Informed Wrongness / Live-Action Films

aka: Film

• Elmo's attachment to his blanket in The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland is presented as him being greedy as well as him refusing to share it with anyone else. However, Elmo's attachment to his blanket comes off less as him being greedy and more as him being a child attached to a security blanket, which is perfectly normal for a child, and not wanting to lose it or have it damaged by someone is also understandable. And Elmo did allow Zoe to hold his blanket for a couple of seconds, but Zoe's refusal to give back something that's not hers and getting into a tug of war over the blanket with Elmo, resulting in Elmo losing it, makes Zoe come off as more of the one being greedy instead of Elmo. ^note  A Season 50 episode from Sesame Street rectifies this issue when Rudy takes Julia's stuffed bunny to play with. Julia doesn't take too kindly to it and begins throwing a tantrum. Alan explains to Rudy that Julia's bunny is a comfort item that helps her when she's scared or in a bad mood, so it's not for sharing. Rudy understands and apologizes for taking Julia's toy.
• The Big Short: While we're supposed to view Baum's group as just as amoral as the banks when the S&P officer calls him a hypocrite, it comes off as forced and looks more like a bad attempt at Black-and-Gray Morality since a) what the S&P group is doing is largely still illegal and borderline fraudulent, while what Baum is doing is actually very legal, if capitalistic; and b) Baum is betting against the banks, who are hardly innocent in this case, while S&P and the banks are largely screwing up a whole country and people that are largely ignorant of what's going on because they've been lied to about being able to refinance their debt (which they couldn't). Fundamentally, while the protagonists are making money off the financial crash, they haven't caused it or done anything to make it worse, in fact all they've done is what they're supposed to do - look at the facts, look at the data, and invest accordingly in their clients' best interests without lying or fabricating anything. If the banks or the ratings agencies had just done that, the crisis either wouldn't have happened or been a lot milder. And the protagonists do attempt to warn people, but either no one listens, or are deliberately ignoring (or even suppressing) the information to keep making money for as long as possible.
• Black Christmas (2006): The Reveal that Kyle has a sex tape online is treated as some horrendous character flaw on his part. The video was stolen and uploaded to the internet without his consent, and yet the sorority sisters treat him as an Asshole Victim because their friend Megan was in it. Said tape was made before he got with Kelli and he admits he isn't proud of it, making it understandable why he might not have told her yet; especially since it was only put on the internet that day. With regards to Megan, it's never elaborated if she knew she was being filmed, but the angle on the camera indicates that she did - implying it was a sex tape between two consenting adults. Kyle is a victim of revenge porn, and yet the whole thing is treated as his fault.
• Black Christmas (2019):
  • Riley is treated as a coward for not wanting to take part in a Christmas dance designed to talk about frat boy rape culture in the very fraternity house where she was raped, with her rapist in the crowd! When she fills in for the ill Helena, she understandably freezes on stage, and just gets an insensitive "rebuild yourself, bitch" from Kris. And then Kris posts a video of the performance online without Riley's consent, and in the video she named Riley's rapist without her knowledge. The movie treats Riley as being in the wrong for having a problem with this, and she later tells Kris she was right all along.
  • Kris on the flipside is treated as crazy for wanting to go to the police, saying they'd never be believed and they need to take the fight directly to the DKO. However, going to the cops would probably be a good idea in this situation. While it's unlikely the cops would believe them about the black magic murder cult, there's still ample proof that members of the frat murdered or tried to murder the sorority sisters, forcing an investigation of the frat and backing up that Riley and Kris acted in self-defence. When Riley does go to the frat house alone, she gets captured and would've been killed if Kris hadn't been able to persuade another sorority to storm the house. By the ending, the girls have possibly made things worse for themselves by burning down the frat and killing everyone, because they've destroyed a lot of evidence corroborating their story. In the worst case scenario the girls may get punished for murder/manslaughter and arson.

• In Casino Royale (2006), a major low point in the narrative comes when Bond falls for Le Chiffre's double-bluff: in a crucial poker game, Le Chiffre turns out to have been faking his tell, causing Bond to go all-in when he thought Le Chiffre was bluffing. This is treated as a moment of idiocy and recklessness on his part, and his superiors chew him out for betting everything like that and needing to borrow more money to get back in the game. The thing is, on the hand Bond went all-in on, he was holding an ace and a king, giving a full house of kings over aces—this is one of the strongest hands in poker, with over a 99% chance of winning in that situation, and any poker player would go all-in on it, regardless of what they thought their opponent had. In fact, there are only two hands Le Chiffre could have held that would have beaten it: two aces (which would have given him a stronger full house), and the hand he was holding, two jacks (which netted him four-of-a-kind). Essentially, bluff or not, Bond had every reason to think he was about to win the hand, and the reason he lost has less to do with recklessness and more to do with the Magic Poker Equation.
• Christmas with a Capital C: All the people who make the reasonable points of opening up the public space for a more diverse holiday display are quickly shot down by Dan, who simply says that "it doesn't work with him".
• The Lifetime Movie of the Week Cyber Seduction: His Secret Life informs us so about Internet porn. It's something that's so wrong it causes Justin to suddenly suck at swimming, get rejected by the cool kids, end up beaten up and suicidal and get addicted to energy drinks. And this is just from looking at the softcore stuff the movie is able to show... Justin's father does say that Justin looking at porn isn't that big of a deal, but being a man in a Lifetime movie, he of course is wrong by default.
• Ed Rooney in Ferris Bueller's Day Off is depicted as a Jerkass Dean Bitterman who's going overboard with trying to discipline Ferris (admittedly, he broke the law and committed animal cruelty), though that doesn't change the fact that Ferris is skipping school, has done so at least nine times prior (he hacks into the school computer to change the records), and does so by blatantly exploiting the good will of everyone, including his parents.
• In Flight Crew, Gushchin views his failure to save the refugees as an enormous mistake of his where he allowed himself to be overruled by his superior Zinchenko, and the narrative apparently agrees with him. However, the unnamed country in question has just been through a violent coup, with armed soldiers who, as the film itself shows, don't hesitate to kill civilians, occupying the airport as well, while all Zinchenko and Gushchin have is a civilian plane. To a viewer, they pick the Lesser of Two Evils option of a Sadistic Choice: comply with the new authorities' demands and only take foreign citizens on board (thereby at least saving them), or intervene, try to take the local passengers as well — and get shot down without saving anyone.
• Gordy: Sipes' protests to Mr. Royce's promotion of Gordy over his daughter after the test shoots, as well as his later objection to the man leaving his company to Gordy in his will. Mr. Sipes may be a scheming and dishonest corporate executive, but he is quite in the right to be saying the public's newfound fixation on Gordy is simply ridiculous, and to protest the very notion of leaving an entire company in the care of a pig as opposed to the man's own adult daughter.
• In High School Musical, one of several mean things Sharpay does... is help the shy new girl at her school become friends with people who genuinely like and support her. Something Gabriella — the girl in question — openly appreciates. Granted, it's more done out of Sharpay's sense of ensuring everyone is in their "proper" place and still without consent, but it's not bad (even if the reasons aren't altruistic).
• Jurassic World has a moment where Owen reacts with horror that Claire doesn't know her nephews' exact ages off the top of her head. The movie also tries to make Claire out to be a horrible workaholic for getting her assistant to watch the nephews when they first arrive, even though it's the middle of the work week and she has to run the very park they're vacationing in.
• Kaizoku Sentai Ten Gokaiger: The movie frames Gai as being in the wrong for distrusting (and eventually fighting) Captain Marvelous in the Super Sentai Derby Colosseum over the Ranger Keys despite none of Gai's True Companions ever bothering to let him in on what was really going on with them or why the Captain was suddenly opposing an otherwise-awesome-seeming Earth defense project until after the fact. The movie doesn't even attempt to Hand Wave this and effectively ignores it after Joe's brief aside, allowing the primary Gokaigers to demonstrate flawless teamwork amongst each other while holding Gai up to a clueless Double Standard for being Locked Out of the Loop.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • The Avengers (2012): The titular group gives Nick Fury hell and a half for SHIELD using the Tesseract and recovered HYDRA technology to make weapons of their own, which Fury justifies because humanity is hopelessly outmatched by the likes of Asgardians and otherworldly threats. Nothing is said of the simple fact that Fury is absolutely right, especially considering that humanity's only other hope, the titular Avengers, are currently a ragtag unreliable group at best, and if they fail to come together or are otherwise defeated, humanity will be completely helpless. The criticisms also ring very hollow coming from Iron Man (who relies on making weapons like SHIELD is doing) and Captain America (who was created by the predecessors of SHIELD through a scientist rescued from HYDRA, using a serum he developed for HYDRA).
  • Ant-Man: The villainous Darren Cross, determined to uncover the secret to shrinking technology, orders animal testing on lambs. His aide Hope is horrified (since the failed shrinking tech dissolves them into a tiny puddle of bloody goo) and asks why they aren't testing on mice instead. Cross snarls that there's no difference, but despite his ruthlessness he does have a point: both are just laboratory animals, and a mouse is too small to test shrinking tech that would eventually be used on a human. Also, the fact that Hope objects to the use of lambs but not mice indicates that she's more motivated by the lambs' cuteness rather than actual ethics.
• Problem Child: Junior and his victims have reasons for hating one another. But while Junior is called out for his behavior, nobody calls out his aggressors for their behavior and treats Junior's attacks as totally one-sided.
• School of Rock depicts Ned's girlfriend Patty as being pushy and hypocritical because she "forces" him to demand Dewey actually get a job and pay his massive rent debt. Even though this is a rather reasonable demand, since Dewey isn't terribly concerned with what a drag he is on Ned. She is also supposed to be seen as hypocritical by pointing out that Dewey steps all over him and manipulates him... even though he does exactly that to Ned. To the point of engaging in identity theft to get a job under his name and trying to beg that he not do anything about it when Ned finds out. She's later further villainized for convincing Ned to press charges over the identity theft. At no point in the film is Dewey ever truly sorry for what he pulls on Ned and how many laws he broke or even that what he did could seriously impact Ned's own career as a teacher. For starters, the income from the job that Ned technically lost out on since Dewey took it from him, or what would happen when Ned didn't declare income from a job unknowingly taken under his name on his taxes. Dewey does acknowledge that what he did to the kids was wrong, but he's not ever aware of how much he took advantage of his roommate either. The moment where Ned breaks up with Patty for Dewey's concert is supposed to be a triumph of assertiveness when her only crime is being kind of aggressive over Ned not ever standing up for himself and being taken advantage of. Along that line, the parents of the children in Dewey's class aren't exactly unreasonable for being upset that their kids are learning nothing but rock music, and no academics, for weeks or months on end. Even many rock-loving parents would be bothered by how this would set their kids up for some serious educational problems later in the area (for being behind all the other classes in their grade).
• Mickey in Shes The One falls out with his new wife Hope for assuming he would go to Paris with her without discussing it with him first, which seems like a reasonable point, yet he is blamed for it and says himself that he ruined the relationship. The only reason given for him being to blame is that he "didn't fight for her" but Hope didn't fight for him either and was in the wrong in the first place.
• In Showgirls, the main character Nomi works in a strip club and aspires to be a topless dancer in a Las Vegas show. At one point she gives a man a lapdance that amounts to sex with a denim condom, and she was perfectly willing to do what came down to live on-stage lesbian sex, screw her boss to get a higher position, and push the lead dancer down the stairs to get her job, but when she's asked during an audition to use ice cubes to make herself more *ahem* "perky", her angry refusal is treated as a display of strength of character. Why the line of moral compromise is drawn at that exact point is perhaps the only thing the movie leaves to the viewer's imagination. Furthermore, her later use of ice cubes after she joins Goddess is intended to be a sign that she's "losing herself."
• Star Wars:
  • Han Solo is repeatedly portrayed as being in the wrong for wanting to leave to pay off his debt to Jabba the Hutt in The Empire Strikes Back. Nobody (except General Riekann) acknowledges that he is a dead man if he doesn't pay it back, or that he's actively being hunted by bounty hunters who have already attempted to kill him in Mos Eisley and on Ord Mantell by the time the second film has started. Even when Han points out his concerns that the bounty hunters won't stop hunting him until he pays off his debt, he's nevertheless dismissed as if he's just turning his back on the Rebellion's cause, and the possibility of leaving, paying his debt, and coming back is never brought up either, even though this would probably take only a day at most. In fact it is Boba Fett who manages to follow the Falcon to Cloud City, so not paying the debt off lead directly to Han being captured and frozen.
  • The Last Jedi, Poe Dameron repeatedly demands that Admiral Holdo do something instead of just apparently delaying the inevitable by continuing to run from the First Order. In response, Holdo will only insists that he follow his orders without question, refusing to reveal the plan that she actually does have. Leia later supports Holdo's behavior and criticizes Poe for trying to be a hero. Many fans feel that the movie treating Poe as wrong doesn't make sense, since he and the rest of the crew were purposely kept in the dark during a situation where they needed to know something was being done to save themselves, which Holdo refused to do. Worse, he actually agreed with the plan once he was told, meaning if Holdo had just told him, Poe likely would have simply followed along without issue. Within the context of the situation, Poe acted with the best intentions to save the crew from what he saw as a cowardly leader who was doing nothing to save the Resistance, but is treated as wrong for not just blindly following the orders of a superior who had given him no reason to think was doing anything to save them.
• In Surrogates — and, for that matter, almost every movie which uses virtual reality to deliver an Anti-Escapism Aesop — it's taken as a given that using artificial means to lead exactly the kind of life you want is inherently morally inferior to actually going out and leading your own boring life. Even though the users feel and experience everything their surrogates do (so it feels just as real as doing it in person except you won't die if, say, your parachute doesn't open), and actually are interacting with other people (they just don't see what they really look like), and the movie tells us in the opening that the use of Surrogates has almost completely wiped out racism and sexism. Not only that, but it was stated that the titular surrogates were initially developed to help people with disabilities, letting them do things they couldn't do with their organic bodies. To imply that they ought to give that up because it isn't "real" would be SEVERELY patronizing. And if that's not enough, they had no murders for over a decade in the city of the film. Yeah, but... it's not real, man!
• In A Star Is Born (2018), Ally's manager Rez is treated as being in the wrong because he doesn't want Ally to bring Jackson with her on tour. Thing is, he's absolutely right not to want Jackson along because Ally spends all her time when he is with her coddling Jackson, checking up on him and neglecting her own work to babysit him and Jackson ruins Ally's award show by getting drunk and humiliating her on national television. When he gives Jackson a "The Reason You Suck" Speech on his selfishness and how all he does is hold Ally back, it's treated as the final straw and part of the reason Jackson committed suicide, but it's Jackson's responsibility and Rez simply told him the truth he didn't want to hear.
• In The Shack, the film is about a man named Mackenzie whose daughter gets murdered by a serial killer on a camping trip, and he returns to the shack only to be brought in by three people who help him forgive the killer. The film's message of forgiving all wrong, including a serial killer who murdered your child falls rather flat since the killer got away with his crime and it is understandable why Mackenzie should continue feeling devastated and determined to get justice.
• The Violent Years: The parents are touted as being neglectful of Paula, but their behavior on screen seems to belie Paula (and the writer's) claims of them.
  • While the mother is fairly aloof, she does give Paula blank checks, and free use of her car, without qualifications. She is claimed to never be interested in Paula, but she actually does show concern for Paula's desires, and has a long conversation with her.
  • Similarly, her father is portrayed as being married to his job and never being home for Paula. Yet, her father did give her gifts, and even more importantly, is supportive and knowledgeable of Paula's school and civic activities. To take that even further, he's actively proud of her.
• The Wizard has an antagonist whose job is finding the missing children and bringing them home. He might occasionally Poke the Poodle and be a Jerkass, but the bad guy's job is locating missing kids for their parents. The movie tries to sell him as a villain. When he is hit with a false accusation of sexual assault by an underage girl, The Wizard portrays this as heroic cleverness on the girl's part.
• A movie called Women Obsessed shows a man physically beating his new wife and menacing his stepson. At one point he seemingly rapes the wife (which is a case of What Happened to the Mouse? since we don't see what happens after he closes the door). She gets pregnant by him and ends up losing the baby. He carries her six miles to the hospital. At the doctor's house, she tells the doctor that she wants to leave him because he's abusive. The doctor then chastises her because of his heroics last night. She's portrayed as wrong in this situation and the movie ends with her begging him for forgiveness. This is also a case of Values Dissonance, since the movie was made in 1959, a time when attitudes towards spousal and parental abuse were in several ways very different.

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