Is it nostalgia?

Did most people who find this film truly enjoyable grow up or originally see the film in 1969? It really seems like a solid period piece, despite the character study, and I wondered if people are drawn to it for that reason more than any other.

I can answer-- for myself only, of course-- with a very conditional "yes." There were a shipload :) of movies at the time running with the college-student-coming-of-age theme: "The Strawberry Statement" and "Getting Straight" come to mind immediately. Somehow, all of those other movies convey only an ephemeral level of nostalgia... they seem passe and often painfully ridiculous to my eyes. I don't think I'm alone in this. Meanwhile, "The Sterile Cuckoo," which was considered the most ridiculous and misguided effort of the lot at the time for its relentless sentimentality and absence of a sociopolitical "message," has become the most nostalgic of weepers. Worse, people who weren't even born until years after its release describe the movie as "nostalgic," as do many of those whose college experiences long predate the setting of the movie. How to explain this?

Simple: TSC very deliberately explores emotional themes of youth which are timeless but mostly unspoken and practically unfilmable. The observations and experiences it contains are, for most people, not made or had until late adolescence or early adulthood, during which time relentless sentimentality and sappy lyrical interludes are actually more appropriate expressions of the spirit than themes which are supposedly relevant. Pakula himself said of his vision for the movie "... it is the Country of our Youth." In other words, your girlfriend at the time, and the reasons you dumped her (or she you) are a LOT more relevant in nostalgic terms than anything you or your betters might have considered to be truly relevant at the time. This is what soul-searching over time reveals. Thus, TSC is a reflection, and people recognize their youthful selves in it. I think that is why TSC's stock has risen today where its more contemporaneously critically-acclaimed competition has crashed and burned, even as vehicles of nostalgia.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

Eh. I saw it when it first came out and thought it was just a sappy period piece. Pookie uses "weirdos" like Holden Caulfield uses "phony". Both are just outcasts. I didn't see any profundity in either work.


When you think of garbage, think of Hakim!

reply share

add reply

formatting help

Eh. I saw it when it first came out and thought it was just a sappy period piece. Pookie uses "weirdos" like Holden Caulfield uses "phony". Both are just outcasts. I didn't see any profundity in either work.


When you think of garbage, think of Hakim!

reply share

add reply

formatting help

This was my brother's favorite movie for a time in 1969, but I think because he had a crush on Liza Minelli.

I didn't see it then, because I thought any film using that Sandpipers song would be too sappy for my tastes. My idea of a good film back then would have a soundtrack using The Doors or Steppenwolf.

Anyway, I decided to try and watch it just last evening for the first time. I got to the point where the couple were on the bus and Minelli was haranging the fellow about tricking the nuns and the whole bit about the dead mom, and that they were siblings etc.

The Minelli character was just way too annoying and obnoxious, and the guy was such a Richie Cunningham type without his good sense of humor or cool pal, that I could not stand it anymore and off it went.

Maybe there's something good in the film later on, but if the first bite is awful, I'm not going any further, especially since I never had a crush on Liza Minelli.

-----
The Eyes of the City are Mine! Mother Pressman / Anguish (1987)

reply share

add reply

formatting help