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Strawman Has a Point/Film: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
* In ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'', Frollo's [[Hobbes Was Right|grim depiction]] of the world "out there" actually sounds quite realistic, considering that this is [[The Middle Ages|Mediaeval Europe]] we're talking about.
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** Also, Patch's roommate is supposed to be a [[Jerkass]] [[Straw Vulcan]] whose hostility is motivated by his frustration over Patch's subversive antics. When Patch calls him out after he turns Patch in for suspected cheating, the roommate points out that he's seen how little studying Patch actually gets done and asks how Patch still manages to get such high marks. The viewer has yet to see Patch do much studying either, so it seems primed for Patch to defend himself with a recitation of some medical jargon or explain how he's got [[Photographic Memory]] and doesn't need to study or something. Instead, Patch launches into another speech attacking the roommate for being a [[Jerkass]], and the viewer is [[Informed Ability|left to assume]] Patch wears his smart hat offscreen because he's the protagonist, so he couldn't possibly be cheating to excel in an academic system he has such little regard for.
** One line by Adams about how "it's not like getting involved with your patients causes you to explode" [[Wham! Line|completely destroys the movie's moral]] when one character getting involved with a shady patient causes them to be [[Your Head Asplode|shot in the head]]. Adams's methods directly caused a main character to die, but we're not supposed to notice that.
* Ebert's review of [
** They go so far, in fact, that they destroy their own position. 'It is possible for an innocent man to be executed!' kinda loses its punch if you have to add '... if he deliberately frames himself for the crime, withholds exculpatory evidence from the police and his own attorney, and sabotages his own defense at every opportunity.'
* In ''[[Cape Fear]]'', Bowden gets the chief of police to try to drive Cady out of town before Cady has done anything illegal. Cady hires a lawyer who is portrayed as fussy and over-liberal, but who makes the entirely legitimate point that Cady is being harassed for no reason. Of course, Cady does not stay innocent for long.
* In ''[[Look Who's Talking]] Too'', the mooching brother-in-law is essentially a strawman for everything that is not a Proper New York City Attitude, including the fact that he has a gun. However, it's a little difficult to argue with one of his rationalizations for having it:
{{quote|"You know, you people really amuse me, stockpiling your canned food and your water in case of disaster. But when the shit really hits the fan and you're sitting over here with your stuff, and the guy next door has a gun, who do you think's gonna go hungry? Him, or you?"}}
** Notable is that John Travolta's character doesn't even ''try'' to refute this. He just
* In the Killer Bee movie ''The Swarm'', [[Michael Caine]]'s character, Dr Bradford Crane, is clearly supposed to be the hero and Richard Widmark's General Slater the villain. The trouble is that all of the schemes for dealing with the bees suggested by Slater all seem eminently sensible but are shot down by Crane on the grounds of the "environmental damage" (even after the bees have already [[You Fail Nuclear Physics Forever|blown up a nuclear reactor]], killing upwards of 30,000 people) whilst none of Crane's schemes actually work until the end. On top of that, Crane defeats the swarm of bees by setting an oil slick on fire, even though that's not exactly great for the environment.
* ''[[Contact (film)|Contact]]'':
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* ''[[Christmas with the Kranks]]'' expects the viewers to side with the neighbors who criminally harass the title characters for simply deciding to to celebrate Christmas by taking a cruise instead of how they usually did. Their daughter went off on a Peace Corps assignment and this is the first time in almost two decades that they've had this kind of time to themselves, except that [[Serious Business|the annual Christmas lights competition]] in which the neighborhood competes annually would count against them having a family out of town and not competing, and they couldn't have ''that''. That's right, the entire plot of the movie is because the neighborhood wants some little certificate or maybe a trophy to put in Town Hall for a year. Makes you wonder how the film would expect them to react if, say, a Jewish or Muslim family moved into this neighborhood. The film was critically panned, with many critics pointing out the horrific [[Unfortunate Implications]] and arguing the message was downright vile.
* In the film version of ''[[Sgt Bilko]]'', the villain is a military higher-up who wants to run Bilko out of the Army for essentially running a team of [[Neighborhood Friendly Gangsters]] out of an American military base, and also for getting him blamed for a crime Bilko committed and getting the villain transferred to Alaska. Since this is actually a completely reasonable thing to do from any objective viewpoint, the villain is made to accomplish his goals through methods even more criminal and underhanded than Bilko's, in order to make sure he doesn't get the audience's sympathy.
* In ''[[South Park: Bigger, Longer
* In ''[[Easy Money]]'', Rodney Dangerfield's wicked [[Evil Matriarch|mother-in-law]] uses a substantial inheritance to basically blackmail Dangerfield into giving up the things he enjoys most—smoking, drinking excessively, gambling (it is shown early on that he can't control his urge to go too far and blow his winnings) and doing drugs (which he hides in the bathroom he shares with his twelve year old daughter), and losing excess weight.... and probably adds healthy years to his life by doing it.... she is made out to be all bad by the way she mistreats the staff at the department store she owns—but when Dangerfield shows up there with his friend, they both are mocking and abusive to all the staff they deal with.
* In the made-for-TV movie ''[[Zenon]]: The [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Zequel]]'', General Hammond (not [[Stargate SG-1|that one]]) arrives to decommission the station, which was still suffering the after-effects of the sabotage in the previous film. His actions are seen by the main characters as evil. Here's what he really does: decommission an unstable space station before it falls to Earth, doing untold damage, attempt to apprehend a girl who thinks it's ok to smuggle aboard a shuttle, chase after spaceship thieves, and other actions perfectly in line with what any good soldier or policeman would do.
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* In ''[[La Haine]]'', the more one observes the main characters and their tendency to escalate every small issue into violence, the more one feels the police are absolutely right to treat them with suspicion and loathing at every turn, including the use of force. Though it is no doubt a [[Grey and Grey Morality]] tale, it is not that hard to be [[Rooting for the Empire]].
* In the 1976 stinker ''Rattlers,'' at one point the female lead goes off on the sexism in the professional world; it's treated dismissively by everyone in the film (including the male lead) but really, she's got a good point about how men at the time systematically denied deserved recognition in all professions to women of high accomplishment. Doesn't help that the movie's godawful.
* Many reviewers, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080210165529/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=
* Despite his decision to shut down the containment grid (primarily out of spite), [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|Walter Peck]] was right. The [[Ghostbusters]] ''were'' operating very dangerous equipment that should have been examined beforehand. His initial plea to see the containment grid was reasonable, but because he was crudely brushed off by Venkman, [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|he overreacted]]. Had Venkman not treated Peck and the E.P.A. like an enemy from the beginning, they could have avoided the massive meltdown. That said, Peck should have listened to the Engineer who was working for him and thought twice before de-activating the Ghostbuster's power grid. His initial approach also wasn't helped by the fact that, although his motives and concerns were reasonable, his ''attitude'' was condescending, evasive and quick-to-get-hostile, thus making it not entirely a surprise that Venkman was rubbed the wrong way by him.
** His request to see the containment grid isn't really all that reasonable. For one, he has no reason other than vague suspicion he invented himself to explain why he would need to see the power grid. Ultimately his accusations against the Ghostbusters have nothing to do with the environment at all... he thinks they're bilking people and that, despite it not being his purview, job, or power, that because he's involved with a powerful government agency he can make them stop. And Venkman's refusal to let him see it makes sense as well. The containment grid is proprietary technology and the backbone of the Ghostbusters' business... if Venkman let anyone who stopped by and asked to see it do so, they could theoretically be put out of business in months by a wave of knockoffs.
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* ''[[Extreme Measures]]'' features Dr. Myrick, who violates just about every single ethical tenant of being a doctor while researching traumatic spinal cord injuries and how to repair them. He argues that all the red tape is getting in the way of science and that lead researchers on several medical fields are being hampered by them, and they're not getting any younger. The film had him experimenting in humans back in 1996; in [[Real Life]], it was not till 2010 that researchers were finally successful regenerating spinal cords in ''mice''.
* In the film of [[The Devil Wears Prada]], Miranda Priestly delivers a [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]] to her poor, put-upon assistant Andrea, who just wants to be a writer and doesn't understand why everybody looks down on her for not being a fashionista. The problem is that she works for the editor of a ''fashion'' magazine. Miranda's speech shows quite nicely that problematic though it is, the industry influences everyone and is ignored at one's own peril. Moreover, thinking that you're "above" the field you work in is not a professional attitude or one you should display in front of your boss and coworkers, who have slaved and sacrificed to succeed in an intensely cutthroat line of work.
* In the film of ''[[Silent Hill]]'', Sean Bean's character, Chris De Silva, is openly against Rose, his wife and the heroine, taking their daughter to the town of Silent Hill in an attempt to cure her mental illness. We're obviously supposed to side with Rose and her maternal instinct to help her daughter, and thus think of Chris as a jerk for being against it and having her credit cards cut when she tries it, but the problem is that her plan is almost suicidally stupid. In-universe it is public knowledge that Silent Hill is a ''very'' dangerous place due to a coal fire making the area uninhabitable, something she should know about especially since she apparently extensively researched the town. Not only that, she also didn't seek assistance from people who are familiar with the area to help navigate the town (something that Chris does as soon as he reaches it as well, mind you), and is thus risking both her own life and her daughters. To top it all off, she's doing this under the ''incredibly'' vague assumption that going to the town will somehow cure her illness, and not simply make it worse. It should also be noted that Rose is essentially ''kidnapping'' Sharon, and thus Chris is completely in the right to try to stop her.
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