MovieChat Forums > The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) Discussion > Low IMDB rating explained by ideology me...

Low IMDB rating explained by ideology meatpuppets?

posted 18 years ago by anonreviewer
23 replies | jump to latest

It is interesting to see the distribution of votes for this movie, which caused it to be very low rated.

Lok at the distribution:
Votes Percentage Rating
196 3.7% 10
172 3.2% 9
435 8.1% 8
723 13.5% 7
987 18.4% 6
964 18.0% 5
732 13.6% 4
484 9.0% 3
307 5.7% 2
367 6.8% 1

This movie has a good cast and good production values. Right? It is no cheapie movie, certainly. But look at how many voters gave it a 1 or a 2. More than 12% gave it a 1 or a 2.

THere is only one reason why so many voters would slight this movie taht way--IDEOLOGY!

There were large numbers of voters who felt that this movie represented their ideological enemy. I am sure they would tell you that it was "racist". I tdo not think so. Instead it told the truth. Now, I am the furthest thing from a rightiwnger. This movie pointed out some hypocrisies that are not often told in our society. Why is that?

I think that these people -- liberals, to be precise -- who voted 1 oer 2 or 3 were simply reacting to their ideological programming. THey are like puppets, robots, unthinking biological machines who have been programmed to fight the ideological fight for the upper class. This ideology that they have been given is a mirror image of that given the rightwingers. Both sides have been programmed to fight a ideological battle. That battle is one that helps the upper class keep the battle away from issues that would hurt the fat wallets of the upper class.

This movie was judged politically (actually pseudopolitically, and more ideologically) by those voters.

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[–] deadlyledley 16 years ago

That distribution looks surprisingly normal (in the statistical sense).
I am sure other moview have way more skew in their ratings.
I gave this a 4 for what it was worth.

[–] terrywatt69 15 years ago

It's not so much a case of an ideological clash that the movie provoked such a tepid response from me, but rather the casting and the screenplay. As mentioned, it is a competently made film regarding the sets and cinematography; clearly a lot of money was spent on it. The biggest problems were a combination of gutting the novel (inevitable I suppose, but altering the tone of the story in the process wasn't) and the studio mindset of throwing together a star cast based on their previous box office track records, rather than if they were appropriate for the parts. Honestly, if one were to read the book and envision casting the key lead parts, would Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis have sprung to mind as the ideal choices to play McCoy and Fallow? Those choices and the tone of the screen adaption took what was a dry, satirical look at the various socioeconomic classes of New York City (where virtually everyone screws everyone else over for their own gain) and watered it down to that of an average tv situation comedy, with a happy ending, to boot. I suppose one might view it differently if one had never read the book at all, or prior to seeing the film, but for me the comparisons between the book and the film are inseperable, and the film version fails to stand up to the brillance of the book.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ThingyBlahBlah3 14 years ago

So, about 1000 people voted between 1 and 3, and about 1000 people voted between 8 and 10, and about 3000 people voted between 4 and 7. This is a normal distribution, the most common statistical distribution on earth, and I reckon that almost any movie on IMDB with a sufficiently large number of votes will look very similar.

Math aside, your argument makes no sense. Among the other reasons that the movie was hated was the fact that it downplayed the racial angle a LOT from what was in the book. In the book, the judge (played by Morgan Freeman in the movie) was a white Jewish guy. That leaves Henry Lamb, his accomplice, and Rev. Bacon as the only male black characters with a sizable role. Do any of them seem like positive characters? If anything, I'd expect our right-leaning friends to have a problem with the movie for softening this aspect of the book, not the left-leaning ones.

Also, you can't really say "I am the furthest thing from a rightiwnger", end with a paragraph that could have been written by Sean Hannity, then put up a link to your "left wing media machine" blog, and expect anyone to take you seriously.

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[–] ProudTraitor 13 years ago

"I think that these people -- liberals, to be precise -- who voted 1 oer 2 or 3 were simply reacting to their ideological programming. THey are like puppets, robots, unthinking biological machines who have been programmed to fight the ideological fight for the upper class. This ideology that they have been given is a mirror image of that given the rightwingers. Both sides have been programmed to fight a ideological battle. That battle is one that helps the upper class keep the battle away from issues that would hurt the fat wallets of the upper class."

I agree 100%. Very well said. In the way Chris Rock put it: "Everybody is so into being liberal or conservative. THINK, then make your opinion. I've got some issues i am conservative about, and some things i am liberal."

[–] franzkabuki 10 years ago

OK, so it's no "cheapy" and has good production values, therefore it can't be bad. Gotcha.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] LarrupinLou 8 years ago

This movie was judged politically (actually pseudopolitically, and more ideologically) by those voters.

How about if you loved the book (the greatest novel I have ever purchased when it originally came out, mind you), but loathed the film?

No blah, blah, blah!

[–] generationofswine 8 years ago

Now, I am the furthest thing from a rightiwnger.

Let's be fair the above statement seems to be grossly contradicted by the below. That and you are tooting a blog about how nasty left wing media is because why? Two shows currently on MSNBC are liberal and every other channel went right?

But just not far right.

I think that these people -- liberals, to be precise -- who voted 1 oer 2 or 3 were simply reacting to their ideological programming. THey are like puppets, robots, unthinking biological machines who have been programmed to fight the ideological fight for the upper class.

You're not a right-wing nut job...but thing all liberals are programmed sheep...and this is discounting that currently the majority of conservatives think Obama reacted too slow to Hurricane Katrina because of what is implied by Fox.

But all liberals are programmed?

Now I understand that conservat6ives have a knee-jerk reaction to defend anything that anyone says is racist...

But the fact is, the movie was totally miscast. It felt rushed and probably was because of the success of the novel.

Now I didn't give it a 1 because it wasn't a steaming pile...but I wasn't going to rate it high either.

"Few people understand the psychology of dealing with a highway traffic cop."