Popular culture gives us many examples of creators subverting the audience’s expectations–both done well and done disastrously. I don’t know about you, but isolated definitions don’t help me much. Verisimilitude helps to promote a reader's willing suspension of disbelief. It is also one of the most essential literary devices of fiction writing. Having the appearance of truth : PROBABLEĪ theoretical concept that determines the level of truth in an assertion or hypothesis. ( ) Verisimilitude – noun (stay tuned, we’ll get to this) Usually used in the arts when analyzing the reaction of the audience to a performance or piece of writing. To behave contrary to an established belief or assumption for the purpose of being fresh and interesting. Undermine the power and authority of (an established system or institution). Subvert – verb gerund or present participle: subverting Before we begin, SPOILER ALERT! We will be ruining The Last Jedi and Knives Out, so go watch those before reading this. We will talk a lot about movies because they are the most available examples of how to subvert expectations, but this is a principle that you can, and probably should, incorporate into your writing. If you find a good example or think of something I haven’t said, please comment below so we can all learn from each other. Since I have been studying this lately and was having a hard time grasping it, I decided to write down what I have learned and share it with you. This movie felt so revolutionary and perfect, and digging deeper, I found the internet a-buzz with discussions of how this movie used this storytelling tool. In somewhat more predictable fashion, Tarantino pulled the revisionism card out again for his most recent film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, rewriting the fate of murder victim Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) by having her would-be attackers get dispatched before they even met her - in hilariously brutal fashion no less.By Jessica Thompson, stumbled across the concept of subverting expectations while studying the movie Knives Out. Though some cried foul at Tarantino's historic revisionism, it was nothing if not a thoroughly tongue-in-cheek flipping of the bird to reality, where Hitler ultimately escaped anything close to true justice. The Basterds and Shosanna's (Mélanie Laurent) plan to burn down her cinema with the German High Command sealed inside is successfully pulled off, but because that's a little too subtle for Tarantino, he also has the Führer and Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) get machine-gunned to pieces by Ulmer (Omar Doom) and Donowitz (Eli Roth). opted instead to offer a window into the alternate history many wish actually happened. If most viewers assumed the film would end with the Basterds' plan to kill Hitler (Martin Wuttke) failing in spectacularly ultra-violent fashion, Q.T. While it was reasonable to assume that a Tarantino-directed World War II movie was never going to be strictly married to The Facts, even so, his homage to classic men-on-a-mission movies of yore made one extremely bold decision in its finale. This isn't to say that defying cinematic conventions is inherently a good thing - in fact, when done for its own sake it can often be quite terrible - but when talented filmmakers tinker with established movie rules in inspired ways, the results can be truly incredible.Īnd while many directors have fudged the facts either for the sake of a more entertaining story or to suit their own political agenda, Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds tinkered with history for the sake our collective catharsis. While such efforts often end up falling flat, and a certain subset of audiences are always going to struggle with films that do something different, these ten films all flipped the script in frankly brilliant ways.įrom unexpectedly deviating from historical truth to ditching moldy genre tropes, killing off characters out of nowhere, and even denying the audience the violent catharsis they think they need, these films left audiences surprised and perhaps even a little bemused. Studies have proven time and time again that general audiences actually find genre formula comforting in its familiarity, and often reject films that dare to challenge the status quo.īut sufficiently creative and daring filmmakers have attempted to rip up the rulebook and subvert expectations of the type of movie they're making.
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