With thanks to Todd McClary, a delightful 2-minute animation of 35 movies, very simply symbolized. So simply, in fact, that you might not get all of them the first time through. Let’s see if we can get them all between the lot of us. Leave a comment with one of the movie titles, and when you do, give the approximate mm:ss time.
And I’ll start:
00:03: Singin’ in the Rain
00:07: Titanic
00:10: Jaws
00:16: Full Metal Jacket
00:20: Psycho
00:24: Carrie
00:27: The Devil Wears Prada?
00:28: The Gold Rush
00:31: The Wizard of Oz
00:34: Night on Earth?
00:37: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
00:40: The Thomas Crown Affair?
00:44: Gone With The Wind? (if it’s not, it should be)
00:47: Snow White (thank goodness for the musical cue)
00:48: Manhattan
00:49: The Blues Brothers
00:50: The Terminator
00:51: Star Wars
00:54: 2001: A Space Odyssey
00:55: Pulp Fiction
00:57: Life of Brian
01:00: The Exorcist
01:03: North by Northwest?
01:06: Fight Club
01:07: Toy Story
01:11: A Clockwork Orange
01:12: Modern Times
01:14: Metropolis?
01:16: They Drive By Night? (I have never heard of this movie, but hey…)
01:22: Taxi Driver
01:23: The Tramp
01:27: Rear Window
01:34: The Tin Drum
01:36: Dracula
01:38: The Untouchables and/or The Battleship Potemkin
01:39: Rosemary’s Baby
01:44: Apollo 13
01:46: Easy Rider?
Geez, I got 11? That was sad. Help me out here.
30 Comments
The subliminal clip of a bar of soap at about 1:06 is a reference to “Fight Club.”
That’s pretty subliminal, all right, but if you say so…
It’s appropriate for it to be subliminal, given the movie.
I can add seven:
0:20 Psycho
0:27 One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
0:50 The Terminator
0:51 Star Wars
0:55 Pulp Fiction
1:36 Dracula
1:39 The Battleship Potemkin
I think maybe you meant 00:37 for Cuckoo’s Nest?
Ah, and I see now how they slipped in Titanic just before Jaws.
00:31 (when the heels click together) The Wizard of Oz
00:40 I really want this to be The Thomas Crown Affair, but I’m not certain
00:57 Life of Brian
1:00 The Exorcist?
That’s definitely The Exorcist — good catch.
They slip a fast one in before The Blues Brothers, with a Woody Allenesque pair of glasses. Annie Hall?
Gone With The Wind around :44?
The red dress forming horns at :27 could be The Devil Wears Prada. Also, the patriotic colors at 1:46 suggest Peter Fonda’s helmet in Easy Rider.
I think the red dress could be Carrie, right? (:23) At least the beginning of the clip. It’s the blood from the Psycho reference and it’s being poured down from above. Also, the hair clippers (1:20) are probably Taxi Driver. At first I thought it was wood being cut but it turns into Chaplin’s mustache so it’s gotta be hair.
I think you make a good case, Lauren, but if THAT’S Taxi Driver, then what about the taxi signs?
Carrie looks like a slam dunk. Good one.
Lots of Chaplin here: The shoes dancing on the forks is from The Gold Rush (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoKbDNY0Zwg), and the gears from Clockwork Orange turn into the gears from Modern Times. And I’m pretty sure the clip at 1:22 is the iconic one from The Little Tramp, not the Great Dictator. And I think there’s a brief moment there (at like 1:21) where we see the monolith from 2001 but I’m not sure.
I’m probably wrong, but I want that propeller at 1:03 to be a reference to North by Northwest.
I thought the gears were simply a continuation of Clockwork Orange, but I’m happy to throw it in there. (I bet we get WAY more than 35 movies out of this before we are done.)
I’m going to stand by Great Dictator, though — notice how the shaved Mohawk thing becomes Hitler’s mustache under the Chaplin bowler.
I thought that was the 2001 monolith, too, so I’m calling that a win.
The bloody peace sign at :17 could be Full Metal Jacket (the movie logo has the peace sign on a helmet).
The rolling wheel at 1:41 reminds me of the hula hoop scene in Hudsucker Proxy, though I’m not sure that has “classic” status (much as I love it).
1:31-1:33 is driving me nuts. Places in the Heart? The Doors? Grr.
I do think the Woody Allen glasses at :48 are meant to be “Manhattan”, as just for a moment we see the Big Apple in them.
The clocks at 1:13 remind me of Network visually, though I doubt that’s right. Scratching my head to come up with a movie in which a 20 hour clock is significant…
And one more that I thought was a long shot but that I like more as I think about it: The Deer Hunter at :35, combining the spinning graphic and sound effect, which sounds like a spinning gun barrel to me.
5 taxi signs = 5th element. Bruce Willis drives a flying cab in that movie and the signs seem to fly off at the end of the clip.
Can that make the mohawk Taxi Driver?
Whew, this is becoming a cinematic Rorschach Test. Any concurring opinions on Fifth Element?
I like Full Metal Jacket for :16
1:16 is They Drive By Night
1:22 is The Tramp. (Not The Little Tramp) That’s not a Hitler moustache under the bowler, that’s a Chaplin moustache under the bowler. Chaplin did not carry a cane or wear a bowler as the Great Dictator, he wore an army officer’s hat with two iconic Xs on it… a much better signifier for that movie.
I don’t know Pulp Fiction well, but I thought 0:55 was actually the monolith from 2001.
20 vs 24 hour clocks: a little poking around makes me think that might be “Metropolis”?
Thanks Chaneski, and yeah, I messed up with the Little…
If the peace sign is Full Metal Jacket, might the blood pouring down be Carrie? Or do you think that’s just part of the Psych thing?
1:31-1:33 might be The Apartment or Heartbreak Hotel?
0:34 is Night on Earth – Jim Jarmusch movie that takes place in five taxi cabs in five cities. Leaving the clippers at 1:20 for Taxi Driver.
Could the shoes be referencing The Red Shoes (on top of Gold Rush & Wizard of Oz)?
I could be crazy, but the opening shot of the rain–at that slanty angle, up close–sure reminded me of the “Little April Shower” sequence from Bambi.
I’m voting for The Tramp at 1:23 AND The Great Dictator at 1:24. The cane and bowler are clearly the former, but note that at 1:24 it becomes a black symbol in a white circle on a red flag — pretty Nazi-specific imho.
and I’ll bet Metropolis is right for the 20-hour clock; the fact that it shifts to black and white for that one seems to nail it.
1:39 is Rosemary’s Baby
I think it’s the monolith from 2001 which then turns into the briefcase from Pulp Fiction. (For those who haven’t seen it: the main MacGuffin in Pulp Fiction is a black briefcase. Its contents are never shown to the camera, but it is something that glows and is reportedly very beautiful.)
Does it have to start at 0:03? I watched without sound, and at 0:01 I thought “Everything U wanted to know about sex but where afraid to ask” or “Look who’s talking”.
Devil Wears Prada and Carrie, dead on!
I’ll listen with sound later tonight.
Is the list up-to-date? Because there are 38 movies listed.
I am sure we have come up with a few movies the animator did not intend. This group could probably grow the list to a hundred or so.
We could probably whittle it down to the right 35 if we had to though…
I thought 1:16 was Lost Highway, but I haven’t seen They Drive by Night.