How well can you follow a movie?

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Here's a silly little question that has bugged me for a long time...

Do others find it as difficult as I do following individuals in "ensemble" films/shows? Generally I have to watch a movie several times before I finally managed to clearly delineate the different actors/characters if there are more than three or four central ones, and it's a lot harder when all the characters are wearing similar wardrobe --- I remember watching "Aliens" and being hopelessly unable to figure out who-was-who (the same goes for most military-themed entertainment thanks to everyone wearing identical uniforms). Nobody else I know has ever seemed to have a problem with this.

I'm curious because on the one hand I know that I have a very hard time fixing faces into my memory, but I also think that there is so much visual information being presented in a film (particularly a fantasy-type picture where everything is "unusual" in appearance) that there's a certain amount of information overload that makes it very difficult to focus on the characters (which I "know" are important) versus the environment (which "looks" important).

Anyway, just a random thought to tease your brains with.

Nick

i typically follow a movie with ease. the parts of movies i do become confused with are typically the social situation scenes(this confusion is rare however).

Not very well. In fact, I can't follow "people movies" at all they are pointless and stupid to me.

I found a lot of Robert Altman's work difficult to enjoy for that reason (having to follow many characters in an ensemble). The fact that the characters in his films tend to speak over each other doesn't help, either.

Aside from that, I don't usually have much trouble. Unless the casting directors have been inconsiderate enough to cast several people with very similar physiognomies in the same movie or TV show. It's better when all the characters are visually distinct.

I can follow a movie sometimes, but if several of the actors have the same color hair, or have similar features (of the same ethnicity) I have to watch the movie several times to get each straight. Action features are the hardest because I can not keep up visually with the action. I just LOVED "Lions for Lambs" because it was people that physically looked very different and non stop conversation between two people at a time. I find by reading a few reviews before I go, I can get the gist and look for the talking points. I took film studies in school and majored in Anthro filmmaking, so I understand a lot about putting the page on the stage, but documentaries are different.

I have often wondered, growing up, how relationships worked because in romantic movies I would see two people just look at each other and pow. . they were hopping into the sack. Well,not until the 60's. Before that the camera would pan up and there would be waterfalls, and trains rushing into tunnels and surf breaking on the rocks. But eventually they would hop into the sack together.
But, how the heck did that happen? All they did was look at each other and I never saw it coming. So I thought that is how it was. Some guy looks at you for more than a minute and that's it, your 'in love' and you hop in the sack with him and they love you forever. I guess I don't have to tell you what a mistake that was. Pretty interesting, actually, but ultimately a mistake.


Merle

It depends on how complicated the movie is. Sometimes I have to ask questions of whomever is watching it with me to figure it all out. If we are in a movie theater, I'm out of luck and have to ask questions after the movie, if I can remember anything at all at that point.

And that's the more important point: I can watch a movie over and over again as if I am seeing it for the first time because I can't remember it from the first time I watched it. It's like I have the familiarity of the movie, but yet each time I see it, it's new.

I used to have that problem when I was a kid. I remember having a hard time telling one character from another. Other people watching the same movie didn't have any trouble. At some point, I must have grown out of it because I haven't experienced that problem for years.

I can follow movies quite well.

Sid :O)

I do okay with following movies, but I have a difficult time telling who is who. It takes a great amount of focus to keep up sometimes, but I do fine with the plot, and can tell who is who by the voices sometimes. I cannot follow a movie if someone is pointing out actors that have been in other movies or something, though. I get hopelessly lost and have to turn off the movie usually when that happens.

Then again, I only watch movies really that revolve around my interests in ways, lol. I rarely watch a comedy for the sole purpose of humor, and will never watch a movie just because people say it is good. The story line has to be good in order for me to watch it, which usually means I have to have an established interest in the subject matter, lol.

I hate stories that really have no plot, or have too much action. Those don't hold my interest long at all because I cannot keep up with what is going on. I prefer things to be fairly simple.

No problems.

I had trouble with last years Black Christmas remake. During one scene all the sorority girls are sitting on couches in the living room. As the film cut back and forth to the girls speaking I got confused becaused they were all carbon copy young hollywood clones.

You tell the troops apart in army movies the same way you tell em apart when you get a LIttle bag of them , by thier weapons.

In Aliens I rembered on girl had a smart gun, one had a shotgun, another a flame thrower. Anybody who died in the first action scene was'nt worth remembering anyway

MST3k style! I honestly can't help my self. I'm an insufferable heckler, much to the chagrin of others who, uh, aren't insufferable hecklers. I need to nitpick and critisicse every plot hole, bad effect, incontinuity, etc., etc., etc.... And I have enormous fun doing so.

Put me in a room with other seasoned MST3k'ers, and I'll enable you to experience whatever movie you want in a way you might never have thought possible. Yeah, I'm serious.

Good fortune,

- Icarus juggles three geometric nucleuses...