I miss the movies of the early 80’s. There just seemed to be more movies that dealt with everyday life and what is changing in society. 9 to 5, Mr. Mom, Kramer vs. Kramer. I can’t really think of any movies that do that now.
My life is just like “The Real Cancun.”
Let me stress entertainment.
There’s a place for social commentary in some movies. If it’s done well. “The Killing Fields” for example. On the other hand, I still think the primary purpose of a fictional movie – really of any artform – is to entertain, to enchant, to ultimately create (as Nabokov said) “aesthetic bliss” – not to preach or lecture. I don’t really know that the content of social commentary in movies today is any higher than it was 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. It’s hard to get a perspective on a big question like that.
I’m not quite sure what you mean about “everyday life and social change.” I guess you are talking about domestic or workaday dramas/comedies, as opposed to what – broad slapstick, action, sci-fi and fantasy, war? Offhand I can think of at least one good recent movie about everyday life – “One True Thing,” a story of a mother dying of cancer in the late 1980s. Unfortunately, it is also rather depressing. Also, “Office Space” has become a cult classic although I have not seen it myself.
Not to be a jerk, but Kramer vs. Kramer was in '79. And for the most part, I think the 70s had more socially conscious movies such as MASH, The Deer Hunter, Norma Rae, etc. Nonetheless, I agree with you that there seem to be very few mainstream Hollywood films that address question of social or economic justice. That may be a good thing, however, as they often come across as movies-of-the-week melodrama, such as the recent Life of David Gale.
I’d have to second Office Space. I love that flick.
Trying to remember the last film I saw that was focused on a current “big” issue except for Lilya 4-ever, which was great.
Can’t think of any. I agree, it’s a problem.
Like… hello… d’uh! Like, haven’t you guys ever seen Clueless? Or Excess Baggage? Those are sooooo social commentary as entertainment, totally.
I assume y’all are talking about movies like “Bend it Like Beckham”, “In the Bedroom”, “I Am Sam”, “Traffic”, “Erin Brockovich”, or “American Beauty”. Movies about ordinary folks and big issues or changing lifestyles or some such, right? I can’t say I’ve noticed any dearth of the same.
Yeah, like Short Circuit, Ice Pirates, Strange Brew, Supergirl, Clue, and Police Academy 1 - 3.
The problem of black market slavery has not been addressed properly since Big Trouble in Little China.
And never have issues of paternity been dealt with more forthrightly than in The Empire Strikes Back.
I had actually managed to forget that Ice Pirates had ever existed. Thanks for the memories, Sparky… not.
Police Academy, on the other hand, is permanently branded into my brain as an icon of lameness.
I thought Clue and Strange Brew were pretty good movies, though.
Oh, I love Strange Brew. But social commentary it ain’t.
But Strange Brew is a blatant retelling of Hamlet with a woman in the Hamlet role and Bob and Doug Mackenzie as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern anaglogues!
If that’s not social commentary, I don’t know what is.
-TomI thought it was an analogy about how beer is good for putting out the flames of insanity.
But the movies I mentioned were prophetic.
Women in the workplace, men staying at home and the strain on marriages that lead to divorce and the life thereafter.
Okay, okay. I know, I’m pushing it.
Prophetic? It’s not like those movies came out in the 1800s. WOmen in the workplace and stay-at-home dads were not exactly new concepts in the 80s.
Clueless is a great movie. Excess Baggage, from what I saw of it, was a bizarre Alicia Silverstone vanity project.
Clueless is a great movie. Excess Baggage, from what I saw of it, was a bizarre Alicia Silverstone vanity project.[/quote]
Nothing tops The Crush. Alicia’s crowning achievement. A 30-something professional lusting after a blossoming, curious 16 year old. Why am I having Deja Vu all of the sudden?