Thread: Weird Film Titles n their meanings!

hello people! there are some absolutely awesome movies out there to see; but ever you've noticed as to what their titles have to say?? i am a great movie enthusiast too and i do find some very amazing but weird film titles whose meaning i do not understand.. i posted this thread to see if some T-I persons could help me with the meaning of these titles.. for a start i post one title and after its meaning is clear.. we can post another one and it goes on..



my first title is: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

The title of the film is a line from a nursery rhyme,

Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn,
Wire, briar, limber lock
Three geese in a flock
One flew East
One flew West
And one flew over the cuckoo's nest

Chief Bromden's (The writer of the original book) grandmother sang this song to him when he was young, and they had a game about it. A playful name for a mental asylum is a "cuckoo's nest", a mentally unstable person can be referred to as "cuckoo". To "fly over a cuckoo's nest" is to go too far, to get yourself in trouble. Though this can refer to the character of McMurphy being too much of a free spirit and eventually angering Nurse Ratched so much that he receives a lobotomy as result, it can also refer to the ending, where two characters died, and Chief Bromden escaped the Asylum or "Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest". It is also known that Cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds' nests, and do not have nests of their own. The Cuckoo, upon hatching, throws the other birds out of the nest out of instinct.

Another wierd one is "The 400 Blows" makes no sense in english. But, perfect sense when you hear it's original meaning.

The English title is a straight translation of the French but misses its meaning, as the French title refers to the expression "faire les quatre cents coups", which means "to raise hell". On the first American prints, subtitler and dubber Noelle Gilmore gave the film the title Wild Oats, but the distributor did not like that title and reverted it to The 400 Blows, which led some to think the film covered the topic of corporal punishment