MovieChat Forums > As Above, So Below (2014) Discussion > US arrogance ...

US arrogance ...

posted 10 years ago by thepinkrabbit
27 replies | jump to latest

It's so very likely that let alone 20's something + american would be in charge of repairing a priceless clock of Paris church.. that was so funny.
But the stupidest stuff was when the bells rang " they havent heard their bells for 250 years ringing".. Suuuurrree.. We have been waiting for an american kid to show us how our cathedrals and churches work specially when those devices are older than their own country :)
Damn them. They can't help to be arrogant in a movie no matter what the subject is; At some point they always end up "better" then anyone else.. Maybe reality that shows them they are so far in the international education PISA test every year forces them to create alternate realities :)

[–] fleshcut 10 years ago

George didn't get paid to fix the clock he broke in and was fixing it. The dude probably isn't the greatest clock mechanic, maybe the church just didn't feel like paying someone to fix it.

[–] Craven80 10 years ago

There was definitely a bit of bad writing in this, I found it fairly enjoyable none-the-less, especially since I was expecting worse.

Like the other poster said, I think the guy broke in to fix the clock. A strange hobby or something, similar to the girl. I don't think we are supposed to assume the French government outsourced the job to an American dude because he, of course, was 'the best man for the job'.

Do French movies or any other countries movies typically portray their characters as being worse than everyone else, or failing to succeed, as to not come off as arrogant ? No. They don't. It's quite normal to write stories that favor their main characters, where ever they come from. If you were asked to write a story about how you see the future of your family, would you write positive things or negative things ? Of course you would write positive things, and then if I were you, I would scoff when I read it and say how "arrogant" it was for you to do.
Was it self-serving "US arrogance" when the American screenwriter wrote the lead character, hero and problem solver of the movie to be a British female ?

Here's a lame thing I picked out of the movie though, the guy translated a riddle written in the ancient Aramaic language, but some how it's translation still made it rhyme in English. How often do rhymes translate into rhymes between languages, almost never ?

[–] thepinkrabbit 10 years ago

Do French movies or any other countries movies typically portray their characters as being worse than everyone else, or failing to succeed, as to not come off as arrogant ? No. They don't.

We do ! All the time ! we dont think we are above any other on the contrary, we spend our time learning how bad we were in the past towards others, how not enough effort we made. That's how our movies are always made. we don't "bless our country"; we have no patriotic view. Besides our movies (with some exception) aren't exported. Hollywood industrie is used as a cultural weapon to spread some vision of the US as better than anyone else.
(you can't imagine how much we laughed in the movie when we saw Armagedon with bruce willis in 1998.)
Thats a huge cultural gap between french and US . In your country you praise god. In our country we mostly dont believe in god but we actually apply much more the christians values. That's quite paradoxal I know but craving money, boasting etc. Humility, knowledge are more of our culture. My opinion here is also the one of many of my friends.
This scene was absolutely unnecessary and furthermore impossible ; living in Paris I can assure you you can't access ( thank "god" (as you say) ) that kind of parts of monument and it's strictly watched. ( bells ringing unexpectedly would draw cops attention immediately ; they would have been caught immediately). Sure it's a dumb fictional movie but still you have to show some stuff that makes the viewer believe it's real life so you can better introduce paranormal events later.
Another stuff: cops catching the guy at the entrance of the catacombes :the dedicated cop team that is in charge of the security of this part of Paris doesn't work like that ! french cops aren't attack first then talk like the horrible things we see theses days.
They are always with dogs, and they ask people to leave and gave them tickets (dont know if that's the right word here (english is not my langage) ) , they also have to teach kids why it's dangerous. It's more a team dedicated to check salubrity, pedagogy of people. In no way they would without warning put someone on the ground in that violent manner just like that.
Now please note I'm not insulting US. "I used smileys :) ". It's more like you have an old mythomaniac uncle that tells you he was the greatest when he was young and you smile and say " sure uncle, I believe you :) " because it's so obvious. whether I ask my grand mother or nephew they'd say " oh you know it's an american movie " and smile :)

[–] hubble-hallow 10 years ago

Massive plot holes like this throughout the whole of this silly film.

[–] disinter 10 years ago

Massive plot holes like this throughout the whole of this silly film.

^What he said. Sh!t movie that's getting praised as if it were the second coming.

[–] vicious2377 10 years ago

1. We are better. Thanks for noticing.

2. We're patriotic because our country is amazing. Sorry that yours isn't.

3. You don't export movies because no one wants to see your movies. They are bad and you should feel bad.

4. :) :)

5. I'm not insulting France because I used smileys.

6. I'm totally super serious.

[–] xystophoros 10 years ago

Joking or not, the fact is that the rest of the world gorges themselves on our pop culture, so they think they know what Americans are like and how we live based on watching American movies and listening to American music.

[–] vicious2377 10 years ago

So true. They are also listening to what the media says. If I did that I would assume everyone who lives in the middle east constantly has a bomb strapped them, ready to blow.

[–] alexander-978-692186 10 years ago

The entire thing with the clock is a not to a french group called les UX. Basically the real history is that a group of people broke into the Pantheon in Pairs in 2006, a massive mausoleum honouring Franc's greatest dead. The team build their own workshop which where they installed electricity, armchairs and a hot plate. It took them the better part of a year, and a lot of their own money to fix the 19th century clock. Finny they managed to fix it and it chimed again. It wasn't 250 years, it was only since the 1960s... but it still was a massive feat. Sadly they ended up telling the organisation so they could keep cranking the clock, but the organisation of the Pantheon wre left a little red faced, took them to court and hired someone to "fix" the clock into it's perviously broken state.

They also had some other things that they did, one of them was to install a cinema, complete with electricity and a bar inside the catacombs. They set up motion triggers that were connected to audio decides of dogs barking and the like.

Some information here : http://www.wired.com/2012/01/ff_ux/all/
Otherwise just google les UX or Pantheon clock paris.

[–] bexlyspeed 10 years ago

very Interesting! thank you

[–] Delof 10 years ago

I will check that out! Thanks.

[–] dschmidt3 10 years ago

Did you miss the entire part where the girl had to break in to find him, and then miss the whole conversation about how he breaks in and fixes things as his hobby? Troll post 0/10 or maybe you really are that stupid.

[–] thepinkrabbit 10 years ago

did you read others post? sure you didnt. Yes it's impossible for one little dude to do that. Off you troll.
concerning the Ux well yes they are well known , the french guy that serve as a guide in the catacombs could be one of them. but still this has nothing to do with a young US guy , "fixing" on his own and alone hundreds of years old delicate machinery and the lame condescending remark he made.

[–] Theshornwonder 9 years ago

This is a movie about going through hell by walking into the Paris catacombs where the Philosopher's Stone just happens to be, and you find the George character's fixing church bells the unrealistic part? And find the fact that he's American in the film as evidence Americans (in general no less) are arrogant? You sound very silly, judgmental and, dare I say, arrogant. He's one of two Americans in the film out of six in the main group. He's not shown particularly special in any sense, his main skills are speaking Aramaic and a talent for fixing the bells. Hardly some supernaturally skilled American. WTF? What's absurd is that regardless of the film, every IMDB board has to have one European who starts a "why are Americans so arrogant?" Thread. Try something more original. Talk about the movie without trying to insult a nation of 300 million + people based on a single *fictional* character in a single film.

[–] WilltoPower 10 years ago

He broke in and fixed it for free because he thought he could do it and because he thought it was something people would appreciate. I guess he would have fit in better had he broken into the catacombs and desecrated the graves of your ancestors with spray paint? That is assuming he could find space to do so...

The better question is why the churches are allowed to arrive at such a state to begin with. Many of them were once impressive pieces of engineering that were left unserviced for so long that they cannot safely be repaired and thus rot for centuries without anyone caring enough to do anything about it.

[–] AntiArt 10 years ago

I think it was just a cliche. The boyfriend type who's brilliant and adventurous, which is symbolically shown through a pretty dangerous and strange (but in a supposedly cool way) hobby.

And to be honest, there are many medieval clocks, belltowers and carillons that aren't being repaired due to being unable to justify the high cost in mostly secular societies. The insult you rightly perceive was probably unintentional.

This film should have been an all-French production though. I was a bit shocked when I saw it wasn't. It's really a shame that the Paris Catacombs haven't been used by French film crews like this, in a way they're a French national treasure after all.

You are all gonna die.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] ironwolf56 10 years ago

I'm laughing at the irony of a French person calling another nationality arrogant. Anyway the true "better than everyone else" of the movie was the BRITISH woman. Several degrees, black belt martial artist, magical powers... blah blah blah. The American guy was basically just a sidekick to her.