The 20 Most Misunderstood and Misunderstood Movies Ever Made
The fact that a film is misunderstood cannot always be justified by the viewer: director François Truffaut famously suggested that it was nearly impossible to make an anti-war film, since the director’s job is to create appealing characters and situations. which inevitably make war exciting. You can extend this mindset to creating irresistible villains and anti-heroes – Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, Oliver Stone’s notorious Wall Street stockbroker, became a hero to many who embraced his satirical phrase “greed is good.” It’s true that sometimes directors do their job too well, undermining their own point of view, making their bad guys too irresistible. Darth Vader has a record number of corpses in cinematic history and still ends up in every kid’s lunch box. Marketing can also be a problem; trailers teach us to look for a certain type of movie, so when we’re in the theater it can be hard to see something else. A movie that looks like a flop as a horror movie can seem brilliant once we realize it’s a comedy – think Evil Dead 2. We are taught to limit our expectations, and sometimes that just requires being more open-minded.
So, what are the most misunderstood films – deservedly or not? In answering this question, I tried to be fairly objective and avoid overly complex fan theories ( The Shining is probably not about the moon landing ). And I’ll start with a word of caution: no truly interesting film can be the subject of a single interpretation – even if the writer and director say it’s one thing, some viewers may have a different opinion. I’m not saying you’re wrong, it’s just that there may be things you didn’t take into account. (However, you are mistaken if you buy this piece of the Radiance /Moon landing.)