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Well, there was McCarthyism & the blacklist, massive conformity, anti-intellectualism, the American government overthrowing democratically elected governments in third world countries, and of course the ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation that I still remember all too well from my boyhood then—it clung to everything like a grey miasma, heightened by duck-and-cover drills in grade school, which terrified all of us children. And seeing our parents, and all adults, as even more terrified by that threat made it worse.
As for the racism, the Dixiecrats were indeed ugly, the retrograde wing of the Democratic Party; but of course they were soon to switch to the Republican Party after the passage of the Civil Rights Act just a few years later, where they've remained ever since.
The good thing about the late 1950s was that the ferment for the 1960s was already present, from the young playwrights, screenwriters, poets (the Beats in particular), artists, etc., of the era, as well as the emerging civil rights movement, the anti-nuclear movement—even the small beginnings of the women's rights movement & the gay rights movement. Shows like The Twilight Zone & the various live TV drama anthologies explored the soul-devouring emptiness of corporate life, casual & official prejudice, the need to be individuals rather than faceless cogs—it's interesting how often the likes of Thoreau & Emerson were referenced in so many shows back then!
I think part of it is because it marks the change from the 1950s to the 1960s, especially with the "what happened to them afterwards" text at the end. There's certainly nostalgia for being young & essentially carefree, which all of us feel at some time when we're older & selectively filtering out the bad memories of the past. But it's also a matter of the audience knowing full well what's ahead for these characters & for the country as a whole—massive cultural changes that will render even those selectively chosen "good" memories irrelevant.
Interesting that this film jumpstarted the whole 1950s nostalgia craze a la Happy Days, which IS both selectively chosen & downright fantasy, without any acknowledgement of the ugliness of the 1950s that made the 1960s necessary. The film, if not its characters, is well aware that there's no going back to a carefully curated past—that attempting to do so is an exercise in self-deceiving daydreaming. Not only is there no going back, there shouldn't BE any going back.
At least, that's how it's always struck me.
Completely agree with you about Breaking Away, an absolute little gem of a film!
If the precipitous decline in quality & intelligence of Part 2 is any indication, we can only hope that there never is a Part 3. The original film was smart, thought-provoking, and moving. The totally unnecessary sequel tried to turn the premise into a hackneyed story about an immortal fugitive on the run, with a possible immortal serial killer somewhere in the background. I shudder to think where another one might go ...
As others have already posted, one person's bombshell is another's ordinary, and vice-versa. Also, it wasn't just Daphne's appearance, lovely as she was, but her overall personality. She radiated warmth, kindness, but also a firm no-nonsense manner. In short, she was desirable for more than just looks. And considering what Maris must have been like, she would indeed seem like a goddess to Niles.
There's no need to take it too literally. The very concept of a Doomsday Machine even being built is part of the very black humor of the film, in which all human energies & aspirations inevitably work towards death, despite our so-called intelligence. And that the power to implement such mass destruction is invariably in the hands of those least suited to wield power in the first place, i.e., obviously damaged people, psychologically stunted & warped, driven by unexamined inner forces & impulses that they can't see or acknowledge. Mandrake is the stand-in for the viewer, intelligent & humane enough to see the horrific absurdity of those death-centered power games, but helpless to do much to stop them.
To me they are. And I'm certainly not the only one who feels that way.
There didn't seem to be any main character early on, and the crew hadn't quite gelled yet. Geordi was a helmsman, with a couple of other actors-of-the-week appearing as engineers, for example. I can see why Denise Crosby asked to be written out, as Tasha & Worf pretty much shared the same duties, making at least one of them redundant.
Part of the problem was that they were using quite a few scripts for an earlier proposed revival of the original series that never came about; as a result, they were retreading the same ground, but not as well. At the same time, they needed to establish their own identity, but without alienating the built-in audience from TOS days. The relationship stories were fairly embarrassing during that first season, but would happily get better in subsequent seasons.
Although I will say that the final episode of the first season "Conspiracy" was a very effective "invasion from within" story that had some genuinely creepy moments. I've never understood why the series didn't follow up on it, as it had a somewhat open ending.
By the second season, there were very good episodes, such as "The Measure of a Man" in which Data's individuality & personal freedom are at stake: is he a sentient being, or just hardware to be used, taken apart, studied by Starfleet? Data starts to become the character we know from the later seasons; we also get the beginnings of the Geordi-Data friendship, and Data's love for Sherlock Holmes. And there's also the introduction of the Borg.
Everything isn't quite there yet in the second season, but they're clearly marking out their own territory & identity by then. The so-so episodes sometimes hearken back to the first season, but are almost never as egregious. I can rewatch & enjoy much of the second season; but I avoid rewatching the first season.
The first season is pretty ghastly, I'm afraid. The second season is a little better; about halfway through, the actors really find the cores of their characters; Picard suddenly becomes CAPTAIN Picard, for instance. But it's not until the third season, with the return of Dr. Crusher, that the series really finds its heading & truly moves forward.
I hope this is a joke. Even if the Playboy Indian is offensive to some people now, it absolutely fits the time & tone of the film. And I say that as someone with progressive politics (but not someone who demands or wants 100% zero tolerance purity tests from any quarter).
The constant repetition of the theme is supposed to be jarring, I think, and grating on people's nerves as the film progresses. It's just so relentlessly cheerful & absurdly ridiculous, even as things get darker & darker, and that's what makes it work so diabolically well. The perfect score for this film!
"If it bleeds, it leads" -- exactly.
Yes, they're 2-part episodes edited into individual films.
Well said. As much as I'm on Neil's side on the whole, he also had mixed motives driving him, ones that he couldn't see in himself either. I think that's one of the things that makes this film work. That, and it really captures how it feels to be a young person caught up in the innocent, naive, exuberantly open wonder of new ideas & exploring them for the first time, of feeling like an actual individual for the first time. But also, as you note, the dangers lurking there as well.
Yes, I agree. My sympathies are with Neil as well, but I can also understand the pressures & needs that drove his father, As with most people, his were a mixture of unexamined personal drives & genuine concern for his son. Even if he wanted Neil to live out his own unachieved dreams, he did want a better life for Neil than he'd had himself. What father wouldn't? This is the tragedy.
And I've no doubt that had Mr. Keating known & understood Neil's father, he'd have been more circumspect as a mentor for Neil, perhaps even trying to speak to Mr. Perry himself. If, if, if ... one of the saddest words in the language, isn't it?
I don't think Rowling would disagree that gender dysphoria, while relatively rare, is indeed real. What she's addressing are the social & scientific nuances that the most vehement trans activists don't want discussed. For the record, trans people should have all the rights & dignity & protections that anyone else has. But that doesn't mean that genuine questions can't be asked & considered—or worse, should never be allowed to be asked & considered. Life is simply more complex than that.
I would add that in the 1950s American worldview, Mr. Perry was doing the best thing possible for Neil, even though Mr. Perry was really doing it for himself—which is something he couldn't admit to himself, of course. He simply couldn't (or wouldn't) see that Neil was very different in temperament & character, far more sensitive & questioning about life, but feeling trapped by his sense of duty & obligation to his father. I wouldn't call his decision stupid so much as tragic. A person in that much despair can't see any other way out, can't see the possibility of going his way a year later that you or I could see—all he can see & feel is <b>now</b>.
I agree, from an adult's perspective, a year isn't all that long to wait. But for a tormented teenaged boy? He tells his father, "That's a lifetime!" And to him, it was. I remember feeling that way as a teenager myself. And while I can look back on it & ruefully smile at myself being so dramatic now, it felt very real & urgent then. "If I could only have known then what I know now ..."
You're judging this film by 2020s social standards in America, not 1950s social standards in America. In that time, in that setting, children just didn't talk to their parents like that, and parents didn't talk to their children like that. Parents were right & nobody questioned it ... even when they weren't right, as it turned out in this tragic story. 1950s America didn't have the 2020s mindset & worldview that you're talking about.
So to Neil, there really didn't seem any way out, and he felt inescapably trapped & despairing. Yes, there were some dissidents then, the Beats & so on; but Neil came from a middle-class, upwardly aspiring family; his father had already planned out his entire life for him. That had been Neil's entire upbringing for 17 years, in a culture that saw the life that his father had already planned out for him as the best possible life anyone could want.
Because it's not an outright comedy, for all that it has funny scenes & even some broad slapstick. It's about the human condition, with the ship being a microcosm of human society, with its hierarchies, its pettiness, its unjust authorities, its basic decency, and so on.
Anyone who's ever been in a similar situation—in school, with a harsh or mean-spirited teacher; at work, with a nasty boss; even in a dysfunctional family, with a cruel or petty parent—will recognize what the crew of this ship is living through, because we all live through it at some point or another.
And it's about choices, too—how we choose to conduct ourselves & live our lives, either yielding to our worst impulses, or rising above them—whether we think solely of ourselves, or of others—who we truly are & what we stand for in the end. That's why the film is loved by so many people. It's about life itself.
So sorry to hear this sad news. A wonderful singer, unjustly underrated & not as well known as she deserved.
This movie is 40 years old now, and so much of what Wally & Andre discuss is not only still timely, but even more timely now.
Additionally, <b>how</b> they discuss things is important, too. They actually listen to each other, consider what each other is saying, rather than simply marking time until one can jump in & attack the other's opinion. Each of them genuinely wants to hear what the other has to say; and if they disagree, it's about the ideas themselves. Further, each one is capable of not only hearing the other, but of learning from the other. It's ... <b>civilized</b>.
Rewatching it still makes me want to join in the conversation! :)