When Nostalgia Is All We Have Left Of Our Culture
I sit outside on my patio in Dubai, drinking tea, saddened, once again, that I will likely never again experience the feeling of going to the movie theater to watch a new, completely original movie that completely enthrals me and that I’m excited to watch again.
I remember how wonderful that feeling was in the 1970s, 1980s, and some of the 1990s, before it was permanently blasted away from the culture around the turn of the 21st Century.
I sigh, saddened that as the Western world continues its slow, angry, painful, economic and cultural collapse, its culture remains completely frozen since around 2007. Same clothing, same music, same movies, same TV shows, same hair styles, more or less, for the past 20 years, with virtually no change.
If a person in 2025-26 went back in time to the 1980s, he would immediately know he was in the 80s just by walking around.
But if that same person went back in time to 2007, everything would look more or less the same, and he would feel right at home.
Collapsing Western culture has been frozen for 20 years, and will continue to be so.
But then, being the positive guy I am, I snap my fingers and have an idea.
If I can’t see any new, original, cool movies anymore, why don’t I go back and look up the movies from the 70s/80s/90s that I never saw?
Holy shit, Caleb, what a great idea!
Movies back then were really good, and since I’ve never seen them, they will be new to me.
I excitedly hop on watchmojo.com, start in January of 1977, and start going through all of the movies released in theaters, month by month.
Many of these movies I’ve seen. Star Wars, Close Encounters, Superman, and so on. I own these movies in my collection because they’re amazing.
But to my joy and curiosity, many of these movies, a startling amount in fact, I haven’t seen. I cross-reference them with A) the type of movie they are and making sure I like the genre (action, sci-fi, historical, etc) and B) summarized critical reviews at the time, ensuring I don’t see any movie that was clearly crap (crap movies existed back then but weren’t the norm like they are now).
Cool. I whip up a spreadsheet and start making a list.
Sorcerer. Black Sunday. Rumble Fish. Goin’ South. The First Great Train Robbery. Many others.
Wow. These movies look really good.
I get excited.
By the time I hit 1980, I’ve got a big list and stop there for the moment.
I watch one at random: a 1977 Clint Eastwood action movie I’ve never seen before called The Gauntlet. The movie poster is fucking badass, painted by Frank Frazetta himself(!). And the movie has Sondra Locke, who I vaguely remember being pretty cute back in the 70s.
I watch the movie…
…and it’s FUCKING GREAT.
GOD DAMN.
Now we’re talking.
As soon as I’m able (based on my limited time off these days), I watch another one: a 1977 Michael Douglas thriller called Coma.
And it’s…
…FUCKING GREAT.
Not as great as The Gauntlet, but really, really good. Far better than movies today, not even close! I even decide to do a YouTube video about the book it’s based on.
So I watch another one. I like fantasy so this one is a fantasy cartoon made-for-TV movie for kids called Flight of Dragons, made by the same company that made The Hobbit cartoon movie in the 70s (which I’ve seen a billion times).
And it’s… GREAT. Cute little movie that I actually enjoyed.
Hm. I’m really onto something here.
I go back to watchmojo.com and add more movies to my growing list.
The Amityville Horror. 1941. American Gigolo. Hanover Street. And on and on.
I get even more excited.
But then I get a little sad again.
Soon, perhaps in a few months or a year, I will have exhausted this list. Then what?
I think that perhaps I could do the same thing but with movies pre-1977. Sure, that could work, but I like those style of movies less, so the list will be much shorter.
Then what happens with I’m done with that list?
Hm.
I don’t know.
What strange times we live in.