Nostalgic Times
Take a look at the current movie listings and you’ll find an inordinate amount of remakes and familiar plots from the past. Fantastic Four, The Honeymooners, The Longest Yard, Bewitched, The Amityville Horror, and War of the Worlds are just some that come to mind. There’s also another installment to the Star Wars saga, and Batman returns once again. Land of the Dead has risen for what is promised to be the last of the “Dead” films, and even Herbie the VW Bug is back on the road.
Perhaps this surge of remakes can easily be explained by the movie industry’s tendency to fall back on formulas that have worked in the past. However, this nostalgic pattern extends beyond just movies. Take a look at Amazon’s best-selling fiction and you’ll find Harry Potter reworking his magic, while Bob Woodward is atop the non-fiction list retelling the 30-year tale of the Watergate scandal.
Down on Broadway the current shows are a who’s who list of revivals with Chicago, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Fiddler on the Roof, Glengarry Glen Ross, Hairspray, The Phantom of the Opera, The Producers, Steel Magnolias, Sweet Charity, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
Nostalgia is also in full force in the music world, with the Rolling Stones on a current world tour. Paul McCartney, Elton John, Santana, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, Brian Wilson, Crosby Stills and Nash, U2, and Tom Petty head a list of “old-timers” currently touring.
What does this flurry of nostalgia within the culture mean? Is it all just a coincidence? Maybe there’s more to it than just that. Perhaps this nostalgic hunger is a reflection of a wide-ranging cultural longing to escape the present and return to a better time and to what’s familiar. Even the other day I overheard a Bush supporter say, All things considered, Clinton wasn’t so bad after all.
July 16th, 2005 at 10:50 am
I noticed the trend this summer. Honestly, IMHO remakes rarely captivate me.
July 16th, 2005 at 11:49 am
There’s something about hearing a song on the radio, or a movie that takes me back to where I was when I heard it before. Some are good memories, some bad. There is a lot of nostalgia coming back and I think its great - because there were some great things that shouldn’t be forgotten.
I have mixed feelings about remakes. Some lose the “magic” of when they first came out. They have to modernize things, and sometimes that’s not a good thing.
I hope you’re having a great weekend! *HUGS*
July 16th, 2005 at 1:44 pm
Does U2 really fall into the “old time” category? I think not!
July 17th, 2005 at 10:47 pm
I never imagined in my lifetime that I would go to a concert and ’sit’ in an assigned seat!! Went to a U2 concert and that’s exactly how it worked. Times they are a changin’!!
July 18th, 2005 at 5:10 am
Wow! A Bush supporter said that? Will miracles never cease? I’ve been thinking about this nostalgia thing of which you speak…having seen John Fogerty, Robert Plant, and Tom Petty (not yet, but I have tickets!), I might have to agree with you. But also…maybe it’s because the new music is so heartless and soul-less and you get the feeling people are doing it just to make money and become famous. You know?