Movies that didn't age well

Growing up GenX, I had appallingly little parental oversight. And part of that was we had cable TV early, before there were any child controls.

Thus, I watched a LOT of movies that are probably inappropriate for my age.

Now, more than 50 years later, I look back fondly at many of them, and have bought copies to add to my media collection (every movie I buy on DVD or BD gets ripped and dropped on my Plex server, so they are instantly available to watch either on my iPad or tv).

However, many of these movies are not as great as I remember when I watched them as a wee tyke. I will talk about a few of them here.

Fahrenheit 451

The film adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 was released the year I was born, 1965. I do not recall when I saw it, but I was young. Probably 5 or 6 years old.

My recollection was that it was a fun movie where firemen burned books, flipping the script, and I remember awesome on-screen artifacts and architecture.

What really struck me was the monorail where Montag met the local girl who was a reader.

That just seemed so cool, and modern.

And the architecture, a brutal post-modern amalgam of concrete and bricks:

The costumes, the flame throwers, and the like were just fun for a young boy

But upon reconnecting with that 50ish years later, I find the grandiose visuals don’t quite cover for a weak story, with a cautionary morality play that has enough incongruencies that you could fly an Airbus A380 through.

There is a scene in the movie that references that there are “good” printed material, essentially the manual for their job (and one presumes that other professions as well). But any reading that isn’t thus proscribed is bad.

The tale is the awakening of Montag, a rising star in the fire department, who exhibits some curiosity, and begins to abscond with books to read, ultimately, leading to his house being visited by the firemen, and him going on the lam, to join a collective that are “living books” where they memorialize a tome, to prevent the disappearance of the wealth of books.

Now, you might think that this would have lessons for the political situation we are in today, but it is an imperfect metaphor.

Alas, while I am a rabid SciFi fan and reader, I find Ray Bradbury just isn’t my taste, and I just can’t complete any of his novels.

YMMV.

Where the Buffalo Roam

The life of the original Gonzo Journalist, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, is a wild and wacky tale, and the first attempt to capture the insanity that he lived was in a 1980 movie “Where the Buffalo Roam”. The title track of music is by Neil Young, and upon a 40+ year rewatching, that might be the best part of the movie.

But the 15-year-old Sweaty loved it. It starts with Dr. Thompson in a button-down shirt, boxer shorts, a hat, swilling a tumbler of Wild Turkey and waving around a 357-magnum revolver.

And I can say that this early effort by Bill Murray partly typecast him, and yet was a good vehicle for his own gonzo talents.

The partner of Dr. Thompson is an attorney we know as Lazlo — played by Peter Boyle — and the movie is almost a keystone kops-esque romp.

It was with those warm remembrances that I eagerly tore off the cellophane wrapper and watched the Blu-Ray Disc.

And I was almost immediately disappointed. Yeah, the mid teenager when I originally watched it was just beginning to understand the sexual innuendo and the in your face bare breasts.

But as I approach the end of my 6th decade on this planet, it falls flat.

Perhaps if I made a visit to the local cannabis dispensary for some chemical augmentation might make it more enjoyable. But I suspect not.

A Boy and his Dog

This 1975 release was an adaptation of a Harlan Ellison short story about a post-apocalypse earth. In the aftermath of World War III, the landscape is littered with bomb shelters, and roving bands of marauders who raid the shelters for food and the most rare1 of all things, “breeding age women” to “repopulate” the planet.

The protagonist of the tale is a boy (played by Don Johnson) who has his telepathically bonded dog that helps him find caches of food, but more importantly he wants nubile women.

Again, I saw this at the tender age of 11 or so, long before I cottoned on to the sexual innuendo. I do not recall it being at all titillating at that time.

Now? It is just sad. I have not read a lot of Harlan Ellison’s work, but apparently he was a lot like late stage Heinlein where a lot of emphasis on fucking was central to the themes (and Heinlein weaves (wove) a heavy patriarchy that he tried to soften with the occasional strong female character, but failed mostly because of his small-L libertarian bent).

No, I got about 2/3 through this and just had to turn it off.

It is just dreadful dreck.

Enough for now

These three movies are merely a first installment. These three are ones that I “rediscovered” but don’t live up to my fond memories.

Do you have some examples of movies you loved as a kid that make you shake your head today when you rewatch? Drop them in the comments!

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