MovieChat Forums > Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Discussion > Name problems make no sense

Name problems make no sense

posted a year ago by avortac4 (3478)
8 replies | jump to latest

I'd like to talk about a bit wider topic this time, not confined strictly to this movie, but this movie being such a good example of that happening, this board is possibly a good place to start this conversation.

Why are there so many name problems with movies?

What bothers me the most about it, is when everyone just casually RETCONS the names of the original movies.

This movie is _NOT_ called 'Indiana Jones' anything, but yet, when you look at youtube and people reacting to movies, it's always 'Indiana Jones', not 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. Why is that?

The same goes for the supposed 'First Blood'-movies. The name of the (kinda crappy) book was 'First Blood'. It did not have 'Rambo' in the title.

Try to find ONE 'movie reaction' that has only 'First Blood' on the thumbnail or title, and NOT the word 'Rambo' at all, and you'll be a genius if you pull it off. The best case scenario is Rambo First Blood' (probably not even 'Rambo: First Blood'. Sigh.

Even the Star Wars-movies went through some weird name changes back in the day. The name 'Star Wars' in itself is already illogical and nonsensical, non-descriptive and completely strange. Stars can't start wars, only people can. Stars exist in harmony, people wage wars (why is it 'wage' anyway, when this word is supposed to mean reward for hard work? You don't see this word as a verb in almost any other context - you don't wage a concert or a birthday party, so why a war?).

Also, there are NO wars in that movie, or any of the movies. There's an Empire, there's a tiny rebellion, a few SKIRMISHES at best, but not an actual WAR, let alone _MULTIPLE_ wars, which would probably require considerable amount of time (think about the ONE war that lasted a hundred years).

The translations of that movie are even weirder, for example, 'War of the Stars' (now it's only ONE war, but somehow the stars are still doing the waging).

The movie 'Star Wars', however it got its name, then got the weird subtitle added to it, 'A New Hope'. Err, what? Where is the hope? Why is there a new hope, isn't it just extending an ongoing old hope with the already-existing rebellion, and what happens then is just details of that old hope, not a completely new one?

The problem here was, the subtitle was added much later, it wasn't present in the original release of the movie, as far as I can tell. The next movie was also going to be called 'Star Wars II', but suddenly there are weird chapters, the first movie starting with fourth chapter of some kind of full story. It's like everyone naming movies were doing some kind of hard drugs every time!

So then the second movie ISN'T a part two, but part FIVE for some reason. Try to figure out that one.. I know we got the so-called 'prequels' and there were some weird movies made after that as well, but holy cow, are these names messed up.

The supposed 'First Blood'-movies also got their names messed up, as no one can seem to keep anything consistent and logical. 'First Blood'. That's it, no mention of any Rambo in the name. Then suddenly it's Rambo: First Blood Part II', as in the character becomes more important than the story, and the ACTUAL name of the movie is pushed into a tiny subtitle for some reason.

The next movie makes it so bad that even AVGN had to make a video about these weird naming systems that make no sense, so I won't get more into that, but damn.

What pisses me off the most is that when these movies DO have their original, perfectly good titles, youtubers pretty much NEVER respect them.

This world is not run by logic, fairness, what's good and right, what's good for the people, truth, etc., but instead, 'what sells', 'what the idiotic masses expect', 'what is the good for the corporations/governments/powerhungry megalomanic super rich oligarchs' and so on.

It's sad that there are no honest youtubers or goodness in this world, but it's horrifying that this evil is permetiating every level of human life on this planet right down to not even giving us the ACTUAL names of things, like this movie, First Blood, Star Wars and others.

At least 'Back to the Future' isn't 'Marty's Adventures Through Time' or something like that, but even that movie is partially ruined by its nonsensical sequels (not that the movie itself made much sense, either, which becomes obvious if you think about it for awhile - all Marty had to do is to tell Doc to never befriend him or never invite him for his experiment, which he doesn't even have to do, because he already knows now that it will work, but we get the hare-brained

'let's accelerate this car to 88mph so you will have 0.25 seconds to go multiple meters and that way you will surely hit the electrified wire at the exact moment the lightning strikes although the clocks in 1955 can't be accurate enough to even show seconds, let alone fractions of seconds'

-scheme instead.

That's the way it goes...)

(I separated the paragraphs for legibility)

[–] blindfolded (1519) a year ago

Nobody cares.

[–] strntz (10847) 10 months ago

May I suggest "nobody *else* cares" - avortac clearly does so your comment makes no sense.

Oh great, now he'll go off on another "makes no sense" rant!!!

[–] blindfolded (1519) 10 months ago

But that's predicated on the idea that avortec is a somebody.

[–] strntz (10847) 10 months ago

touché

[–] [deleted] 10 months ago

The way I see it, the original title "Raiders of the Lost Ark" sums up the movie's plot perfectly: Indiana Jones is a "raider of the Lost Ark", so is Belloq, so are the Nazis, so there's our parties interested in the Lost Ark already.

BUT, this was the first Indiana Jones movie and so I believe they kept his existence secret until the movie came out: then, at the movie's start, you have these unknown people going through the South American jungle, all of them mysterious, and this one with a bullwhip at his belt stands out, as he's silent, contemplative, and can spot a poison dart just by touching it, unlike two others, one whom tastes it and spits it out, risking himself. And finally, one of the men is going to shoot him, cocks his gun, the man hears it, and immediately strikes the gun out of the killer's hand with expert use of his whip, it goes off harmlessly, and he flees in pain. And then Indiana Jones makes his huge iconic reveal out of the shadows, and the rest is history.

I can see where the OP is coming from, but that reveal is long known for the movie, just as "I am your father" was for Star Wars, so to be consistent, they stuck his name at the start of the "Raiders" title so people would know it was one of his movies. I'm also guessing that the OP loved the original Star Wars OT movie titles, like "Star Wars" for the first one (which might've been a one-off if it flopped) and so on, but again, they added the Star Wars Episode ?? to the movies, just for consistency's sake and to make the saga aspect obvious, and while it doesn't bother me, it probably irks the OP no end.

[–] blindfolded (1519) 10 months ago

Avortec is a type of person who would get irked to no end if he saw a right-handed character eat cereal with their left hand.

[–] [deleted] 10 months ago

He's a stickler for original movie titles, and I have to admit, I agree with him, at least some of the way. But they rename movies all the time for marketing and brand identity purposes, so we just have to accept it, and I do.

[–] fani (371) 4 months ago

War of the Stars you mention is also wrong. It should be Wars of the Stars.

You changed the plural Wars in original to just War, so that is an error on your part.

Originally there was one movie Star Wars.

It's called A New Hope because while hope existed it never panned out for them so a new hope emerged. It is as simple as that. This hope was more promising and that leads to the question: well then for how long were they in need of Hope? Answer: 4 movies because it was a while and this is the middle of a long story with squashed hopes. Hence it is episode 4.

It's also called Star Wars because multiple Wars are taking place across multiple Star systems. I mean it's a nice catchy title that has brevity and conveys everything in just 2 words. You should applaud that.

Hence, Star Wars IV: A New Hope.

It's called Back To The Future. But they're not going to the same future. And they're never going back because time is moving forward always even when they go back in time. So it should be Travels To A New Future.

And Raiders Of The Lost Ark because there's multiple Raiders from Belloc to Nazis and to the most famous Indiana Jones. And the Ark is indeed lost and they're finding it.

The movie establishes this is his adventure and win and hence Indiana Jones and the Raiders Of The Lost Ark.