How to Make a Girl Fall for You: A Critical Review of the Movie
The movie, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, did just a good of a job of showing how silly stock characters are today as did Plautus' works in ancient Rome. The movie is more than just a boy trying to find love, it's about making fun of all movies that have a similar plot. One of the main characters in the movie, Hero, did an exceptional job of making fun of the most common stock character, a young man in love. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum makes fun of the stock character roles of a young man in love with the character Hero because Hero is willing to do anything for love, he tries many stereotypical ways to make Philia fall in love with him, and he's obsessed with Philia.
The first reason why Hero is a stock example of a young man in love is because he will do anything for love. For example, in the movie Hero asks for the slave, Pseudolus' help in winning Philia. Pseudolus replies that he will most definitely help Hero under the conditions that the family will give him freedom. This is an insane thing for a young man to promise. First off, Hero doesn't own the slave himself, his father does. He is so obsessed with Philia that he doesn't even take a second to recognize that he can't do that and that he'll have to somehow persuade his father, Senex, to allow Pseudolus to be free. If Senex were to reply with "no," this would create a situation where Pseudolus would become somewhat rebellious and unwilling to listen to promises from his master in the future. Hero also shouldn't have made this promise because he hadn't even heard any part of Pseudolus' plan. Hero has no real evidence that Pseudolus knows how to make Philia fall in love with Hero in the first place. The only reason why Hero would make such a promise so quickly because he is obsessed with winning over Philia and will do nothing else.
The second reason why Hero is a stock example of a young man in love is because he tries stereotypical methods of making a girl fall in love with him. The movie extends this by showing how ridiculous some of these ideas are. For example, one of the first scenes in the movie shows Hero tries to send a message on a rock to Philia through tying the rock on the leg to a pigeon. When Hero lets go of the pigeon, the pigeon soon falls to the ground since the rock is so heavy. Another time he tries to sing while playing the lyre for Philia. He begins to try to sing. which he can not do, and then tries to play the lyre, which he can not do either. He finds that the lyre is out of tune, so he tries to tune it while still playing and singing. On one hand, this shows the viewer how Hero will try anything for Philia, but on the other hand it shows the viewers how most movies come up with pretty weird things that no ordinary person would do after meeting someone to make them fall in love.
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The third reason why Hero is a stock example of a young man in love is because he is obsessed with Philia. Hero can only see his life with Philia, as he threatens to kill himself twice when there is any vague possibility that he may not get to spend his life with Philia. The first time is when he finds that Philia has already been bought for Miles Gloriosus. He says, "I must stab myself." He proceeds to try to stab himself, but misses. The second time he believes Pseudolus' scheme to make Miles Gloriosus think that Philia is dead. He says to himself, "The captain's maiden is dead. Then I'll kill myself." While this may come from his rash behavior as a teenager, this shows that Hero can only see a life with Philia, and wants it no other way. He thinks that the only way to lead to a good life is to live with Philia.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum creates the stock character role of a young man in love because Hero will do anything for love, tries many silly things to make Philia fall in love with him and can't imagine a life without Philia. If someone were to tell you that general plot of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, you would probably think it was just a regular old blockbuster movie that the same companies have been remaking for the last forty years with no characters, but once the movie starts, the nuanced differences creates an entirely new plot to make fun of all the stock characters that have been in almost every play and movie for ever, literally.
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How to Make a Girl Fall for You: A Critical Review of the Movie. (2023, Jun 24). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/how-to-make-a-girl-fall-for-you-a-critical-review-of-the-movie/
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