Yeah, sorry, edited my first post.  Go watch it now!

It's in my queue along with 436 other things.

Breaking Bad could be taken a straight up drama about characters working in the drugs industry or as a wider allegory of the insidious ubiquity of evil or as a universal metaphor for the general interconnectedness of all things.

Total Recall is like this too.

It could all be real.

Or, once Quaid sits in the chair and goes to sleep, the rest of the movie is in his mind and the fade to white with the twilight zone music at the end is him waking up.

Once I caught on to that after seeing the film as an adult it's hard to watch it straight. It just seems obvious, especially since everything the guy said would happen does--part of the adventure is believing that it's all real in the moment and not just a fantasy.

zombie84 said:

Total Recall is like this too.

<snip>

It just seems obvious, especially since everything the guy said would happen does--part of the adventure is believing that it's all real in the moment and not just a fantasy.

OR!  It could be his subconscious leaking through the blocks they put on his brain.  Why does he want to go to mars?  Because he used to live there.  Why does he want to be a secret agent?  Because he used to be one.  Why does he want to leave his wife?  Because she's Sharon Stone.  Why does he want the exact woman he describes from his dreams?  Because they used to hang.

You feelin' me, Zombie?

That works, but only if the entire movie is a dream, and then you have no actual reality with which to base that on.

Or it could be a really good film treatment that was mangled into a Arnold vehicle.

Or it could be a really good film staring Dustin Hoffman directed by David Cronenberg and the Arnold thing is just too much cheese. 

The prequels can be used as drink coasters and to prop up a wonky table

TheBoost said:

One of the things I love about the movie "Labyrinth" is that it works perfectly on two levels.

1. It's a child adventure film with magic and goblins.
2. It's a coming of age story about a girl using her imagination to deal with the loss of her mother, and her own fears of growing up.

 

Either way is equally valid based on the content of the film, and IMHO equally enjoyable.

What other films work perfectly on two (or more) totally different levels of interpretation?

 It happens for so many films and fictional works... not always "perfectly" let's admit.

But I think it depends a lot on your own imagination, your culture and your sensibility. Some film from nowadays are incredibly metaphoric to me, though they don't meant to be, or not openly.

... Actually I think Star Wars (OT) has gone beyond anything his main director meant to put in his story. He doesn't seem to catch it after all these years. It's possible a majority of fans don't get it neither and they just like it, without an explanation.

zombie84 said:

That works, but only if the entire movie is a dream, and then you have no actual reality with which to base that on.

Not so!  In this interpretation, none of the movie is a dream/fake.  Everything happens exactly as is presented at face value.  All of the coindicences (Quaid got exactly what he wished for) are explained that it wasn't his imagination, it was his suppressed memories.

We were chatting at work about how Shelley's story of Frankenstein was an allegory of Britain's industrial revolution.

Damn Brits !

Prometheus makes man and gives him fire and science, Zeus is offended and eternally torments Prometheus, Zeus causes man to suffer all the evils released from Pandora's urn.

Through Science, Man makes Creature, Man rejects Creature out of horror of offending God, Creature torments Man, Creature suffers and is consumed by fire. 

... "And is rebooooorn agaaain, and agaaaaain" tatatatatataaaaaaaaa, tatatatatatatintatin....*

I love these Brits !

XyZ said:

... "And is rebooooorn agaaain, and agaaaaain" tatatatatataaaaaaaaa, tatatatatatatintatin....*

I love these Brits !

Yippee!!!  Allonzy!!!

TheBoost said:

Bingowings said:
Prometheus makes man and gives him fire and science, Zeus is offended and eternally torments Prometheus, Zeus causes man to suffer all the evils released from Pandora's urn.

Through Science, Man makes Creature, Man rejects Creature out of horror of offending God, Creature torments Man, Creature suffers and is consumed by fire.

Then dinosaurs eat man... and woman inherits the Earth.

There was me thinking the Greek would inherit the Earth.

Perhaps it will be Nana Mouskouri.

I'm glad she's getting something, she has a hell of time.