Our elders had no inhibition about showing it all in front of us – joking openly about sex, rapping about their days of free love, or later, when we were teens, getting divorced and taking lovers and introducing us to them before we'd even adjusted to the fact that our parents were divorced, and insisting that we call some girl who was maybe just a few years older than us Mummy, or some asshole was to be our new Daddy. These strangers we had to share a home with, pretending to be a family, preserving the nucleus, and who we heard, unfortunately, doing our mother and who we had to sit at the table the next morning and eat our Count Chocula like nothing weird was going on.
If we were and are dark and weird, it's only because we had to grow up too fast because our parents weren’t really interested in parenting. And we had TV, which we loved, and we knew that one day, the prophetic shittra was gonna hit the fan and it was just a question of when. We're the generation with our ear to the ground, waiting for echo of the other shoe that would soon drop over Your State's Name Here.
Boomers had taken the good jobs and we were too young, and by the time we were their age, well, they still had a lock on the good jobs and were hiring their friends and getting together on the weekends to do blow with Jay McInerney and Brett Easton Ellis types in their black and white apartments with too much fucking chrome furniture us and were the Movers and Shakers with the hot jobs and the polished chrome kitchen gear, while we were just going to graduate high school with the threat of nuclear war looming in our hearts that, according to most studies, was a bigger fear for us than it was for any other generation before.
You'd think that Boomers would have been more afraid than us. That they would be wiser somehow. They had lived through the Bay of Pigs and much more. Somehow, they were able to put this behind them, like they forgot about nuclear power and actually saw it as this great thing. Or maybe they were just hiding it all in their tall glasses of cloudy Kahlua and cream. I don't know.
But we had seen Chernobyl and nuclear power plants and Three Mile Island and all these things that suddenly were no longer just hypothetical but real. The problem for us was that in some ways, despite real-world events, nuclear weapons and power hung over us like an unknown. We had countries pointing them at us, and us pointing ours at them in this stalemate, and we were told that it would all be over in one phone call or the the push of a button.
Article comments
1 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Sadi, this was an excellent article.
I prefer Hideo Nakata's original, but this was an excellent film also. (the only problem i had, actually, was the same one i had with Nakata's film, namely the prologue. Just seemed corny as all hell.)
You touched on something i found rather bizarre and a tad distrubing in The Ring (more so in the american version, were the emphasis is put on how evil Sadako (Samara) is.) It seems to be a justification for abortion, (being pro-choice, i don't particularly find this worrying, just a bit odd) but worse, it plays on the idea that some kids can be born "wrong" and should be done away with.
Still, an interesting film, one which isn't an embaresment to the original (the asians managed that well enough themselves with the godawful sequels) and actualy adds to the mythology.
Thanks.
2 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
also, on the subject of the subliminal imagery - at one point, i think its when (SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER)Naomi finds the young un watching the video, and she rushes to him in slow motion, you can see through into the kitchen behind her. its dark, and you can see someone walking around in there. Was it a crew member? or a "ghost" thrown in to add to the unease. Either way, its a cool moment.
3 - Eric Olsen
fascinating rumination on generational slippage as viewed through the prism of a popular horror film, which I imagine I will now have to see. Thanks Sadi!
4 - srp
that's a good point about the children being "wrong" and an excuse for abortion. it wasn't what i was getting at, and i didn't see that myself in the film, but your point is well taken. To me, it was more about messing with the order of nature - which is really the opposite of that, if you follow...
And Duke, i hadn't seen the ghost. Crap, now i'm going to have to watch it again and see that. every time i see this film, i find more and more.
yes, Eric, slippage is a good word. i know, it's typical sadi off on a tangent - down a path that may not be right, but is just my own observation and weird brain circuitry. it all reminded me of that belief that we are "every character in our dreams." The Ring seemed like that to me - that i could see glimmers of myself and others in my generation in all of the characters, with a few exceptions - even in Samora, which was odd, but there you have it. Won't repeat my thoughts - they're all laid out there.
Many thanks to all for reading, as always.
srp
5 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
sadi, just a note about the original sequel, Spiral. You can find The Duke's review of it at http://www.mondoirlando.com/spiral.html
If you haven't seen it, you can count yourself fortunate and also, you may be suprised at the innane nonsense they concocted.
Ring 2, the one released for to eliminate all memories of the spiral toss isn't much better.
Oh, and spiral shouldn't be confused with the other asian horror about spirals, of which there is a review on the front page of this very site at the minute, i just noticed. Must investigate...
6 - Eric Olsen
being able to accurately convey your own "weird brain circuitry" is a gift, not a curse
7 - srp
am going to have to check out this Spiral film The Duke speaks of.
Yeah, Eric - i pray you're right. Not always feeling that way, but that's okay. It's something to do with the time... and getting feedback and thoughts from others is great - one of the best parts.
cool cool
rock on. i'm going to read Duke's Spiral review, then check out this other spiral film reviewed herein.
What IS all this about going in circles anyway?
interesting
srp
8 - klvzlsdjs
I think the ring was a great, great, movie
9 - sadi
obviously i did too..i think a lot of people really liked it and it's very rich in texture and layers too, so can be read on so many levels, which makes each time you see it the more interesting.
thx. for reading.
srp
10 - danielle
wierdos! this thing is dead scary!
11 - Rebecca
you spelled Samara wrong
12 - sadi ranson-polizzotti
Thanks Rebecca -- i'd rather be corrected, so thanks for that....