MovieChat Forums > Were the World Mine (2009) Discussion > Question about the potion and how it wor...

Question about the potion and how it works

posted 14 years ago by girlnxtdoor2009
8 replies | jump to latest

In the movie, when the love potion is used, does it actually turn you into a homosexual, or was it because the first person that was seen was of the same gender?

[–] magicpink 14 years ago

It made you love whoever you first saw just as in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

[–] Frumious_Bandersnatch_46 11 years ago

What magicpink said.

Timothy's potion, like the one in Shakespeare's play, made the subject fall in love with the first person he/she saw after it was applied.

However, since Timothy began by using it to get back at all the guys who'd been tormenting him for being gay, he used his potion in places where the first person they'd see was someone of the same sex.

"Answer simple. Question very hard."
— Inspector Sidney Wang — "Murder by Death"

[–] adderworks 11 years ago

Indeed, I have never been a huge fan of the original movie. Using drugs to rape people is not a good thing. I hated the play in high school, and I daresay the movie version with gay on straight rape is not an improvement.

[–] Frumious_Bandersnatch_46 11 years ago

I'd never thought of it as a rape thing, I'd always thought of it as a love thing. But then, when I first read the play 45-50 years ago — and when Shakespeare wrote the play 400 years ago — date-rape drugs were unheard of. You do have one thing backward: The play came first. Most Shakespeare scholars figure that the first performance was about 1596 (plus or minus a couple of years).

Which "original" movie did you see? IMDb lists at least 25 film versions dating back to 1909.

And of course, in Shakespeare's time, any mention of sex outside of marriage, even consensual, would have got the play banned as immoral. Holding hands and kissing was about as far as they could go back then until the couple was properly married. (Maybe it had something to do with women not being permitted to act on the stage back then and all the female roles had to be played by men.)

I keep reminding myself that

Observations are relative to the observer.
— Albert Einstein

or in other words

We don't see things as they are; we see things as we are.
— Anaïs Nin

[–] adderworks 11 years ago

I mentioned the play, first. The original... :/ ...over 400 years ago. You know, the old one with Old English. What the heck are you talking about? I suggest you read the words in the previous post and stop trying to be clever.

In any case, I was never a huge fan of the original. It is a well written play, but the premise of forcing people to love outside their chosen gender in this movie is abusive in every moral sense. Under modern laws, it would be rape.

[–] Frumious_Bandersnatch_46 11 years ago

I did read your previous post. First you mention an original movie:
«Indeed, I have never been a huge fan of the original movie.»

Perhaps I should ask for clarification: By "original movie"
• Did you mean "Were the World Mine"? —or—
• Did you mean one of the film productions of "A Midsummer Night's Dream"?

If you meant "... Dream", there are more than 20 productions on film (some of them made for TV) of that 400-year-old play — and all of them are in Shakespeare's original 16th century English.

Question:
Did "Were the World Mine" show (or hint) that any of those "potion-induced" loves were consummated in any contact more intimate than a kiss? It may be sexual harassment, but is it really rape if there is no genital contact?

I won't argue with you any more. We've both taken our positions and I doubt that either of us will be swayed by the other.

We don't see things as they are; we see things as we are.
— Anaïs Nin

or in other words

Observations are relative to the observer.
— Albert Einstein

or maybe it's just that

No two persons ever watch the same movie.

[–] adderworks 11 years ago

First movie adaption would be around 1930s as I recall, I generally go by the originals as a classical movie buff. I was speaking towards this movie as context.

In any case, I agree to disagree. I will never support movies that glorify drug/rape scenes even under the guise or what you might call romance. It's partially why I dislike the current Grimm storyline. Using magic to rape a person is something you read about on the fanfics - not something you should watch with your kids.

[–] Darthmauler_megaa 9 years ago

I will never support movies that glorify drug/rape scenes even under the guise or what you might call romance.

Well the point that Shakespeare's trying to make is about the fickle nature of love and how it says more about us than it does the object of our desires. It's no coincidence that the two female lovers have such similar names and that the feelings of the male lovers can be switched so easily. The love potion is just a fancy metaphor to get this message across, and should not be taken literally as any kind of "rape drug."

Also, a lot of people like to point out that Demetrius is still under the spell at the end and therefore technically his love for Helena isn't "real." But another way to look at it is his love for Hermia was the false one, since it came from a desire for wealth and position. The potion essentially sets him straight and points him back to his original love for Helena. Rather than remaining in a dream, the dream woke him up to reality.

First movie adaption would be around 1930s as I recall, I generally go by the originals as a classical movie buff.

The first talkie Hollywood adaptation was in 1935. Sadly, the actor who played Demetrius, Ross Alexander, committed suicide a year later (he was in the closet; obviously a difficult life in the '30s). But in happier times, in an interview about Midsummer he said, "I'd go home screwy after a day with those lines," lol. Somewhat reminiscent of that audition scene at the beginning of Were the World Mind. 

Just watched my first episode of Dukes of Hazzard - Down with censorship!