Last Friday, I was flipping through the stations when I caught a gem from my childhood: Mr. Mom. Needless to say, I watched the movie in its entirety and had two questions. 1) What the hell happened to Michael Keaton? A quick Wikipedia search reveals very little about his recent life/work (or reveals, perhaps, that he's been doing very little with his life/work recently). More importantly, however, is 2) what happened to culturally relevant films?
In one sense, Mr. Mom was just a funny story popularized in the 1970s and still going today- that of the bumbling Dad who can't handle his wife's duties. However, having grown up in Detroit (where the film takes place) I caught a very important secondary- or perhaps primary- purpose: portraying the difficulties of men who had lost their jobs in an economic downturn and struggling with a blow to their proud egos as their wives became the breadwinners. Obviously, I didn't pick up on this theme when I was a toddler and first saw the movie; just like I didn't realize The Princess Bride was a spoof and wasn't just a really good fantasy movie. However, I'm certain that adults at the time did and I can imagine that having something to laugh at in their situation was important.
While escapist fantasies like Avatar and Clash of the Titans certainly have their place at a time like this as well, helping people take their minds off their problems for a while and live in a different place, very few films come to mind that actually deal with our current tough times. (And yes, I realize Avatar has undercurrents of environmentalism, The Hurt Locker deals with Iraq and District 9 was an allusion to apartheid). I'm sure that there are movies I'm overlooking that spotlight our present day issues, but they don't spring readily to mind. We all know that being able to laugh at a difficult situation makes it easier to cope with, so come on Hollywood, help us out.
In one sense, Mr. Mom was just a funny story popularized in the 1970s and still going today- that of the bumbling Dad who can't handle his wife's duties. However, having grown up in Detroit (where the film takes place) I caught a very important secondary- or perhaps primary- purpose: portraying the difficulties of men who had lost their jobs in an economic downturn and struggling with a blow to their proud egos as their wives became the breadwinners. Obviously, I didn't pick up on this theme when I was a toddler and first saw the movie; just like I didn't realize The Princess Bride was a spoof and wasn't just a really good fantasy movie. However, I'm certain that adults at the time did and I can imagine that having something to laugh at in their situation was important.
While escapist fantasies like Avatar and Clash of the Titans certainly have their place at a time like this as well, helping people take their minds off their problems for a while and live in a different place, very few films come to mind that actually deal with our current tough times. (And yes, I realize Avatar has undercurrents of environmentalism, The Hurt Locker deals with Iraq and District 9 was an allusion to apartheid). I'm sure that there are movies I'm overlooking that spotlight our present day issues, but they don't spring readily to mind. We all know that being able to laugh at a difficult situation makes it easier to cope with, so come on Hollywood, help us out.
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