Gutbrain Records

Tuesday, 13 December 2005

There are certain bits of business that I would like not to see in movies for, say, 50 years or so, unless they appear as jokes. For example, somebody knocks over a kerosene lamp, thus starting a fire.

I actually haven't seen that one in a while, but it has been done to death. I remember seeing it in one of the later Wong Fei Hong movies, probably Once Upon a Time in China and America (as it was called here). I think that was the sixth in a series which had been losing steam for several movies in a row. When that lamp got knocked over and started a fire, I felt like a line had been crossed.

My least favorite movie cliché, which seems a lot more endurable than the old kerosene lamp gag, is when the villain says to the hero, "We're the same, you and I." To which the hero usually says something biting and contemptuous. Sometimes the villain says, "Are we really so different, you and I?"

This bit is used in Gladiatior which I watched on Friday. And in lots of other movies! I was having lunch with my brother yesterday and we agreed that it would be amusing to discover the first occurrence of this line. Even a really early occurrence, or a possible first use in a movie, would be welcome information. Is it in a silent movie? Where did it come from?

I'm going to start keeping a list of movies that contain that line or some variation of it. Please let me know if you hear it!