in the comments in the former about trick or long shots, and in this quote in the latter: "During a drama, if a character from a different show suddenly walks across the bottom of the screen, 'it’s a total disconnect and ruins your suspension of disbelief,' Ms. Sklar said".
Do you honestly believe that these shows/movies you're watching are really happening, and when you see a trick shot that can't have really happened, or god forbid a promo for another show (an AD! On TV! Holy shit!) it suddenly shocks you into realizing that you are, in fact, watching television? But things like, oh, gosh, I don't know, just to pick a couple random examples off the top of my head: the twelve year old girl in Jurassic Park found the application with the commands to lock the doors in about 15 seconds because she recognized the fucking operating system, or, say, maybe, THEY GAVE THE MOTHERSHIP A VIRUS WITH A MOTHERFUCKING MAC LAPTOP (you want to get seriously nerdy? Check this one out. Although I have to say that having in your possession an alien spaceship that crashed 50 years ago to practice on is not a valid rebuttal for being able to write a virus that would crash the entire fucking system in approximately eight minutes -- not only are we talking about you possessing two totally different crafts [could you figure out how to crash an aircraft carrier by fucking around with the jet that took off from it?], but also how much would you say your average aircraft has changed from 1950 to now? How bout your average computer [Hint: in the '50s, they ran on vacuum tubes]? How bout your average operating system and compiler? HOW BOUT YOUR INPUTS? You remember USB from 1950? Yeah, me neither) don't bother you at all?
Anyway. The above scenarios do not bother me in the slightest and this is, in fact, the first time I have ever even thought about them, much less discussed them, and as long as you have never met me you can go ahead and believe that.
My point is, what is this suspension thing? I understand being caught up in a storyline, or relating to characters, and whatnot. I've even gotten a little sniffly from time to time (in particular, actively crying through literally 4/5 of The Bear), but I was at no point laboring under the delusion that the little baby bear, when he finally freed himself after being captured, just crawled under the skins of the other murdered bears for comfort and slept instead of running away (shut up I am not crying again!), was actually real, and so it didn't bother me when "[t]he rock that kills the mother bear is noticeably smaller than the boulder that rests atop the dead bear" because it is a motherfucking movie and these things happen.
When you're watching a movie or even a show, aren't you paying attention to the acting, and the cinematography, and the lighting, and the costumes, and the direction, and the timing, and the writing? I mean, fine, if you're watching 2 1/2 Men or whatever you can let the cinematography slide, but how much disbelief can you be suspending when there's a freakin' laugh track? But really, I'm curious: it seems like things within the plot that are unbelievable are not such an issue, but anything that reminds you that you are actually watching a movie is not ok? Do you want to be schizophrenic and fail to grasp distinction between reality and fantasy? LSD is actually cheaper than a night at the movies -- just throwing it out there. Thoughts?
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3 comments:
I'm not a sociopath, though I am a bearded robot. At least I think so. Maybe I'll have more topical things to say later.
I enjoyed this little musing thoroughly. Although one must consider that in order to believe that a virus written on a mac through archaic technology would be able to destroy fifty years of further progress with the push of a button, we must have first suspended belief on a much larger scale in order to allow for alien existence in the first place, and mankind's ability to rebuild technology that is light years ahead of our own with flathead screwdrivers and duct tape.
It was only a matter of time before you started ranting about the mothership and the Jurassic Park operating system. I'm surprised it took this long.
Actually, I don't think anyone draws a distinction between technical issues and plot issues. Anything that wakes you from the fictional dream spoils the fun. Of course you don't actually believe it's real, but a well-done narrative puts your mind into this mode where you might say you are "engrossed" or "totally sucked in." And it's bad when something disrupts that mode, the fictional dream (unless that's your whole point, you post-modern radicals you). This applies to obvious technical things, be they glitches or fancy tricks, as well as bad dialog and stupid plot points.
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