Given the underwhelming popularity of this blog, I suspect that no-one will go out and watch a movie because of anything I say here but I recently watched The Ice Storm (1997) and have to say I was mightily impressed by it. It's now the third film I've seen by Taiwanese director Ang Lee. (Unlike this film which is in English, the other two films, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Lust, Caution (2007), are both Chinese-language films.)
I'm hesitant to write a review as I don't feel that I know enough about cinema as an art form or have even seen enough films to really know what I'm talking about. So this is more of a "recommendation" with some personal reflections than a "review". It won't be too objective.
Think American Beauty (1999) set in the upper middle class suburban America of 1973 rather than the 1990s, with the medium of expression far more arthouse realistic tragedy than blockbuster fantasy tragicomedy and you begin to get an idea of what this movie is like. I won't say too much more about the plot. The best thing is to see the movie for yourself. Or failing that read its wikipedia entry.
I'm particularly fascinated by the historical backdrop to this film which is early 1970s middle class (and middle aged) suburban America. One reason is the sheer bias in today's public discourse displayed towards 1960s youth culture. The baby boomer generation grew up, took control, wrote our popular history and still dominates our public discourse. We are still living with their legacy (not to mention their mistakes). The 1960s was the time of their youth and they talk about the 60s as if it is the lens through which we must view all of reality. Well, that's patently untrue and we are in need of a big corrective to the biased view of history (and the present) we've been peddled by the baby boomers.
Of course compared to the explosion in popular youth culture of the 1960s the events of the 1970s seem rather bland. But my interest is not so much popular youth culture anyway, but the "middle aged" and "middle class" culture of this time. The early 70s doesn't quite fit into the conventional division of decades. The 1960s were clearly over and and yet somehow the 70s proper hadn't really begun. The period from 1970 to 1973-4 can in many ways be seen as an appendix to -- or perhaps a hangover from -- the 1960s with the 70s proper beginning around 1974-5. This period was the era when many of the revolutionary changes of the 60s "grew up" and "came home". What is often portrayed as the prevailing ethos of the 1960s -- sex, drugs, rock and roll, opposition to the Vietnam War (a 1960s war which didn't finally finish until 1975) and of course "free love" -- was still in many respects on the margins of society. While hippies and increasingly young people in general may have been opposed to the war, listened to the new music, used drugs and practised "free love", this was still not the done thing for respectable suburban middle-aged married couples -- and certainly not those with children. For a brief period in the early 1970s, however, things were looking rather different. This was the era of The Joy of Sex (1972), "porno chic"and suburban "key parties" and it is this era and the culture and contradictions of its middle aged and Suburban middle class which are depicted so compellingly in this film.
And for me this all has a personal dimension as my parents are (more or less) of the generation of couples depicted in the film. One thing I discovered at quite a young age was just how much older (if not in years then certainly in thinking) my parents were than those of my friends as well as my school teachers. Even as a child in primary school it was impossible to avoid being exposed to the baby boomer way of thinking. It didn't take me long to begin noticing the difference in mentality between the generation of my friends' parents or my teachers (who were all baby boomers) and that of my parents (the pre-boomers who were born before the War; there is roughly a 15-20 year age difference between my parents and the parents of most of my schoolfriends who were the same age as me). While my friends' parents and teachers would go on ad nauseum about how wonderful the 1960s and the music of this era (particularly that of the Beatles) were (apparently assuming that (a) I cared and (b) this must have been the experience of my parents too) my parents just didn't seem to identify with any of this. Their teenage years were in the late 1940s and early 1950s -- before most of my friends' parents were even born. As far as I know neither my father nor mother rebelled as teenagers, used drugs or did anything much that their parents would have disapproved of. Like most people their age they had a fairly conservative upbringing and never rebelled as teenagers. They were brought up in the hardships of the War and post-War life. My father will rave about the early Guy Mitchell and while he knows who the Beatles are and could no doubt name a song or two of theirs he's never had much time for them (let alone owned a record of theirs) and I doubt he would be able to name too many other significant pop music act from the 1960s. While of course I find the 1960s fascinating and have a lot of time for the music and popular culture of this era, I think it makes a rather refreshing change from the staleness of the sex drugs and rock 'n' roll generation to meet grown ups of a different generation who couldn't really give a fig about that generation's youthful self-indulgence. Anyway, I digress :-)
Of course the early 1970s is no more the time of my parents' youth than the 1960s was. Yet at this time my parents were married and entering middle age and while the 1960s is very significant in terms of youth culture, the early 1970s is a fascinating era not so much for youth culture but for "middle aged culture". Perhaps one reason I'm particularly interested in this is my parents. The generation of respectable early 1970s suburban middle class married couples is their generation and I'm fascinated about what makes (or made) my parents tick. They were too old for the youth culture of the 1960s, but not quite old enough to belong to the generation of the parents of 1960s teens. My parents' generation was the "beneficiary" (if you want to see it that way) of the middle class suburban sexual revolution of the early 1970s. While I can't say whether my parents ever got into the whole porno chic fad (hey I don't even know if porno chic ever made it to Australia -- it probably didn't) or took part in a key party (and I'm too reluctant to ask!), I know for a fact that the whole early 70s phenomenon didn't exactly pass them by. I can remember as a teenager looking through old bookcases at home and being shocked to find some of the books published between 1970 and 1974 which my parents had been reading. And on a much more mundane level it was a fascinating exercise going through my parents' record collection. Basically nothing as far as major 60s pop artists were concerned. And yet there's a period -- you guessed it, from around 1970 to 1974 -- when their record collection is looking decidedly different than you would expect for people of their age. It seems that in those years they and many other people of their generation were engaging in their own "grown-up" version of the 60s youth culture (with their very own sexual revolution).
One final thing is that something else in the experience of that generation resonates (or potentially will resonate) with my own experience. For the most part that generation had a fairly conservative and unluxurious upbringing, not really rebelling or "experimenting" as teenagers but then deciding to "experiment" in middle age. I see some parallels here with my own life. While most of my generation were off living lives of excess as teenagers (sex, drugs etc), like my parents I had a fairly conservative and unluxurious upbringing (while all my peers had a VCR at home and even seemed to be going on overseas holidays with their family there was none of that in our household!) and very uneventful teenage years. There was no rebellion to speak of. I was not at all interested in the pop music of my generation and had absolutely no interest in doing drugs or sex at that time. I just couldn't see what my peers saw in smoking pot or taking other drugs. And it wasn't for lack of adversity in my life. But what I find interesting is that like my parents' generation I see myself approaching middle age and far more open to new experiences and "experimenting" even (you can read that whichever way you want!). Curiouser and curiouser.
Oh and by the way the film is based on a novel of the same name which I am now very keen to read.
I'm hesitant to write a review as I don't feel that I know enough about cinema as an art form or have even seen enough films to really know what I'm talking about. So this is more of a "recommendation" with some personal reflections than a "review". It won't be too objective.
Think American Beauty (1999) set in the upper middle class suburban America of 1973 rather than the 1990s, with the medium of expression far more arthouse realistic tragedy than blockbuster fantasy tragicomedy and you begin to get an idea of what this movie is like. I won't say too much more about the plot. The best thing is to see the movie for yourself. Or failing that read its wikipedia entry.
I'm particularly fascinated by the historical backdrop to this film which is early 1970s middle class (and middle aged) suburban America. One reason is the sheer bias in today's public discourse displayed towards 1960s youth culture. The baby boomer generation grew up, took control, wrote our popular history and still dominates our public discourse. We are still living with their legacy (not to mention their mistakes). The 1960s was the time of their youth and they talk about the 60s as if it is the lens through which we must view all of reality. Well, that's patently untrue and we are in need of a big corrective to the biased view of history (and the present) we've been peddled by the baby boomers.
Of course compared to the explosion in popular youth culture of the 1960s the events of the 1970s seem rather bland. But my interest is not so much popular youth culture anyway, but the "middle aged" and "middle class" culture of this time. The early 70s doesn't quite fit into the conventional division of decades. The 1960s were clearly over and and yet somehow the 70s proper hadn't really begun. The period from 1970 to 1973-4 can in many ways be seen as an appendix to -- or perhaps a hangover from -- the 1960s with the 70s proper beginning around 1974-5. This period was the era when many of the revolutionary changes of the 60s "grew up" and "came home". What is often portrayed as the prevailing ethos of the 1960s -- sex, drugs, rock and roll, opposition to the Vietnam War (a 1960s war which didn't finally finish until 1975) and of course "free love" -- was still in many respects on the margins of society. While hippies and increasingly young people in general may have been opposed to the war, listened to the new music, used drugs and practised "free love", this was still not the done thing for respectable suburban middle-aged married couples -- and certainly not those with children. For a brief period in the early 1970s, however, things were looking rather different. This was the era of The Joy of Sex (1972), "porno chic"and suburban "key parties" and it is this era and the culture and contradictions of its middle aged and Suburban middle class which are depicted so compellingly in this film.
And for me this all has a personal dimension as my parents are (more or less) of the generation of couples depicted in the film. One thing I discovered at quite a young age was just how much older (if not in years then certainly in thinking) my parents were than those of my friends as well as my school teachers. Even as a child in primary school it was impossible to avoid being exposed to the baby boomer way of thinking. It didn't take me long to begin noticing the difference in mentality between the generation of my friends' parents or my teachers (who were all baby boomers) and that of my parents (the pre-boomers who were born before the War; there is roughly a 15-20 year age difference between my parents and the parents of most of my schoolfriends who were the same age as me). While my friends' parents and teachers would go on ad nauseum about how wonderful the 1960s and the music of this era (particularly that of the Beatles) were (apparently assuming that (a) I cared and (b) this must have been the experience of my parents too) my parents just didn't seem to identify with any of this. Their teenage years were in the late 1940s and early 1950s -- before most of my friends' parents were even born. As far as I know neither my father nor mother rebelled as teenagers, used drugs or did anything much that their parents would have disapproved of. Like most people their age they had a fairly conservative upbringing and never rebelled as teenagers. They were brought up in the hardships of the War and post-War life. My father will rave about the early Guy Mitchell and while he knows who the Beatles are and could no doubt name a song or two of theirs he's never had much time for them (let alone owned a record of theirs) and I doubt he would be able to name too many other significant pop music act from the 1960s. While of course I find the 1960s fascinating and have a lot of time for the music and popular culture of this era, I think it makes a rather refreshing change from the staleness of the sex drugs and rock 'n' roll generation to meet grown ups of a different generation who couldn't really give a fig about that generation's youthful self-indulgence. Anyway, I digress :-)
Of course the early 1970s is no more the time of my parents' youth than the 1960s was. Yet at this time my parents were married and entering middle age and while the 1960s is very significant in terms of youth culture, the early 1970s is a fascinating era not so much for youth culture but for "middle aged culture". Perhaps one reason I'm particularly interested in this is my parents. The generation of respectable early 1970s suburban middle class married couples is their generation and I'm fascinated about what makes (or made) my parents tick. They were too old for the youth culture of the 1960s, but not quite old enough to belong to the generation of the parents of 1960s teens. My parents' generation was the "beneficiary" (if you want to see it that way) of the middle class suburban sexual revolution of the early 1970s. While I can't say whether my parents ever got into the whole porno chic fad (hey I don't even know if porno chic ever made it to Australia -- it probably didn't) or took part in a key party (and I'm too reluctant to ask!), I know for a fact that the whole early 70s phenomenon didn't exactly pass them by. I can remember as a teenager looking through old bookcases at home and being shocked to find some of the books published between 1970 and 1974 which my parents had been reading. And on a much more mundane level it was a fascinating exercise going through my parents' record collection. Basically nothing as far as major 60s pop artists were concerned. And yet there's a period -- you guessed it, from around 1970 to 1974 -- when their record collection is looking decidedly different than you would expect for people of their age. It seems that in those years they and many other people of their generation were engaging in their own "grown-up" version of the 60s youth culture (with their very own sexual revolution).
One final thing is that something else in the experience of that generation resonates (or potentially will resonate) with my own experience. For the most part that generation had a fairly conservative and unluxurious upbringing, not really rebelling or "experimenting" as teenagers but then deciding to "experiment" in middle age. I see some parallels here with my own life. While most of my generation were off living lives of excess as teenagers (sex, drugs etc), like my parents I had a fairly conservative and unluxurious upbringing (while all my peers had a VCR at home and even seemed to be going on overseas holidays with their family there was none of that in our household!) and very uneventful teenage years. There was no rebellion to speak of. I was not at all interested in the pop music of my generation and had absolutely no interest in doing drugs or sex at that time. I just couldn't see what my peers saw in smoking pot or taking other drugs. And it wasn't for lack of adversity in my life. But what I find interesting is that like my parents' generation I see myself approaching middle age and far more open to new experiences and "experimenting" even (you can read that whichever way you want!). Curiouser and curiouser.
Oh and by the way the film is based on a novel of the same name which I am now very keen to read.
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