Filmmaking Clichés: Good and Bad

A small-town sheriff walks up to his new deputy with the intention of asking a favor from her.  He hands her a box of donuts, saying: "Sometimes, the clichés are true." (From the television show Once Upon a Time).  I think he makes a good point.  After all, clichés are clichés for a reason.  They are good techniques, observations, statements, etc. that have become over-used over time.  For example, Darth Vader says to Luke Skywalker: "No, Luke; I am your FATHER!" (to which Luke responds with the most melodramatic wail/howl in cinematic history; but that's beside the point).  Because of that famous scene, every film since which contains such a revelation must keep it in mind to avoid repeating it.

I want to focus here on those clichés which can be traced to a previous work of art.  There are three ways that one can approach the making of a film (or any story) that contains such a cliché.  First, you can essentially repeat the cliché, either because you don't think anyone will notice or because you think the audience wants to see the cliché again because they liked it so much in another film; "Hey, they really liked when Neo bended over backwards in The Matrix.  Let's do the same thing in our movie so that our movie will be as famous as The Matrix!"  That generally doesn't work very well, or, if it does, the audience they are appealing to doesn't have much taste when it comes to storytelling.

The second approach is to play too defensively when making a film.  This occurs when someone is trying very hard to get the message across that this movie is not the same thing as another movie.  Whenever the story seems to be headed towards something that another movie did, they yank the steering wheel hard to one side and make it totally different.  This generally results in poor storytelling with mismatched plot elements.  This kind of film is usually not successful (I am unable to recall any examples of this type of film at the moment, probably because they are rarely good films and I try to purge my mind of such things; if any of you readers come up with an example, please mention it in the comments).

The third and final approach is to recognize the fact that someone else has used the same storytelling technique before and, even if with a great deal of subtlety, pay tribute.  This is perhaps most commonly done in comedies but can happen in more serious films as well.  This is the very best approach to storytelling with clichés.  If you recognize your film's place in the tradition of filmmaking, your piece achieves a certain level of integrity and dignity.  Examples of this are hard to come by because it is so rarely done.  However, Christopher Nolan, one of the greatest filmmakers of our day, manages to employ clichés well in his films.  For example, in his latest film, Interstellar, the AI robot who drives the spaceship makes a subtle reference to HAL 9000 from the film 2001 Space Odyssey.  Nolan, recognizing that he owes a debt to this previous film for setting a precedent, acknowledges this fact within his film in a way that is subtle, humorous (even though the film is anything but a comedy), and fits in well with the dialogue.

So, the next time that you find yourself in Hollywood making a blockbuster film, follow the example set by Christopher Nolan and other great filmmakers instead of those people whose films will be forgotten by history.  The ability to employ clichés and other film elements successfully is what separates geniuses from the not-so-geniusy.