Movie Tropes

Not sure if there's a thread already--tried a few search terms and didn't find anything. Post if you find a certain scene turn up in four or five (or more) films; not anything too standard, though.

As I watched Five Easy Pieces tonight, I was thinking about how variations on the one scene I don't like--where Nicholson rips into the pompous pseudo-intellectual (she's such a caricature, it undermines whatever satisfaction you might get from Nicholson calling her out)--are found in other films. In Good Will Hunting, it's the guy in the bar who Damon shows up. In Manhattan, it's Allen mocking Diane Keaton's Academy of the Overrated (and elsewhere him ridiculing Michael O'Donoghue having the "wrong kind" of orgasm). In Jailhouse Rock, it's the woman who tells Elvis "atonality is just a passing phase in jazz music" ("Lady, I don't know what the hell you're talkin' about"). There's another jazz-related thing in Sweet Smell of Success where some highbrow jazz writer gets brushed aside by Martin Milner. And no doubt many other similar scenes: the pretentious phony gets taken down a notch (or, in Five Easy Pieces, several notches).

That trope usually turns me against the protagonist. It's OK in Annie Hall because the joke is good. Birdman does it too, against a caricature of reviewers.

I don’t presume to understand film, but that seems like a pretty pivotal scene in Five Easy Pieces with respect to the protagonist’s feelings towards his past, his family, his life, idk.

another trope: the lead character's suspicions as to what the antagonist is *really* up to are correct, but they have no evidence, and yet you the audience are supposed to think the friends of the lead character are stupid or assholes because they don't "trust the lead character's gut"

The trope in a thriller or horror movie where someone brings disproportionate disaster on themselves by doing something very slightly "wrong"; and the film tries to convince us that, even though they didn't deserve their fate, they are somehow still responsible - as if a truly innocent victim would be unacceptable.
Basically it plays on the guilt feelings of the viewer, I associate this with Hitchcock's films.

kinda felt that way about Drag Me to Hell, I mean, I love the movie but...

as a bleeding-heart leftist, yeah, I didn't dig the manager refusing the provide the old lady an extension on her mortgage, and then screaming for security, but she was pressured into this by her boss, who for sexist reasons seemed to be fast-tracking the new guy into the management position that she was more than qualified for. film seems to frame it like she brought it on herself, like it's a just punishment for her to go to Hell because she carried out the wishes of the many asshole conservative white dudes above her.

that seems like a pretty pivotal scene in Five Easy Pieces with respect to the protagonist’s feelings towards his past, his family, his life

Totally agree, and I'm fine with the scene's intention. I just think it would be a much better scene if the woman Nicholson snaps at weren't so ridiculous, if she had some shading. The guy Matt Damon cuts down in Good Will Hunting--about the only thing in the whole movie where I'd say it's better than Five Easy Pieces--is snotty and annoying, but he's not a gross caricature; I can imagine running into that guy in a bar.

Horror film trope: the moment when the protagonist uncovers the last and most troubling character who's revealed to be part of the conspiracy too. In Rosemary's Baby, Dr. Sapirstein; in the '78 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dr. Kibner (although the principals start to cross over themselves after that). Probably many more examples.

the protagonist uncovers the last and most troubling character who's revealed to be part of the conspiracy too

Rock Hudson's lady friend in Frankenheimer's Seconds comes to mind

it would be a much better scene if the woman Nicholson snaps at weren't so ridiculous, if she had some shading.

I've always disliked this scene for exactly this reason.

Is Dr. Sapirstein part of the conspiracy itself or just part of the conspiracy of being a doctor?

I think you're confusing Sapirstein with Hill (Charles Grodin's character); Sapirstein is most definitely part of the coven.

Oh, so I am, sorry.

the thing about drag me to hell is she continues to make horrible self-serving decisions that further damn her to hell, it’s not just the one thing imo