Fantasy as Allegory

[taiwwa]

This is kind of a random thought, but I was watching Zero Dark Thirty the other night, and I found myself extremely bored. It was because I already knew what happened. For instance, one of the pivotal moments in the film came when one of the heroine's colleagues receives what she hopes is a high level Al-Queda informant. What happens next is supposed to be a "all hope is lost" moment -- which wasn't really the case for me because I knew exactly what had happened because I had read in the NYT about that incident.

And it occurred to me that a film like Zero Dark Thirty would have been better and more interesting if it had fantasy trappings. I guess maybe like the District 9. Because it is otherworldly, and yet you can explore the same emotional issues.

 

[CupofJoe]

I haven't seen Zero Dark Thirty, but wasn't it supposed to be [more or less] based in fact.
You can't really add fantasy elements in to that story. If any thing to make it a good film you should under play the fantastic. Not necessarily accurate just "real". My favourite war films are Das Boot, The Dambusters, When the day well and In which we serve. All of these are very flat films by modern standards [Das Boot is 30+ years old and In which we serve is over 70]. but they still move me as modern films don't.
District 9 was a good example of when what the story is about isn't what the story is really about. It was probably a story that only someone from South Africa could have made.
For me Elysium is sort of the same story but set in a world that Americans can more easily relate too.
I really like the Japanese Godzilla movies [the early ones at least - they tended to get a little silly and more fun later on] but as an allegory for the effects of atomic war I think it is great.

 

[Feo Takahari]

In some respects, fantasy can be the logical extrapolation of alternate history. Eli Wiesel's Night talks about the impact of Nazism in terms of what did happen. The Plot Against America talks in terms of what might have happened. Valkyria Chronicles talks about something that never happened, but uses it as a convenient framework to approach what did happen. You could argue over which is superior (certainly Night is more gut-wrenching than Valkyria Chronicles), but I think they all fulfill vital roles.