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This movie is depressing for people who were born in a much later age

posted 10 years ago by matthijs_smits-802-533771
80 replies | jump to latest

This movie left me with an extremely nostalgic-like feeling, even though it can't be nostalgia because I wasn't even born back then. It's like this movie glorified the place and time in which it takes place to such an extent that I actually want to be there, while making me resent my own generation (social media, globalization, financial crisis, individualisation). It leaves me feeling sort of sad inside... Am I alone in this, or is anyone with me?

BTW sorry for the rash generalization in the title, had to attract attention I guess.

[–] TongueFu 9 years ago

I've had that feeling about a time and place I've only read about as it was described by an author looking back at his childhood or a previous era in his life or from a biographical movie. I call it vicarious nostalgia.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] phoenixandrew 9 years ago

50 years from now, there will be people nostalgic for today, I guarantee ya!

[–] agracier-574-436194 9 years ago

50 years from now, there will be people nostalgic for today, I guarantee ya!

That is absolutely correct, spot on!

One of the defining characteristics of humans is that they are never happy with what they have. They always want something more, different or something that is irretrievably lost and unreachable. In fact, the more unreachable (like the past or vast inexhaustible riches) the more they long for it.

I grew up in 50s and 60s and my memories are that they were dull and boring times. It was utter Dullsville with everything narrowly circumscribed, delineated and fenced in. There was so little to do.

Growing up in the US at that time also consisted of worrying about WWIII and atomic warfare and which branch of the armed forces you would be drafted into to fight the next war. That part may not have been dull or boring, but it was horrifying to contemplate. For all the heroism you saw in movies, who in his right mind would ever wish to be a John Wayne in the next war?

Nostalgia is fun as a way of day dreaming, but that's about all.

[–] liscarkat (17690) 2 years ago

"I grew up in 50s and 60s and my memories are that they were dull and boring times. It was utter Dullsville with everything narrowly circumscribed, delineated and fenced in. There was so little to do."

I, too, grew up in the '50s and '60s. Wow, it sounds like you were stuck in the wrong place. Where I was, we had a blast!

[–] melipooh72 9 years ago

This movie makes me kind of sad and nostalgic but it is more about missing my dad than actually missing a time period I never got to see. This movie represents my dad's time as a young adult and he loved being a teenager. I heard wonderful stories of nights just like the one in the movie. My dad was a bit of a ladies man and a street racer in Baltimore at the time. However, I know enough to realize that the experience for average white guy was vastly different than people of color and women. I would not want to grow up during that time period. I liked being a college student in the 90's.

[–] njiuma 9 years ago

It is worth considering that there a lot of awesome things happening now, though. There's Force Awakens, Bruno Mars, Adele.

I'm not being sarcastic, there are awesome things happening now that movies will be made about.

To live in a safer, small, predominantly white town (and to be white in it) like George Lucas did was likely as fun as the movie makes it look like. But, it was limited to those people.

And, in the early sixties in America, there was intense racism, riots, Cuban missle crisis, JFK assassination, violence, school bombings, lynchings, Cold War, the Vietnam War was happening with America later engaging in it with LBJ.

Like the old Billy Joel song says, "...the good old days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2pU0QJkMck

I do agree that the nostalgia, music, and characters are absolutely fantastic in this move. I give it a 10/10, and I do share the good feelings with you. I absolutely love it.

Just remember that each generation has very cool, awesome things about them as well.

"If you love Jesus Christ and are 100% proud of it copy this and make it your signature!"

[–] agracier-574-436194 9 years ago

This movie left me with an extremely nostalgic-like feeling, even though it can't be nostalgia because I wasn't even born back then. It's like this movie glorified the place and time in which it takes place to such an extent that I actually want to be there, while making me resent my own generation (social media, globalization, financial crisis, individualisation). It leaves me feeling sort of sad inside... Am I alone in this, or is anyone with me?

Believe me, I was about the same age as the characters in the movie and you did not miss much by not having grown up in those times. Things were boring and dull and conventional. Movies were lacking in believability, TV shows were utter cr+p, magazines and reading matter uninspired. And everything was so insular, there were virtually no ways of learning about the immediate outside world unless you could travel yourself. And who could afford to do that, or even have the time?

Feeling nostalgia can be a product of watching too many movies. They recreate a myth of the past, not the real past itself. Movies simplify and glorify things and leave out all the dull, boring things.

Be happy you live in a time when you can communicate with people anywhere in the whole world or find out information on virtually any subject. Back in the early 60s it took an hour to put in an international call, it was expensive and ham radio operators where the guys who communicated with the world, if you could call it that. And finding books on esoteric or special subjects was a huge task.

What you probably mean is you'd love to be a time traveler to the past. So would I. It's easy to confuse the feeling with nostalgia. But to have grown up back then? You're better off now ...

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] williamaronson-29022 8 years ago

I am a product of the 1960's, having reached the ripe old age of 18 in 1982. Initially, my choice of automobiles were less than hip or cool until 1986 which is when I purchased my first 1965 Oldsmobile 442. The car was not one of the beauties portrayed in this film, however it was one powerful machine. When I put the pedal to the metal, there was not much that could touch me. "Cruising the Pike" was still happening every weekend night and simply hanging out with your buds in parking lots was somehow fun. Sadly, the cops starting breaking horns sometime around 1992, but we experienced a great 10 year period of cruise nights.

Nowadays, most cruise nights consist of driving my 1955 Oldsmobile 98 to a venue, opening the hood, sitting in chairs, BSing with friends and driving home. One night this Summer, my car even won "Best in Show". Times have changed, yes they have definitely changed.

[–] liscarkat (17690) 4 years ago

My first car, at age sixteen in the '60s, was an old Studebaker I got for $75.00. Later I graduated to a Ford Galaxie with a 390 and a windshield so wide it was like Cinerama. Not a sexy car, but that V-8 really made it go! Cruise nights on Whitter Boulevard in southern California were a blast.

[–] liscarkat (17690) 4 years ago

Other than people's dialogue being generally more funny than in real life, the movie does not glorify life in that time and place. For someone who is old enough to remember, it effectively captures the feeling and atmosphere of being a young person out cruising on a summer night in the 1950s or early 1960s.