Eighties movies

(written on ipod touch, so perhaps with stupid typos!)

In the mood recently to re-watch some 80s movies , and in paticular the classic action Schwarzeneggers like the Terminator and The Running Man - great fun!

Apart from the nostalgia factor (brings back memories of particular times watching it, and that lovely carefree teenage feeling of settling down to a good movie in splendid isolation), there definitely is a distinctive character to movies from that era: all dystopia but tinged with humour, a judge dread view of the future. While don't realise these things when actually grow up during them, looking back now with an awareness of the sparse seventies which came before, the 80s, despite having it's own problems, was a unique time of change and potential.

This is probably best manifested in the profusion of gadgets and gizmosn that started to appear then. As illustrated in the BBC programme "electric dreams" it was in the 80s that not only electronic devices started to multiply, but, more importantly, it was then that they began to spread into recreational rather than just functional areas. It was I think the growth of "consumer" devices that highlighted and possibly fuelled the "consumerist" flurry of the 80s. Personal and for consumption, together with seemingly infinite technological potential- does this not capture the mood of that decade? Me, Mine, and Machines- an intoxicating spirit that was a fertile foundation for both the trends that eulogised and espoused the time and those that commented and reacted more crtitically to it.

So watching those movies brought back some of that feeling, although, as for all reminisces, with a touch of poignancy. For some reasons the fantastic visions of lethal game shows and domineering computers doesn't have the same grip nowadays. Maybe it's just that it's been done so much it's all passe to us, but maybe too our world outlook has changed. The one hand a lot of 80s fears have dissipated- nuclear war, technology gone mad, etc.- and we perhaps have now simpler (but still sombering) threats, but which are much more of a reality : climate change, world recession, random terrorist attacks etc.; however, now that I list these things I see they are dangers which I as a lucky westerner am probably relatively less exposed to, and from that viewpoint can't compare to something like hearing one rapidly arming nuclear power refer to another as an "evil empire". As the documentary 1983, Brink of the apocalypse showed, global annihilation was such a present risk it could be sparked by accident as much as by design. And maybe too I'm getting older and more sobre and settled, not needing or entertaining the thrill of a warped future. Either way, while the 80s were an exciting time, but in general, for my class at least, things are probably better now.

Still however always good to relive the 80s dreams, or , in the secluded comfort of my living room, it's nightmares :-)