Ten years or so ago I noticed that many movies had the line “This is it” in them. Lots of movies. In “Titanic” IIRC Leonardo says it twice. Currently I’m noticing that many movies have the line “I got ya.” Said once in “Super 8” and I thought I noticed it said twice in “The Wolf Of Wall Street.” I’m convinced these are deliberately put in the movies because it’s been determined that they engender some sort of emotional response in the audience. But it’s just a guess on my part. Anybody know of such things? Do I need to get a life? Thanks
Clichés. They're called clichés. The record for most-used line in film and TV, however, is "Let's get out of here."
Check out various "supercuts" on Youtube to see just how un-original most movie dialogue is. The one that kills me is that 99% of the time a poker game is shown in a TV show or movie a character will undoubtedly say "Too rich for my blood" Here's a good one "I don't believe this guy"
I'm not understanding the revelation here. "This is it" or "I got ya" are pretty ordinary phrases. There are "cliches" which are theatrical ways of cuing the audience's reaction or expectation, which feel normal in a movie or TV show, but not necessarily how we always talk in real life. Examples: "That went well!" "Are you sitting down for this news?" "That can't be good!" Cliches do not always mean laziness or lack of creativity. You have 90 or 40 minutes to tell a story in a movie or TV show (or 30 seconds in a commercial). A writer or director can't burn up 10 minutes to explain who someone is. Using cliches establishes a character quickly, so the story can move on to more interesting stuff. Open a show with character coming out of a city office building, wearing a suit, talking fast on cell phone, hailing a taxi. The audience knows exactly who that character is in three seconds, and you can get right into the story.
My favorites are the cliches that exist only in action pictures and TV, never actually having been said in real life, e.g.: "Don't look now, but we've got company!" (said when the good guys notice they are being followed) "That plan is so crazy it just might work!"
some ppl will never be satisfied and will find fault in everything...I find it takes too much energy to be negative...none of the above complaints bother me...
Of course, part of the reason cliches exist is because people use them in real life for similar reasons. In everyday exchanges most folks aren't clever enough/inclined to come up with new, fresh ways of expressing common things. That's a job for the poets and the prose pros.
A horror movie cliche that cracks me up every time is when the protagonist goes into a dark creepy place that a normal person with enough common sense would try his best to keep the hell out of and starts calling out into the darkness: "Hello, is anybody here? Hello-o!"
Someone said this to me 15-20 years ago and I laughed. Then I got into the habit of listening for it. It's in everything. It's in Gone with the Wind, for pity's sake.
