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From: rance@cornell.UUCP (W. Rance Cleaveland)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: Back to the '50's?
Message-ID: <3215@cornell.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 17-Jul-85 14:51:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: cornell.3215
Posted: Wed Jul 17 14:51:29 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 21-Jul-85 03:22:31 EDT
References: <3113@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept.
Lines: 30

> 
> Judging from most people's reviews of "Back to the Future", it seems to be a
> decently made movie, etc.  But the entire genre of movies dealing with the 
> '50's brings up a disturbing fact, that Hollywood is trying to impart that
> the fifties was a good era in our history, people really had unlimited fun and
> today's youth shouldn't be afraid to emulate it in their lifestyles.
> 
Well, hmm, in light of "The Big Chill" couldn't we also say that Hollywood
is trying to induce 60s idolatry?  I think that lots and lots of movies try
to pluck sentimental strings in all sorts of people by gazing nostalgically
backwards....
> 
> The only positive product of the '50's was the music.  It was great and it
> provided the only outlet for true emotions.  But Rock n' Roll can not alter
> the image of an era and this is where Hollywood makes it's mistakes.
> 
This statement is crap, pure and simple.  Don't you know that 1954 was the
lauching point of the civil rights movement?  Or maybe you're unaware of
a certain Supreme Court case involving a Brown and a Board of Education.
Maybe you're also unfamiliar with a certain school of artistic endeavor
which provided us with a framework for gazing unblinkingly at the underside
of life and realizing that it too has a certain esthetic sense to it.  Take
a bow, Jack Kerouac and Allen (sp?) Ginsburg.  And, of course, economic pro-
gress never matters at all, right?  The 50s featured, of course, on of the
most vile politicians on record (rot in hell, Joe McCarthy), but as a result
of the oppressive and paternalistic mainstream, a very prolific underground
developed....  And without the 50s, we sure as hell would not have had the
60s.

Rance Cleaveland