Current Events > ITT: Scenes in films that are completely unnecessary

(+) Yeah! (+)

Scenes, usually sex ones, that should not be in the film as they add absolutely nothing to the plot or character development.

I'll start with Ray getting a blowjob off a ghost in Ghostbusters.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/3/4/AAfVceAAE-2y.jpg

Then again the whole movie was pretty unnecessary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYNUp5rAZJo

If you cut the feet scenes out of Tarantino movies his filmography is like twenty minutes long.

No scene is unnecessary if the filmmaker wanted it in there. Its their art, they can do with it as they please

The Mike Yanagita scene from Fargo (1996).

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/4/7/AAdlC_AAE-2_.jpg

Yes, he lied. Marge could've suspected Jerry of lying without her friend from college turning out to be a creep. It felt needless and racially stereotypical.

MICHALECOLE posted...

No scene is unnecessary if the filmmaker wanted it in there. Its their art, they can do with it as they please

It's a bad scene if it doesn't move the plot forward or develop character. Completely superfluous

Mechu posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/3/4/AAfVceAAE-2y.jpg

Then again the whole movie was pretty unnecessary.

We never even saw him train to do this. Bad writing.

ablegator posted...

We never even saw him train to do this. Bad writing.

Drink blue milk?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/0/AABUaRAAE-3C.jpg
He's been training his whole life.

The Romeo and Juliet statutory rape scene in Transformers 4.

ColonizedMind posted...

It's a bad scene if it doesn't move the plot forward or develop character. Completely superfluous

Thats just like, your opinion, man

FortuneCookie posted...

The Mike Yanagita scene from Fargo (1996).

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/4/7/AAdlC_AAE-2_.jpg

Yes, he lied. Marge could've suspected Jerry of lying without her friend from college turning out to be a creep. It felt needless and racially stereotypical.

Wait what is the racist stereotype here?

casino planet.

MICHALECOLE posted...

Wait what is the racist stereotype here?

As soon as you hear the name Yanagita spoken over the phone, you know that he's going to perv over Marge. Sure enough, he wastes no time in being a creep.

FortuneCookie posted...

As soon as you hear the name Yanagita spoken over the phone, you know that he's going to perv over Marge. Sure enough, he wastes no time in being a creep.

So the character being Asian makes him a stereotype?

Im gonna go ahead and disagree

FortuneCookie posted...

As soon as you hear the name Yanagita spoken over the phone, you know that he's going to perv over Marge.

You do?

DrizztLink posted...

You do?

Right

Han Solo talking to Jabba and stepping on his tail

DrizztLink posted...

You do?

In a 90s movie, yes. Stereotypes can die out in time. But his portrayal in that film was pretty much par the course for how Hollywood of the 80s and 90s portrayed Japanese men or Japanese-American men.

I think youre reading too much into it. Hes not a weirdo because hes an Asian man, hes just a weirdo who happens to be Asian. Theres no line thats like classic Asian men, always being weirdos! Or anything like that.

I was thinking about this lately but, specifically those scenes in movies where its also completely random and over the top trippy.

Im talking scenes like the Pink Elephants in Dumbo and the boat ride in Willy Wonka.

The Ziro subplot in The Clone Wars movie was pretty superfluous and made an already too long movie even longer.

You could've easily written his involvement later in the series without him being present in the movie.

My guess is they realized how abrupt the movie ends so tried to beef out the last act

FortuneCookie posted...

As soon as you hear the name Yanagita spoken over the phone, you know that he's going to perv over Marge. Sure enough, he wastes no time in being a creep.

It's one thing to be like "When writers needed a creepy character they made them Asian" but it was never to a degree that an Asian character existing immediately implied that perving was going to happen.

au_gold posted...

The Romeo and Juliet statutory rape scene in Transformers 4.

that shit was so fucking hard to watch. there's no way you can see that scene and not get the impression someone with skin in the game is trying to sell it.

The last 3 minutes of nightmare on elm street

FortuneCookie posted...

As soon as you hear the name Yanagita spoken over the phone, you know that he's going to perv over Marge. Sure enough, he wastes no time in being a creep.

Hearing an Asian name and predicting a character archetype says more of the audience than it does the content.

The actual, real animal death scenes in Cannibal Holocaust

I don't need the turtle scene especially to figure out how awful the camera crew is thank you. Though I think if they used fake animals I would've been able to excuse things.

MICHALECOLE posted...

I think youre reading too much into it. Hes not a weirdo because hes an Asian man, hes just a weirdo who happens to be Asian. Theres no line thats like classic Asian men, always being weirdos! Or anything like that.

Movies typically only call attention to a stereotype when they're lampooning the stereotype.

"I've seen this movie, the Black dude dies first."

Gremlynn posted...

Hearing an Asian name and predicting a character archetype says more of the audience than it does the content.

Fuck that noise. I've been watching Asian cinema since I was 6 years old.

I wanted Yanagita to be a character who was treated decently, but I knew from the phone call that he wouldn't be. There's nothing off about the initial call. It's just one friend contacting another to congratulate them. But I had a suspicion where they were going with the character and they confirmed it quickly.

Ask yourself this, why did the creepy friend need to be Japanese? The cast is 95% White. Why did the one character of Asian descent have to be the creepy friend from school who lived with his parents and lied about a sob story to try and steal another man's wife? I'm not saying that the Coen Brothers are prejudiced. But that doesn't mean that they can't still play into stereotypes. A lot of the time, what feels right for a character can be playing into a stereotype. And it can be done without even knowing it. That film was more of a symptom of a greater problem at the time.

ColonizedMind posted...

It's a bad scene if it doesn't move the plot forward or develop character. Completely superfluous

Then its for entertainment.

kuwab0 posted...

Han Solo talking to Jabba and stepping on his tail

Which was a deleted scene anyways, so i guess thats why they took it out.

Ive never given a second thought to Mike being Asian, or a racist stereotype. Didnt know anybody else had either. Just read an article from the guy who played him, heres what he said

"I told [the Coens] that the character of Mike Yanagita was the most interesting Asian American character I'd ever come across in a film script," says Park, who famously released a "mission statement" in 1997 calling for better treatment of Asian Americans in Hollywood. "I got some criticism from some in the Asian American community who felt I was perpetuating a stereotype of the weak, emasculated Asian man. However, I was also supported by other Asian Americans who felt that this was an authentic and interesting character, not a stereotype.

"I understood where the criticism was coming from," he continues. "However, it's ironic how much praise I've received for this performance from people of all backgrounds, and how so many people either identified with Mike Yanagita or were just moved by him. Loneliness and desperation, unfortunately, are universal." The true reason, perhaps, why the scene still resonates 25 years on.

Nearly every scene in Killers of the Flower Moon.

Ryven posted...

Which was a deleted scene anyways, so i guess thats why they took it out.

The Special Editions are the definitive statement.

Almost everything they put back in Apocalypse Now Redux.

MICHALECOLE posted...

No scene is unnecessary if the filmmaker wanted it in there. Its their art, they can do with it as they please

Many things can be considered an, "art." Something being called "art" doesn't make it actually necessary.

Some people seem to hide behind the word "art" as if it was like a trap card or something to excuse away their product being bad or adding things that didn't add anything to said art or made it worse.

Yes you can do whatever you please, it doesnt all of a sudden provide cover for something being deemed random or nonsensical to the overall art and people judging it for that.

That moment near the beginning of Her when the main character imagines a naked woman.

RyukSan posted...

Many things can be considered an, "art." Something being called "art" doesn't make it actually necessary.

Some people seem to hide behind the word "art" as if it was like a trap card or something to excuse away their product being bad or adding things that didn't add anything to said art or made it worse.

Yes you can do whatever you please, it doesnt all of a sudden provide cover for something being deemed random or nonsensical to the overall art and people judging it for that.

So if you made a movie and somebody came and said that scene you put in your movie was unnecessary you wouldnt be like well its my movie so how about you fuck right off

because thats what I would say

MICHALECOLE posted...

Ive never given a second thought to Mike being Asian, or a racist stereotype. Didnt know anybody else had either. Just read an article from the guy who played him, heres what he said

He says in the interview that you quoted that he got a pushback for the character being stereotyped. I'm glad that he found the character refreshing.

Either way, the scene is still unnecessary. Marge is a cop. It's kind of her job to consider the possibility that an individual with a financial stake in the matter might not be entirely honest.

Fargo is a great movie, btw.

I'm not trying to knock it as a film. I just don't feel that the scene/subplot was altogether necessary. Then again, the Coen Brothers are kind of anti-filmmakers when it comes to convention. If they want a five minute scene of someone sitting on a park bench feeding pigeons, they will take every second of that five minutes to show that person feeding pigeons.

DrizztLink posted...

Drink blue milk?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/0/AABUaRAAE-3C.jpg
He's been training his whole life.

FurryPhilosifer posted...

Nearly every scene in Killers of the Flower Moon.

Isn't that a recent movie though? Think it just came out

FortuneCookie posted...

The Mike Yanagita scene from Fargo (1996).

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/4/7/AAdlC_AAE-2_.jpg

Yes, he lied. Marge could've suspected Jerry of lying without her friend from college turning out to be a creep. It felt needless and racially stereotypical.

This scene is important to the Coens' take on their Minnesota home and how Marge fits into it. A big element of the film is how a culture of pleasantness can lead people to retreat inwards in how they handle their problems ironically leading to the breakdown of communication between people. Yanagita is on like two layers of facades in this scene and Marge herself has hid her meeting from her husband and isn't even sure what she wants out of it.

FortuneCookie posted...

There's nothing off about the initial call. It's just one friend contacting another to congratulate them

That's kinda the point of the movie.

Whether Yanagita being Asian speaks to an implicit bias to depict Asian men as weak in American cinema is its own question. I can't think of many Asian characters in their filmography off the top of my head except the student and father in A Serious Man with the iconic "Accept the Mystery" shtick trying to bribe the professor.

FortuneCookie posted...

He says in the interview that you quoted that he got a pushback for the character being stereotyped. I'm glad that he found the character refreshing.

Either way, the scene is still unnecessary. Marge is a cop. It's kind of her job to consider the possibility that an individual with a financial stake in the matter might not be entirely honest.

Its crazy how one of the most memorable scenes in the movie that was loved by most of the critics you seem unnecessary. The coen brothers seemed it necessary. Crazy how you know better than them

MICHALECOLE posted...

So if you made a movie and somebody came and said that scene you put in your movie was unnecessary you wouldnt be like well its my movie so how about you fuck right off

because thats what I would say

No.

What I said doesn't magically change just because I happen to of made the art.

Food, shoes, book, movie, .....almost anything can be considered an "art."

Ofc you can do whatever you want with your "art." Hiding behind, "it's art" doesn't magically make it immune to criticism when something bad or unnecessary or harmful is added to it.

MICHALECOLE posted...

So if you made a movie and somebody came and said that scene you put in your movie was unnecessary you wouldnt be like well its my movie so how about you fuck right off

because thats what I would say

It can be hard to listen to criticism but Im not going to pretend its perfect to spare the creators feelings.

Criticism is fine but pretending movies have to follow a rigid structure and are bad by default because they are experimental or unusual in how they present scenes is silly

MICHALECOLE posted...

Its crazy how one of the most memorable scenes in the movie that was loved by most of the critics you seem unnecessary. The coen brothers seemed it necessary. Crazy how you know better than them

It's a good movie, but it wouldn't hurt the film at all to leave that scene out.

Doe posted...

This scene is important to the Coens' take on their Minnesota home and how Marge fits into it. A big element of the film is how a culture of pleasantness can lead people to retreat inwards in how they handle their problems ironically leading to the breakdown of communication between people. Yanagita is on like two layers of facades in this scene and Marge herself has hid her meeting from her husband and isn't even sure what she wants out of it.

I can respect that, but I'm still going to fall back on what I said to Cole. It wouldn't hurt the film at all to cut that scene out.

The part in Batman v Superman where they essentially stop the movie so that Wonder Woman can watch some teasers for Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg.

AlveinFencer posted...

The part in Batman v Superman where they essentially stop the movie so that Wonder Woman can watch some teasers for Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg.

This could take the cake, I was rolling my eyes in the theater

i remember watching inception and thinking 'wow, fight scenes and chase scenes are actually functionally the same and man they pad out the runtime huh'