I need help with Magnolia

Banky · May 01, 2003, 08:29:50 PM

I take myslef to be a pretty good judge of movies and what they mean and maybe i dont understand MAgnolia because i saw it once a while back but i didnt get it. I really like PTA but i didnt understand the ending. The proloque to the movie sets up like the end will some ironic twist but i did not see how the frogs fit. Im not bring critical, i really want to know.

Alethia · May 01, 2003, 08:54:36 PM

to put it more simply -- it was kind of an eye opener for the characters, ya know?

Alethia · May 01, 2003, 08:56:35 PM

as PTA has said, the frogs were just probably the one thing in these people's lives that would just make total fucking sense to them. the prologue sets it up by showing us things that we would never believe could actually happen, that shits just too fucking crazy and weird, but things like that do happen, all the time. in subtler forms, more oft than not, but they do happen. and some of those things are just about as crazy as let's say - a rain of frogs. and to go even further, look at all the little tiny things that happen to all the characters in the movie, they may not mean jackshit to anybody else, but to those individuals, it means just as much or maybe more as fucking frogs falling out of the sky. i don't know if that made sense but -- hope it helped.

Banky · May 01, 2003, 09:01:29 PM

Anyone else?

children with angels · May 01, 2003, 09:09:57 PM

I think if you don't get the rain of frogs now, you're never going to get it, and no amount of "explanation" is going to help. And I don't mean this in any kind of condescending way - I promise - it's just that: either it makes sense to you or it doesn't, you know? Either you're the kind of guy where that happening in that movie at that time feels emotionally perfect, or you're not... I am that kind of person - many people I know and respect aren't: that's just the way it is.

However, having said that: I assume you've been given the Exodus 8:2 explanation...?

Banky · May 01, 2003, 09:40:19 PM

nope

Pedro · May 01, 2003, 09:45:53 PM

Quote from: children with angelsI think if you don't get the rain of frogs now, you're never going to get it, and no amount of "explanation" is going to help. And I don't mean this in any kind of condescending way - I promise - it's just that: either it makes sense to you or it doesn't, you know? Either you're the kind of guy where that happening in that movie at that time feels emotionally perfect, or you're not... I am that kind of person - many people I know and respect aren't: that's just the way it is

I agree. It works for some and not for others. But i dont think the ending should ruin the movie for the people who enjoy it up to that point. Just think of it as a weird and beautiful thing.

children with angels · May 01, 2003, 09:59:56 PM

Well, the Exodus thing isn't so much an explanation as just a helpful thing to understanding the themes behind it... It's just that all the way through the movie - particularly the opening - the numbers 8 and 2 are repeated over and over again. These are pointers as to what's going to happen. In the gameshow sequence an audience member is holding up a sign with "Exodus 8:2" written on it (it's then taken away by a show's security guard), and you can see the same thing written on some billboards briefly during the frog rain at the end. Exodus 8:2 in the bible is an account of the plague of toads (or frogs depending on the translation) that God brought down on his people as punishment for the sins of man - they rose out of swamps, fell from the sky.

It's just a way of looking at the fact that things have got so fucked up in these people's lives that they need something to make them realise it - the rain of frogs is that...

Also: the possibility of frogs falling from the sky is a real one: it has been recorded on several occasions as happening (don't ask me to explain the science of it), therefore it's one of those things that make you say "well: if that was in a movie I wouldn't believe it" - but these strange things happen all the time...

Duck Sauce · May 01, 2003, 10:44:30 PM

children of angels is right, its not really something to figure out, its not something you have to "get" or can even really be explained, its something that happens and you either react to it or you dont.

bonanzataz · May 01, 2003, 10:48:10 PM

i always think of it as like, "hey, you've got problems, they've got problems, we've all got problems. sometimes frogs fall from the sky, what the fuck can you do about it?"

everybody interprets it the way they want it to be interpreted.

cowboykurtis · May 01, 2003, 10:52:28 PM

have you seen the secret deleted scene on the dvd -- he originally shot it as a swarm of locust -- in the 24th hour he changed it to a rain of frogs. if you think of soloman as moses it all makes sense.

bonanzataz · May 01, 2003, 10:53:14 PM

sigh...

cbk, i ought to change your avatar to goatse again.

cowboykurtis · May 01, 2003, 10:55:53 PM

Quote from: bonanzatazsigh...

cbk, i ought to change your avatar to goatse again.

why did you pick on me? go fuck yourself.

Ravi · May 01, 2003, 10:55:58 PM

Quote from: cowboykurtishave you seen the secret deleted scene on the dvd -- he originally shot it as a swarm of locust -- in the 24th hour he changed it to a rain of frogs. if you think of soloman as moses it all makes sense.

Where on the DVD is this? Is this for R1?

RegularKarate · May 01, 2003, 11:01:18 PM

Quote from: Ravi
Quote from: cowboykurtishave you seen the secret deleted scene on the dvd -- he originally shot it as a swarm of locust -- in the 24th hour he changed it to a rain of frogs. if you think of soloman as moses it all makes sense.

Where on the DVD is this? Is this for R1?

This is on the dvd that just flew out of CBK's ass.