23 Dec 2006

why i hate the eighties

whenever someone asks me a decade i did not like
i remember the eighties
fashion was bad (large hoops passing off as earings and bright colours - well to add colour)
and people were pretty silly - if you think of the films that came out around that time

two films come to mind
the secret of my success and working girl
here we are talking of america of the 80s, the reagan years
the rest of the world is a mere blink
(i mean these are the guys who call their baseball league the World series )

the secret of my success
has michael j fox who is a mail boy pretending to be a senior executive
and actually getting away with it in the end
he gets his girl, saves the company from a corporate raider and gets to run it (at the age of 27 christ !!!!)
(she is not bothered that he lied to her since she was sleeping with her boss)
working girl has melaine griffith pretending to be her boss
in the process she ends up have a double life (including an affair with harrisson ford)
before her story begins to unravel

in both stories the protagonists decide to impersonate
a senior person in the corporate ladder (seemed pretty easy in the early days of computers)
it is not case of misplaced identity or an accident
although both films have several funny scenes
and the stories are wonderfully told

however watching them
made me feel that this was what america was about at that time
people were it trying all kinds of things
to get to the top
and the films are a good example of
what was happening in society at that time
and none of the minor characters really have a problem
with what the main characters are doing all through the story

thats what the reagan years were about
you could do a lot of wrong and get away with it
i mean their president fooled the country for eight years
i'm surprised hollywood got it right so fast

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Agree with you. the 80's sucked, and boy, did they suck. Fashion was atrocious. Hindi films were terrible, except for a few good ones. Clothes were so funny... baggy sleeves, puffed shirts, garish make up. Wanting to become an entrepreneur was considered hara kiri. And india had the good ol Amby and the maruti as its only HOT WHEELS. Owning a computer was a BIG DEAL. going to the US was a really really BIG DEAL. 80s also meant that you flaunted the Mars, Toblerone that your US cousins were gracious enough to bring you. An Indian PM got shot...her son took over...Looking back, i think thank god, times are a changin'!!!