In the movie The Big Date, released in 2004, there is the scene that i

Question

In the movie The Big Date, released in 2004, there is the scene that is virtually identical to a scene in Robber Barron, which was made in 1986. The scene is so unique that it is highly unlikely that the similarity is mere coincidence. Therefore, it is probable that the makers of The Big Date saw Robber Barron.

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument?

A. A third movie that was probably seen by both the makers of The Big Date and Robber Barron was made in 1960 and contained essentially the same scene.

B. The Big Date is a comedy, whereas Robber Barron is a drama.

C. Both movies were released only in the United States.

D. The scene in Robber Barron was also included in the play and novel from which the movie was adapted.

E. According to critics, The Big Date was a far better movie than Robber Barron and contained many innovative scenes.

Hit  Kudos  If you like this Question

chetan2u · Answer

In the movie The Big Date, released in 2004, there is the scene that is virtually identical to a scene in Robber Barron, which was made in 1986. The scene is so unique that it is highly unlikely that the similarity is mere coincidence. Therefore, it is probable that the makers of The Big Date saw Robber Barron.

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument?

A. A third movie that was probably seen by both the makers of The Big Date and Robber Barron was made in 1960 and contained essentially the same scene.
  Correct. So may be the makers of The Big Date did not see and copy the scene from the movie Robber Barron but from the third movie

B. The Big Date is a comedy, whereas Robber Barron is a drama.
 The scene could have still been copied. Out of context

C. Both movies were released only in the United States.
 Out of context

D. The scene in Robber Barron was also included in the play and novel from which the movie was adapted.
 again out of context

E. According to critics, The Big Date was a far better movie than Robber Barron and contained many innovative scenes.
 Again does not do anything to the argument

A

adstudy · Answer

(A). A third movie that was probably seen by both the makers of The Big Date and Robber Barron was made in 1960 and contained essentially the same scene.

Explanation - It weakens the argument because stem says Big Date copied from Robber Baron, but here it says both copied from a third movie. This seems to be a good alternative to the above argument's reasoning. Hence a good weakener.

(B). The Big Date is a comedy, whereas Robber Barron is a drama.

Explanation - Does not explain anything about scene copying. Both can have different genres but still same scenes.

(C). Both movies were released only in the United States.

Explanation - Again irrelevant. Does not explain anything about scene copying

(D). The scene in Robber Barron was also included in the play and novel from which the movie was adapted.

Explanation - Again irrelevant. Does not provide information on the movie The Big Date

(E). According to critics, The Big Date was a far better movie than Robber Barron and contained many innovative scenes.

Explanation - Again irrelevant. We are not talking about innovative scenes in the movie, just the one scene that seems to be a copy of the earlier 
 Hence A

Akash720 · Answer

Prethinking:
As soon as you read the argument, relate it to your real life events. In this case one guy argues that a movie "The Big date" has a scene which is similar to a scene in movie "Robber Barron". He thus concludes by saying The Big Date copied that scene from Robber Barron. How will you counter his argument? If you don't believe it
Most probably you'll say, no its not copied from Robber Barron, that movie itself copied the scene from another movie which was released way earlier than that.

Go through the options and you'll find A matching with your Pre thinking

+1 for A

AshutoshB · Answer

Official Explanation

The best answer is A.  This is a weaken question. Answer choice A weakens the conclusion of the argument by providing an alternate explanation for the similarity between the scenes in the two movies. In this instance, the alternate explanation offered is entirely plausible and would explain why the two scenes are so similar without blaming only the maker of the movie that came later in time for the similarity. Each of the other answer choices is irrelevant to the connection between the evidence presented and the stated conclusion.

Hit Kudos

JatinBhandari1 · Answer

The argument suggests that scene in both the movies are identical and due to the uniqueness of the scene, it can't be a coincidence. Hence, the conclusion is drawn which suggests that the makers of the movie Big Date saw Robber Baron which was made earlier.
The correct answer should undermine the fact that the director of Big Date took inspiration from the movie Robber Baron.
Let us do POE
A-This suggests that both the authors took inspiration from another movie, provides an alternative reason. Correct
B-the genres of the movies are out of the scope
C-Out of scope
D-This choice does not undermine the argument.
E-Comparison of the movies remains to be unrelated.
Hope it helps.
Keep practicing.
PythaGURUS Faculty Team

IanStewart · Answer

What is the source? A is clearly a good answer here, because it's possible both films were copying the 1960 film, and The Big Date filmmakers were unfamiliar with the 1986 film. But I don't know why every answer above describes D as 'irrelevant' or 'out of scope'. "Robber Barron" is the title of the 1986 movie. We have no way to know if that's the title of the play and novel (really, both?) from which the film was adapted -- movies adapted from novels or plays very often use new titles (about half of them seem to, glancing at recent Adapted Screenplay nominations). So if D is true, the makers of The Big Date might have copied the scene from a play or novel, and not from the movie Robber Barron. That weakens the argument by providing an alternative explanation for the similarity of the two scenes.

A is a better answer than D, because A spells out all the connections -- it tells us the 1960 film "was probably seen" by the later filmmakers -- but D is a reasonable answer here too (which is why it's easy to tell this is a prep company question), and is certainly not irrelevant or out of scope.

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

In the movie The Big Date, released in 2004, there is the scene that i

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

In the movie The Big Date, released in 2004, there is the scene that i

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards