Must films always tell stories?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jeff Overstreet has just posted an item on a couple of quotes he's come across that remind him of the films he appreciates that prioritize images and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/must-films-always-tell-stories.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Must films always tell stories?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jeff Overstreet has just posted an item on a couple of quotes he's come across that remind him of the films he appreciates that prioritize images and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/must-films-always-tell-stories.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-03-18T17:07:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/must-films-always-tell-stories.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/must-films-always-tell-stories.html\",\"name\":\"Must films always tell stories?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2005-03-18T17:07:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2005-03-18T17:07:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\"},\"description\":\"Jeff Overstreet has just posted an item on a couple of quotes he's come across that remind him of the films he appreciates that prioritize images and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/must-films-always-tell-stories.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/must-films-always-tell-stories.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/must-films-always-tell-stories.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Must films always tell stories?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/\",\"name\":\"FilmChat\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\",\"name\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\"},\"description\":\"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Must films always tell stories?","description":"Jeff Overstreet has just posted an item on a couple of quotes he's come across that remind him of the films he appreciates that prioritize images and","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/must-films-always-tell-stories.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Must films always tell stories?","og_description":"Jeff Overstreet has just posted an item on a couple of quotes he's come across that remind him of the films he appreciates that prioritize images and","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/must-films-always-tell-stories.html","og_site_name":"FilmChat","article_published_time":"2005-03-18T17:07:00+00:00","author":"Peter T. Chattaway","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter T. Chattaway","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/must-films-always-tell-stories.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/must-films-always-tell-stories.html","name":"Must films always tell stories?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2005-03-18T17:07:00+00:00","dateModified":"2005-03-18T17:07:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde"},"description":"Jeff Overstreet has just posted an item on a couple of quotes he's come across that remind him of the films he appreciates that prioritize images and","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/must-films-always-tell-stories.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/must-films-always-tell-stories.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/must-films-always-tell-stories.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Must films always tell stories?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/","name":"FilmChat","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde","name":"Peter T. Chattaway","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Peter T. Chattaway"},"description":"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":2940,"date":"2005-03-18T17:07:00","date_gmt":"2005-03-18T17:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/must-films-always-tell-stories\/"},"modified":"2005-03-18T17:07:00","modified_gmt":"2005-03-18T17:07:00","slug":"must-films-always-tell-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/must-films-always-tell-stories.html","title":{"rendered":"Must films always tell stories?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Jeff Overstreet<\/a> has just posted an item on a couple of quotes he\u2019s come across that remind him of the films he appreciates that prioritize images and sounds over \u201cnarrative\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

His post, in turn, reminds me of one of my own pet peeves. I can be a very linear, very narrative-driven thinker \u2014 and I think it has a tendency to show up in my reviews, where I sometimes slip into synopsis mode \u2014 but I have long argued that films don\u2019t necessarily <\/span>need<\/i> to have stories, and some of the films I appreciate the most are the ones where something <\/span>other<\/i> than \u201cstory\u201d is our primary concern.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, one of the reasons I thought Disney\u2019s <\/span>Fantasia 2000<\/i> was a bit of a disappointment, compared to its predecessor, was that Every Single Fricken Cartoon in that film told a story \u2014 and what\u2019s worse, a fair number of the stories were identical and redundant (the Beethoven, Gershwin, and Respighi segments all concern parents who lose their children and\/or try to protect them, and this is fairly similar to the Daisy-loses-Donald storyline of the Elgar segment). Contrast this to the original <\/span>Fantasia<\/i>, where entire sequences are devoted to the sheer joy of dance or, in the case of the Bach sequence, pure abstraction. (The so-called \u201cabstract\u201d segment in <\/span>Fantasia 2000<\/i> told a story too, sigh.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Other films from my Top 10 that might fit into this category include <\/span>Lawrence of Arabia<\/i>, which has a brilliant script by Robert Bolt but is best remembered for the brilliant way it captures the look, the mood, the feel of being in the desert (when I saw the \u201cdirector\u2019s cut\u201d at the Park Theatre back in 1989, there was always a massive line-up for drinks at intermission, people had become so thirsty), and <\/span>The Purple Rose of Cairo<\/i>, which again has a brilliant script, this time by Woody Allen, but ends with a scene in which Mia Farrow just watches, and watches, and watches as a Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers dance unfolds on the screen before her.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, and let us not forget the rather stark differences between Stanley Kubrick\u2019s <\/span>2001<\/i> and Peter Hyams\u2019s sequel <\/span>2010<\/i>, which I get into <\/span>here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"