William Fuld

I'd have to use spoiler tags.

Supermallet

Mod Note: If you have to ask whether or not something should be put in spoiler tags, be sensible and put it in spoiler tags.

david12

Many apologies. Even though I questioned the initial spoiler, I don't think I spoiled anything. No matter what I said about LOST everyone thinks what they think. It's like Kimmel said "I'll be honest, I don't really know what happened but I have my theories and all I know is that everyone elses theories are 100% wrong." Whatever I said is totally wrong...or right...or whatever you want.

Which makes me think about spoilers in general.

At what point do we get to openly talk about shows without having to hid everything. Before Lost ended I remember EWeekly doing a 'best finales' ever. Most of the shows were older, Newhart, Mash, etc...but they still 'spoiled the endings'. So, should EW have put spoiler tags over why the ending of MASH was so good? Isn't that overkill?

It just feels as though their should be a point where things can be openly discussed. I admit that I fall behind on shows. I just finished Fringe and Justified. I have 9 episodes of Parenthood and 24 of Burn Notice. Falling behind is my fault and when I learned by mistake who burned Michael that was the price I had to pay. I didn't get mad because someone talked about what happened two hours, weeks, or seasons ago. If I really cared, I would have caught up by now.

So, honestly, at what point do we get to openly talk about movies and shows...or anything...on any forum...in any post? Punch Drunk Love came out eight years ago but the original post warned of spoilers...REALLY? Should I not say who won WrestleMania in 1993 because someone might go back and watch it on DVD? Is the wrong to say that the Lakers won the NBA title last week?

I understand that I stepped on some toes and for that I sincerely apologize...especially considering that it was LOST...but it's the age of the internet and I guess I just don't take these things so seriously anymore.

Fist of Doom

For movies you should spoiler tag any major twists/revelations, unless you note in the thread title that there are spoilers.

For episode-specific TV threads you can discuss anything openly. Otherwise, you should use spoiler tags.

For sports you can discuss anything openly after the game has aired, as long as you don't post results in the thread title.

Mods, please correct me if I got anything wrong.

david12

I get all that. I read the spoiler thread I wasn't really asking for specifics as to when or where, just asking more broad 'big' questions. For example Citizen Kane came out in 1941 do we really need to hide the fact that

I get it, think I have mastered the art of spoiler tags, and won't let it happen again. I just seems like overkill.

Good god, Maria Sharapova looks like hell on ESPN right now.

Groucho

Wrong.

Tscott

Re: Citizen Kane


Re: Lost
That's technically not a spoiler, but the way it's edited now makes it impossible for people to know what show is being "spoiled" without clicking on the spoiler (or reading ahead in the thread to see what people are complaining about).

Re: the original topic
I watched the first 20-30 seconds of the video, just enough to see the thesis, and stopped. It seems like whenever someone thinks they've "explained" a story in a unique way that no one has thought of before it's of the form so-and-so is really dead and is trying to get to heaven. I'd say this is because so many movies, books, etc. focus on redemption as a theme.

Re: Henry
I've got a unique explanation of a 1991 Harrison Ford movie, if anyone wants to hear it.

Fist of Doom

Wrong.

david12

Fist of Doom

nando820

I just thought it was interesting to look at it in a different way... Even though its true most movies can be looked at with the same light

Mabuse

Ghostbusters:

Peter Venkman is really dead. Slimer is his ghost. When he get's slimed it's Venkman sliming himself and it represents his own self actualization as he comes to understand his mortality. At the end he is the only one who isn't covered in marshmellow. This is because he is actually dead. And what's the final image of Ghostbusters? Slimer flying toward the audience. Peter Venkman's soul is going to heaven.

You braindead chumps probably thought it was a diverting comedy/action film. Too bad you aren't vastly intellectually superior like me.

P.S. The Shining is about America's culpability in Indian genocide.

Fist of Doom

Sadly, you've mistaken death for masturbation.

Krugbert

Manos. That film made me wish I was dead.

Matthew Ackerly

Thanks for the explanation, DB

Coral

Wow... a PDL thread turned into a LOST thread.

The idea of Barry being dead and Lena being an angel is an interesting interpretation, but there's very little mentioned in the clip to support it. The creator just grabbed certain scenes and situations from the film and bent it so it would fit his conclusion.

As stated earlier, I think it's a pretty straight forward film that used various methods of symbolism and nods to old films through the use of certain visuals and particular music.

It's still a great film.

The Infidel

^ I agree. Interesting ideas, but one thing I noticed they left completely out of the "explanation" is Barry's continual run-ins with the phone scam people. If you were to put any merit at all into the explanation video, maybe all that (the phone girl, the brothers, the Mattress Man) could represent the evil that's trying to keep Barry away from Heaven. Hell, I don't know.

Isn't there commentary on the DVD to explain what's going on?

Coral

No commentary. After Hard Eight and Boogie Nights PTA decided he wasn't going to provide commentaries anymore and just wanted the films to speak for themselves. Hence no commentary for Magnolia, PDL or There Will Be Blood.

whoopdido

I'd like to get other people's opinions on this as well. I mean some twists in classic movies have more or less become part of common knowledge and people speak of those twists in everyday life. Does the ending of The Empire Strikes Back need to be spoilerized? How about the ending to The Usual Suspects or The Sixth Sense? Aside from the very popular twists like those movies there does has to be a certain point when spoilerizing just isn't necessary. Do I have to put spoiler tags if I mentioned how Jaws ended? Jaws came out 35 years ago. If you haven't seen it by now, that's your problem. Now, I would prefer not to have the ending of Toy Story 3 spoiled since it only came out a week ago and I haven't seen it yet. So, somewhere in between a week and 35 years, there has to be a point where it's ok to "spoil" certain plot points of a movie or tv show.

Greg MacGuffin

Oh, that's just great. Guess I don't need to watch Caddyshack II now!

nando820

Some weeks after the DVD is released...

lamphorn

Um.... you might want to indicate that your spoiler is a LOST spoiler!! I thought it was PDL spoiler so I read it... and I haven't gotten into Lost yet... grrrrrrrrrr.

Gunde

^ If you haven't gotten into Lost yet then that's really not a spoiler. It's nothing the creators didn't say several times every year.

lamphorn

Well, the series finale of Lost just aired a couple weeks ago and considering that a growing segment of the population DVR's shows and/or waits for the DVD, it's reasonable to assume many Lost fans haven't gotten to the end.

Citizen Kane and Empire Strikes Back are very old films and, especially with Empire, the "spoilers" are part of the culture and are common knowledge.

That said, I would absolutely "spoiler tag" the Sixth Sense. It is still there to be discovered by new audiences and young people who didn't see it the first time around, and knowing the ending does absolutely ruin the film.

lamphorn

If it needs to be spoiler-tagged, then it needs to be identified outside of the tag, as one would reasonably assume the spoiler is about the thread topic.