In the movies, the future's so blight
Posted: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 6:40 AM by Kurt Schlosser
Filed Under:
Movies
I don't consider myself an especially dark person and I'm not suffering from depression, but when it comes to the setting in most of the movies I enjoy, the darker and more dreary the better.
One of the earliest films I can remember seeing in a theater was "Alien," at age 10. I can still picture myself walking out of the matinee with my mom into the shining sun wishing that it was dark and rainy instead. I don't think this is all that strange. I often have lingering emotions after seeing a movie. Some involve acting a little like a particular character. Others involve wishing I was in the time period or place depicted in the film. It's a form of escapism.
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Los Angeles never looked this good: "Blade Runner" set the scene for the year 2019.
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I also think there's something realistic in the way most sci-fi films (that I like) portray the future as beyond bleak. My favorite film, across all genres, is "Blade Runner." The 1982 Ridley Scott film, set in 2019 Los Angeles, set the bar for how a post-apocalyptic world should look -- dark, dangerous and full of amazing technological advances. I guess that's also how I'd characterize space exploration, so that's why "Alien" looked so cool to me. I don't think it's a stretch, even for the most optimistic world affairs follower, to picture the planet's future as something less than sunny and light.
Which brings me to "Terminator Salvation," the next in the man vs. machine series popularized by Arnold "I'll be back" Schwarzenegger. Christian Bale, who knows his way around a gloomy movie set ("The Dark Knight," "Reign of Fire") stars as John Connor in the ultimate life-after-nuclear-devastation film. Talk of the 2009 film generated major buzz at last week's Comic-Con in San Diego.
I think "Terminator's" Connor, "Blade Runner's" Deckard and "Alien's" Ripley all provide the light that these dark films may lack with their subject matter. Their cinematic heroics against varying forces of evil provide some hope for a future that offers little. But not everyone will be convinced. Trailers for films that aren't "Happy Gilmore" or "Austin Powers 9" usually elicit groans of, "Well, that looks depressing." To which I say, "Cool."
What works for you when you escape to the movies? Is a dark film your idea of a good time, or would you rather not picture a world worse off than what's waiting for you outside the theater?
