Dr. DVD

Since "getting it" is hard to define, I will list some movies that I believe rely on this concept.

Romeo and Juliet (1996)
Moulin Rouge
Jackie Brown
Kill Bill Vol I and II
Ang Lee's Hulk
Dick Tracy
Starship Troopers

FWIW, making such a movie seems to be risky as not many people feel like having their cage shaken and being asked to think outside normalcy when watching their movies. More often than not, these movies don't see much success in their initial run and need time to build an audience.

I have the feeling that Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow will be of the same nature and thus a risky venture.

Please add to the list, I would like to see if there any I haven't seen yet and would love to check them out!

Groucho

Hmm...I've seen all of those films, and I don't really think any of them are particularly hard to "get" and all of them can be enjoyed on a purely superficial level.

Rival11

Well Dr. DVD - I think this is a good topic so here's my top choice:

The Salton Sea

Dr. DVD

I think that Peter Jackson's re-make of King Kong will probably be another one.

RichC2

Basically you mean any movie thats outside of Hollywood Formula?

Like "The Passion of the Christ", probably has no effect unless you 'get' it.

Or.. Dark City, Requiem for a Dream, Mulholland Drive, Donnie Darko, 9 out of 10 foreign movies that aactually get theatrical release, character-centered Dramedies (Lost in Translation)

Groucho

I think somebody who has never heard of Jesus (good luck) would still be moved by his plight in Passion. "I've never heard of this guy, therefore I don't care that he's being brutally tortured."

I would say that 9/10 foreign movies that get theatrical release do so because they are easy to "get" and appeal to a Western audience...not the other way around.

I'll agree with RichC2's other choices, and with The Salton Sea. Of all the films listed Donnie Darko is the only one that requires one to do outside research to "get" it, all completely grounded in the fictional world of the film.

n0fear88

Hulk was "hard to get"?!?!?! ...ok

RichC2

Mystery of the purple shorts.

DonnachaOne

Yet another "you just didn'tunderstand it" argument to those who simply didn't like the films. Yay. Didn't we grow out of those arguments over the last two Matrix films?

(If you didn't like this post, you just didn't understand it. I'm sorry, some posts rely on making sure the reader "Gets" it. )

Groucho

I think there are movies for which full enjoyment requires, at the very least, that the audience pay full attention to what's going on on-screen. However, I also think it's a HUGE fallacy to attack people who didn't like it with that argument, since no film is objectively good. It is possible to both "get" these films and still not like them.

Rival11

Ah yes - how could I forget - Mulholland Drive is another great film that most audiences "wouldn't get" - Dr. DVD I highly recommend you add Mulholland Drive to your list of movies to check out.

Dr. DVD

Rival, already checked it out! A lot of Lynch films rely on the "getting it" principle.

Another director is Oliver Stone, particularly Natural Born Killers.

caiman

Adaptation

I find most of the people who don't like this movie are the ones who didn't get the joke. Likewise, I know very few people who got the joke yet don't love the movie.

Supermallet

Adaptation is a great choice.

2001: A Space Odyssey would be my pick as the number one "Audience has to get it to enjoy it" movie of all time.

However, as mentioned above, someone can get a movie and still dislike it. Take, for example, my distaste for The Matrix Revolutions or Natural Born Killers. I got both films, and still didn't like them.

Dr. DVD

Tried to change the thread title to just "getting it." Some people may indeed get it but not enjoy the movie. My father is very much this way. He will just say "What a stupid way to make a movie," and walk away.

Simpson Purist

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

A majority of the people who loved this film have taken drugs at one time or another. I, for one, never took drugs, yet I still love this movie.

shill66

Ah, I understand what you mean. I'll add:
Unbreakable
and the remake of
Invaders From Mars

Dr. DVD

I'll add Mars Attacks to the list. I think this is more of a case of people knowing it's a slapstick comedy and not real sci-fi.

Rival11

I'm glad you mention Mars Attacks - If I had a nickel for everytime somebody said "It was even freaky or anything it was just so stupid and cheesy" I'd be a rich man by now.

necros

The only part of Mulholland Drive that I "got" was the lesbain scenes. Or more like, they're the parts I really paid attention to I still have no idea what the movie was really about.

How come no one mentioned Battlefield Earth yet??

Dr. DVD

I got Battlefield:Earth, and it is definitely one that I "got" but didn't enjoy. All I really "got" about it though was that John Travolta must be a big jerk to try and make a movie like this out as a masterpiece.

Supermallet

The thing is, it wasn't funny, either. So even those of us who understood that it was a comedy still thought it was just badly done.

Groucho

I don't know anybody who didn't know Mars Attacks was supposed to be a comedy. I know several who hated it none the less.

calhoun07

I would also add "Ghost World" to the list. I think mainsrtream audiences don't "get it" either because they can't identify with the outsider characters or the movie is just too different.

And movies that leave the audience to think beyond the rolling credits also rely on people "getting it." "Solaris" is another one (both versions) that you have to think about after you watched it. It seems most people don't want to think about movies they watch after they hit the stop button.

TomOpus

For a mainstream movie, this is a good choice. I think most people feel okay until they get to the "Star Gate" sequence. It's still one of my favorite movies of all time.

When I saw the thread title, the first movie I thought of was Tarkovsky's Stalker