If you could rewrite a part of a movie/literary work...

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Platypus5
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11 May 2017, 11:23 pm

Suppose you had the power to go back and rewrite any part of a past movie, piece of literature, or any other medium of fiction, and have it be "canon." It would be as if it were a full retcon. What would you change?

For instance, I personally dislike Homer's Odyssey both on an intellectual and on an emotional level. In particular, I dislike the one-sided slaughter that counts as its "climax." So, since I already don't have interest in thematic value as far as the Odyssey is concerned, I'd probably replace it with some cliche hollywood type final battle that culminates in a 1v1 punchout on top of the palace roof between Odysseus and the lead suitor Antinous (who dies first in the "actual" Odyssey)

Antinous nearly gets the better of Odysseus, but at the last moment Odysseus kicks him off the roof into a conveniently placed spike pit.

Perhaps shouting "This is Ithaca!"



IstominFan
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12 May 2017, 9:18 am

I would have liked to rewrite the last couple of chapters of a book I read, "The Unfinished Child." The book was interesting and fast-moving, but the ending was a massive bummer. I would have hoped the mother who found out she was having a Down syndrome child would have given the baby to her best friend, who had a passion for helping hurt people and animals. Instead, the woman had an abortion. The last five chapters of the book were sickening.

I could think of a number of movies with useless scenes that could have been cut out completely, but that's a different story.



Platypus5
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12 May 2017, 9:16 pm

IstominFan wrote:
I would have liked to rewrite the last couple of chapters of a book I read, "The Unfinished Child." The book was interesting and fast-moving, but the ending was a massive bummer. I would have hoped the mother who found out she was having a Down syndrome child would have given the baby to her best friend, who had a passion for helping hurt people and animals. Instead, the woman had an abortion. The last five chapters of the book were sickening.

I could think of a number of movies with useless scenes that could have been cut out completely, but that's a different story.


Yeah, that sounds like a warranted change! I mean, *wow*

Do tell about the movies, though.



Noah_Antrim_Lottick
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13 May 2017, 2:42 am

I would have extended the movie "Spotlight" (2015) with Michael Keaton (note: Rated "R" in the US - a lot of profanity). The Boston Globe broke the story of the abusive priests in Boston-area Catholic churches. It features a lot of journalists checking sources, realizing the extent of the abuse, getting approval from the newspaper's legal department so they won't be sued, and then finally publishing the story. Already at 2 hours and 9 minutes, the movie could have been extended to show the church's reaction, the legal proceedings, and the reactions of the local parishioners (the families of the reporters could have been used for this, since we were already familiar with the reporters).

(IIRC, about half the Catholic churches in Boston closed due to declining attendance/donations when people realized abusive priests had been "recycled" and put back into churches and the Boston's Catholic Cardinal knew about it and got promoted to the Vatican anyway.)


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IstominFan
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13 May 2017, 9:48 am

One movie that comes immediately to mind is "Down and Out in Beverly Hills." I found it a pretty stupid movie overall, but the gratuitous sex scene between the lead character and the maid should have been cut out entirely. It was disgusting.



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13 May 2017, 4:38 pm

I would have rewritten Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion so that Homura would have been absorbed into the Law of Cycles instead of defying Goddess!Madoka and becoming a demon. I already knew that ending was coming because there was a lot of merchandise of Demon!Homura that was released before I had a chance to see the movie, but I still wasn't particularly happy about it...



Platypus5
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14 May 2017, 8:44 pm

IstominFan wrote:
One movie that comes immediately to mind is "Down and Out in Beverly Hills." I found it a pretty stupid movie overall, but the gratuitous sex scene between the lead character and the maid should have been cut out entirely. It was disgusting.


I don't know the movie, but I can imagine it would be an improvement, given a title like *that*