"rerun of a bad movie"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Earlier idioms included "like [the return of] a bad dream" or "nightmare."

Lt. Audie Murphy (with his ghost writer, David McClure) described his
recollections of WWII combat as being "like a horror film run backwards"
(1949).

In my war and literature class (1999-2003) I always had students who
were troubled and bewildered that America's most famous war hero could
think that way.

JL

On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 9:43 AM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "rerun of a bad movie"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jonathan Lighter wrote
> > YBQ credits George W. Bush with having compared the alleged machinations
> > of Saddam Hussein as "a rerun of a bad movie."
> >
> > He may have been the first to apply the words to Iraq, but GB turns up
> more
> > than fifty earlier exx. of the metaphor.
> >
> > Earliest and most notable is from NYT journalist Harrison Salisbury's
> _Orbit
> > of China_ (N.Y.: Harper, 1967), p. 177: "[T]he clamping down on sources
> of
> > conflicting opinion; the closing of windows through which a clear view of
> > the real world could be obtained, what was happening in China seemed like
> > the rerun of a bad movie."
>
> Thanks for pointing out this earlier cite JL. Here is an instance of a
> comparable simile in 1960. The reference is to a horror film instead
> of a bad movie.
>
> Cite: 1960 November 22, Miami News, "Does Sen. Long Speak For The Real
> South?" by Ralph McGill, Page 10A, Miami, Florida. (Google News
> archive)
>
> This face, and this voice, are like those we heard at Little Rock,
> Clinton, Nashville and Norfolk before sanity was permitted to return
> and reason allowed to replace folly. How often must we see and hear
> them. Is it necessary to have them over and over again, like the
> re-run of a horror film?
>
> In 1940 a simile invoked a re-run of a phonograph record; however, the
> song was not described as bad.
>
> Cite: 1940 January 24, Prescott Evening Courier, Sea Incidents Said
> Natural by DeWitt MacKenzie, Associated Press, Page 1, Column 3,
> Prescott, Arizona. (Google News archive)
>
> All this sounds mighty like the re-run of a World war phonograph
> record. Prior to our entrance into the conflict. In April, 1917, we
> were constantly encountering. what we regarded as rank violations of
> our rights by both England and Germany.
>
>
> The existence of these matches suggests there probably are other
> closer matches based on comparisons with reruns of films, movies,
> television shows, or records that are bad, terrible, horrible,
> etcetera.
>
> I think it is useful to know about the earlier uses of this type of
> metaphor and simile. Yet, perhaps the Bush quote is particularly
> salient because it is connected with the largest decision of his
> Presidency.
>
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>



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