Going By Movies, America Is In An Apocalyptic Frame of Mind

Via Instapundit, always-wrong movie critic Sonny Bunch notices the slasher movie has all but disappeared, replaced by a series of young-people-face-future-dystopia movies.

The true successor of the slasher flick isn't the found footage horror movie. It's not a horror movie at all, really. It's the teen dystopian movie.
The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Divergent: These are all series in which teenagers are thrown into horrifying, life-or-death experiences not because they are bad or immoral but because their parents have created a world that's not worth living in. If the slasher flick exists as a way for adults to express their concern over the uncontrollable behavior of the nation’s kids, then the teen dystopia serves as a means for adults to worry about the world they’re leaving behind.
Whereas the slasher flicks concerned themselves with adolescent issues--who's screwing who; who’s getting the beer--the teen dystopia concerns itself with a much more middle-aged host of concerns: economic inequality and environmental degradation and class structures, oh my!

As I said, Sonny Bunch is always wrong, and this time is no exception, for there are no exceptions.

But there is something here that should be pointed out. I think a lot of cultural critics have noticed this, but they don't want to say so.

Ages are marked by their paranoias and despairs, and we see those paranoias and despairs in the art an age produces. What we dread in earnest we enjoy in fantasy.

After Watergate, there were a series of very paranoid and nihilistic films -- The Parallax View, Capricorn One, The Conversation on the paranoid end; then all the violent ones about a growing nihilism in the world -- Dirty Harry, Death Wish, and so on.

Cultural observers had no problem pointing directly at Watergate (and the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, Jr.) to explain the paranoia, and nor were they so blind as to not notice the decay and malaise (and rising tide of bloody crime) of the seventies were responsible for the various violent retribution films.

During the Carter years and the first few years of Reagan (bear in mind, movies take a year or year and a half to greenlight, make, and exhibit), there were lots and lots of movies about taking the money and running and pulling heists. Even normal, everyday suburbanites were just stealing stuff (Fun with Dick and Jane, The Thief Who Came to Dinner), due to the economic insecurity of the age and the lingering recessions of the late seventies.

Lot of outlaw movies made then: one about D.B. Cooper, a new burst of Old West movies, this time all about the outlaws.

In the eighties, cultural observers had no problem tracing movies' focus on wealth and excess for the "Age of Greed" they said was a product of Reagan, nor even in the nineties did they fail to notice that a spate of paranoid entertainments -- Murder at 1600, Absolute Power, Wag the Dog -- were all rooted in a very definite cultural consciousness that Bill and Hillary Clinton's co-presidency was a shady affair. You'll no doubt remember the "Arkansas Death List" emails that circulated about.

Since 9/11, we faced a lot of movies about cataclysm and the end of the world. It's easy enough to see that connection.

But the Age of Obama has not produced any uplift, nor any respite from the current preoccupation of people with the End Times. As a non-religious person, I don't mean this literally (though many may), but it is impossible not to note the idea of Apocalypse and Cataclysm is in the air.

Look at the number of zombie films and zombie tv shows -- as obvious a metaphor for decay and rot as can be imagined. Or the still-doing-bonzo-business cataclysm fantasies. Even the latest Man of Steel was about cataclysm.

And now add into that the large number of paranoid, rotten dystopia movies.

If the Age of Obama is so swell, if we're all filled with Hope, why is this age not producing the spate of feel-good, have-fun, get-rich movies the 80s did?

Why are our collective fantasies in the Age of Obama so single-mindedly focused on the idea of dystopia, cultural decay, and ultimately cultural destruction?

Whether liberal cultural critics want to admit it or not -- and they seem very much to not want to admit it, because this is so obvious it's painful, and yet they fail to make this obvious connection -- the Obama years are years of economic want, emotional depression, and spiritual chaos, at least as reflected by entertainments resolutely focusing on the end-times and the wretched dystopias that arise after the End Times, when civilization is dead but just hasn't stopped moving yet.

The Leftovers, The Returned, Revolution, the Walking Dead not only being a top-rated show, but spawning a top-rated spin-off -- I dare anyone to find any previous moment in American history, including in the years of paranoia after Watergate, in which our fantasies have been so dark, depressive, anxious and foreboding.

This is all very obvious. The people in Hollywood turning out one cataclysm-and-dystopia entertainment after another surely sense this, as do the talentless idiots paid to comment on the culture at fluffy magazines like the Atlantic and New York and the New Yorker; and yet, another aspect of the Age of Obama -- that one must never admit the horrible truth; one must always pretend it away, and give only praise to Dear Leader -- keeps people from stating what is so obvious it's increasingly uncomfortable to remain silent about it.*

* As to why Sonny Bunch didn't notice it -- well, he's just plain wrong about everything, pretty much. He wouldn't notice a zeitgeist if it were giving him a Rusty Trombone.

Caveat: Marvel superhero movies (and the Flash, and Supergirl) are a big, happy exception to this rule, but note that those films are flights from reality, not trying much to capture any kind of "spirit of the age" in them, more offered as counter-programming to the general spirit of dread and loathing of Obama's allegedly magical age of renewal.

Almost as if you can't make a movie rooted in the real world that is fueled by anything other than despair and dread. Any fantasy with an optimistic tone must be a pure fantasy, explicitly occurring in an unreal world.

Posted by: Ace at 08:25 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Hello

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian, Model Citizen at October 27, 2015 08:29 PM (UiGnh)

2 So it's a small group

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian, Model Citizen at October 27, 2015 08:30 PM (ZZgPW)

3 I dunno...

life is pretty good for the governing class, you get a fed job, you've won a life long lottery ticket. Even now, as the jobs are going to foreigners who are at the front of the line. You know, a billion chinese and a billion indians, and a few billion muz...they're all minorities.

Why, maybe to them, Hunger Games are District 1 pr0n as they starve out those fucking awful bitter clingers down in 12.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:30 PM (ajMhd)

4 Ok I will get the kids

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian, Model Citizen at October 27, 2015 08:30 PM (P4OkF)

5 abdullah,

enough.

Posted by: ace at October 27, 2015 08:31 PM (dciA+)

6 Balls.

Posted by: Gene Kelly at October 27, 2015 08:32 PM (uSqx+)

7 but why is bunch wrong?

The kids watch hunger games, (prepares Carcetti accent from the Wire) "the scooorch" and other tween movies are for the kids.

The Costco set can enjoy the walking dead or leftovers.

the difference between the tweens and the costco set? Well, the old folks still have jobs and are almost paid off on the houses. Kids of the legacy americans that Obama and Clinton (and W the Unwilling) replaced do not have wealth or income. That's for the replacements.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:32 PM (ajMhd)

8 i don't go to movies anymore...

Hollyweird hates me and i return the favor by not giving them my hard earned monies, besides which, all they make is crap.

furthermore, going to the movies here in Lost Angels is an arduous, unpleasant event, with a ~$50 minimum price tag, when all is said and done, and that expense puts you in a crowded room with a collection of ignorant, uncivilized assholes.

i can get that here for free, and without having to get dressed. :-)

Posted by: redc1c4 at October 27, 2015 08:32 PM (mOvRk)

9 >>>The kids watch hunger games, (prepares Carcetti accent from the Wire) "the scooorch" and other tween movies are for the kids.

um, i explained it in the post.

Posted by: ace at October 27, 2015 08:33 PM (dciA+)

10
Movies such as The Giver, Insurgent, etc. are all about a catastrophe and then the emergence of a [deeply flawed] utopian totalitarian society. Gattaca...Oblivion...

There are lots of movies that follow this formula, which is a Leftist's dream. But all these movies end the same: with one or two people seeking more, whether it's freedom or information, or just curiosity.

Posted by: Soothsayer, with arms akimbo at October 27, 2015 08:33 PM (pbBzW)

11 I miss westerns.

Yup, old fashioned

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian, Model Citizen at October 27, 2015 08:33 PM (7uC+4)

12 Someone is really exploring the studio space.

Posted by: Mortimer at October 27, 2015 08:34 PM (0dcbp)

13 hello pendejo! back atcha...

Posted by: redc1c4 at October 27, 2015 08:34 PM (mOvRk)

14 I thought it was a long awaited movie review.

Posted by: Dack Thrombosis at October 27, 2015 08:34 PM (4ErVI)

15 A review of a review.....

Posted by: Sunny at October 27, 2015 08:34 PM (M+sEY)

16 Uh.... there are way more Super Hero and Fantasy Hero TV shows and movies out there, than there are Zombie flicks...

And way more stupid 'fix the house' or 'buy that crap' TV shows than either of the above...

Star Wars started under... Carter... is that supposed to mean something? As so did Aliens? But then, so did Rocky Horror Picture show....

You can find a trend in any data set if you pick and chose the data...

Posted by: BB Wolf at October 27, 2015 08:34 PM (qh617)

17 "um, i explained it in the post."

i only come here for the comments...

;-)

Posted by: redc1c4 at October 27, 2015 08:35 PM (mOvRk)

18 and mid to late 80's movies were the bomb-dizzle.

we had a good enough enemy in the USSR, we had a kickass military and the might of the US dollar and the might of the american aspiration to give us a bruce willis or to import a van damme or terminator man. And we had cultural confidence so the movies weren't boring PC slogs where cindy the chosen can mow down 200 pound linebackers.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:35 PM (ajMhd)

19 So, no World Series thread then.

I totally agree that all of America is in an apocalyptic frame of mind.

Savages running loose cutting people's heads off, destroying ancient monuments, and killing police with the full backing of the POTUS will have that effect on ya.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 27, 2015 08:35 PM (n3CsB)

20 Is this the baseball thread?

Posted by: L, Elle at October 27, 2015 08:35 PM (2x3L+)

21 During Cankles' Presidency there will be nothing but remakes and sequels of horrible dystopian movies.

... because she's a horrible remake of the other Clinton, and sequel to SCOAMF.

Posted by: see what I did there at October 27, 2015 08:35 PM (lqmAz)

22 Now that I think about it Planet Of The Apes was pretty upbeat.

Posted by: freaked at October 27, 2015 08:35 PM (BO/km)

23 "You can find a trend in any data set if you pick and chose the data..."

like the NYT poll claiming Trump is fading?

Posted by: redc1c4 at October 27, 2015 08:35 PM (mOvRk)

24 Was Sonny Bunch impeached today? Is that what I heard?

Seriously, why did Sonny reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank?

Is there no evil to low for Sonny? What is he, some sort of Republican!

Posted by: MTF at October 27, 2015 08:36 PM (TxJGV)

25 Actually, Ace, Wag the Dog was written by then-liberal David Mamet to be an indictment of the GHWBush administration.

Bush got insanely popular after the first Gulf war and there was a bit of conspiracy that he did it on purpose to get his numbers up.

I don't think Mamet (even then, as a liberal) believed that, but he did consider the thought experiment that a president might create a war just for better ratings.

It just turned out that by the time it was released, it ended up being an indictment of Clinton.

Posted by: AmishDude at October 27, 2015 08:36 PM (JIElb)

26 The kids watch hunger games, (prepares Carcetti accent from the Wire) "the scooorch" and other tween movies are for the kids.

um, i explained it in the post.
***
lol, allow me to put on my dr. frink glasses...

"you sir, appear to be begging the question, glavin!"

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:36 PM (ajMhd)

27 Disney's Frozen? Yeah, that one was about the frigid evil woman who was Secretary of State at the time.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at October 27, 2015 08:36 PM (VAsIq)

28 These teen dystopian books and films also speak to a need for rites of passage and hardening one's resolve. Maybe there's a suspicion that the soft suburban lifestyle isn't preparing them for the times ahead. The end of prolonged adolescence?

The distrust of adult authority figures is similar to 70's dystopian fiction, but it's a soft smothering fascism they're fighting.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Michigangsta at October 27, 2015 08:37 PM (jR7Wy)

29 I think Sunny Bunch should pile #problematics on top of your electronic head until you cry Uncle, ace.

Posted by: GnuBreed at October 27, 2015 08:37 PM (gyKtp)

30

the post-global catastrophe deeply flawed utopian society movies genre...

Posted by: Soothsayer, with arms akimbo at October 27, 2015 08:37 PM (pbBzW)

31 Star Wars started under... Carter... is that supposed to mean something? As so did Aliens? But then, so did Rocky Horror Picture show....

What matters is (a) which movies are Hollywood making as big-budget movies and (b) which movies are making money? That tells you where the zeitgeist is.

Posted by: AmishDude at October 27, 2015 08:37 PM (JIElb)

32 And how does one explain Caddyshack? Hmmm?

Posted by: freaked at October 27, 2015 08:37 PM (BO/km)

33 If the Age of Obama is so swell, if we're all filled with Hope, why is
this age not producing the spate of feel-good, have-fun, get-rich movies
the 80s did?

*cough*

Posted by: Math at October 27, 2015 08:37 PM (0dcbp)

34 Transformers: Age of Extinction...hmm, can't make an apocalyptic connection with that one, but I'll keep working on it.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson, Movie Critic at October 27, 2015 08:37 PM (VAsIq)

35
Is this the baseball thread?

Posted by: L, Elle at October 27, 2015 08:35 PM (2x3L+)
=========================

YES. Yes it is !

Posted by: grammie winger, watching the fig tree at October 27, 2015 08:37 PM (dFi94)

36 "As I said, Sonny Bunch is always wrong, and this time is no exception, for there are no exceptions."

you know what?

I don't watch horror movies so I don't know about Bunch. But there sure as shit always seems to be a horror movie being advertised.

Then again, I was forced to watch "It follows" which was the best horror movie in the last 20, apparently...so maybe we are in a glut.

I dunno.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:37 PM (ajMhd)

37 "Game of Thrones" - the - book was all about how Winter Was Coming. Yes it was published 1994 and was a sleeper hit over the next few years but it really took off in the late 1990s IIRC. That's when I started seeing back-cover blurbs on fantasy novels saying "comparable to Martin!" instead of "comparable to Tolkien!".

"The Matrix", same. 1999.

Clinton-Fatigue was a serious thing. We all figured, deep down, that the dot-com boom was going to leave a hangover.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 27, 2015 08:38 PM (aLXXe)

38 Disaster movies have existed since the 30's. I think there's a '30s Titanic movie.

I
think the only marked change in them currently is the repetitive theme
of guilt, self-induced harm; that we, the US, are responsible for ALL THE
PROBLEMS.

Cold war era disaster movies had an obvious exogenous
threat. Post-modern, current era disaster movies usually insist on a
endogenous one. And insist to the fucking end.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at October 27, 2015 08:38 PM (JmGFJ)

39 Star Wars started under... Carter... is that supposed to mean something?

-----

George Lucas has said the original Star Wars was about a small band of heroes (North Korea) standing up to the evil empire (the US).

Posted by: Turd Ferguson, Movie Critic at October 27, 2015 08:38 PM (VAsIq)

40 >>>Star Wars started under... Carter... is that supposed to mean something?

it's widely believed that after the paranoia and dread of the post-Watergate hangover, America just wanted something that wasn't so DOWN, and so that helped Star Wars. (Though it would have been big in any age.)

Posted by: ace at October 27, 2015 08:39 PM (dciA+)

41 go cubs.

Posted by: abalulah at October 27, 2015 08:38 PM (qQk+U)
============================================

Wait till next year. Next year is definitely the year.

Posted by: grammie winger, watching the fig tree at October 27, 2015 08:39 PM (dFi94)

42 Isn't a Bunch sometimes referred to as a "Package"?

Posted by: freaked at October 27, 2015 08:39 PM (BO/km)

43 I used to be on a Peak Oil list. (Got thrown off for arguing that happy people wouldn't leave Cuba on leaky rafts.) I got the feeling that they were hoping for a crash to make life decisions for them. They didn't really like their current lives but didn't want to do anything about it. Somehow, if the crash came, they would be survivors. I don't really watch movies, but I suspect that's the mind set of the folks watching these movies.

Posted by: notsothoreau at October 27, 2015 08:39 PM (5HBd1)

44
Dirty Harry predates Watergate.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 27, 2015 08:39 PM (iQIUe)

45 also, movies these days are made by the permanent liberal psychosis class.

So, you get Machete...and other movies where "we are the bad guys"

Sure, hollywood made American Sniper but they really wanted you to like Stop Loss and Truth.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:39 PM (ajMhd)

46 Hollywood is totally into remakes. It's time for a remake of Clockwork Orange this time a happy little flick of life in Irvine after work hours end.

Is Malcolm McDowell still alive? This time, instead of leading the gang he can be the hobo living in the underpass that the gang beats up. Kind of emblematic of the deserved fate of the Boomer generation.

Posted by: MTF at October 27, 2015 08:40 PM (TxJGV)

47 The Hobbit trilogy--a metaphor for how life is unbearably long or, if you're lucky, you'll die young from an Orc chopping off your head.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson, Movie Critic at October 27, 2015 08:40 PM (VAsIq)

48 >>>Then again, I was forced to watch "It follows" which was the best horror movie in the last 20, apparently...so maybe we are in a glut.

not good?

i heard it was good. I think it might have been the same people who did "You're Next," which was good, but not great. (Fun premise, though-- one everyone has thought of, but no one really did before.)

Posted by: ace at October 27, 2015 08:40 PM (dciA+)

49 Nice one Ace. I never looked at it that way before. Explains those crappy UFO flix in the 50s too.

Posted by: dartist at October 27, 2015 08:40 PM (kDYa9)

50 I still maintain that the Zombie obsession is pure projection on the part of libs.

The shocking rise of Obama showcased The Collective in all its wonderous glory. Modern libs are people that fancy themselves rugged individualists, but the thrill of 2008 met them with the (subconscious) icewater shock that against the brainless collective, they are truly powerless.

When did Walking Dead start?

Posted by: Mega at October 27, 2015 08:41 PM (9Du4t)

51 Death Wish was a response to the horrific crime rates in NYC and by extension all the other big cities in the 1970s. It had been around awhile too as Nixon ran on it as an issue.

Posted by: Dack Thrombosis at October 27, 2015 08:41 PM (4ErVI)

52 108 next years and counting.

Posted by: abalulah at October 27, 2015 08:40 PM (qQk+U)
===========================================
I'm starting to run out of fingers and toes.

Posted by: grammie winger, watching the fig tree at October 27, 2015 08:41 PM (dFi94)

53 Wasn't Walter White basically the culmination of the middle-class, leftist desire to fully exploit the Mexicans.

Posted by: Breaking Bad at October 27, 2015 08:41 PM (7wyDO)

54 If all the rest of the world knows of us is through our own movies, no wonder they have such a low opinion of us.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 27, 2015 08:41 PM (LUgeY)

55 Don forget the Kardashians. If there ever a sign of the prutridness of today's society, it is that turd.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 27, 2015 08:42 PM (iQIUe)

56 I wouldn't say it follows wasn't good but I don't see how it would set the world on fire.

but maybe I am wrong demographic.

Very millenial cast, a very millenial music in its sound track. I guess it would appeal to the scooorch set.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:42 PM (ajMhd)

57

Speaking of Cuba...

did you hear that today every single nation member except Israel in the UN passed a resolution condemning the USA for not lifting the trade embargo?

Posted by: Soothsayer, with arms akimbo at October 27, 2015 08:42 PM (pbBzW)

58 Didn't they make the Pirates of the Carribean movies in the last decade? I mean it's campy and fun and not dystopian so it's probably the exception, right?

Go KC!!!!

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at October 27, 2015 08:43 PM (+bVzV)

59 You say all the movies recently are about the collapse of civilization, but what about Dawn of the Planet of the Apes?

What? Oh.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson, Movie Critic at October 27, 2015 08:43 PM (VAsIq)

60 What this is is Obama by Proxy.

They acknowledge the dispair of the age of Obama but can not bring themsleves to admist it directly, so they create dystopian movies with some proxy villain to blame it all on.

Posted by: The Political Hat at October 27, 2015 08:43 PM (vBeA5)

61 And how about those "young people will save us" movies of the 70s like Logan's Run, DeathRace 2000 or even Rollerball (not the 70s but I like the corporatism).

Posted by: notsothoreau at October 27, 2015 08:43 PM (5HBd1)

62 When did Walking Dead start?
Posted by: Mega at October 27, 2015 08:41 PM (9Du4t)

10/31/2010

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 27, 2015 08:43 PM (iQIUe)

63 I still maintain that the Zombie obsession is pure projection on the part of libs.

***

I read elsewhere that zombies allow the smugs to prep without worrying about aesthetics of being a survivalist.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:43 PM (ajMhd)

64 YA dystopianism and the zombie franchises are two very different things. The zombie stuff (which btw is WAY played-out imo) is much darker in general and usually doesn't end well. The YA dystopias generally have some light at the end of the tunnel, some chance of overcoming ... giving that much-needed sense of empowerment for the young 'uns, I guess.

Posted by: Moron Labe! at October 27, 2015 08:44 PM (jW91e)

65 t's widely believed that after the paranoia and dread of the post-Watergate hangover, America just wanted something that wasn't so DOWN, and so that helped Star Wars. (Though it would have been big in any age.)

Posted by: ace at October 27, 2015 08:39 PM (dciA+)
---
It wasn't just the defeatism people were tired of, it was the overindulged auteurs in need of good editors. After Star Wars movies learned to tighten up the pacing and have good old fashioned storytelling. It was a throwback.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Michigangsta at October 27, 2015 08:44 PM (jR7Wy)

66 TWD and the various Dystopian movies are a sub conscious reflection of the age. I'm one of those dreaded bitter clinging Christianist so the current times are of no surprise. Hopefully i won't offend but non Christians will 'feel' this too just not in the same way I (I have a more hopeful outlook that Jesus is coming!). Thats why these shows like TWD are so popular. They are an outlet for those fears that they can't quite get there heads around but the 'feel' it. Just an opinion, no stoning please. I seem to have rambled a bit.

Posted by: Puddleglum @work at October 27, 2015 08:44 PM (syGA0)

67 Logan's Run II: The Loganing

Posted by: Dr. Varno at October 27, 2015 08:44 PM (GdFQh)

68 I saw You're Next but forgot about it soon after.

Unfriended was memorable, maybe because it was more psychological. The first Purge sucked but, also, memorable - it had a premise, even if it was stupid.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 27, 2015 08:44 PM (aLXXe)

69 Did you guys watch Tomorrow Land?

It kinda addresses it, in a semi lefty way.

Posted by: @votermom at October 27, 2015 08:44 PM (cbfNE)

70 Wait till next year. Next year is definitely the year.

I've been hearing Cubs fans say that since the late fall of 1909.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at October 27, 2015 08:45 PM (5buP8)

71 It was a throwback.
***
with a medals ceremony.

Some link from insty(?) noted it was the first of its kind and was competing against herbie and don knotts movies. not really anything else like it.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:45 PM (ajMhd)

72
When I saw The Giver and the villain was CLEARLY Hillary Clinton I sat in shocked silence.

I sometimes wonder if we aren't seeing Hollywood idiotically not noticing what their movies are actually saying, and instead perhaps the False-consensus that empowers the current left and political class is even weaker then we surmise?

Posted by: 18-1 at October 27, 2015 08:45 PM (5LOno)

73 Man of Steel is about a dude who gets raised to be ambivalent at best about strength and America and who, in the end, is irresponsible as to how he uses his power, creating misery and destruction in his wake.

Sound familiar?

Posted by: Brother Cavil, hither and yon at October 27, 2015 08:45 PM (m9V0o)

74 I'm hoping Verizon turns their ad about kids lost in a crazy murderer's yard, in which they try to hide behind his power saw blade collection. Last I saw he was bemused by the irony of their feeble attempt to hide from him and I heard somewhere bemusement in the face of an implacable fate is a good premise for a movie.

In many ways, this is the story of America in the age of Obama.

Definitely hire the chick from that ad, by the way. She should absolutely be in the movie.

Posted by: MTF at October 27, 2015 08:45 PM (TxJGV)

75 I hate the freaking UN. If V for Vendetta could blow up the Old Baily, I'd like to see a movie repeatedly depicting the UN being brought down.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 27, 2015 08:45 PM (iQIUe)

76 who said life is one long exercise of terror management

B something

Posted by: Feh at October 27, 2015 08:46 PM (Uk9e2)

77 They should remake "Damnation Alley" but set it in Europe.

Posted by: Dr. Varno at October 27, 2015 08:46 PM (GdFQh)

78 I've been hearing Cubs fans say that since the late fall of 1909.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at October 27, 2015 08:45 PM (5buP

============================================

I'm the one that started saying it back then.

Posted by: grammie winger, watching the fig tree at October 27, 2015 08:46 PM (dFi94)

79 When Republicans are in power, libs like to make movies about human enemies and human evil. Note the constant focus on torture throughout the mid 2000 oughts.

When Democrats are in power, the enemies must be something else. Something bigger and less distinct.

Posted by: Mega at October 27, 2015 08:46 PM (9Du4t)

80
The Purge: Anarchy. Watched this last weekend.

It was set in 2023. A new US govt was formed and they nearly eliminated crime and unemployment. Once a year they allowed lawlessness for anyone who wanted to participate.

Posted by: Soothsayer, with arms akimbo at October 27, 2015 08:46 PM (pbBzW)

81 Fargo is pretty dark.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 27, 2015 08:46 PM (iQIUe)

82 @46 - There you go again blaming an entire generation for the excesses of a few, rabid, diehard progressive assholes and assholets whose desire for Utopia exceeded the ability of the "Holy Gov't" to provide within a single generation. You'd be pissed, too, if'n you were an old, wrinkly, dying hipster revolutionary wannabe with nothing but Obama to show for your life's work.

Posted by: Voter/ConsumerUnit#985731 at October 27, 2015 08:47 PM (pxwEr)

83 77 They should remake "Damnation Alley" but set it in Europe.
Posted by: Dr. Varno at October 27, 2015 08:46 PM (GdFQh)
---
Cockroach attack!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Michigangsta at October 27, 2015 08:47 PM (jR7Wy)

84 Battlefield Earth was a pretty good flick, though, huh?

Posted by: John Travolta at October 27, 2015 08:48 PM (VAsIq)

85 also, remember, Hunger Games shows that liberal psychos are incapable of anything but projection. The tale of brave district 1 swells trying to rid themselves of unsightly bitter clingers was the lunatic liberal author's attempt to take down capitalism.

So, how can you tell what anything means?

Like with Watchmen and other movies, liberal dystopias always aspire to be the creation of the right (handmaidens tale) but in the real world, all the dystopias are the lefts property. And the "bad guy" tends to become the hero (rorsarch).

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:48 PM (ajMhd)

86 By the way, since I'm drinking I might have a little trouble making my 6 am train tomorrow. I'm supposed to visit Washington for a meeting, but I don't really want to go. They have diseases there.

Posted by: MTF at October 27, 2015 08:48 PM (TxJGV)

87 Didn't they make the Pirates of the Carribean movies in the last decade? I mean it's campy and fun and not dystopian so it's probably the exception, right?
***
Didn't they eventually have the British, as proxies for Bush and the WoT, rounding up pirates and murdering them?

Posted by: 18-1 at October 27, 2015 08:48 PM (5LOno)

88 Becker

Posted by: Feh at October 27, 2015 08:48 PM (Uk9e2)

89 American Horror Story is very dark and icky. Watched part of episode one for this new season and then said forget it.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 27, 2015 08:49 PM (iQIUe)

90 Man of Steel is about an illegal alien who comes out of the shadows to make the lives of Americans, and really the world, better.

Posted by: Juan Ellis Bush! at October 27, 2015 08:49 PM (lqmAz)

91 Ace;
These movies are the most hope-filled ones. They're the happiest expressions of cultural awareness - by leftists, mind you - during this age of filth.

Imagine what my movie scripts would be like, and shudder.

"The Hunger Games", "Maze Runner" et cetera are the "Sound Of Music"s of this age. They're the happiest the left can provide.

Posted by: Inspector Cussword at October 27, 2015 08:49 PM (FoG5A)

92 g'early evenin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at October 27, 2015 08:49 PM (KCxzN)

93 KC lookin' pretty sharp so far.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 27, 2015 08:50 PM (n3CsB)

94 I cant stand Jennifer Lawrence.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 27, 2015 08:50 PM (iQIUe)

95 I"LL SWALLOW YOUR SOUL!!!

Posted by: Evil Dead II at October 27, 2015 08:50 PM (rbn4N)

96 The Purge: Anarchy. Watched this last weekend.

It was set in 2023. A new US govt was formed and they nearly eliminated crime and unemployment. Once a year they allowed lawlessness for anyone who wanted to participate.
***
the sequel was pretty good too because it expanded on it to an urban setting, away from the burbs.

But the writers still miss that people would group together, that what one did last purge would lead to retributions during the next purge.

But, both were right that then you have the assholes. But they self destruct because they're mostly going against well defended fortresses or other assholes.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:50 PM (ajMhd)

97 Life's a piece of shit

When you look at it

And Always Look On The Bright Side of Death

*whistles bouncy tune*

Posted by: Count de Monet at October 27, 2015 08:50 PM (JO9+V)

98 Watchmen is a special case though. Alan Moore tells everyone he's on the Left but in reality he really doesn't think that humans can handle ideology. SPOILER SPOILER look who the real villain is SPOILER.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 27, 2015 08:50 PM (aLXXe)

99

I thought The Giver had a distinctly conservative message.

Just saw Never Let Me Go with Carrie Mulligan. Billed as dystopian flick made 4 years ago. To me it had a pro life message. It's about forcing clones to give their organs until they die usually in mid 20s. Made me think of the fetal harvesting done by PPHood.

I think these dystopian films often have conservative/libertarian themes

Posted by: ThunderB, Sharia Compliance Officer at October 27, 2015 08:51 PM (gp6xy)

100 Like with Watchmen and other movies, liberal dystopias always aspire to be the creation of the right
***
Interestingly the hero in the movie version of Watchmen is clearly the "far right wing" Rorschach.

Ozymandias, the villain, is at "best" a Mitt Romney but really a non-aged Soros...

Posted by: 18-1 at October 27, 2015 08:51 PM (5LOno)

101 Man of Steel is about an illegal alien who comes out of the shadows to make the lives of Americans, and really the world, better.
***
lol right?
doing the super heroing legacy americans are too stupid and lazy to do.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:51 PM (ajMhd)

102 >>>Why are our collective fantasies in the Age of Obama so single-mindedly focused on the idea of dystopia, cultural decay, and ultimately cultural destruction?

Hey, be fair. It's not all zombie movies. The age of Obama has also given us the Hangover series. Oh wait...neeever mind.

Posted by: Bruce Boehner at October 27, 2015 08:51 PM (MmVtG)

103
Soylent Green (1973) is another one.

Over population...food shortage...but Utopia!

Why? Because they were eating the old people.

Today....they're using killed unborn babies for heating fuel...

Posted by: Soothsayer, with arms akimbo at October 27, 2015 08:51 PM (pbBzW)

104 Ozymandias, the villain, is at "best" a Mitt Romney but really a non-aged Soros...
***
you can really say Ozy was teh story of obama...if obama was smart and had vision and wasnt lazy.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:51 PM (ajMhd)

105 "The Hunger Games", "Maze Runner" et cetera are the "Sound Of Music"s of this age. They're the happiest the left can provide.

#WASTF

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 27, 2015 08:52 PM (LUgeY)

106 I'm one of those dreaded bitter clinging
Christianist so the current times are of no surprise. Hopefully i won't
offend but non Christians will 'feel' this too just not in the same way I
(I have a more hopeful outlook that Jesus is coming!). Thats why these
shows like TWD are so popular. They are an outlet for those fears that
they can't quite get there heads around but the 'feel' it. Just an
opinion, no stoning please. I seem to have rambled a bit.

Posted by: Puddleglum @work at October 27, 2015 08:44 PM (syGA0)
==========================================

I had the same conversation about this with my son. He and I both noticed this trend in TV/Movies, and the underlying themes of doom, death and despair. We both agreed that it can be seen as a type of what lies ahead. From a believers' standpoint, fear is gone, and hope stands in its place.

Posted by: grammie winger, watching the fig tree at October 27, 2015 08:52 PM (dFi94)

107 Didn't they make the Pirates of the Carribean movies in the last decade? I mean it's campy and fun and not dystopian so it's probably the exception, right?
***
First PotC was in the Golden Years of Bush the UnWilling.
before katrina and the left going full retard.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:52 PM (ajMhd)

108 It's about forcing clones to give their organs until they die usually in mid 20s.
***
Not to spoil too much...but try watching The Island (2005)...I think you'll like it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_%282005_film%29

Posted by: 18-1 at October 27, 2015 08:53 PM (5LOno)

109 Marvel superheroes are largely angst-ridden analogs for the awkwardness of puberty

Posted by: derit at October 27, 2015 08:53 PM (jT+gh)

110 (LUgeY)

Um... gesundheit.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 27, 2015 08:53 PM (aLXXe)

111
The Giver was not conservative, in my opinion. Anti-totalitarian, yes. The Giver was liberal, as in pro-freedom.

Posted by: Soothsayer, with arms akimbo at October 27, 2015 08:53 PM (pbBzW)

112 Okay, what does WASTF stand for?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Michigangsta at October 27, 2015 08:53 PM (jR7Wy)

113 Caveat: Marvel superhero movies (and the Flash, and Supergirl) are a big, happy exception to this rule, but note that those films are flights from reality, not trying much to capture any kind of "spirit of the age" in them, more offered as counter-programming to the general spirit of dread and loathing of Obama's allegedly magical age of renewal.

Sort of like the Star Wars exception in the 70s. It was popular because it was so different from what was in other films. It's downright corny.

Posted by: AmishDude at October 27, 2015 08:54 PM (JIElb)

114 Man of Steel is about an illegal alien who comes out of the shadows to make the lives of Americans, and really the world, better.
Posted by: Juan Ellis Bush!
---
Well played, sir. Thank you for the laugh.

Posted by: Bruce Boehner at October 27, 2015 08:54 PM (MmVtG)

115 Oh The Strain has Soros in it as the old billionaire willing to sell out humanity to save his own skin.

Posted by: @votermom at October 27, 2015 08:54 PM (cbfNE)

116 1984 (1956)

Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

Planet of the Apes (196

Night of the Living Dead (196

The Omega Man (1971)

Soylent Green (1973)

Apocalyptic flicks been around for a while.

Posted by: Mortimer at October 27, 2015 08:54 PM (0dcbp)

117 108 It's about forcing clones to give their organs until they die usually in mid 20s.
***
Not to spoil too much...but try watching The Island (2005)...I think you'll like it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_%282005_film%29
Posted by: 18-1 at October 27, 2015 08:53 PM (5LOno)

Beat me to it. Damn good movie.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 27, 2015 08:54 PM (kpqmD)

118 I hated No Country for Old Men. What a depressing, nothing-means-anything-there-is-no-God piece of crap. That's why I like (a lot of) superhero movies--good guys win, bad guys lose, and the obviousness of the need for overwhelming strength by the good guys.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at October 27, 2015 08:54 PM (VAsIq)

119 Old people would be too touch and gamey tasting.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 27, 2015 08:55 PM (iQIUe)

120 Marvel superheroes are largely angst-ridden analogs for the awkwardness of puberty
****
First two spidermen movies were products of post-9-11 america.
You had to fight hard, evil was bad. Sort of like the first Lord of the Rings.

now, by accident, I guess, the Captain America of Chris Evans is my new favorite hero. He's earnest in a way that's not ironic or a wink. Very legacy american.

There was some hateration on Cap America recently, but Evans's America is a leader with ethics and an innocence that's pretty cool.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:55 PM (ajMhd)

121 I'm not even supposed to be here today!

Posted by: Dante at October 27, 2015 08:55 PM (rbn4N)

122 So, The Thing then?

Posted by: Count de Monet at October 27, 2015 08:55 PM (JO9+V)

123 112 Okay, what does WASTF stand for?
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Michigangsta at October 27, 2015 08:53 PM (jR7Wy)

We
Are
So
Totally
Fucked

Posted by: Insomniac at October 27, 2015 08:56 PM (kpqmD)

124 We Are So Terribly Fucked.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 27, 2015 08:56 PM (LUgeY)

125 I hated No Country for Old Men. What a depressing, nothing-means-anything-there-is-no-God piece of crap. That's why I like (a lot of) superhero movies--good guys win, bad guys lose, and the obviousness of the need for overwhelming strength by the good guys.
***
Coen's very disturbing works.
Like last night's fargo.
But that's life on this plain...evil will snuff ya.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:56 PM (ajMhd)

126 Marvel superheroes are largely angst-ridden analogs for the awkwardness of puberty

Posted by: derit

Haha, just don't bring a black light with you.

Seriously.

Posted by: Peter Quill at October 27, 2015 08:56 PM (VAsIq)

127 118 I hated No Country for Old Men. What a depressing, nothing-means-anything-there-is-no-God piece of crap. That's why I like (a lot of) superhero movies--good guys win, bad guys lose, and the obviousness of the need for overwhelming strength by the good guys.
Posted by: Turd Ferguson at October 27, 2015 08:54 PM (VAsIq)

It's a nice escape from the reality that, in real life, the bad guys not only frequently win, they flourish and prosper.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 27, 2015 08:57 PM (kpqmD)

128 Um... gesundheit.

Thank you.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 27, 2015 08:58 PM (LUgeY)

129 willow banned for weeks, yet the long, national nightmare of emoticons wearing shades continues, unabated.

Posted by: Mortimer at October 27, 2015 08:58 PM (0dcbp)

130 Um, yes.

Art (such as it is) is the mirror of its time.

Which is why so many dystopias, and why they are so poorly written and made.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at October 27, 2015 08:58 PM (go6ud)

131 Haha, just don't bring a black light with you.
Posted by: Peter Quill

Zero-G sex. Gets messy out there in the black

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 27, 2015 08:58 PM (aLXXe)

132 It's a nice escape from the reality that, in real life, the bad guys not only frequently win, they flourish and prosper.
___
Speaking of which, it is amazing what American young women will, um, do for their country.

I love retirement!

Posted by: Bill Clinton at October 27, 2015 08:59 PM (5LOno)

133
The question is: Why did Japan go all Godzilla post WWII?

Actually, I think Americans were behind those movies and had the Japanese make them. Which is weird because it was like Americans forced the Japanese to cope with Tokyo and other cities getting destroyed by a big huge nuclear monster.

Like a reminder??

Posted by: Soothsayer, with arms akimbo at October 27, 2015 08:59 PM (pbBzW)

134 We Are Seeing The Fnords

Posted by: Robert Anton Wilson at October 27, 2015 08:59 PM (rbn4N)

135
There was a time when even liberals loved their country, and Hollywood made patriotic movies.

Posted by: Randy Westerfeld at October 27, 2015 08:59 PM (zp6Kj)

136 It's a nice escape from the reality that, in real life, the bad guys not only frequently win, they flourish and prosper.

----------

We haven't seen the final chapter of bad guys' lives. This mortal life is a short interlude in an eternity where they will pay for their crimes.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at October 27, 2015 08:59 PM (VAsIq)

137
Is it me, or is Sonny Bunch just not very observant? Because I've been seeing this same exact "apocalyptic movie replaces slasher film" trend analysis for at least 5-10 years now.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 27, 2015 09:00 PM (o98Jz)

138 My song Hello--

Is the British Empire telling Obama to get the hell over it.

Posted by: Adele at October 27, 2015 09:00 PM (mcm0N)

139 I'm going to have to hunt you down and shoot arrows through you. Oh, Oscar, Oscar, Oscar! Even posthumously you will make a filthy.mess in an already filthy forest.

Posted by: the Ungar Games at October 27, 2015 09:00 PM (MmVtG)

140 Steel Dawn

aka

Dirty Dancing : Nuclear Wasteland

Posted by: Mortimer at October 27, 2015 09:00 PM (0dcbp)

141 willow banned for weeks, yet the long, national nightmare of emoticons wearing shades continues, unabated.

Posted by: Mortimer
:8

Posted by: David Caruso at October 27, 2015 09:01 PM (VAsIq)

142

Posted by: David Caruso at October 27, 2015 09:01 PM (VAsIq)

143 The Age of Reagan gave us such as Legend and Top Gun. But also The Stuff and CHUD.

But thankfully also The Last Starfighter and Real Genius.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 09:01 PM (XYw4l)

144 I poked my eye the first time. Damn.

Posted by: David Caruso at October 27, 2015 09:01 PM (VAsIq)

145 Also--and everyone knows this--Sonny Bunch has superior taste in movies.

Posted by: Adele at October 27, 2015 09:01 PM (mcm0N)

146 Going by America, the movie industry is in an apocalyptic frame of mind. And should be. Communist scum.

Posted by: Jay Guevara at October 27, 2015 09:03 PM (oKE6c)

147 Is it me or does Sonny Bunch sound like a good ghey porno name?

Posted by: Stormy Batch at October 27, 2015 09:04 PM (BO/km)

148
But thankfully also The Last Starfighter and Real Genius.

***

yeah, but watch real genius again and realize the moral is that weapons for democracy are bad.

it's hard to tell what these movies mean when they are written by insane people.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 09:04 PM (ajMhd)

149 Gojira and The H-Man were both atomic movies. But in America we had such winners as Them! or The Incredible Shrinking Man along with movies about giant grasshoppers and a man caught in an atomic explosion who grows to gigantic size.

Atomic monsters were real popular in the 1950s.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 09:04 PM (XYw4l)

150 The Reagan-era movie that holds up best is "Spies Like Us".

Milbarge [with Fitzhume, in Waziristan]: "They're the Yusufzai! our allies! HEY - WE'RE AMERICANS!"

[next scene]

*milbarge and fitzhume roasting on a spit*

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 27, 2015 09:05 PM (aLXXe)

151 Speaking of Japan...I was bemused by the scene in Star Blaz ers where they show the Yamato being sunk in WWII.

Its all honor and such between two worthy adversaries in their take but I have a strong feeling the American pilots where more likely to give the finger then anything else. Sneak attacks and beheading prisoners of war tend to be embittering.

http://tinyurl.com/q26kzq7

Posted by: 18-1 at October 27, 2015 09:05 PM (5LOno)

152 143 >> The Age of Reagan gave us such as Legend and Top Gun. But also The Stuff and CHUD.

And Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at October 27, 2015 09:05 PM (+bVzV)

153 CRAP

Posted by: grammie winger, watching the fig tree at October 27, 2015 09:05 PM (dFi94)

154 Damnation Alley (1977)

Jan Michael-Vincent - a guy intimately familiar with apocalyptic disasters.

Posted by: Mortimer at October 27, 2015 09:06 PM (0dcbp)

155 Shoot 2-2 in St. Paul

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian, Model Citizen at October 27, 2015 09:06 PM (qhUQl)

156 After Watergate, there were a series of very paranoid and nihilistic films -- The Parallax View, Capricorn One, The Conversation on the paranoid end; then all the violent ones about a growing nihilism in the world -- Dirty Harry,

Dirty Harry pre-dated Watergate. I saw it as more of an backlash against the hippy scum anti-cop 60s

Posted by: TheQuietMan at October 27, 2015 09:06 PM (DiZBp)

157 well the Avengers, have gone a little apocalyptic on a small scale, first New York in the first one, interesting that a nuke is a similar machina, in both that and the last batman, when DC gets a bit of a makeover in Winter Soldier, and Joburg and Seoul to a lesser extent in Ultron, not to mention that mythic eastern european nation, that almost becomes SMOD

Posted by: admiral marcus at October 27, 2015 09:06 PM (0u/CC)

158 I put up a world series thread.

Geeze, I didn't even know the Mets were in it (and they're, like, my team).

Yeah so I'm not much of a fan.

Posted by: ace at October 27, 2015 09:06 PM (dciA+)

159 good post
i've always preferred really old black and white mysteries, but have recently got into some late 60's, 70's stuff (drowning pool, french connection, etc)

and as silly as it is true, i adore the new tom selleck, jesse stone stuff. he ain't afraid to use his gun i tell ya.

plus the coen's, burn after reading is good for several chuckles.

Posted by: north and judd at October 27, 2015 09:06 PM (f3K9g)

160 >>>Jan Michael-Vincent - a guy intimately familiar with apocalyptic disasters.

Don't knock my career.

Posted by: I prefer being called JMV at October 27, 2015 09:07 PM (dciA+)

161 Great post BTW, Ace.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 27, 2015 09:07 PM (LUgeY)

162
I put up a world series thread.

=====================

Thanks ace. I shall move my seething hatred one thread up.

Posted by: grammie winger, watching the fig tree at October 27, 2015 09:08 PM (dFi94)

163 I once heard a theory about movie monster creation. In the early days of movies, electricity was all the rage and Frankenstein's monster was created with ectricity. Then came the atomic age and Godzilla and a million giant insects were created by radiation. Then, for a brief period, they were created by computers as in Weird Science (Ok, not exactly a monster), Tron, etc. And now we're all about genetic manipulation. Originally, Spiderman was created when a radioactive spider bit him. Now his origin story is genetic.

Soooo, what comes next?

Posted by: The Great White Snark at October 27, 2015 09:08 PM (Nwg0u)

164 I much prefer the spoof Dalmatian Alley.

Val Kilmer quoting Socrates, "I drank what?"

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 09:08 PM (XYw4l)

165 Is it me or does Sonny Bunch sound like a good ghey porno name?

Posted by: Stormy Batch

I don't know why he didn't start a chain of florists.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at October 27, 2015 09:09 PM (JmGFJ)

166
I hated No Country for Old Men. What a depressing, nothing-means-anything-there-is-no-God piece of crap. That's why I like (a lot of) superhero movies--good guys win, bad guys lose, and the obviousness of the need for overwhelming strength by the good guys.
***
Coen's very disturbing works.
Like last night's fargo.
But that's life on this plain...evil will snuff ya.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:56 PM (ajMhd)

To be fair, NCFOM's misanthropic nihilism comes from Cormac McCarthy's book.

The Coen's contribution is that they think misanthropic nihilism is really, really funny.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 27, 2015 09:09 PM (o98Jz)

167 In Barbara Tuchman's book, "A Distant Mirror", she spends a lot of time noting the cultural phenomena that took place after the Black Death.

There were the Flagellants and Jew burning, of course. But the family unit took a hit too. Parents were forced to abandon their children and vice versa. Priests, nuns and monks abandoned their 'flock' and generally acted in ways that would have gotten their parishioners ex-communicated, if not severely punished, in previous eras.

There were a lot of orgies and things that never happened so openly and without shame.

Her whole point was that they began to act like it was the end of the world because they really did believe that it was. It didn't really matter that ultimately it wasn't the end. The widespread conviction or conventional wisdom that the end was nigh turned a civilization into anarchy in about 3 months.

Posted by: CozMark at October 27, 2015 09:09 PM (0bOZe)

168 and as silly as it is true, i adore the new tom selleck, jesse stone stuff. he ain't afraid to use his gun i tell ya.

-
I'm watching the latest this minute. I love, among other things, the interaction between him and Dr. Dix (played by William Davane).

Posted by: The Great White Snark at October 27, 2015 09:11 PM (Nwg0u)

169 When I saw The Giver and the villain was CLEARLY Hillary Clinton I sat in shocked silence.

I am watching Futurama on Netflix, and in a late season was amazed at the purely blatant anti-abortion episode. Bender discovers that he is defective, and is angry at the assembly line inspector who let him through without fixing the defect. But it turns out there is no fixing defects on the robot assembly line. Defective robots are dismantled and used for parts. But the line inspector decided that, even defective, Bender was worthy of being born. He stamped approved on baby Bender and then quit his job in disgust at having to kill baby robots just because no one might want them.

I still don't know if they realized what they were saying.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at October 27, 2015 09:12 PM (SWB1A)

170 The Sonny Bunch hasn't been as good since cousin Oliver was brought in to help the ratings.

Posted by: here's a story of a man named Sonny at October 27, 2015 09:13 PM (lqmAz)

171 Soooo, what comes next?

Posted by: The Great White Snark

*waves*

Posted by: Bruce, er, "Caitlyn" Jenner at October 27, 2015 09:13 PM (VAsIq)

172 There were a lot of orgies and things that never happened so openly and without shame.

r/selection - K/selection, yo.

If you're in a world where your spouse is probably going to die and not help raise your shared kid, K/selection no longer works. To propagate the species you have to get laid. Doesn't much matter with whom as long as it's not currently bleeding from its ears.

Plague years are, um, bad.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 27, 2015 09:14 PM (aLXXe)

173 So where does "Debbie Does Dallas" fit into this fascinating meta-narrative?

Posted by: Herr Morgenholz at October 27, 2015 09:14 PM (EUMr7)

174 CozMark or we look at the rise again of Paganism or Nihilism in post-Great War Europe.

The Hammer horror movie The Devil Rides Out is all about that Paganism with the 007 Blofeld as the leader of a Satanic cult. The source material for Eyes Wide Shut is about the satiating of the carnal impulses while rejecting Christianity even as their rituals mock the religious ones.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 09:14 PM (XYw4l)

175 How much are movie theme/genre trends a direct result of the zeitgeist and how much is it the movie/tv trend actually shapes the zeitgeist? There is a zeitgeist thing with movies in different periods, but, I've always wondered how "artificial" it might be. Hollywood has a habit of copycatting initial hits and churning out clones, which also sell tickets... because that's what's at the movies. I'm not being contrary, just looking for thoughts on this. It's still a zeitgeist if the movies themselves create it, but is there a difference between a "natural" zeitgeist and a Hollywood created one?

Posted by: otho at October 27, 2015 09:14 PM (EWg9n)

176 I'm not sure I agree with dystopia movies replacing slasher movies.
Slasher movies have been dead as a major genre since 1989 when Jason Takes Manhattan bombed and Nightmare on Elm Street 5 financially disappointed. I'm not sure it has anything to do with the "spirit of the time"-- just a market getting oversaturated with junk and contracting. Other than the Scream franchise, I can't think of any prominent slasher franchises other than the Saw series and that's not really a slasher. It's more like torture porn fora generation raised on Youtube beheadings. Also the super annoying found footage horror genre gives the veneer of real life and generation Y loves the idea of watching real suffering.

Posted by: Naes at October 27, 2015 09:15 PM (Ypc8j)

177 yeah, this is definately the darkest character i've ever seen selleck play. the marathon finally gave me the story of how he got the dog. both brooding souls. love that he drinks his johnny walker red.

Posted by: north and judd at October 27, 2015 09:15 PM (f3K9g)

178 Speaking of Bruce Jenner (links to Crowder produced image)

http://tinyurl.com/pajav82

Posted by: 18-1 at October 27, 2015 09:15 PM (5LOno)

179 zeitgeist ... zeitgeist ... zeitgeist

The word has lost all meaing.

Posted by: baked Jon Lovitz at October 27, 2015 09:15 PM (fSRGf)

180 The Devil Rides Out was a book, wasn't it? I seem to remember a lurid cover. I probably read it - I read everything I could get my hands on, as a kid.

Posted by: @votermom at October 27, 2015 09:16 PM (cbfNE)

181 @148 I don't think the moral of Real Genius was weapons for democracy are bad, I think it was that *particular* weapon was bad, a laser that could kill an individual from space. Also, that the professor was profiting from it without the colleges knowledge and having the students develop it without their knowledge, so being against cronyism and general douchebaggery were also the moral.

Posted by: All Teh Meh at October 27, 2015 09:16 PM (5LHtI)

182 Jon Lovitz in My Stepmother is an Alien. Oh my, yeah that's the ticket.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 09:17 PM (XYw4l)

183 Well at least the dead are walking instead of just laying around and watching TV.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 27, 2015 09:17 PM (FkBIv)

184
Speaking of Bruce Jenner (links to Crowder produced image)

http://tinyurl.com/pajav82

Posted by: 18-1 at October 27, 2015 09:15 PM (5LOno)

You've come a long way baby..err...dude..

Posted by: TheQuietMan at October 27, 2015 09:17 PM (DiZBp)

185 I'd have to disagree with the notion that Marvel-type superhero movies are "counterprograming" or going against the zeitgeist. They are the height of what I call for lack of a better word "chosen-one-ism": they are escapism, but the heroes are always inherently special. With the exception of Iron Man, the heroes are not regular people who rise to the occasion; they are biologically superior to everyone else (and Iron Man isn't much on an exception, being about a genius heir). We, the average man and average woman, cannot solve the problems that face us--we need special saviors, chosen at birth, to deliver us. Just like we need the übermenschen of polite urban liberal society to technocratically save us from ourselves. We've always had escapism, but I don't remember this chosen-one-ism ever being so prevalent: James Bond, Indiana Jones, and John McClane were ultimately just a civil servant, a professor and a policeman who were just a little bit fitter and more clever than we were. We don't get that any more. I can naturally fantasize that, in the right circumstances, I can save the day like Indy; I can't fantasize that I can shoot lasers out of my eyes like an X-Man. As much as I wind up enjoying all the Marvel-type movies I see, I can't help but feel there's something frighteningly infantile about the way they've become the only form of popular escapism.

Posted by: Hermocrates at October 27, 2015 09:17 PM (2Vi+8)

186 hmmmmmmmm clearly some Cubs fan pulled the plug on the TV truck in KC

anyone see grammie winger?

Posted by: chemjeff - go royals at October 27, 2015 09:17 PM (uZNvH)

187 It's also true that you're only talking about the movies you've seen. There's so much product nowadays that there is NO WAY you could watch them all in any given year. So the topic is really the popular movies. Movies that others of your tribe have seen. Movies that piss you off one way or another.

The vast majority of movies barely create a ripple.

Posted by: GnuBreed at October 27, 2015 09:18 PM (gyKtp)

188 108 Not to spoil too much...but try watching The Island (2005)...I think you'll like it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_%282005_film%29

Posted by: 18-1 at October 27, 2015 08:53 PM (5LOno)

The movie that it rips off, "Parts: The Clonus Horror," (1979) was used in an episode of MST3K. Said episode is on YouTube.

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at October 27, 2015 09:18 PM (EHU9F)

189 Her whole point was that they began to act like it was the end of the world because they really did believe that it was. It didn't really matter that ultimately it wasn't the end. The widespread conviction or conventional wisdom that the end was nigh turned a civilization into anarchy in about 3 months.

Posted by: CozMark

So, you're saying she's not fond of the Catholic church?

Posted by: weft cut-loop at October 27, 2015 09:18 PM (JmGFJ)

190 Please, call me "Time Ghost." Sounds...hero-ier.

Posted by: Zeitgeist at October 27, 2015 09:18 PM (VAsIq)

191 134 We Are Seeing The Fnords
Posted by: Robert Anton Wilson at October 27, 2015 08:59 PM (rbn4N)
---
Heehee!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Michigangsta at October 27, 2015 09:19 PM (jR7Wy)

192 The professor in Real Genius was the true villain. He did not care about consequences as long as he got the tony house, bimbo eye-candy on the arm, and face-time on TV.

Except for the bimbo on the arm, it is the story of Gaylord Focker.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 09:20 PM (XYw4l)

193
181 @148 I don't think the moral of Real Genius was weapons for democracy are bad, I think it was that *particular* weapon was bad, a laser that could kill an individual from space. Also, that the professor was profiting from it without the colleges knowledge and having the students develop it without their knowledge, so being against cronyism and general douchebaggery were also the moral.

Posted by: All Teh Meh at October 27, 2015 09:16 PM (5LHtI)

Except for the portrayal of military officers practically spooging their Class A's at the prospect of having another "weapon" in their hands.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 27, 2015 09:21 PM (o98Jz)

194 There was an article recently about how zombie movies / shows were about Americans no longer trusting each other because everyone is so divided. You can be chatting with your neighbor today and tomorrow he's trying to chew off your face. Sounds about right.

Posted by: @votermom at October 27, 2015 09:21 PM (cbfNE)

195 Doom. You're soaking in it.

Posted by: simplemind at October 27, 2015 09:21 PM (BTnAK)

196 Wtf is a broadcast issue? This game

Posted by: L, Elle at October 27, 2015 09:21 PM (2x3L+)

197 185 Don't forget Jedi who are a tiny elite of unelected knights who are the only ones with a connection to the divine. The dark side and light side get to have their pissing matches for thousands of generations and the normal people just get left in their wake in the Star Wars universe.

Posted by: Naes at October 27, 2015 09:21 PM (Ypc8j)

198 Now wtf is going on with the WS? Fox lost the picture, there's still a delay...

Posted by: Donna &&&&&V. (Brandishing ampersands) at October 27, 2015 09:22 PM (P8951)

199 oh come on, Real Genius was clearly an anti-SDI/anti-Reagan movie

Posted by: chemjeff - go royals at October 27, 2015 09:22 PM (uZNvH)

200 Posted by: Hermocrates

---

Captain America was a hero before he was Captain America. He lied to get into the army, and never backed down from evil. The superpoop formula just made him a less fragile hero.

And the same type of argument can be made about most other superheroes. Except Superman, because he's an insufferable ass.

Posted by: Bruce Wayne at October 27, 2015 09:22 PM (VAsIq)

201 To propagate the species you have to get laid. Doesn't much matter with whom as long as it's not currently bleeding from its ears.

Plague years are, um, bad.
Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 27, 2015 09:14 PM (aLXXe)
---
After the plague, wasn't there a vogue for dresses/robes with a big swell in the belly as though the woman looked pregnant? As a sort of Huzzah! for fecundity after so much death.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Michigangsta at October 27, 2015 09:23 PM (jR7Wy)

202
Wtf is a broadcast issue? This game

Posted by: L, Elle at October 27, 2015 09:21 PM (2x3L+)

Who unplugged the satellite transmitter so they could recharge their IPhone????

Posted by: Overheard in the broadcast booth at October 27, 2015 09:23 PM (o98Jz)

203 Speaking of being terminally, literally so in the movie, naive. Alderaan what were you thinking of making your whole planet a gun free zone with the likes of the Empire running amok?

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 09:23 PM (XYw4l)

204 172
There were a lot of orgies and things that never happened so openly and without shame.

r/selection - K/selection, yo.

If you're in a world where your spouse is probably going to die and not help raise your shared kid, K/selection no longer works. To propagate the species you have to get laid. Doesn't much matter with whom as long as it's not currently bleeding from its ears.

Plague years are, um, bad.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 27, 2015 09:14 PM (aLXXe)

_________________________________________
The overall point though is that one year there was a civilized society with a hierarchy and people acting responsibly within the system and then a year later it was obliterated. And this was all due to their fervent belief that God's judgment of it all was at hand and he was not going to spare anyone, from king to priest to peasant, the hand of God was laying waste to all men. So, why not go out doing a pile of naked nuns?

Posted by: CozMark at October 27, 2015 09:23 PM (FBE0g)

205 I totally agree.

With everything that ace said in his remarkable post. It was remarkable how ace said so many remarkable things in one single, remarkable post.

I totally agree.

Posted by: Red State Commenter at October 27, 2015 09:24 PM (0dcbp)

206 SPOILER ALERT!!!! I am amused by the final scene in Moon. An evil oil company is drilling the moon and keeping costs down by using clones who don't know that they are clones so as each fulfills his contract, he is eliminated and another takes his place who has memories of his family etc. that are bullshit. One finally figures it out and escapes back to Earth to tell the story. As his escape pod drifts toward Earth, there is a voice over sounding a lot like Rush saying, "This guy is either a nut or an illegal alien."

Posted by: The Great White Snark at October 27, 2015 09:24 PM (Nwg0u)

207 And the same type of argument can be made about most other superheroes. Except Superman, because he's an insufferable ass.

Which is why it was so very satisfying to see Batman giving him an epic ass whuppin' at the end of The Dark Knight Returns.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 27, 2015 09:25 PM (kpqmD)

208 Speaking of being terminally, literally so in the movie, naive. Alderaan what were you thinking of making your whole planet a gun free zone with the likes of the Empire running amok?

Posted by: Anna Puma

I said I'm sorry! Jeez.

Posted by: Princess Leia, Alderaanian Princess at October 27, 2015 09:25 PM (VAsIq)

209
the hand of God was laying waste to all men. So, why not go out doing a pile of naked nuns?

Posted by: CozMark at October 27, 2015 09:23 PM (FBE0g)

off to youtube to find a Gregorian chant version of *bow-chick-a-wow-wow*

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 27, 2015 09:26 PM (o98Jz)

210
101 Man of Steel is about an illegal alien who comes out of the shadows to make the lives of Americans, and really the world, better.
***
lol right?
doing the super heroing legacy americans are too stupid and lazy to do.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 08:51 PM (ajMhd)

Hey now!

Posted by: Capt. America at October 27, 2015 09:26 PM (qh617)

211 Which is why it was so very satisfying to see Batman giving him an epic ass whuppin' at the end of The Dark Knight Returns.

Posted by: Insomniac

I try to give the fans what they want every now and again.

And sometimes I make movies.

Posted by: Frank Miller at October 27, 2015 09:26 PM (VAsIq)

212 The overall point though is that one year there was a civilized society with a hierarchy and people acting responsibly within the system and then a year later it was obliterated

--

Margaret Mitchell touches on this in Gone With The Wind. Scarlett is one of those with just a thin veer of civility who throws mores away when the SHTF, while Melanie stays civilized even when the word is going to hell around her.

Posted by: @votermom at October 27, 2015 09:27 PM (cbfNE)

213 off to youtube to find a Gregorian chant version of *bow-chick-a-wow-wow*

Posted by: IllTemperedCur

I think I can help you with that....

Posted by: Enigma at October 27, 2015 09:27 PM (VAsIq)

214 The overall point though is that one year there was a civilized society with a hierarchy and people acting responsibly within the system and then a year later it was obliterated

--

Margaret Mitchell touches on this in Gone With The Wind. Scarlett is one of those with just a thin veer of civility who throws mores away when the SHTF, while Melanie stays civilized even when the word is going to hell around her.

Posted by: @votermom

I played with the same idea in Fox in Socks.

Posted by: Dr. Seuss at October 27, 2015 09:27 PM (VAsIq)

215 202
Wtf is a broadcast issue? This game

Posted by: L, Elle at October 27, 2015 09:21 PM (2x3L+)

Who unplugged the satellite transmitter so they could recharge their IPhone????

Posted by: Overheard in the broadcast booth at October 27, 2015 09:23 PM (o98Jz)

Wuh... wuh... what are you talking about?

Posted by: Max Headroom at October 27, 2015 09:28 PM (qh617)

216 I noticed Captain America is now basically just a liberal mouthpiece. When he pulled an Edward Snowden and leaked all of SHIELD's classified documents I just about lost it. I'm sure the world is much safer now that Dr Doom can build a helicarrier and all undercover agents have their covers blown. Dick.

Posted by: Naes at October 27, 2015 09:29 PM (Ypc8j)

217 off to youtube to find a Gregorian chant version of *bow-chick-a-wow-wow*
Carmina Burana would be a good place to start

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 27, 2015 09:29 PM (aLXXe)

218 How is ace's meta-review of *all* the movies shorter than his review of one?

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at October 27, 2015 09:29 PM (VAsIq)

219 and the normal people just get left in their wake in the Star Wars universe.

We made fat stacks working on some weird space station! Got to spend months on that thing; all the OT we could handle! Made a little more by cutting corners, such as leaving thermal ports uncovered and the like.

Posted by: Antilles Space Roofing Inc. at October 27, 2015 09:29 PM (fSRGf)

220 If you really want to understand the Brave New ~~World~~ Zeitgeist, you just have to watch "Steven Universe" which is super-popular amongst tweens and pajamaboys. It was literally created to challenge gender norms:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/prafppv

The "hero" "boy" is a special little snowflake and what pajama boys and emasculated young boys identify as. "He" is protected by three alien "gem" womyn including the masculine bull-dyke character, the dumpy/ugly one that looks like a stereotypical feminist, and the skinny one that embodies the rich White SJW type.

Posted by: The Political Hat at October 27, 2015 09:29 PM (vBeA5)

221 I notice a lot of the Marvel movies lately are all about rooting out corruption in formerly-respectable government agencies. (Eg: Captain America - Winter Soldier.) Hmmmm.....

Posted by: Socratease at October 27, 2015 09:30 PM (FqHs5)

222 I noticed Captain America is now basically just a liberal mouthpiece. When he pulled an Edward Snowden and leaked all of SHIELD's classified documents I just about lost it. I'm sure the world is much safer now that Dr Doom can build a helicarrier and all undercover agents have their covers blown. Dick.
***
lolz.
Hydra infilitrated Shield to create a helen kelly jones dissent stifler of mega proportions.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 27, 2015 09:30 PM (ajMhd)

223 I noticed Captain America is now basically just a liberal mouthpiece. When he pulled an Edward Snowden and leaked all of SHIELD's classified documents I just about lost it. I'm sure the world is much safer now that Dr Doom can build a helicarrier and all undercover agents have their covers blown. Dick.

Posted by: Naes

Didn't he take a bullet to the brain in the Civil War storyline? Is this the old Cap back, or his replacement, or a different continuity, or oh my gosh comics are hard to keep with.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at October 27, 2015 09:30 PM (VAsIq)

224 Of course in 1985, we got to watch Brazil
https://youtu.be/4Wh2b1eZFUM

Or perhaps Time Bandits is more to your liking.
https://youtu.be/Yd4DBq8a2y0

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 09:31 PM (XYw4l)

225 Oh, and James Bond is doing the same thing.

Posted by: Socratease at October 27, 2015 09:31 PM (FqHs5)

226 222 Baby, meet bathwater.

Posted by: Naes at October 27, 2015 09:32 PM (Ypc8j)

227 We made fat stacks working on some weird space station! Got to spend months on that thing; all the OT we could handle! Made a little more by cutting corners, such as leaving thermal ports uncovered and the like.

You'll be hearing from our lawyers. I'll just say we were totally hung out to dry on this one.

Posted by: Bothan Pipefitters Local #1.343 x 10^12 at October 27, 2015 09:33 PM (aLXXe)

228 Made a little more by cutting corners, such as leaving thermal ports uncovered and the like.

Posted by: Antilles Space Roofing Inc.

Yeah. Thanks for not putting up a SINGLE FREAKING GUARD RAIL.

Posted by: Stormtrooper TK-422 at October 27, 2015 09:33 PM (VAsIq)

229 the hand of God was laying waste to all men. So, why not go out doing a pile of naked nuns?

Posted by: CozMark at October 27, 2015 09:23 PM (FBE0g)

But first... A SPANKING!!1!

Posted by: Zoot & Dingo at October 27, 2015 09:33 PM (vBeA5)

230 How much, for example, was the flying saucer/alien flicks of the 50's/early 60's a direct result of "red scare" zeitgeist? I'm not so sure. Were the screenwriters/produces creating these witha "red scare" subtext?Or, were they just a bunch of flying saucer movies that are attributed to a red menace thing?

Posted by: otho at October 27, 2015 09:33 PM (EWg9n)

231 "Game of Thrones" - the - book was all about how Winter Was Coming.

----

Lies! You're a filthy denier!

Posted by: Al Gore at October 27, 2015 09:34 PM (VAsIq)

232 How much, for example, was the flying saucer/alien flicks of the 50's/early 60's a direct result of "red scare" zeitgeist? I'm not so sure. Were the screenwriters/produces creating these witha "red scare" subtext?Or, were they just a bunch of flying saucer movies that are attributed to a red menace thing?

Posted by: otho

Don't ask us!

Posted by: Pod People at October 27, 2015 09:35 PM (VAsIq)

233 230 The writer of Invasion of the Body Snatchers apparently insisted that the story had nothing to do with Communism. But everyone takes it as an article of faith that it was.

Posted by: Naes at October 27, 2015 09:35 PM (Ypc8j)

234 See? Don't ask us!

Posted by: Pod People at October 27, 2015 09:36 PM (VAsIq)

235 I want to see a dystopian movie in which internet movie critics kill each other off in gladiatorial battles in steel cages. First round would be ace vs Sonny Bunch.

Posted by: Bruce Boehner at October 27, 2015 09:36 PM (MmVtG)

236 I cannot be 100% sure of the timing, but I remember a bunch of disaster movies happening during the Carter administration. I guess it started a little before Carter. Towering Inferno, Airport 77, Black Sunday, and also a bunch of TV stuff. I was young, but I remember gas shortages, terrorism, and the hostages in Iran. It seemed pretty bleak to me.

Posted by: toadboy at October 27, 2015 09:37 PM (FSQ+n)

237 Yeah Steven Universe has to be written by TG writers who finally got a paying gig.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 09:37 PM (XYw4l)

238 I want to see a dystopian movie in which internet movie critics kill each other off in gladiatorial battles in steel cages.

Posted by: Bruce Boehner

Do you like movies about gladiators?

Posted by: Captain Oveur at October 27, 2015 09:37 PM (VAsIq)

239 The writer of Invasion of the Body Snatchers apparently insisted that the story had nothing to do with Communism. But everyone takes it as an article of faith that it was.

--

JK Rowling thinks The Ministry of Magic is not about The State.

Posted by: @votermom at October 27, 2015 09:38 PM (cbfNE)

240 (Skipping comments in order to comment - tradition!)

Howdy, y'all.

Just had to chime in because... Milady & I are paused, about 33 minutes into our umpteenth watching of...

Galaxy Quest

...when I tuned in to read Ace's post. This is a World Series surpassed thread now, but I had to put in my 2¢ worth, just because ... Galaxy Quest is everything the hopeless, despairing dystopian crap is not.

This movie gets me every time. Sure, it's "only" a comedy-parody, fandom-teasing homage, yet it's nonetheless (in my everybody's got one opinion) one of the best SF movies ever made. It laughs at fandom and filmdom without actually mocking or denigrating, and in the end honors the spirit of Trek- sincere hope, undauntable courage, and ultimately rising above oneself.

And, as far as I can tell (Santa Clause #1 notwithstanding) it's the only reason for Tim Allen to exist. Crazy but brave wins in the end.

The crew of 'way-'way-out-of-their depth actors, especially the idiot Allen plays, contrasted with the deadly seriousness of imminent genocide of the Thermians by the evil Grinch bad guy is so hilarious and so terrible all the way through. It's all a hoot until someone dies, and they do.

By Grapthar's Hammer, I enjoy it more every time. And it makes me feel crazy because I do.

The score is even inspiring! Hopeful, positive, and uplifting. Life's been nightmarish lately, and this is just what I needed tonight.

Gotta go, gotta watch the rest. Been busy since we got back from Chicago, but maybe I can participate in the morning thread tomorrow.

NEVER GIVE UP!

Posted by: mindful webworker - NEVER SURRENDER! at October 27, 2015 09:38 PM (ACs58)

241 Movie critics killing each other?

Well we did get treated to Death by Murder.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 09:39 PM (XYw4l)

242 Why Dystopian Movies are Really About the Success of Liberal Policies!

Posted by: Vox at October 27, 2015 09:39 PM (VAsIq)

243 I was young, but I remember gas shortages, terrorism, and the hostages in Iran. It seemed pretty bleak to me.
Posted by: toadboy

Today we have fruitopia.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 27, 2015 09:39 PM (FkBIv)

244 One good thing that came out of the Black Death was a labor shortage. All those poor oppressed peasants saw a massive pay increase. Then they bought land and started oppressing the poor peasants again a few decades later.

Posted by: CozMark at October 27, 2015 09:39 PM (BjOkm)

245 I wonder if John Carpenter's the Thing and Blade Runner bombed in 1982 because people were sick of the pessimistic view of the future and the outsider. ET was also released that year.

Posted by: Naes at October 27, 2015 09:39 PM (Ypc8j)

246 ET was also released that year.

Posted by: Naes

And now I want some Reese's Pieces.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at October 27, 2015 09:40 PM (VAsIq)

247 and as silly as it is true, i adore the new tom selleck, jesse stone stuff. he ain't afraid to use his gun i tell ya.

Posted by: north and judd at October 27, 2015 09:06 PM (f3K9g)

Same with Blue Bloods. I'm surprised at the conservative themes in the show.

Posted by: Michael the Hobbit at October 27, 2015 09:40 PM (dPpmC)

248 There can be only... NONE!

Posted by: Caitlander Jenner at October 27, 2015 09:41 PM (MmVtG)

249 Don't ask us!

Posted by: Pod People at October 27, 2015 09:35 PM

Yeah, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a pretty good example of of the idea. I can see how that one would hold up. But, the vast majority seem to be just about a saucer threat and alien plots to do whatever. Saucer stuff was big at the time, space and all that. Have wondered whether the concept of red menace in those was retrofitted as an anti McCarthy type thing. Just pondering. I could be wrong.

Posted by: otho at October 27, 2015 09:41 PM (EWg9n)

250 Same with Blue Bloods. I'm surprised at the conservative themes in the show.

Posted by: Michael the Hobbit

Agreed. I'm surprised it's still on.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at October 27, 2015 09:42 PM (VAsIq)

251 230 The writer of Invasion of the Body Snatchers apparently insisted that the story had nothing to do with Communism. But everyone takes it as an article of faith that it was.

Posted by: Naes at October 27, 2015 09:35 PM

Ah. Well, there you go.

Posted by: otho at October 27, 2015 09:43 PM (EWg9n)

252 Posted by: otho

I think part of the Red Scare was we weren't entirely sure of what the Soviets could do. Did they have something bigger/better than the hydrogen bomb? Could we really stand against such a powerful foe?

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at October 27, 2015 09:44 PM (VAsIq)

253 Dang, forgot about Ladyhawke in 1985
https://youtu.be/YkjiZr4zMdI

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 09:45 PM (XYw4l)

254 What about the cinema of the 1890s? "Man sneezing," "Man smoking cigar" and "Girl Jump Roping" really tapped into the cultural zeitgeist at the time.

Posted by: Naes at October 27, 2015 09:45 PM (Ypc8j)

255
230 How much, for example, was the flying saucer/alien flicks of the 50's/early 60's a direct result of "red scare" zeitgeist? I'm not so sure. Were the screenwriters/produces creating these witha "red scare" subtext?Or, were they just a bunch of flying saucer movies that are attributed to a red menace thing?

Posted by: otho at October 27, 2015 09:33 PM (EWg9n)

Actually they were a statement about the UFO sightings that people had then.

They seem to come in waves... and the 50s and 60s had a lot of publicized sightings....

Note... there are still daily UFO sightings worldwide... they just never make the news... strangely enough...

Posted by: BB Wolf at October 27, 2015 09:46 PM (qh617)

256 Reagan brought us Flight of the Navigator.

I don't know what that means, but that was a pretty good movie.

Posted by: mugiwara at October 27, 2015 09:46 PM (1xTfl)

257 253: Ah, Michelle Pfeiffer. She was an insanely hot woman. Still looks pretty good.

Posted by: Puddleglum @work at October 27, 2015 09:47 PM (syGA0)

258 I think part of the Red Scare was we weren't
entirely sure of what the Soviets could do. Did they have something
bigger/better than the hydrogen bomb? Could we really stand against such
a powerful foe?

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at October 27, 2015 09:44 PM (VAsIq)

It was no scare. It was a real threat and the bastards destroyed us from within.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at October 27, 2015 09:47 PM (DiZBp)

259 The Red Scare was legitimate, but it is treated with mockery.

This is what Commies and their useful idiots and fellow travelers do.

Posted by: eman at October 27, 2015 09:48 PM (MQEz6)

260 What about the cinema of the 1890s? "Man sneezing," "Man smoking cigar" and "Girl Jump Roping" really tapped into the cultural zeitgeist at the time.
Posted by: Naes

"Rocket into the eye of the man in the Moon"

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 27, 2015 09:48 PM (FkBIv)

261 Reagan brought us Flight of the Navigator.

I don't know what that means, but that was a pretty good movie.

Posted by: mugiwara

Best left as a memory. Tried re-watching it--holy crap, it was bad.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at October 27, 2015 09:48 PM (VAsIq)

262 I think part of the Red Scare was we weren't entirely sure of what the Soviets could do. Did they have something bigger/better than the hydrogen bomb? Could we really stand against such a powerful foe?

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at October 27, 2015 09:44 PM

Yeah, I get that part of it. But, I'm still not sure that the saucer/monster flicks of the 50's were a result of tapping into soviet threat as a theme. The saucer/atomic craze was enough to explain those movies replacing the more "traditional" horror movies of earlier decades.

Posted by: otho at October 27, 2015 09:50 PM (EWg9n)

263 Who can properly analyze this shit? Fred Ginger shit was optimistic to give people hope during the Great Depression.

Humans are so devious, always compensating for things, who can say what this stuff truly signifies.

And since I've refuted the whole stupid premise of this thread I expect I will find that I've been willowed!

Posted by: Caitlander Jenner at October 27, 2015 09:50 PM (MmVtG)

264 Sometimes a movie is just a movie.

Posted by: S Freud at October 27, 2015 09:51 PM (uPxUo)

265 X The Unknown from England was about intelligent mud from deep beneath the mantle coming to the surface to feed on radioactive material. Yeah, pretty flimsy 'science' there.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 09:53 PM (XYw4l)

266 The whole UFO phenomena was promulgated by the US military to draw attention away from the fact they it was doing a lot experimenting on various technologies.

The topic tends to draw a certain type of person which would immediately discredit the whole thing once they began to speak.

So US military intelligence would either 'investigate' or dismiss a sighting depending upon how good the evidence was.

The whole Glomar Explorer type of thing.

Posted by: CozMark at October 27, 2015 09:54 PM (0bOZe)

267 If you really want to understand the Brave New World Zeitgeist,
you just have to watch "Steven Universe" which is super-popular amongst
tweens and pajamaboys. It was literally created to challenge gender
norms:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/prafppv

The "hero" "boy" is a special little snowflake and what pajama boys
and emasculated young boys identify as. "He" is protected by three
alien "gem" womyn including the masculine bull-dyke character, the
dumpy/ugly one that looks like a stereotypical feminist, and the skinny
one that embodies the rich White SJW type.
Posted by: The Political Hat at October 27, 2015 09:29 PM (vBeA5)

I like Steven Universe. But yeah, the gems are kind of dykish. And I know at least one of the creator/writers is an adamant Lefty prick.

On the other hand, our hero Steven wouldn't exist if his gem mom didn't abandon the lesbianhood.

Posted by: mugiwara at October 27, 2015 09:55 PM (1xTfl)

268 If I had Caitlyn Jenner's rack, I'd be Mooby Dick.

Posted by: Richard Nixon at October 27, 2015 09:56 PM (MmVtG)

269 We know some of the UFO panic of the '50s was because people hadn't seen a DeLorean before.

Posted by: that guy who thinks Back to the Future was a documentary at October 27, 2015 09:57 PM (fSRGf)

270 @240 Have no idea how many times I've seen Galaxy Quest, but I still have an overwhelming urge to jump up and cheer when Nesmith tells Brandon that it's all real and Brandon says I knew it, love that scene.

Posted by: All Teh Meh at October 27, 2015 09:59 PM (5LHtI)

271 Or, does it not matter if they weren't created with a theme in mind? Did the public react to those movies as projecting a soviet threat? Or, were they just a bunch of saucer sci/fi flicks that academics and whatnot attribute to "irrational" red scares? Know what I mean?

Posted by: otho at October 27, 2015 10:01 PM (EWg9n)

272 Posted by: CozMark at October 27, 2015 09:54 PM (0bOZe)

And that's why there have been over 120,000 UFO sightings documented across the world, in the modern age....

And why they continue today.

Because the US Air Force has a vested interest in spending money to make UFO sightings occur in other countries... because...

shit... got me...

Posted by: BB Wolf at October 27, 2015 10:03 PM (qh617)

273 @240 Have no idea how many times I've seen Galaxy Quest, but I still have an overwhelming urge to jump up and cheer when Nesmith tells Brandon that it's all real and Brandon says I knew it, love that scene.
Posted by: All Teh Meh

Galaxy Quest was such a blast from nowhere. I think they lucked out that the studio sat on it.

Not something anyone could have calculated of course, but it was just enough precocious, just enough homage to be a top 10 ten sci-fi fan film.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at October 27, 2015 10:03 PM (JmGFJ)

274 On the other hand, our hero Steven wouldn't exist if his gem mom didn't abandon the lesbianhood.
Posted by: mugiwara at October 27, 2015 09:55 PM (1xTfl)

Or "How I stoppen worrying and learned to love the turkey bastor..."

Posted by: Toxic Masculinity at October 27, 2015 10:03 PM (vBeA5)

275 224 Of course in 1985, we got to watch Brazil
https://youtu.be/4Wh2b1eZFUM

Or perhaps Time Bandits is more to your liking.
https://youtu.be/Yd4DBq8a2y0

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 09:31 PM (XYw4l)

I love 'em both. Only recently did I finally watch the DVD of "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" that I picked up years and years ago and still had in shrinkwrap. I wasn't particularly impressed.

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at October 27, 2015 10:04 PM (EHU9F)

276 Today I got the book "Like A Rolling Stone" by Greil Marcus. It's not a long book, but I'm already almost halfway through it.

One thing I have learned is that I really, really need to see the movie "Masked and Anonymous". Check out this description:

"This is the premise of Masked and Anonymous, a movie released that same summer, directed by Larry Charles, written by Bob Dylan, and starring Dylan as Jack Fate, a semi-legendary, all-but-forgotten singer: people remember they're supposed to remember him, but they don't remember why. They are citizens of a country that barely remembers itself: the U.S.A. here reduced to a rotting Los Angeles. Most of the people who used to run the country, or own it--that is, white people--have fled or disappeared. Those who remain still speak and move as if they expect others to respect what they say or get out of the way, but nobody does. There are no more Americans. The Third World--Jamaicans, Africans, Mexicans, Arabs, Chechens, Serbs, refugees, thugs, killers, and extortionists of every kind--has colonized the First. These are not the Statue of Liberty's huddled masses, yearning to breathe free; they're looters."

Holy crap. That movie was released in 2003. Sound familiar?

Posted by: rickl at October 27, 2015 10:06 PM (sdi6R)

277 *starts looking for the syringe of glowing green fluid*

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 10:12 PM (XYw4l)

278 *starts looking for the syringe of glowing green fluid*
Posted by: Anna Puma

Oh, dear, why not just offer the thread above some elderberry wine?

Posted by: Aunt Abby & Aunt Martha at October 27, 2015 10:16 PM (JmGFJ)

279 Apocalyptic movies and fiction did not just start up in the age of Obama.

It got shitty in the 70s. SciFi used to be all forward thinking and all that, then we got Silent Running.

Look at how many 80s movies were road warrior-ish.

We stopped being optimistic when we decided we had been to the Moon and that was just far enough.

That is why I don't read any new SciFi because its all dystopian. Its not about how things will be better, but how it is just going to be worse.

In the show How William Shatner Changed The World they noted that about Star Trek. In TOS they were boldly going. in the other shows it got all gritty and less optimistic.

Posted by: blaster at October 27, 2015 10:16 PM (2Ocf1)

280 Remember Soylent Green? SciFi about how bad it was going to get.

SPOILER ALERT!

It was so bad we were going to have to eat people!

Posted by: blaster at October 27, 2015 10:18 PM (2Ocf1)

281 It got shitty in the 70s. SciFi used to be all forward thinking and all that, then we got Silent Running.

Saw that in a theater. Thought it was going to be a submarine movie.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 27, 2015 10:19 PM (FkBIv)

282 It was so bad we were going to have to eat people!
Posted by: blaster

Won't happen. The World Health Organization has determined that people meat is carcinogenic.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 27, 2015 10:20 PM (FkBIv)

283 Soylent Green was 1973. Silent Running 1972. Logan's Run was 1976. Westworld. Planet of the Apes. A Boy and His Dog. A Clockwork Orange. Rollerball. MadMax. THX1138.

Posted by: blaster at October 27, 2015 10:20 PM (2Ocf1)

284 Omega Man. Damnation Alley. Andromeda Strain.

Posted by: blaster at October 27, 2015 10:22 PM (2Ocf1)

285 Won't happen. The World Health Organization has determined that people meat is carcinogenic.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr.

---

IS JUST THE WHITE MEAT CANCEROGENIC OR DARK MEAT OR REDSKIN MEAT??? I SMELL RACISTS PLOTS COMIN ON SO YALL CAN JUSTIFY KILL AND DEVOUR ME OVER A OVEN

Posted by: Al Sharpton at October 27, 2015 10:26 PM (MmVtG)

286 IS JUST THE WHITE MEAT CANCEROGENIC OR DARK MEAT OR REDSKIN MEAT??? I SMELL RACISTS PLOTS COMIN ON SO YALL CAN JUSTIFY KILL AND DEVOUR ME OVER A OVEN
Posted by: Al Sharpton

IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE HE CAN'T FIT IN AN OVEN.

Posted by: BEN ROETHESBURGERERER at October 27, 2015 10:28 PM (JmGFJ)

287 Elderberry wine? We have more Yellow Fever victims?

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 10:29 PM (XYw4l)

288 *starts looking for the syringe of glowing green fluid*

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 10:12 PM (XYw4l)

---

Are you talkin to me? Are you ... talkin to me?

Posted by: Herbert West, Reanimator at October 27, 2015 10:29 PM (MmVtG)

289 I wonder if John Carpenter's the Thing and Blade Runner bombed in 1982 because people were sick of the pessimistic view of the future and the outsider. ET was also released that year.

Posted by: Naes at October 27, 2015 09:39 PM

A major factor in "The Thing" tanking wasn't so much "ET" and all that (though it did play a part)... as it was the critical savaging it got on release. The critics HATED it and put off people seeing it. The critics lambasted it for daring to update the Howard Hawks classic and couldn't get past that. If more people had gone to "The Thing" and actually watched it, it would've done much better. I personally made that mistake. I wrote it off as a unneeded remake of a classic, despite Carpenter directing. I was wrong. So very, very wrong.

With Blade Runner, I have no idea.

Posted by: otho at October 27, 2015 10:31 PM (EWg9n)

290 Do you like movies about gladiators?
Posted by: Captain Oveur
---
Stop it. I just had a facelift last year to remove the laugh lines.

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 27, 2015 10:34 PM (MmVtG)

291 The book Hunger Games was first published in September 2008. So... you could say it was self-fulfilling prophecy of a type. And that the madness of the housing boom must have been going on while Collins was writing it.

I have no idea what her politics are but she can definitely see the bad side of government.

Actually, the first time I read the entire series... and it is good reading... I was struck that they were a comment on war. It was the Iraq War and the War on Terror in general that probably inspired her.

By being a comment on war: in the end Catniss is rebuilding her life in Sector 12, on the top of all the dead. And she reflects on if the whole rebellion was worth it. It is worth it to her, but was it worth it to all those who died and never got freedom... all the while the government grows evil once again....

It is actually pretty profound.

Posted by: petunia at October 27, 2015 10:37 PM (VoCyE)

292 I notice a trend not only towards apocalypse/distopia and zombies but to general nihilism and casual inhumanity. Here, I'm not just thinking of easy targets like Game of Thrones or earlier, The Sopranos. Not even slightly tamer stuff like Breaking Bad. Even movies and TV shows about supposedly "heroic" people are of dread and wretched characters. Anybody remember the series where Dennis Leary played a firefighter? It made me want scrub my brain with bleach! I remember Leary promoting at first as honoring firefighters he knew in real life. Really? I'd rather pass on such an "honor" if I were one of those guys.

Posted by: Commissar M at October 27, 2015 10:38 PM (Xx2PC)

293 The Weavers refused to do the theme song for "High Noon," because the pre-production hype was that it was a right wing movie (They All Were!). Then a generation of New Critics re-cast it with the villains being McCarthy and HUAC, I shit you not. It's pretty clearly an allegory of US foreign policy in the Korea era. So they were right. That song would have sucked with Pete Seeger wailing in it.

I liked when Princess Grace the pacifist shoots the guy. But I liked when Lil Gish shot guys, too. She let Mitchum have it with a shotgun, and the sonofabitch deserved it. In those days, a woman with a gun made for powerful allegory.

There is a thing called "Baroque sensibility." Basically, in times of great freedom, exploration, discovery, the literature is all Shakespearean "Dust In The Wind." When things are actually shitty, say, English Civil Wars shitty, word-art gets all lovely ornamental, beauties of nature and "inner architecture."

Posted by: Stringer Davis at October 27, 2015 10:40 PM (xq1UY)

294 "Stop it. I just had a facelift last year to remove the laugh lines." Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner

Um, you call that a facelift? Since when does a facelift start with penis jerky?

Posted by: Voter/ConsumerUnit#985731 at October 27, 2015 10:43 PM (pxwEr)

295 Ace, maybe you missed the notice, but the next Marvel superhero flick is Captain America: Civil War. Not exactly a biright and happy topic.

Posted by: Darth Randall at October 27, 2015 10:48 PM (6n332)

296 Actually, a lot of the Marvel movies haven't been very happy-go-lucky, either. People have mentioned that the next Captain America movie is Civil War. The next Thor movie is about Ragnarok, the viking end-of-the-world myth. And the last Captain America movie depicted the destruction of SHIELD by Hydra infiltrators. Age of Ultron was about a hero who, in attempting to save the world, actually creates a menace that threatens to destroy it. Heck, Guardians of the Galaxy was a fun, feel good comedy adventure, but even it featured a villain who wanted to destroy the planet. And the next two Avengers movies will feature Thanos, a villain who literally wants to kill everybody in the universe as an offering to Death, who he happens to be in love with.

Posted by: Paul at October 27, 2015 10:56 PM (egEWw)

297 I did not read Bladerunner, but the Divergent series was okay, I wanted it to be Hunger Games, and it was not as profound, or as well written. I think Hunger Games will be like 1984, people will teach it, because it has motivations and sub messages about human nature that should be discussed.

Divergent, and from what I can tell about Bladerunner seem to be about generations of youth being used as social science/ science, experiments to fix the problems their ancestors created with science.

Actually that sounded sort of more interesting when I write that. Hmmm. I didn't bother analyzing them before because they seemed a rip off of Hunger Games, but the theme is very different.

I actually didn't read Bladerunner because my daughter said it was boring. It might not be too me.

I still like Hunger Games and the trade off value of war versus freedom.

Posted by: petunia at October 27, 2015 11:00 PM (VoCyE)

298 I bet you're fun at parties.

Posted by: bour3 at October 27, 2015 11:03 PM (5x3+2)

299 72
When I saw The Giver and the villain was CLEARLY Hillary Clinton I sat in shocked silence.

I sometimes wonder if we aren't seeing Hollywood idiotically not noticing what their movies are actually saying, and instead perhaps the False-consensus that empowers the current left and political class is even weaker then we surmise?

Posted by: 18-1 at October 27, 2015 08:45 PM (5LOno)

Right after Obama was elected there was a cartoon about aliens and monsters... and the alien was the spitting image of Obama! He was green or blue or something... but it was Obama.

Someone in Hollywood was not pleased at the outcome of the election. Or maybe they just thought he had a cute face that kids would like... I don't know.

Posted by: petunia at October 27, 2015 11:04 PM (VoCyE)

300 280 Remember Soylent Green? SciFi about how bad it was going to get.

SPOILER ALERT!

It was so bad we were going to have to eat people!

Posted by: blaster at October 27, 2015 10:18 PM (2Ocf1)

That maybe next. The horrible prejudice we all have that they will work for decades to make acceptable, in a few years we will be bigots if we refuse to eat our neighbors.

Posted by: petunia at October 27, 2015 11:08 PM (VoCyE)

301 You know, if all of these Hollywood hotties want equal pay in this modern age, then they need to resolve themselves to showing more titties and cooter like women did back in the 70s and 80s.

This stuff is like Movie Making 101 for Retards.

Posted by: Fritz at October 27, 2015 11:08 PM (3tjn4)

302 The Marvel superhero movies have been quite apocalyptic in overall plan, if not the individual movies.
Phase One was the most upbeat, but it ended with The Avengers fighting off an alien invasion and the revelation of Thanos.
Phase Two has been significantly darker, with Iron Man 3 being about terrorism, Thor: The Dark World featuring an attempt to destroy multiple worlds, Captain America: The Winter Soldier showing Robert Redford as himself destroying SHIELD, Guardians of the Galaxy being about another attempted planet assassination, and Avengers: Age of Ultron being a Terminator flashback.
Phase Three has begun with Ant-Man showing the SHIELD-Hydra War is ongoing and demonstrating an overture to Captain America: Civil War wherein all the heroes start fighting each other instead of the enemies trying to destroy it. Upcoming will be Thor: Ragnarok, which is apocalyptic by definition, and Avengers" Infinity War - Part 1, which every comic book fan can tell you is about the absolute "ultimate" apocalypse.

Now granted, they don't wallow in the same sort of nihilism and teen/young adult abuse-under-the-pretense-of-empowerment as The Hunger Games, Maze Runner, and Divergent series, but they are just as much founded in the apocalypse genre.
To the point that, I think the genre is more an enabler than the actual theme.
It is simply a framing mechanism to showcase said abuse while suggesting that only some form of rebellious youth can save us. Meanwhile the superhero presentations highlight the collapse of existing societal icons, again requiring rebellion, often with a pretense of established figures reclaiming the "true" way.
One might suspect a more subtle and comprehensive cultural subversion is at work between the two.

Posted by: Sam at October 27, 2015 11:09 PM (rRqyL)

303 A movie based on the book, One Second After, which deals with a EMP attack that deals with a family surviving and dealing with the threats during a 1 year period after the attack is the stuff of nightmares. Long story short, if an EMP attack does meet all the worse case scenario fears then we're looking at a 90% death rate in the U.S. at the one year mark from exposure, starvation, sickness and violence.

Posted by: Daniel at October 27, 2015 11:13 PM (Ur3Wo)

304 Ace, maybe you missed the notice, but the next Marvel superhero flick is Captain America: Civil War. Not exactly a biright and happy topic.
Posted by: Darth Randall

It's almost guaranteed to be a melodramatic shitshow from word go.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at October 27, 2015 11:13 PM (JmGFJ)

305 Avengers, Age of Ultron seemed to say this one thing: yes, there is a problem, but it is a singular problem--this sarcastic, Robert-Downey-esque, robot monster. And that's it. Once we destroy the RD-E-RM, everything will be great. And in that film, it was.

Kind of a contrast to the last Captain America film, which seemed to say this rot was deep rooted and could not be punched away.

I guess the message is Cotton Candy Cures Everything, So Have Some!

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at October 27, 2015 11:15 PM (B8JRQ)

306 A movie based on the book, One Second After, which deals with a EMP attack that deals with a family surviving and dealing with the threats during a 1 year period after the attack is the stuff of nightmares. Long story short, if an EMP attack does meet all the worse case scenario fears then we're looking at a 90% death rate in the U.S. at the one year mark from exposure, starvation, sickness and violence.
Posted by: Daniel

It would make for a better mini-series than The Walking Dead has been as an ongoing-cable show. OR what Jericho should have been for that matter.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at October 27, 2015 11:20 PM (JmGFJ)

307 One Second After? Well then how about Dean Ing's Pulling Through about a limited nuclear exchange between the US and USSR. Harve Rackham, freelance bounty hunter, his latest collar, his sister with husband and two kids plus Harve's cheetah named Spot have to survive the fallout, criminals escaped from the county farm, and even dealing with refugees.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 27, 2015 11:30 PM (XYw4l)

308 Meaty's ONT is on the grill

Posted by: weft cut-loop at October 27, 2015 11:31 PM (JmGFJ)

309 1) Modern zombie movies are almost all terrorist metaphors. They're a bunch of people who hate you for no reason, and want to kill you more than they want to live.

2) The current movie market has astoundingly little room for anything new. It's all sequels and reboots -- the comfort food of movies.

Posted by: Zach at October 28, 2015 12:47 AM (Tr+Z0)

310 Movies these days suck. And when they make remakes of remakes they suck even worse. Save your money.

Posted by: Case, Mors Semper Tyrannis at October 28, 2015 01:11 AM (HSAmh)

311 The praised Captain America Winter Soldier featured a corrupt Washington being almost destroyed. The praised Iron Man featured a corrupt Washington. The Avengers trashed New York and more recently blew up a European country. Marvel's Agents of Shield frequently battle corrupt US intelligence services. There's a lot of nihilism in the mix.

Posted by: thule222 at October 28, 2015 09:13 AM (0CE0/)

312 What about the newest TV shows, they all have some kind of conspiracy as an ongoing thing. Not to mention pc bs. I just stopped watching a few shows that were too pc but Quantico, Limitless, Blindspot and slightly older shows, Person of Interest?, Blacklist, Even Hawaii 50 have at least one ongoing conspiracy.
More general action shows eg. NCIS etc. have the "Dark Web yada yada.

Posted by: augustr at October 28, 2015 10:39 AM (y5CA5)

313 Ace nails it again. (How do you nail a zeitgeist, and what do you nail it to?)

Even The Man from U.N.C.L.E. this summer was a feel-good movie because it was set in what is now a pure fantasy world, a time when all things seemed possible: the era of JFK. Aside from films of the early Sixties, which were cheerful, you look at photographs or footage of people on the street, shopping. They looked happy and confident. Not like now.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at October 28, 2015 11:18 AM (GrZV5)

314 "Up and at them!"

Posted by: Ranier Wolfcastle at October 28, 2015 11:55 AM (bpn7O)

315 Tremendously insightful blog post, Ace.

Top shelf.

Posted by: aquaviva at October 28, 2015 12:19 PM (RHrlL)

316 > He wouldn't notice a zeitgeist if it were giving him a Rusty Trombone.

Point of order, Mr. Chairman. Trombones are made of brass. They don't rust. They tarnish.

Posted by: Reformed Trombonist at October 28, 2015 02:18 PM (SlABZ)

317 Perhaps another way to look at the teen dystopia is the situations have become so dire Revolution is the only way of turning the tide lest the future be lost completely. A young person today looks at the insurmountable debt laid at their feet, lawlessness allowed to run rampant in the streets, evil killing all who do not submit, joblessness and unending economic despair led by an all powerful government incapable of fixing or outright supporting these issues. Time has nearly run out and the only course of action is revolution because trying to reverse the tide and correct things through the political process will take too long with corruption that runs too deep. We are at this tipping point right now. A storm is coming and it isn't the BLM goofballs who will lead it. It's the American youth from whom the government has stolen their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. All it will take is the right match at the right time to light 'em up.

Posted by: KauaiGoneGin at October 28, 2015 02:53 PM (Iv8Oi)

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