Still waiting for suggestions of really good films (yeah, I know that's subjective) where there's no romantic plot or sub-plot. Documentaries and horror films don't count. Just as I did with dead protagonists, I'm searching for common denominators. Yes, such films do exist. Master and Commander, for example, has no romance except the love of Captain Aubrey for his ship and the sea and his service to the Navy.
So, please help by pointing me to films without primary or secondary romantic storylines. Ready, GO!
17 comments:
A few off the top of my noggin:
John Carpenter's The Thing
Terminator 2
Jaws
Cool Hand Luke
Reservoir Dogs
Unforgiven
And is it a coincidence that these are primarily thought of as "guy" movies? No, no it is not.
Except for one:
Wizard of Oz
whoops. I guess The Thing could be considered "horror", thus breaking the rules.
Or perhaps that's subjective as well.
Shawshank Redemption.
I like Burbank's suggestions, though I'd disagree about T2. Less than in Terminator, but it is still there, I think. Though maybe I'm forgetting.
I think it has a lot to do with genre as well. Many westerns (not just Unforgiven) will be like that. Also tons of kids movies, obviously. War movies too (e.g. Platoon). And tons of movies with all males or all females (though there are more of the former).
How about Stand by Me? Action films also spring to mind. Though there is a drop of it in each, I'd say the romance aspect is minor in both Speed and Die Hard. Same with Seven, though it is there a bit more. How about The Sixth Sense? The whole thing comes in after the relationship is over.
Let me think if I can come up with a comedy like that though. Little Miss Sunshine didn't have much of a romantic storyline. How about Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Dr. Strangelove.
Sports movies? Many have an aspect of it, but there wasn't much of that element in a film like Any Given Sunday. Maybe not (though I forget) in The Natural.
Still, I haven't thought of an all female film like that, but maybe because I've seen fewer of them. I don't know -- did Steel Magnolias have a romance subplot or plot?
Okay, enough!
This year? Hot Fuzz was excellent, and didn't have much romance.
War movies often eschew all romantic angles and subplots:
Lawrence of Arabia
Kwai
Great Escape
Dirty Dozen
Stalag17
Saving Private Ryan
Kelly's Heroes
Battle of the Bulge
etc etc etc
As well as the genres of war, western, kids, horror - there are subgenres of what I call revenge and escape films, and usually the above genres have this subgenre if they're going to fit your definition!
The Great Escape
Marathon Man
Papillon
Man On Fire (?)
The Good The Bad & The Ugly
The Fugitive
Okay, I smell common denominators already.
Shecanfilmit, yes, it was terrific, I thought!
Brett, it hasn't always been that way though. John Wayne, Ronald Reagan and Errol Flynn had love interests in war films.
Eleanor, David, Burbanked, excellent suggestions.
Joel, methinks you've jumpstarted my research for me. I'm thinking we'd have to add certain historic event films like Apollo 13.
The only ones I can think of are:
THE ELEPHANT MAN
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
APOCALYPSE NOW
12 ANGRY MEN
THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
FULL METAL JACKET
PLATOON
THE WILD BUNCH
STAND BY ME
LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS
IN COLD BLOOD
DELIVERANCE
DIRTY HARRY
LETHAL WEAPON
Lots of military...
Unk
I smell a pattern.
Thanks for these posts, I have a housemate about to go through a separation with her partner and my other housemate and I were trying to think of movies that we could watch to distract her on the night.
We tried to think for a while and came up with nothing and being the baby of the internet generation that I am, I thought I'd turn to google search as a last resort to find out.
And much to my surprise, here is a list of movies we can now watch- some of which are already in our collection but did not spring to mind. Referring to the male and female type movies comments above, perhaps the female mind is more likely to only think of romantic movies and are somehow incapable of conjuring up those without love interests..?
Anyhow, cheers!
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One of my personal favorites is Disney's "Bolt". :) Absolutely no romance in that one! It's great. Also, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" is a good one. There is some romance but it's very fake and unimportant.
- Oliver Twist
- Coraline
- Treasure Planet
- Up
- Finding Nemo
- Narnia
- Lord of the Flies
- Full Metal Jacket
Married but with no on-screen romance:
- Room 1408
- Mirrors
- The Usual Suspects
Is it me, or thus great movies are the ones with no on-screen romance in it? To me, most romance in movies are forced on. You know a movie is great if it doesn't need any romance to make some parts interesting.
- Brave
- Oliver Twist
- Coraline
- Treasure Planet
- Up
- Finding Nemo
- Narnia
- Lord of the Flies
- The Witches
- Full Metal Jacket
- Kill Bill
Married but with no on-screen romance:
- Room 1408
- Mirrors
- The Usual Suspects
- Limitless
- All Saw films
Is it me, or thus great movies are the ones with no on-screen romance in it? To me, most romance in movies are forced on. You know a movie is great if it doesn't need any romance to make some parts interesting.
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