ArticlesDeb scorned: “Agatha Christie? All her mysteries follow the exact same formula – you can pick ’em every time!”
She explained the formula. I won’t give it away here. Early in the book, there is a telltale sign about which character is guilty. About halfway through the book, the guilty party gives away another telltale sign. Then it is just a matter of wading through the rest of the pages before Miss Marple or M. Poirot announce the name.
I didn’t read another Agatha Christie book for years after being told this, but one day I found myself sitting around a holiday house, and I picked one up from the bookshelf.
I tried to put the spoiler out of my head, but there was no chance. The first telltale sign gave it away, and I knew who the murderer was. I kept ploughing on regardless, until the second telltale sign appeared, confirming guilt of the character.
Agatha Christie takes on a whole different feel when you are sure whodunnit. It wasn’t nearly as enjoyable.
I am vehemently not the sort of person who reads the last page of the book first; I am befuddled by those who choose to do so.
Once I saw the title of the video, The Usual Suspects, in a rental store. I remembered that I wanted to see it, but had no recollection of why. I grabbed the box, held it behind me and refused to look at it again. I watched the movie with a friend who had never heard of it. Without any preconceptions, we could just let it unfold. When the movie was over, my friend and I just looked at each other and said “Wow!” in unison.
That’s the way to watch a movie! Don’t go reading spoilers on a web-site first!
For my favourite TV shows, I don’t even want to see the “In Next Week’s episode” teaser; if I am going to watch it anyway, I would rather the plot was gradually revealed to me the way the writer intended, rather than the television station’s promo team.
Nonetheless, after briefly considering abandoning the Agatha Christie novel, I chose to keep going, shaking my head at the attempts to confuse me or persuade me that another character had a better motive, or that my chief suspect was a million miles away at the time.
Can you be smug and forlorn? I think that described my emotions, until I finally reached the last page… SHOCK! It wasn’t him! The bullet-proof theory was nonsense! I had been under a misapprehension about the murderer’s identity the whole time!
Agatha Christie: 1, Spoilers: Nil.
Comment by Alastair on July 20, 2005
This relates to one of my pet theories as to why cinema audiences (or at least Hollywood revenues) are declining.
The Usual Suspects is best watched without preconceptions. For movies I want to watch, I avoid the trailers like the plague.
Battlestar Galactica is an otherwise excellent show but has an annoying habit of showing you highlights from this weeks episode at the beginning of the show! (I look away from the screen)
(On a related note, I quite liked this list of reasons for the decline of Hollywood)
Comment by Alastair on July 20, 2005
Re formatting of that last comment: I don’t like your stylesheet’s rendering of ordered lists to make them look like blockquotes.
Comment by Julian on July 21, 2005
Re: formatting.
I quite agree with you. That was a bug in the stylesheet. It has been corrected. Thanks for pointing it out.
Comment by Julian on July 21, 2005
Alastair,
Your theory about trailers being the best bits of the movie – and leaving people disappointed – strikes a strong chord with me.
I have watched extended trailers in movie theatres and thought “Well, thanks for that. There’s no need to see that movie – I’ve already seen the important stuff.”
It is not just limited to movies. Douglas Adams’ Mostly Harmless was a largely disappointing book, but best read without reading the blurb first, as the blurb contains all the funny parts of the book!
I was extremely frustrated by the advertisers of Dead Poet’s Society. It was advertised as a comedy – however, that was only because the artfully edited the small amounts of comic relief from a tragic story into a 30 second advert. Two years earlier, Good Morning Vietnam suffered from the same treatment.
I’ll admit my examples are very dated, but my point remains. A poor selection in the trailer (e.g. all the best bits, or all the comic bits) leaves us disappointed when the movie doesn’t live up to the expectation we are given. Sure that movie-maker got my money, but I am less likely to regularly visit the cinema if I regularly get disappointed in this way.
Comment by Alan Green on July 21, 2005
When we last went to the cinema, Karen and I saw the trailer for “Unleashed”, starring Jet Li. From the trailer I was able to string together a convincing plot synopsis (Universal Soldier with a dash of Finding Forrester) and now I don’t want to see the movie, at least not until it makes the $2/week shelf at Civic Video. I think the trailer-editor did me a favour.
Comment by Alastair on July 21, 2005
At the risk of hijacking a more general point about spoilers for a Hollywood-sucks rant, there are some more interesting theories about the decline and fall of the cinematic empire here.
Comment by untitledArtist on August 13, 2005
I’m totally with you on the ‘not wanting to know anything about the story’. I very seldom read the back of a book or video etc…