10 Cinematic Cliches That Must Die

[Neil Peart]

Big Hollywood Blog Archive 10 Cinematic Clichés That Must Die!

As a writer and consumer of entertainment, I really hate clichés and stereotypes. They’re only useful for misdirection, making readers believe the story is going a certain way so you can fool them. But Hollywood keeps trotting out the following lame tropes over and over again. It’s about time they were called on the carpet for this stupidity. These stereotypes are not only offensive; they’re overused to the point where they must be retired for good. If you really care about not offending people, Hollywood, stop offending me and the legions of people who are sick of this drivel.

1. The Crazed Vet/Soldier: According to Hollywood, if you’re a veteran who fought in a war or a soldier returning from one, you are insane, dangerous and probably a murderous sociopath. Either that or you’re a pathetic loser with mental problems. An emotional basket case. And of course, only poor people join the military, only uneducated stooges easily fooled by government propaganda. No one joins the military because they believe in something. If they do they will find out how foolish they were and become disgusted with America.

[Ictoanius]

Good article. That website has really inspired me to get involved - not sure how at this moment but media being either stripped of the bias or having the bias countered is something I'm passionate about.

[harveywallbanger]

That hit it right on the money. Especially the stupid male thing. I used to document and watch commercials. It seems like the regular theme of commercials was, "men are stupid and women are smart." But I know they are just sales pitches and women buy most of everything so they are just sucking up.
And the female boss one hit it right on the head. Hollywood is showing tremendous sexism when they portray all female bosses as man haters.

[Trance]

I can't believe this one didn't make it on the list: 'Based on a true story'. I HATE that, because usually just 1% is true and the rest is fabricated for the sake of entertainment.

[peapod]

This article was fantastic!

[samspade]

Let me add three to that list. I used to get annoyed after I would see some woman who was being pursued by a killer or a monster who woud stop to put her makeup on or some other silly reason.

Then there were the people who would go into danger even though they knew they would get killed such as we saw in Pitch Black.

Pitch Black (2000) - Plot summary

Last were those who pursued something so evil that it needed to be destroyed but you always had that one who wanted to save it for other reasons in Alien.

[warpig]

4. The Stupid Dad/Male: In Hollywood movies men are either stupid or gay. If they are straight, they’re almost always either buffoons, geeks or dumb jocks. Women are always smarter. Men can’t do anything without a woman telling them what to do. And fathers can’t take care of the kids. They can’t cook dinner or even be good parents. They’re always too busy to spend time with their kids, or they do idiotic things that get the family into constant trouble.

I been saying this for years, not just in movies, but TV also.

[Diet Pope]

This article is the reason I prefer Anime and books. Though Anime has a few annoying cliches of their own, they aren't as bad as Hollywood.

[Psyclist]

The one I think should be on the list is the teacher who takes a job in a ghetto neighborhood and finds a way to reach and redeem the poor misunderstood delinquents.

[elavaney]

How about the female superhero who fights crime in a string bikini?? See that a lot...