Movies need real storylines

[Goodfella]

It certainly does. And who is really interested in the five hour version of The Story of Jerry the Janitor? Jerry the janitor probably has a hard enough time getting people to sit still for the five minute version. Which is sad, because people are really interesting if you give them a chance.

I can only imagine what kind of haywire screenplay would include him in a subplot. The film would probably turn out worse than The Room.

 

[Tycho Brahe]

Why can't films focus on the real characters that have received no agency and just stand idly by. Case and point being the kid who got subbed out for Air Bud. Why doesn't the director or screenwriter attempt to give a storyline or backdrop to all of this? The kid of course probably had a reaction when he was subbed out for a Golden Retriever! The janitor on the Death Star likely isn't a terrible person either, and he probably was forced to work on the Death Star. In any case, the janitor probably has a family to feed and support, but why don't we ever focus on this?

One janitor-story comes to my mind:

"Eyewitness" from 1981

William Hurt plays a janitor who pretends to know something, to get the attention of a TV-journalist played by Sigourney Weaver. It's been years since i saw it, but I remember it at realy good.

You kan find that kind of stories if you look a bit beyond the big block busters.

 

[Hygro]

Why can't films focus on the real characters that have received no agency and just stand idly by. Case and point being the kid who got subbed out for Air Bud. Why doesn't the director or screenwriter attempt to give a storyline or backdrop to all of this? The kid of course probably had a reaction when he was subbed out for a Golden Retriever! The janitor on the Death Star likely isn't a terrible person either, and he probably was forced to work on the Death Star. In any case, the janitor probably has a family to feed and support, but why don't we ever focus on this?

I'm so in for this.

 

[Kyriakos]

Setting a 5 hour movie on a janitor not tied to the plot is still way too for the patriarchy/powers-that-be. How about setting a 5+ hour movie on the point of view of a spider on the wall that janitor can destroy by doing his work for which he is paid little and means next to nothing anyway? Hey janitor, are you happy that you got your 7 dollars for today killing another being in the process, you pig??

 

[GoodSarmatian]

But I have no problem whatsoever in sitting down and watching the Dune/Children of Dune miniseries in one dose, or several episodes of Bonanza in one sitting. I guess it helps if it's something the person is interested in.

And I have no problem watching an entire season of a good show on a lazy sunday.
As long as I am in a comfortable chair or on a sofa, and can pause it to make a cup of tea or a sandwich.
Not so much in a movie theater. That would just be an ordeal.

 

[Gori the Grey]

We should collectively write a fanfic of Jerry the Death Star Janitor.

(He's going to have a mess to clean up in one of the trash compactors, for one thing.)

By the way, is there a shot in one of the Star Wars movies that actually has a janitor in the background? Or was the OP positing a purely hypothetical Death Star janitor? And wouldn't they have droids for that? Not that one can't tell a droid's story. I think Lucas has said that the whole double trilogy is really R2D2 and C3PO's story, since they're the most consistent participants.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

If you try to tell a 'droid's story you will be accused of using demeaning metalface.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Unless I myself am a droid. Which you don't know I'm not. Which you don't know I'm not. Which you don't know I'm not.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Unless I myself am a droid. Which you don't know I'm not. Which you don't know I'm not. Which you don't know I'm not.

Even if you are a 'droid, casting a human actor in your production is going to get you excoriated.

 

[JohannaK]

Movie about the history of a quark up. From the Big Bang to his current station within a carbon atom in the butt of a bottom gay man living in Sankt Petersburg.

 

[gay_Aleks]

There are no gay men in St. Peterburg. Or Russia in general. Everyone knows that.

 

[Lohrenswald]

I don't know, what's the point of "real storylines", so to say?

 

[JohannaK]

There are no gay men in St. Peterburg. Or Russia in general. Everyone knows that.

Of course the thrill of the movie is the quark's impassibility in front of the anxiety that the man whose butt it is in goes through as he attempts to avoid detection by Russian authorities.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

We should collectively write a fanfic of Jerry the Death Star Janitor.

(He's going to have a mess to clean up in one of the trash compactors, for one thing.)

By the way, is there a shot in one of the Star Wars movies that actually has a janitor in the background? Or was the OP positing a purely hypothetical Death Star janitor? And wouldn't they have droids for that? Not that one can't tell a droid's story. I think Lucas has said that the whole double trilogy is really R2D2 and C3PO's story, since they're the most consistent participants.

Well, somebody has to tell the cleaning droids what to do. In that environment that would be a janitor's job, although they'd probably fancy-up the title a bit.

 

[Evie]

Who wants to sit through a five hour movie? I don't have time for that. If I want to watch something super long and detailed, I put on an HBO series or Netflix.

Ask anyone who tacked the Lord of the Rings Trilogy Tuesday (or the one they did with the Hobbit, more recently).