Suspension of Disbelief

Snow isn't always snow when it comes to the movies.

Being that I am one of the Three Movie Buffs on this website, it is obvious that I love movies.

Like most people, I have the pressures of life, a family to take care of and a job that is demanding. A movie is a two hour escape from those responsibilities. I rest my body, and most of the time my brain, as I watch the goings on of characters in different places and times. I fall into the movie fantasy. My life is checked at the door.

So in my opinion the biggest mistake a film-maker can make, is to ruin the fantasy for the audience. The moment in the movie that you find yourself enjoying until something happens that reminds you that your just watching a movie. I am not referring to a big plot hole or a completely unrealistic coincidence. I am talking about little things. Little errors the director or actors screw up on.

There is one thing that always bothers me when watching a movie or television show that takes place in a cold locale. The actor or actress will stomp his or her feet, rub there shoulders, blow into there hands, all to appear as if they are cold. Usually they are never convincing because their jackets are almost always never zipped up. Or if they are zipped, it is only to a certain length. Take it from someone who lives in a cold place 4 months out of the year, when I am cold I zip my jacket all the way up! I realize that these are actors and actresses who are probably working on warm sets so they do not constantly think of the cold. I also realize that these are actors and actresses who are worried about how better a jacket flatters their figure unzipped. My advice to actors is to keep the jacket zipped all the way up so you won't have to do all of that over acting to appear cold.

Another thing that always bothers me when watching a movie is the point where, for whatever reason, the male lead takes off his shirt. There he is, the tough cop, the rugged cowboy, the funny best friend, the medieval warrior, and he has no hair on his chest? I didn't know cowboys shaved their chest. Was it done in ancient Egypt? When did Indiana Jones find time to shave off the body hair? I know one person who shaves his chest and he is a body building/stripper. Its part of his job. I asked a few ladies what they thought of men's shaved chest. One response was, "Yuck I want a man not a boy." Another woman really had no affection either way, and a third just commented that it's done to make them look younger. So now I get it. Mel Gibson wants us all to think he looks like a 13 year old. I personally started getting chest hair when I was a teenager. So when all of these twenty-something actors try to play high schoolers by shaving their chests, they still are not fooling anyone, well, at least not the men in the audience anyway.

I started this article talking about the fantasy that is movies. So maybe I am to except that most men in movies don't have body hair and people don't have the sense to zip their jackets up. Perhaps I should allow that to be part of my movie going fantasy. Naw, in my opinion hollywood just needs to do its job a little better.