Classic Batman villain, the Penguin, is no longer Oswald Cobblepot, but Oz Cobb according to the new HBO series. The reason? Director and executive producer said the name “Oswald Cobblepot” was too unrealistic.
The trend for greater realism is comic book stories has been with us for a while now. Batman for instance went from camp to a gritty and ultraviolent crime drama in the span of a few decades. The 1960s Adam West television series was filled with garish costumes and no-touch fist fights with the words POW. And OUCH. Written on the screen.
Fast forward to the late 2000s, and we have grim crime drama The Dark Knight which solidified Batman as one of the darkest and most serious superhero franchises in popular movies.
Comics’ sister, animation, has been getting the same treatment lately. Consider all the live-action remakes of Disney cartoons. Films like the live-action Lion King spared no expense when it came to creating characters with the texture and motion of real-life animals.
I’m starting to suspect that a lot of “realism” in film is just visual aesthetic. For all the grungy sets and hyper-realistic CGI, it’s still a man in a bat costume fighting a clown. It’s still lions singing musical theater songs.
I would hope that anyone willing to work with these kinds of stories would embrace the fantastical elements. But they don’t. It seems like creators are almost embarrassed by the innate silliness of animated and comic book media. W
What does it mean for a movie to be unrealistic anyway? The broadest definition of realistic is something technically possible outside the bounds of fiction. So vampires, sorcery and robot overlords are out (for now). From here it gets fuzzy.
Classic romance stories like those in Disney movies, have long been criticized for promoting unrealistic ideas of love. It may be extremely unlikely that two people would decide to get married within hours of meeting each other, but I would argue that this isn’t truly unrealistic because it is possible.
Consider the average high school movie. The protagonist starts her first day of school and meets a new circle of friends, her crush and her nemesis all before lunch. What are the odds. It would be more realistic if all this happened gradually over a few weeks. Then again, the audience probably wouldn’t want to see that. They want everything set up so they can enjoy the story.
The questions writers and directors should be asking isn’t if their work is realistic, but if they can make the audience believe it. Nuanced writing, talented actors and thoughtful direction can sell just about anything.
It wouldn’t be an original statement to say fiction is used to tell emotional truths rather than literal ones. Considering this, being too focused on “realism” feels cheap, like a lack of faith.
Movies should stand on the subtleties of their characterization and the details they put into their fictional worlds and the ability of the actors to elicit empathy from the audience. They shouldn’t shy away from the impossible but make us believe it despite ourselves.
Holmes can be reached at [email protected].
