MovieChat Forums > FairyTale: A True Story (1997) Discussion > So... were people just stupid back then,...

So... were people just stupid back then, or what?

posted 17 years ago by goddessio
18 replies | jump to latest

I mean, you can take one look at the pictures and say, "oh, paper cutouts." Not even a smidgen of doubt. They don't blend in as natural objects AT ALL. They're flat and bright white. The hoax confession was rather redundant, IMO.

The pictures were shown pretty quickly in the movie -- presumably so the audience won't have just that reaction. Modern audiences who are comfortable with high tech 3D computer graphics would just snort and laugh at how fake they are.

The one excuse I could make for people of that era is that they weren't as familiar with photography as we are. So I'll concede a bit of ignorance. Still, it's not like they hadn't seen sheets of paper before. Hello? Bright, white, flat sheets of paper?

People can't possibly have been that gullible. Yet they were. Why? It boggles my mind.

Any theories?

[–] 13tongimp 17 years ago

No, people weren't just stupid back then, they are still stupid today. Read the threads for this film and you will find plenty of people who claim to have faith in this hoax. Just like there are uneducated numbskulls who still profess that the Earth is flat, there are still fools out there who believe in fairies. The pictures are soooooooooooo OBVIOUSLY fake that a child could tell, which would make sense because children made them.

http://www.13tongimp.com/

[–] Norm_uk 17 years ago

People have always been stupid. Today they consult their horoscropes and pray to improbable deities...nothing's changed.

Norm

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.

[–] heather_blus 17 years ago

I agree. People are just as stupid now. Just look at the successes of John Edwards and Sylvia Brown as proof.

People a hundred years from now will say the same thing about us. "Those idiots back then believed in a 2000 year old dead bearded jew hiding in the clouds somewhere!!!"

[–] Belletrist0 17 years ago

To be fair to the people back then, the fairies had been retouched in the photos to look whiter and brighter to stand out, which is why they looked especially fake. The original photographs were rather blurry; if people saw that, you could understand why they would be fooled, because it was hard to tell just what they were seeing.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a vocal supporter, and had the photographs analyzed by an expert, who concluded that no "retouching" (as in nothing had been added or drawn in) had been done, and that the pictures were genuine. Moreover, most people did not (or could not) believe that two little girls could blatantly lie to the public. It was mainly because people were brought up with the misguided belief that all children, especially proper young ladies like Frances and Elsie, were honest, sweet, gentle creatures who could not willingly perpetrate a massive hoax.

It should be mentioned that not everyone believed that the faeries were real, and some people wrote in to newspapers scolding Doyle and the people who were promoting the photographs.

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Everyone dies but not everyone gets to live.

[–] ExAxLxPx12 17 years ago

i don't think people were just stupid then or that they are now, i think that people want to belive in things like that, it helps to escape from reality for a while, i know i still love it i'm not stupid, i know that it prolly isn't real but its nice to belive in, all of these mythological stories normally have some truth to their beginnings, the stories get exgagerated and change to add dramatic flare but there prolly was some truth to them to begin with, so basicaly people want to belive in mythological things like faires because it makes them feel good not stupid.

[–] XXX_Good_Charlotte_XXX 16 years ago

i aree with you also it was like the 1917's no one know about photoshope or what we have today the world has changed alot since then people were more trustfull then because they didn't have as much a reson not to be so if these inoccent lookin girls come out and say these are real people had no reason not to belive them

No matter how high they climb up the ladder.They won't reach up into heaven~G.C.~In this world (murder)

[–] XXX_Good_Charlotte_XXX 16 years ago

[–] ullababe02 16 years ago

People just want something to believe in, even if it's obvious that it isn't real. In this instance it was a picture of fairies, other's are the image of Jesus in a taco or god speaking to people thru garbage disposals or encounters with big foot at the White House. None of this things exist but people desperately want to believe in them, so they let go of all reason and sensibility. It doesn't make them stupid, it just makes them human.

[–] gallant-girl9 16 years ago

Okay I know what you mean, but oh no people back then were not stupid, maybe a bit more innocent then now, and I know which people I prefer, to be honest as a child I thought there were fairies, never saw them.But it is more wanting to believe then anything..
I would think that horrendous WW1 had a lot to do with it. Some people wanted to believe in something beautiful and good! Can you really blame them?.

[–] WhereYourTreasureIs 16 years ago

I think that there's a part of people the just wants to believe in something like fairies, so it was easy for them to see it if they wanted to. I believe in fairies :)

[–] novastar_6 13 years ago

Does the OP mean to say that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was stupid?

[–] AngelRedhead 12 years ago

I was a little girl in the 1960's and was shown these photos by my mother. Back in the 60's everyone still believed the photos to be genuine as the girls didn't admit they were fakes until the 1980's. I believed in the 60's that fairies existed & even when it was revealed in the 80's (when I was in my 20's) that they were fake I still like to believe that they weren't. And I am not a stupid person!

"I cannot live without my life! I cannot die without my soul".... Heathcliff

[–] Spiny_Norman 12 years ago

I always thought it was odd that no one commented (at the time) on the fact that the fairies had contemporary (to the time) clothes, hair styles, make-up and even tiny jewellery.

"Everybody in the WORLD, is bent"

[–] Spiny_Norman 12 years ago

Or indeed the fact that in the photos the wind is quite clearly blowing foliage about, causing slight blurring, yet the fairies tiny LIGHTWEIGHT clothes, wings and hair remained stock-still and pin-sharp.

"Everybody in the WORLD, is bent"

[–] 12 years ago

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