Less Is More Or Less

In the comments to my posting on the movie The Thing, I was asked if there was a genre of film where more is better than less. It's a hard question and one that I have contemplated for the last couple of weeks or so, while I imagined a coat hanger snaking it's way up my nose to relieve the ridiculous pressure inside my very infected ethmoid sinus.

Anyway, I don't know if the question was proposed to make a point or if it was a real question. But my answer, it turns out, is in response to either.

I can't really find an entire genre of film in which "more" is better than "less." Take comedies, for example. I think that the Naked Gun movies are ridiculously funny. The stupider the better. But I think that the television shows like Scrubs, The Office, and 30 Rock are not good because they go too far. They aren't ridiculously funny, just ridiculous. What's the difference? I don't really know. Maybe it's that with the Naked Gun movies the jokes come so fast that you can't see them coming. When I watch 30 Rock and the others I tend to see the jokes coming.

The movie Flash Gordon, which is very dear to my heart, is a very fine example of a "More Is More" approach. I don't know where I could improve on that movie's absolute...well let's just say it: badness (which I love.) Everything in that film is so exaggerated and wrong I wouldn't know where to start. I mean, what can you say about a film where the most subtle performance is by someone in a lizard suit? "Halt LizardMan...EEEEK!" And I love this movie. Wouldn't change a thing.

When I considered all of the other genres of film I came to the same conclusion as with Comedy; examples abound which illustrate both a "Less Is More" and a "More Is More" philosophy of film. So what's the answer?

And then there's the whole problem with the root concept: "Less talking is more" and "More silence is more" are the same idea seemingly contradictory. Confused? Don't be it's all going to get pretty clear in a second.

So, the answer is no, there isn't a genre of film where I think "More Is More" and if the original question was merely a point, I get it. End of discussion? Don't bet on it. While I've got you here let's talk about some of those examples.

Subtlety might be the key to why I like movies all over the spectrum. There isn't anything subtle about the Naked Gun movies from the first frame to the last and that might be why I don't have a problem with them. Maybe it's when subtlety is mixed with a more garish humor that I have a problem (The Office? 30 Rock?)

And the "Less Is More" phrase, I now realize, is hollow. It's the glass half empty or full all over. If anything, this little exercise has convinced me that I won't be using that phrase anymore. What's my new phrase? I don't know. Like Justice Potter Stewart, I don't know what makes a film good for me, "but I know it when I see it." So in the vein of our original question, let's talk about some of what I like and why.

One of my favorite scenes of all time is in the movie Close Encounters of The Third Kind, which begins not surprisingly with a series of "close encounters." The best of the three (screw the special edition!) is a very short scene involving some commercial airliners seeing a UFO. Most of you already know that when you watch the scene you never see the UFO. The whole scene actually takes place miles and miles away from the UFO in the Indianapolis Air Traffic Control Center. There are so many other ways this scene could have gone. So many bad ways. But as it is, it's perfect (and I don't use that term lightly.)

Note: When you watch the clip pay close attention to how the characters are framed (in one shot Speilberg stacks them one at a time four deep in what looks like "Mt. Rushmore from the side." Also listen to how Spielberg uses sound. The characters talk over one another to add to the tension.


(No I can't seem to get it to start without being gray for a second.)

Now that's a real subtle scene. A very effective scene. And it might seem simple and obvious on the surface, but how many movies have we all watched where we would have been placed in the cockpit? In this lesser movie we might not see the UFO but we would probably see the reactions of the crew. What Close Encounters does is incredibly effective. It ratchets your curiosity up a notch and makes you a little anxious at the same time. All done with style, I might add.

I could go on and on: Tremors, Reservoir Dogs, Runaway Train, Jaws, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Seven, etc., but I already feel like I've rambled enough. Plus, revising this entry endlessly hasn't really helped it flow any better. I seem to lack Eegahinc's gift of segue.