Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius deconstructs the "having no parents would be great" trope by having difficulties pop up the very next day. A girl gets injured, everyone gets chronically lonely, and people get sick from eating nothing but bad food.
The Last Unicorn: All of the characters know they're in a fairy tale, and the fairy tale itself mocks, parodies, subverts and plays straight Fairy Tale tropes. One of the most moving scenes comes from this exchange:
Schmendrick: Then let the quest end here! I don't think I could change her back even if you wished it! Marry the prince and live happily ever after. Amalthea: Yes! That is my wish! Lír: No. Lady, I am a hero, and heroes know that things must happen when it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned. Unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever. The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story. Molly Grue:(quietly to Schmendrick) But what if there isn't a happy ending at all? Schmendrick:(quietly) There are no happy endings, because nothing ends.
ParaNorman: Oh boy, there's a lot. Zombies come back from the dead to wreak havoc on a sleepy town thanks to a witch's curse. Except the witch was an innocent little girl, the zombies are completely harmless and rather pathetic compared to anything in Norman's horror movies, and the town uses the little girl's trial and hanging to pull in tourists and sell cheesy merchandise.
Films — Live-Action
28 Days Later"does not actually deconstruct" the Zombie Apocalypse genre. The fact that the zombies aren't actually dead but rather infected with a "rage virus" that takes hold instantly (preventing the token Zombie Infectee) and runs don't change the fact that the film follows the typical tropes of a Romero zombie-flick: A small group of survivors trying to adapt to their new world and other humans being a much more dangerous threat than the zombies. Quentin Tarantino criticized director Danny Boyle for claiming to not have been inspired by Romero for those reasons, noting the similarities between the last act of 28 Days Later and Day of the Dead (1985), but it bears pointing out that, as illustrated by the DVD Special Features, the film's ending was originally envisioned much differently, so this could have been an honest case of two great minds thinking alike.
47 Meters Down deconstructs the shark movie. The sharks are not the only threat but the entire ocean itself. The characters have to contend with lack of visibility at the bottom of the ocean. They lack oxygen and can't even swim directly back to the surface because they might suffer from the bends. The Sole Survivor reaches the surface while fighting off sharks like a badass. Except it was all just a dream. She has suffered the bends and is hallucinating. She is rescued but she is so damaged as a person and will never be the same.
Bull Durham: Both before and after this, sports movies typically had clean-cut heroes, outright villains, and every problem resolved by a Big Game that saves the day. This movie dumps all of that for serious character development and introspection, and that winning the game is unimportant compared to coming to terms with who you are—driven home by the fact that the Bulls' season ends on a rainout. By playing by none of the rules, Bull Durham is considered one of the best sports movies ever.
The Cabin in the Woods deconstructs not only the horror movie genre, but the horror movie industry. The Ancient Ones, a race of Eldritch Abominations that live beneath the Earth, are only satisfied by sacrifices that follow a specific set of rules - have five victims who follow familiar archetypes, have a Harbinger of Impending Doom warn them of what's to come, kill the Whore first, give the Virgin a chance to survive, and of course, make it bloody and sleazy - and they throw a fit whenever "the rules" aren't followed. In short, they're the great mass of mainstream moviegoers who demand familiarity rather than anything that pushes creative boundaries. The scientists, meanwhile, are horror filmmakers who've grown bored supplying the same old pablum to the Ancient Ones, and long to put a twist on their usual work, for once.
Driving this idea home further, it's shown that every part of the world has its own Ancient Ones, with their respective tastes corresponding to the horror movies popular in the places they're from. In Japan, for instance, the sacrifice resembles something out of a J-horror movie like The Ring, with a classroom full of schoolgirls tormented by a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl.
Cannibal Holocaust, while often regarded as the Trope Maker for the Cannibal Film and the apex of the genre, had a lot to say about the colonial Mighty Whitey conventions that often permeated similar films. Its protagonists, an American film crew who's come to the Amazon to film cannibal tribes, are wholly irredeemable jerkasses whose belief in their own superiority, combined with their desire to exploit stereotypes of native tribes for consumption back home, led them to commit all manner of horrors, with their brutal deaths at the hands of the tribesmen they'd so badly abused portrayed as righteous vengeance.
Critics such as John G. Cawelti have argued that Chinatown is all about deconstructing the "myth" of Film Noir and the Hardboiled Detective. Gittes isn't a tough, emotionally detached private eye, but rather a vulnerable, flawed Anti-Hero. Evelyn isn't a Femme Fatale, but everyone assumes she is (in part because of the misogynistic value system underpinning 1930s California). And the villain is so rich, powerful and influential that Gittes is ultimately powerless to stop him or his conspiracy. And so on.
Cloverfield deconstructs what Kaiju monster flicks had become over the decades by instead of focusing on the monster pounding other monsters' faces in or wrecking the military, you're given the perspective from ordinary people trapped in the crossfire... which makes one realize how horrific the bog-standard giant-monster movie plot would be if it really happened, accidentally reconstructing the original Godzilla in the process.
The 1991 film The Dark Backward contains an animated sequence that deconstructs the Tom and Jerry cartoons: Tom's Captain Ersatz gleefully pursues Jerry's, hatchet in hand, and then cuts him in half with it (guts spill); then Spike's Captain Ersatz appears and blows the cat's brains out (literally) with a shotgun. The main character's mother laughs out loud at this scene.
Dead Presidents: The latter half seems to deconstruct heist movies. Despite the veterans laying out a careful plan of action, the film reminds us that This Is Reality. Thanks to all of their individual issues, the veterans prove to be ill-fit for performing a heist. As a result, almost nothing goes as planned, several innocents are killed, and all of the participants of the heist end up either dead or incarcerated.
Die Hard deconstructs '80s action movies. Instead of the usual Invincible Hero, we get an average police officer who's thrust into the story while visiting his wife and then becomes the only person who can take on Gruber. The bad guys aren't terrorists, only using that as a front for an elaborate robbery. John does his best to avoid confrontations—his first goal is to get help from the local police—and gets hurt like anyone else would. By the end, John's a limping wreck held together by bandages and determination.
Don't Look Up deconstructs the Disaster Movie, particularly Deep Impact. Unlike most films where the scientists are backed up by the government and people united together to save the world, this film’s government are idiots at best and complete sociopaths at worst and the people are heavily divided by the comet, especially after the comet is revealed to have rare minerals for technology inside it. The ensuing political conflicts result in almost everyone dying. The few who do survive are implied to not make it much longer.
The Element of Crime deconstructs Film Noir (a genre already quite dark and cynical) by pushing some of the tropes to their limits, and by turning the others on their head (thus, the Private Eye Monologue becomes a dialogue between the detective and his therapist, and the Deliberately Monochrome is achieved by lighting all the sets with only street lamps), and yet still manages to be a Homage rather than a Parody.
Falling Down does this to the vigilante movie. William Foster is a mild-mannered white-collar worker who one day snaps in frustration at the Wretched Hive he lives in, not unlike Paul Kersey in Death Wish (the film adaptation, at leastnote The original book was a lot more scathing in its portrait of vigilantism, to the point where its author Brian Garfield disowned the films adapted from it.)... but whereas Kersey's life was destroyed overnight by street crime run amok, Foster's trigger, the culmination of a months-long downward spiral after he was laid off from his job and his wife left him and took their daughter with her, was far more mundane, the bumper-to-bumper traffic he faced on the Los Angeles freeway in the middle of a sweltering Heat Wave with his car's AC busted. While he does go after Gangbangers and a neo-Nazi in his rampage and give a well-deserved dressing down to a homeless Phony Veteran, he also attacks less deserving targets like an Asian Store-Owner, the staff of a fast-food restaurant, a group of construction workers, and ultimately his ex-wife for various petty reasons. Worse, it's strongly hinted through the Happier Home Movie we see of him and his family together that Foster always had issues with anger management, which had been poisoning his relationships and personal life even before things went downhill. Foster is ultimately presented as something more akin to a Spree Killer than an avenging angel, and by the time the film is over, Sergeant Prendergast has spelled it out, in unambiguous terms, to both him and the audience: he's the bad guy.
Enough Said deconstructs the modern Romantic Comedy. Think of any played to death trope in the genre. The Unfair Sex, Women Are Wiser, Easily Forgiven... just about every one is either flipped on its head or challenged by the film. And unlike most movies in the genre, the relationship between Eva and Albert isn't about passion, but companionship.
Everyone Says I Love You: Woody Allen deconstructs The Musical, by deliberately casting actors who are not trained singers, showing what it would really be like in a world where average people on the street just burst into song spontaneously. Performances range from the merely adequate to the nails-on-chalkboard.
The Final, a 2010 indie horror film, kills two birds with one stone by deconstructing both the "nerds get revenge on the bullies" plot and the "psycho classmate" plot. The outcasts don't want the simple comical revenge that so many such teen movie protagonists desire - they actually want the bullies to suffer (through torture) the way they've been made to suffer throughout their school years. The "psycho classmates" are not simple outcasts with your average Freudian Excuse - it's implied they were generally good people whose crappy home lives, coupled with years of abuse from the bullies, turned them into the dark characters they are in the film. Indeed, they try to make sure that Kurtis, a friend who was nice to them, doesn't go to their "party," and they don't torture people who didn't actively abuse them. The film then takes another deconstruction of the bullies themselves - Bridget, the Alpha Bitch's best friend, tries to reach out to one of the outcasts, and gets offered a chance to save herself if she tortures one of her classmates. The stereotypical Libby would've gladly taken up the offer, but she refuses and is punished for it. The film cleverly shows that neither the bullies nor the outcasts are all that good.
Friday Night Lights is a harsh deconstruction of American sports culture. After numerous feel-good sports films in the '90s and early '00s, most of which focused on underdog stories and persevering under bad circumstances, Friday Night Lights revolves around the Permian Panthers, one of the most successful high school football programs in the United States — the people who would be the Opposing Sports Team in any other movie. It highlights the extreme pressure, pathetic post-high school career aspirations, and utter obsession that colors the lives of the young players, several of them visibly buckling under the ridiculous expectations that the town places on their shoulders. One player is even abused out in the open by his father, a former star player himself who can't accept the harsh realities of life after football. Dillon (based on Real Life Odessa, Texas) is a Dying Town that has nothing going for it besides the Permian Panthers, and that infatuation ultimately leads to the team losing at the state finals. And it's all Truth in Television (it was based on a non-fiction book), as anyone from Texas and the rural South could attest to, especially in the withering boomtowns and oilfields that stretch all across central Texas.
The Full Monty deconstructed Hey, Let's Put on a Show as the men who put on a striptease for money are middle-aged, out of shape and are only doing it after losing their factory jobs. It's left unanswered if their show was a success.
Funny Games is intended as a Post Modernist deconstruction of Gorn and horror films by presenting it in the most bare-bones and disturbing way possible. The whole film forces the viewer to examine why they are watching the film and being entertained by it. A number of scenes play with audience expectations, flatly telling the audience what they want to see and either giving it to them or denying it to them based on the whim of the author. One particularly taunting scene features the female victim managing to gun down one of the attackers, only for this triumphantly cathartic moment to be snatched away as the other attacker rewinds the film and undoes it.
Gamera 3: Awakening of Irys is a particularly brutal deconstruction of Kaiju and Tokusatsu. Giant monsters and huge superheroes fighting and rampaging through model cities is only fun when the camera isn't lingering over the horrific carnage of thousands of innocent people dying. The monsters are terrifying and eldritch creatures, with even good ones like Gamera being destructive and inscrutable to humans, seemingly not caring about the Collateral Damage they cause with their interventions. Meanwhile, the more humanoid Toku hero meant to fight them, Irys, is an equally inhuman and inexplicable monster itself, quickly proving to be a Dark Messiah sent to kill Gamera and clear the way for the destruction of mankind. There are two kids with proverbial remote controls, but the one connected to Gamera has had her bond violently severed (which contributes to his increasingly violent behavior), while the other is a mentally unstable young girl whose negative emotions prod Irys into being a malicious creature, and Irys secretly intends to consume her to increase its own power and break free of her control. The action scenes are much more realistically quick and graphic than usual for the genre, and there aren't a lot of them; the primary focus is on the drama and terrors of being a normal person in a world where gods walk the Earth. Thankfully, by the end Gamera proves himself to be a truly noble creature when he rescues Irys' would-be victim, at the cost of his arm, before marching out to face an absolutely apocalyptic swarm of Gyaos.
Get Carter was intended to be this to the British gangster movie, and then ironically it became a classic of the same genre it was deconstructing. Watching The Italian Job (1969) and then Get Carter, which Michael Caine made back-to-back, really highlights the stark difference in their portrayals of gangsters: in the former and many other British crime films before it, gangsters are all either stupid or funny; in Get Carter, gangsters are not stupid, and they are certainly not funny. Jack Carter is a remorseless, cold-blooded killing machine motivated purely by revenge against other murdering sleaze-mongers who are not so different from him - and thus he comes across as an Anti-Hero. Deaths are treated matter-of-factly and there is little blood or drama (the one time blood is used copiously it's for maximum shock effect), the setting swaps glitzy London for bleak Newcastle, and there's no cheery pop soundtrack (or indeed any soundtrack at all) that defined previous flicks in the genre.
Shin Godzilla deconstructs America Saves the Day and Kaiju films. Japan's government is shown to be ill-prepared for Godzilla at any rate. Godzilla himself starts off as a clumsy bipedal thing with stubby arms that accidentally causes millions of dollars in collateral damage and unwittingly kills millions of people simply by flopping awkwardly down the street. Likewise, when he undergoes a Transformation Sequence into his third-form, his body overheats to the point where he must return to the ocean to cool off. The JSDF are unable to provide any effective weaponry against him (and, at one point, are unable to attack because an evacuation was still ongoing). When Godzilla reappears in his fourth form, he's clearly an abomination of nature in constant agony covered in scars and various grotesque growths on his body (his tail has a vestigial head on the tip). And, when the US Military actually does manage to harm Godzilla (using armor-piercing bombs), it only succeeds in pissing Godzilla off and causes him to unleash his full fury via atomic beams from his mouth, dorsal fins, and tail demolishing a good portion of Tokyo. In the end, Japan is forced to live with Godzilla (albeit in a state of suspended animation via a coagulant forced into his body) with the knowledge that the US will not hesitate to nuke the area if Godzilla ever becomes a threat again. To say that it is not an action-packed cheesy romp with giant-sized creatures would be an understatement.
The Guns of Navarone deconstructs the "crack military team sent behind enemy lines" genre, what with the characters questioning the morality of the means they use to complete the mission or even the mission's relevance.
Mallory is perfectly aware that the steps he takes to complete the mission are often immoral.
Miller's deadpan snarking is his only defense to the madness of war.
"Butcher" Brown has post-traumatic stress and is unable to kill enemy soldiers, putting the entire team at risk.
The Heartbreak Kid (2007) mows down the late 90s/2000s-era rom-coms with dizzy female leads by featuring Lila as a psychopathic woman-child: immature, moody, irresponsible and all-around annoying. The "guy learns how to enjoy life" angle common in such movies is also obliterated by having Eddie keeping his sourpuss demeanor throughout the movie.
Heathers is a rather bitter deconstruction of the popular John Hughes style teen movies at the time. The bad boy the heroine lusts after is actually a disturbed psycho who lures the heroine into his scheme to murder the popular kids and he even tries to blow up the school and pass it off as a group suicide. She isn't happy to be part of the popular kids and it's actually that which makes her want to murder them. Also the Girl Posse aren't the cookie-cutter bad guys with one of them being bulimic and sick of being a butt monkey while another genuinely contemplates suicide.
Honey Baby deconstructs the Road Trip Plot. While Tom and Natascha embark on a road trip and become closer as a result, they're still unhappy with themselves and their lives, and ultimately it's returning home that puts them on the path to self-actualization.
Hunting Scenes from Bavaria is a deconstruction of the Heimatfilm, a genre of films popular in German-speaking regions in the post-WW2 era celebrating small-town life and depicting such settlements as idyllic locations untouched by war or any other real-life drama. The film shows this kind of idyllic image to be merely a façade, with the town populated by backwards, intolerant people who look down on outsiders and anyone they regard as non-traditional.
Martin Scorsese'sThe Irishman deconstructs Scorsese Mafia movies, and the entire Mafioso mythos, quite possibly one of the bitterest, most depressing deconstructions ever filmed of the genre:
If associating with hostile criminals, making tough decisions, ruining your life, and killing a great friend is not enough, in the end, all you get in the modern day is to create resentment among your loved ones and live a lonely life.
This article emphasizes how the movie does a very good job of deconstructing the aftermath of the classic American Mafia during the last half-hour of the film, particularly from Mafia movies like GoodFellas where the aftermath of said lifestyle in modern times is never shown. The result of such deconstruction is an incredibly depressing epilogue to the genre. In many ways, the film undermines what came before, and the central characters don't come out in a blaze of glory. Instead, they march towards a lonely and desiccated retirement where everything they have worked for means nothing for modern times. The movie invokeddrives home relentlessly how men like Frank, Russell, Jimmy and other wiseguys are nothing but a pitiful shadow of what they once were. In other words, they are just people who belong to the past. All these attributes make this film one of the biggest deconstructions ever made of the Mafia genre, which is especially remarkable considering that Scorsese's own GoodFellas was already a deconstruction of its own film genre, yet this film takes things to a new level of deconstruction, especially in the downfall of the classic American Mafia.
To a certain extent, Casino Royale (2006) deconstructs earlier Bond films, and Martini-style Spy Fiction in general, through features such as a conversation mocking the Double Entendre names of previous Bond girls, LeChiffre's comment about preferring simpler methods of torture to the Death Traps endemic to the series, having Bond respond "Do I look like I give a damn?" when asked how he wants his martini, and generally treating his profession as an assassin more literally. His Cowboy Cop attitude is scrutinized more ruthlessly and his interactions with his allies sometimes prove fatal for them. At least some of these features were present in the original novels, making the film something of a Reconstruction as well.
Bond movies have always had a tension in the character of Bond, between "flashy guy with clever lines, cool toys, and beautiful women", and "cold, ruthless assassin." Casino Royale (2006) and its sequel, Quantum of Solace, push the dial almost all the way towards the "assassin" element, but it was present in most of the earlier Bond films (particularly the Timothy Dalton films), as well as being Bond's whole character in the original novels.
Skyfall and Spectre take the Deconstruction aspects even further by literally and figuratively asking on whether Bond is even relevant in a Post Cold War era of cyber espionage. The movies ultimately concludes that he is and Bond is Reconstructed even more so than before.
Battles Without Honor and Humanity (Jingi Naki Tatakai) is a deconstruction of the Yakuza films popular in Japan around the same time, which tended to portray the Yakuza as a chivalrous, honorable organization of blood brothers. In the film, besides the main character, they're money-grubbing, backstabbing, treacherous, and vicious. Every vow of brotherhood or loyalty has been violated and the time-honored traditions of the Yakuza seem ludicrous, outmoded, or just plain crazy. The name of the film demonstrates this - "Jingi" is the term for the Yakuza code of honor.
Lakeview Terrace deconstructs the "neighbor from hell" genre. Chris and Lisa are terrorized by their policeman neighbor Abel. Abel, in turn, sees them as hedonists who set a bad example for the neighborhood (his children see them having sex in their pool).
Whether intentionally or not, It's basically a movie about a Super Villain who suffered great personal tragedy and is now trying to bring down the justice system that failed him. There's no superheroes, no setpieces, and his plan ultimately fails thanks to Nick figuring the last bomb's location out. And he only was able to do that because Clyde accidentally killed Nick's assistant, whose boyfriend happened to have access to the right information, but wasn't willing to risk his job. Until his girlfriend, ostensibly just a woman who got killed off, was killed by Clyde.
Alternatively, it's a deconstruction of revenge thrillers. Instead of reveling in the Vigilante Man pursuing his own brand of justice, once he quickly succeeds in Slowly Slipping Into Evil we find ourselves rooting for the people within the system trying to put a stop to his out-of-control Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
Both The Long Goodbye and The Big Lebowski are deconstructions of film noir, specifically Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe stories, although Lebowski is also played for laughs. In both films, the protagonist is more or less a loser who lives by himself and comes to the wrong conclusion at the end of the case, but it's not a big deal since it never really mattered in the first place.
The made-for-TV movie Men Don't Tell can be seen as the deconstruction on the Domestic Abuse genre. Rather than the man abusing the woman, it's the woman abusing the man. What's worse is that everyone viewed him as the abuser and he's even arrested. In fact, the only reason why the wife is exposed as the abusive one is because their daughter (who was also being abused by her) got up the courage to testify against her, saving her dad in the process.
Though it portrays Jesus in a favorable light, Monty Python's Life of Brian is a pretty harsh deconstruction of society's romanticized view of life in the time of Christ, and of biblical stories in general. As it points out, the Romans weren't just cruel oppressors with 0% Approval Rating - they did more to improve the Judean people's lives than anyone before them. Conversely, "God's chosen people" had criminal justice that could be just as brutal and unfair as the Romans, and they were never a noble La Résistance - they spent more time getting involved in petty squabbling amongst themselves than they did resisting the Romans. And in any case, having a cult of devoted followers who expect you to solve all of their problems isn't nearly as cool as you would think. And getting betrayed by your friends and "sacrificing" yourself on the cross? It's only inspiring when it's not happening to you!
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc: The Milla Jovovich version plays out the way the true Joan of Arc story went until she is captured by the English, at which point it deconstructs the entire mythology surrounding Joan of Arc.
Mighty Joe Young (at least the 1998 version) deconstructs King Kong (1933). The ape isn't an island-dwelling monster, but an otherwise normal African gorilla with extreme giantism. The female lead has more in common with Dian Fossey then the screaming damsel in distress of Kong. And when Joe finally does go on his "rampage" it's because he's confronted with the poacher that killed his mother.
My Best Friend's Wedding deconstructs the romantic comedy genre by initially appearing to follow the standard romance plot of a female protagonist trying to win the man of her dreams from the Romantic False Lead's clutches, only to have its protagonist come to realize that she is actually the Romantic False Lead, the man she thought she could win back is genuinely in love with the woman she thought was the Romantic False Lead and vice versa, and her Zany Schemes to break them up weren't cute or endearing but incredibly petty and mean-spirited.
Neighbors deconstructed Wacky Fratboy Hijinx comedies. It shows how reasonable people would act surrounded by characters from these movies, and how the frat guys are pathetic, petty man-children who are unwilling to accept maturity. In turn, the "reasonable" couple antagonizes the frat boys to recapture the excitement of their youth.
Night Moves (1975) is another noir deconstruction. Gene Hackman plays Harry Moseby, a pro football player-turned-private investigator. He asks a lot of questions, but rarely gets straight or complete answers. He sees a lot of things, but they're usually obscured by distance or obstacles (such as windows or screen doors) or seen only on an incomplete filmstrip. He both literally and figuratively spins in circles during the movie, and ends (as does the audience) knowing who the bad guys were but not why any of it happened. On another level the film is a deconstruction of the entire idea of American masculinity in the post-Watergate, post-Vietnam era; Harry's glory days are behind him, and he does what he does not because he's any good at it, or because he particularly enjoys it, but because he simply doesn't know what else to do.
The Other Guys does this to police action movies. Cowboy Cop behavior is actually insanelydestructive, not to mention massive overkill that would probably get you killed in real life. That is exactly what happens to the buddy cops in the opening, and the real protagonists prove to be a pair of normal, unappreciated cops who seethe with jealously over how the reckless assholes of the department are treated as cool role models, while their Boring, but Practical detective work flies under the radar. It is also pointed out how most action movie heroes seem to waste their talents on small-time, mockable petty criminals instead of more powerful and influential organized criminals like corrupt businessmen or big-name mob bosses.
Pleasantville deconstructs the stereotypical 1950s Leave It to Beaver style sitcom, and with it the whole phenomenon of 1950s nostalgia; it starts off as a typically wholesome, innocent and carefree place (especially when contrasted to the 1990s, a lengthy opening montage reeling out all the social problems seemingly endemic since the 1950s), but the introduction of color into the black-and-white environment gradually peels things back to reveal the stifling and repressed attitudes towards race, gender and sexuality seething under the surface, and the social problems of the decade that such nostalgia frequently overlooks.
The movement to stop the spread of color in Pleasantville is analogous to McCarthyism.
The movie is a double deconstruction as the 90's free spirit girl is shown to be just as one dimensional, in that she never really cares for anything, and only when she does can she be part of a fully realized world.
Risky Business deconstructs 80s teen sex comedies and the wacky hijinks common in them. While Joel's antics are funny, he's also a terrible person who takes advantage of his friends, Lana, and Lana's prostitute friends to get out of a mess that he made and refuses to take any responsibility for it, instead preferring to cover it up. He's basically no better than Lana's sleazy pimp, with the only difference being that Joel is rich and privileged enough to get away with his actions.
Saturday Night Fever harshly deconstructs America's hedonistic take on life in The '70s. Sure, there were beautiful clothes, music, and lots of dancing, but there was a dark side to the life led by such people as Tony and his friends. For example, Tony, who turns to hedonism as a way to cope with his own life as a lower-class Brooklyn guy with a reallyDysfunctional Family, has no thought for the future (and the culture as a whole didn't either), and his friends are involved with drugs, drinking, and casual sex which causes them huge problems.
Savageland deconstructs the horror genre by showing what would happen after the events of your typical horror movie gorefest (in this case a small-scale Zombie Apocalypse). The mass murder of a small town makes national news, a traumatized survivor gets wrongfully convicted for the deaths, people hijack the incident to use as a platform for their own political views, and massive controversy erupts once evidence of unnatural events becomes public.
Scanners sets up a fairly standard Hero's Journey, as Cameron Vale, blessed with Psychic Powers, is sent by wise old Dr. Paul Ruth to defeat Ruth's former pupil, Darryl Revok, who also has Psychic Powers. Vale befriends a white-haired girl, Kim Obrist, who can help him infiltrate Revok's organization. Not unsurprisingly, it is revealed that both Cameron and Darryl are the two sons of Paul. With us so far? And then Darryl points out what kind of father would abandon his sons like that, and weaponize one against the other, and, indeed, would test a potentially dangerous new drug on his pregnant wife, thus making Cameron and Darryl psychic in the first place. "That was Daddy." Also, the psychic stuff is disgusting and creepy: scanning is presented not as a graceful and mystical power, but as a painful and unpleasant "merging of two nervous systems". The process is as unpleasant for the person being scanned (who suffer from headaches and nosebleeds at best, and can have their hearts stopped and heads exploded at worst) and the scanners themselves who suffer severe social and psychological side effects from hearing other peoples thoughts (the main character starts the movie homeless, and another scanner murdered his family when he was a child). Ruth's dream of a scanner utopia turns out to be much like Revok's scanner-supremacy idea, as observed by Vale. Meanwhile, Cam and Kim never fall in love, as would be expected, because they're too scared for their lives.
One could argue that the first live-action Scooby-Doo movie deconstructed the gang's main quirks. In the cartoon, Daphne often became the Designated Victim, but took it in stride, even cracking a quip about it occasionally. In the movie, however, she openly despises the fact that she's "always the damsel in distress", and this combined with the fact that she blames it on the "incompetence" of the others makes her the most bitter and reluctant to get the gang back together. Velma was always the smart girl, but the movie portrays her as an under-appreciated Insufferable Genius. Fred was the de facto leader of Mystery Inc, and as such was often the voice of reason. The movie shows him as a literal Only Sane Man who struggles to keep the conflicting personalities of the team from getting out of hand - and that's when he's not being portrayed as an insensitive jerk. Surprisingly, Shaggy and Scooby are actually almost identical to their cartoon incarnations but in the second movie, they become deconstructed as well; Their cowardly and clumsy behavior causes the team to see them as a burden, and when they found it out, they try their hardest to improve themselves. Of course, it ends up bad and when the team is exiled from their hometown, Shaggy's self-esteem is at rock bottom.
Seven Samurai deconstructed the samurai mythos. Samurai aren't allowed to change occupations so they sell their services or (like the bandits) resort to crime.
The film Shin Kamen Rider: Prologue is arguably one for the Kamen Rider series, showing a much more realistic and gruesome look at the themes of forced genetic engineering, Phlebotinum Rebellion, and giant bug people that were present through the franchise's Showa era.
Snow White: A Tale of Terror deconstructs the original fairytale characters and especially the Disney film. Claudia starts out as a loving woman who wants to bond with her new stepdaughter, but Lilli shies away from her and that ends up leading to Claudia's Face–Heel Turn. Also, the miners aren't cheerful dwarves, but outcasts from the kingdom.
"Stahlnetz" ("Steel Net") , a German series of Made-for-TV crime movies, deconstructs Police Procedural. The officers are people with their own problems and shortcomings, far from being neatly divided into squeaky clean and corrupt bastards. The criminals are also realistic, many being bullied, pushed or outright coerced into crime while still being definitely bad people, whereas others are monsters, despite looking like ordinary people on the outside. Victims also come with their share of problems, some being an Asshole Victim, others being punished for being nice. The police solves cases through hard work, including setbacks, rather than beating half the underworld. And despite each film finishing with the crime resolved and criminals caught, the realistic portrayal of both the criminals and victims means most films have a Bittersweet Ending, if not a Downer. (Ironically the only story with a (relatively) Happy Ending is also the most brutal of all).
The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy can be viewed as a deconstruction of the Original Trilogy. The OT was standard Space Opera with all of its tropes played straight. The PT, however, is far more morally complex and ambiguous. In Revenge of the Sith, every victory that the heroes attained in the previous two films (and for the first part of that one) was in fact the villain's plan all along. Anakin becomes a near perfect deconstruction of the Messianic Archetype. Obi-Wan's bold statement of "Only the Sith speak in absolutes" is the exact opposite of what everything else in the film depicts about the nature of the Sith and Jedi and their worldviews.
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is one for Hillbilly Horrors, featuring the rural hicks as the heroes and the college kids as the villains. However, it's also a partial Reconstruction, since Chad, the actual villain of the movie, is revealed to actually be an evil hillbilly who turns into a crazed killer by the end. He just doesn't stereotypically look like one. His origin story, in which his crazy hillbilly father raped his mother (resulting in his conception), is a straight example.
The Wrestler is a deconstruction of sports movies in which the fallen and ailing sporting hero's Redemption Quest is to triumph against physical adversity and win a big bout against an old rival, which thus solves his current problems and allows him to move on with their lives with renewed success and appreciation from the fans. Here, what would be the subject of such a quest in such movies - a big reunion bout with his main rival in the past - in fact isn't; Randy's realRedemption Quest is to build a new life for himself outside of the ring by fixing things with his estranged daughter and find love with Cassidy, the stripper with whom he has fallen in love. He ultimately fails at both, and the fact that he enters the big bout is in fact a symbol of his failure in this. Although he wins the bout, it's strongly implied that his heart problems mean that the effort killed him in the process. In addition, his victory was inevitable, as all wrestling duels are shown to be scripted, and Randy is still a beloved All-American Face who just can't lose.
Not only that, but there is no real animosity between Randy and his old rival, The Ayatollah. The people he has real problems with are those outside the ring. In fact, during their match, The Ayatollah tries to help Randy when he realizes that he's having a heart attack.
Unforgiven is a particularly sharp deconstruction of American westerns, but also of the spaghetti westerns that Clint Eastwood himself starred in. In particular, the portrayal of the main character shows how an ace gunfighter might have lived out his later years. His character progression also goes in reverse, unraveling into his former state to undo the character development he's acquired. Many standard conventions of westerns are also subverted, including the quickdraw contest, the hooker with the heart of gold, and the triumphant ride into the sunset. The scenes with the dime novel author are dedicated to exposing the falsehoods of the folklore surrounding the "wild west" and the myths created by writers telling the stories to either make them sound more excitng or more heroic than what actually occurred. The movie in particular makes a point about how there is absolutely nothing glorious about killing a person and to murder someone even if you think it is for a heroic reason and no matter how seemly awful the victim might have been as a person, the act of murder is a guilt you have to carry for the rest of your life.
In the early '50s there was The Gunfighter, depicting its protagonist as a bitter, tormented loner. More sympathetic treatments of Native Americans occurred in Fort Apache, Broken Arrow (1950) and Devil's Doorway before it became the norm.
When Trumpets Fade does this to western World War II war films. However, it goes further in not only showing that War Is Hell, but ditching many tropes such as the Fire-ForgedBand of Brothers ultimately prevailing against all odds. Manning has only his own survival at stake, and will happily sacrifice his men to save himself. In fact, none of the soldiers appear to fancy themselves to be dying and bleeding for any lofty goals like duty or home and country. There's nothing glorious about the battle of Hurtgen Forest, which is mostly forgotten.
You're Next goes even further than Scream did in deconstructing the Slasher Movie. The villains aren't murdering the family For the Evulz like in other slashers, but actually have a motive; namely, monetary gain. While their first few kills go exactly as planned, they eventually start making minor fuck-ups that lead to their plan ultimately failing; the only reason why they have any success in the first place is because the plan was an inside job. The attackers are not invincible monsters, just normal humans. Wearing a Halloween mask to commit a crime, however scary it makes you look, is also seen to be fatally impractical, as breathing is difficult and peripheral vision is cut off entirely. Likewise, they're seen reacting normally to pain, with one stepping on a wooden plank with nails hammered into it needing assistance from his partners-in-crime to escape. Also, this is one of the few slashers where the would-be victims actively defend themselves from their tormentors. For that matter the movie shows what would happen to the would-be slasher villains if they took on someone that had actual experience in combat training and prepared for potential issues like a break in that occurs in the movie; The result is that they would be horribly out match against someone that is actually more dangerous then them.
emphasizes how the movie does a very good job of deconstructing the aftermath of the classic American Mafia during the last half-hour of the film, particularly from Mafia movies like GoodFellas where the aftermath of said lifestyle in modern times is never shown. The result of such deconstruction is an incredibly depressing epilogue to the genre. In many ways, the film undermines what came before, and the central characters don't come out in a blaze of glory. Instead, they march towards a lonely and desiccated retirement where everything they have worked for means nothing for modern times. The movie drives home relentlessly how men like Frank, Russell, Jimmy and other wiseguys are nothing but a pitiful shadow of what they once were. In other words, they are just people who belong to the past. All these attributes make this film one of the biggest deconstructions ever made of the Mafia genre, which is especially remarkable considering that Scorsese's own GoodFellas was already a deconstruction of its own film genre, yet this film takes things to a new level of deconstruction, especially in the downfall of the classic American Mafia.