When I studied psychology (yeah! Well there’s lots you don’t know about me!) just a few things, out of a four year degree, actually stuck in my mind. Most has long been washed out with each shampooing. Mainly because a lot of what we studied was a bit detached from reality or was just too academic to be of any use. But one experiment was great. Because it was instructive.

A group of students were going to be lectured by a new Professor. They were given a brief outline of the guy and among the qualifications and achievements and publications, they slipped in that ‘he’s quite a cold person’. In the other group, everything was the same except the ‘cold’ was replaced with ‘warm’. One word difference. After the lectures (both exactly the same) the students were given questionnaires to rate the new guy. And guess what? Can ya?? The ‘warm’ group rated him massively higher than the ‘cold’ group. But not just on his personality. On his clarity, his intelligence, fucking everything. One word.

This is the ultimate ‘judging books by covers’ issue. We make judgments based on absolutely no evidence whatsoever because we encounter so many people we just have to do that. And any snipped we can glean beforehand will affect those judgments more than any of us care to admit. Which is why I hate you. Just joking.

And all this because of Quentin Tarantino.

Everybody (well, everybody who cares deeply, as I do) knew about ‘once upon a time in Hollywood’ before they saw it. We all knew that ‘it’s very long and the last 10/15/20 minutes are serious hard-core violence’.

When the violence got too much, I averted my gaze. Some of it was horrible. Mel thought it was funny. In a cartoony way, bit like in Kill Bill. Tough my wife. My brother went alone because his partner don’t like violence and refused. And mon ami qui habite en France, I learned, walked out 20 minutes before the end. Because they liked the film but didn’t want to do the horrible bit. Which also happened the be, pretty much, the entire point of a very long and very brilliant film.

But its what we do. We make judgments based on little, no or very poor information and act accordingly. And miss the end AFTER the violence which is the denouement of the whole preceding madness.

Anyway, who cares. Monty Python’s 50 years old and that’s all that really matters.

Have a non-judgmental Sunday

A xxxx