Re: The 'the' is THE best thing to happen to the titles of the movies in the theaters.

Interesting that in The Social Network, Zuckerberg was given advice to  
drop "The" from TheFacebook website.  Perhaps the director should have  
listened to his own script!

regards,
-Lance

On Jan 28, 2011, at 11:25 PM, Peter Chattaway wrote:

> http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/01/28/the-movie-titles/
>
> by Darren Franich
>
> VaughanTwo new films are opening wide this weekend: The Mechanic and  
> The Rite. They’ll compete against recent releases like The Green  
> Hornet and The Dilemma, not to mention newly-minted Best Picture  
> nominees The King’s Speech and The Fighter. (Meanwhile, fellow  
> nominees The Social Network and The Kids Are All Right have just hit  
> DVD stores.) Coming soon to theaters: The Roommate and The Eagle.  
> What do all these movies have in common? It’s the The — the definite  
> article, language’s precision instrument, “T-H-E,” a word that  
> seemed bit old-fashioned and archaic just a few years ago, at least  
> in movie titles.
>
> Not anymore. Now, “The” is everywhere. This year, it’s popping up in  
> a highly-anticipated literary adaptation (The Help), a highly- 
> anticipated WTF auteur film (The Tree of Life), and a highly- 
> anticipated franchise reboot (The Muppets). One of the most highly- 
> anticipated movies of the year is a Hollywood version of a novel  
> with two — Two! — definite articles: The Girl With the Dragon  
> Tattoo. Oh PopWatchers, I love the The in movie titles. It’s like a  
> staccato drum solo that opens a great pop song, or a gunshot that  
> starts a 100-meter dash. The can be terse, or expansive, or  
> sarcastic. Try to say any of the titles above without it. Fighter.  
> Green Hornet. Dilemma. Social Network. The names die on your tongue.  
> They sound vague, indistinct. The The gives them precision. For much  
> of the 2000s, the vast array of major titles were straightforward  
> phrases without any linguistic adornment. Most major releases were  
> just character names (Shrek, Spider-Man) or narrow descriptions that  
> read like marketing pamphlets (Kung Fu Panda, 300), or vague  
> descriptions that read like Swedish pop songs (Up, Avatar). Look at  
> the list of movies that were nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in  
> 2005: Crash. Munich. Capote. Brokeback Mountain. Good Night, and  
> Good Luck. You know what I hear? Blah, Blah, Blah, Blahblah Blah  
> blah, and Blah Blah, blah Blah Blah.
>
> The turning point, I think, came in 1999. That year, four of the  
> films nominated for an Oscar sported the definite article: The Green  
> Mile, The Insider, The Cider House Rules, and The Sixth Sense. But  
> the winner was American Beauty, one of those terrible Dude-it’s-so- 
> MEANINGFUL! titles that could either be a modern art sculpture or a  
> Bruce Springsteen song. Not even the three-year assault of The Lord  
> of the Rings could hold back the anti-The mayhem. (Although let’s  
> have a special kudos for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the  
> King, which qualifies as a literal orgy of definite articles.)
>
> But something has changed in the last few years. At last year’s  
> Oscars, The Hurt Locker triumphed over Avatar. The makers of the  
> teeny-bopping Twilight franchise purposefully added a titular  
> mouthful to their sequel titles: The Twilight Saga. Personally, I  
> thank Christopher Nolan. At a time when most superhero movie sequel  
> titles looked like software updates — X2: X-Men United, anyone? —  
> Nolan titled his Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight. Like the  
> movie itself, it wasn’t really like anything we’d seen before. Small  
> wonder that, in an attempt to drum up excitement for his Wolverine  
> sequel, Hugh Jackman has been proudly noting that the title will be  
> sporting a new look: Say hello to The Wolverine! And I love it,  
> PopWatchers. I already believe that The Wolverine will be infinitely  
> better than its predecessor, which I believe was titled X-Men  
> Origins Mac OSX 10.5: Wolverine.
>
> PopWatchers, I ask you: Wouldn’t almost every movie title be better  
> with The? The Raging Bull? The Citizen Kane? The Rebel Without a  
> Cause? The Alien, The Aliens, and The Alien3? Shouldn’t George Lucas  
> have gone with his original instincts and called it The Star Wars?
>
>
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