I'm not going to go into all the various period films being rattled off lately that document the
60's and
70's. They know who they are and so do you. I do not, because I don't want to.
It's not that I am against the reprinting of an older era, one that I do not remember and do not regret missing. I do catch myself watching 80's flicks, either from the original or recycled within the present, to see just how accurate they are. It's just that it seem like stock ideas, things you can always fall back on when you can't think of something new.
I have my issues with the present, where we are going and how fast and in what direction. But I still feel it is something worth filming, capturing on camera, that it is worth seeing and should be something we would want to see. Films may not be accurate to their time frame, but they are a byproduct thereof, just as literature, fashion, and social commentary.
Often we are led to look back upon an era where things were first happening, pinnacle moments in modern history for America. When things weren't as used up or have already been made and remade, as they seem now. I am not for standing on a milk crate and professing that yes, indeed, we are making change here and now. What I am saying is that my life is worth living right now, so why don't I see more of it, right now?
I'm sure I'm not looking in the right places, but going to the movies is the easiest way to see just how little you are represented in the world. For example, every movie shot in New Orleans is dramatic, seedy, lecherous and hedonistic. And it is that way, but less than the world realizes. I would love for once to see a film made here that was just about ordinary people. Those kinds of movies don't sell the big bucks, and maybe they never did. But they were part of the frame in which we set the history of our time. They are the true stock ideas because they are timeless. So few films these days are left timeless. And when they are dated, they are impeccably so, and if you're in you're in, but otherwise, you're simply rifling through your uncle's attic wardrobe from when he was a rebel, not you.
And, irony being what it is, all the modern, so-called youth movies seem so shallow, vacuous, and unfulfilling that they give me little hope for the following generation. I mean, believe me, my generation is far from idealistic, but we were at least granted class struggle, we were granted room to be different and to not have to like each other, we didn't have to always be nice about it. The sense of loss and purpose is universal, but now it seems like it has consumed the market.
I don't see universal truth and beauty when I watch dated films about the 70's. I see a lot of people lost, looking for answers and, not finding any, go for what makes sense at the time. I mean, think about it: if people are committing suicide for the same reasons they were 200 years ago, why do we think that we have changed so much, and why then are we so tempted to look back when little is there to relish any more than there is right now, in front of us? What are we so afraid of?
All of us go through the box 'o memories many times in our lifetime. The high school yearbooks, the college scrapbooks, photo albums and old letters. One of the biggest joys and burdens for humans is the infinite capacity we have for memory. But eventually, we all sigh, close that box, shove it back into the crevice we store it in, and get back to life at hand.
I am 25, and I am likely the average age for noders, a nice halfway age. I'm at that age where I am capable of showing almost anyone something new. You could be an 18 year old in college or a 37 year old husband with two kids, and you could quite easily talk to me and learn something new, simply because the distance is there between us. Our own time is like that. We need to find the value in it again.