3 of your favorite films, in a summarized one sentence synopsis

Summarizing our favorite films with just one overriding "theme" can be difficult, since most films have more going on than just one thing. Nonetheless, here are three of mine...

La Dolce Vita (1960, Federico Fellini)
We all lose innocence.

The Exorcist (1973, William Friedkin)
The limit to what medicine, science, and psychiatry can explain.

The Endless Summer (1966, Bruce Brown)
Two surfers follow their love of the waves as summer moves around the globe.

 

The Pillow Book
Ewan MacGregor gets seduced by a man and turned into a loving graphic.

Armageddon
Oil drillers go into space to save the world.

Hugo
The history of silent movies told through the eyes of a child.

 

Godfather
Honor among thieves explored through the prism of family and cultural identity.

Barton Fink
A writer's discovery of "the common man" renders moot his gift of creativity.

Marathon Man
Incidents in New York drive a nazi war criminal out of hiding to face off against a grad student chasing his identity.

 

(I may not be doing this right...)

2001: A Space Odyssey
Monkey throws bone, Hal won't open the door until you make him sing "Daisy", then the universe vomits

Big
Tom Hanks is actually little

Contact
Nobody wants to let Jodie Foster make any until Tom Skerrit blows up

 

Midnight Cowboy - lonesome delusional Texas wannabe hustler ends up homeless in New York City but makes a friend and ultimately snaps out of it.

Jaws - shark bothers summer tourist town so naturally it must die!

Rocky - bum from the neighborhood makes good by going the distance with the champ.

 

Psycho- Motel owner Norman Bates has mother issues.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller- Outlaw gambler and madam team up to make a killing in a mining town.

The Wild Bunch- Getting old sucks, especially if you’re an aging bandit in the old west.

Too bad TV Guide or the newspapers don’t have listings like they used to. It could be fun making up synopsis.

 

Stargate - Nerd research archaeologist, with unconventional theories and shunned by academia, solves a code that opens a portal to an alien world that proves his theories correct.

The Ten Commandments (1956) - Adopted Prince of Egypt finds out about his true heritage, leads his people out of bondage with the help of God and delivers God's law to his people before wandering the desert for 40 years until arriving at the promised land.

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly - During the American Civil War, 3 gunslingers (a good guy, a bad guy and some ugly dude) are looking for buried Confederate gold in the New Mexico territory during the 1862 New Mexico Campaign.

 

I don't think that was fair at all. 'Cuz, y'know...the shark was mean.

 

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: guy goes nuts and decides to leave his family behind to ride an alien spaceship.

Wizard of Oz: Young girl from Kansas accidentally kills two witches in a strange land, meets weird creatures, then finds a way to go back home.

The Shining: Alcoholic writer goes nuts in a remote Colorado hotel in the winter, terrorizes his family, then freezes to death in a hedge maze on the property.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: nope, I'm erasing it because it reveals too much.

 

Title says "one sentence synopsis." OP says to describe the themes in a sentence, rather than the plot. I'll go with the OP.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Every relationship is flawed. There is beauty in the flaws.

Howl's Moving Castle
War brings only destruction. Love brings hope and compassion.

Into the Wild
"Happiness only real when shared."

 

99% of films are one or a mixture of four themes:

1) Boy Meets Girl
2) Boy Loses Girl
3) Boy Becomes A Man
4) A Stranger Comes to Town

The Godfather - Boy Meets Girl, A Stranger Comes to Town, Boy Becomes A Man, Boy Loses Girl

Star Wars - A Stranger Comes to Town, Boy Meets Girl, Boy Becomes A Man

 

Blazing Saddles- A corrupt government official meets his match in a resourceful underdog who he spared from the gallows.

The Blues Brothers- An ex-convict and his ne'er-do-well brother use their musical skills to save their childhood home in Chicago.

Midnight Run- A bounty hunter with dreams of owning a coffee shop confronts his past as he escorts a fugitive across country.

 

His real name is Mosely

 

Right...not a description but a synopsis of the theme. Okay:

The Pillow Book
The satisfaction and fullness of erotic love through the enjoyment of beauty

Armageddon
Ummmmm...gotta save the world somehow

Hugo
The fragility of our cultural memory and our attempts to save it

 

Fight Club - A violent Buddhist parable.

Trainspotting - Heroin is a helluva drug.

Goodfellas - Dropout works his way to the middle of a major enterprise, then messes it up.

 

I'm All Right Jack (1959): The downfall of all 'utopian ideals' is always just plain old-fashioned corruption.
The President's Analyst (1967): Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that everyone isn't out to get you.
The Harder They Come (1972): Crime does not pay...but outlaw legends are always marketable.

 

The Big Lebowski - Dude and “The Case of the Missing Bunny”

A History of Violence - kinky milf discovers her husband has a secret past

Animal House - setting the standard for higher education for the last 41 years

 

Blazing Saddles
There’s nothing funnier than eating beans from a 14 year old boy’s perspective.

The Omen
Not all children are loveable

Groundhog Day
Repetition has its merits

 

Rio Bravo
Howard Hawks watched High Noon and nearly threw up, so he decided to show the world how a real sheriff handles his business.

Back to the Future
Marty's mom gets the hots for him which endangers his very existence; meanwhile, a Delorean is capable of accelerating to 88 mph which helps us remember that this is science fiction.

Vertigo
Jimmy Stewart's madly in love with a ghost.... or is he?

 

Singing In the Rain - Great songs, great dancing and great fun.

The Sound of Music - Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer and a great soundtrack.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - Newman and Redford at or near their peak.

 

Best post here? Maybe so...maybe so...

 

Shawshank Redemption
The best non-gay love story between two men.

Amadeus
Sex, booze, and Classical.

Glengarry Glen Ross
Death Of A @#$%ing Salesman (credit : Jack Lemmon)

 

Nashville - this violin kills country singer
the long goodbye - sleuth searches for a murderer and coury brand cat food
California split - sometimes winning isn't enough for losers

 

King Kong--big monkey needs woman.

Kiss Me Deadly--Influential film noir--What's in the box?

Old Yeller--Disney boy & dog story, best kid cry film.

 

Altman's films just get better over time. A double feature of IMAGES and 3 WOMEN would certainly warp some minds.