One thing as a "Boomer" that I find fascinating and frustrating is trying to make Millennials understand what the "Cold War" was like. They know by history that nothing happened, but simply can not seem to grasp what the tensions were like during that era, even among the general population. And the Cold War really did filter through almost all of pop culture of the era. That even our pop songs were full of such things as a nuclear Armageddon at any time. I Melt With You, by Modern English Yes, a "love song" about two people melting together during a modern holocaust. 99 Luftbaloons, by Nena Yes, a "happy pop song" about a nuclear war started because somebody released some balloons. The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades", by Timbuk 3 "Christmas at Ground Zero", by "Weird Al" Yankovic Yes, even Weird Al got into the mix in 1986 with this festive holiday song. Yes, yet another 80's pop song, you have to wear shades because otherwise the flash of the nuclear bomb will blind you. For those to young to remember (or those old enough to like me), I thought I would throw out some movies that might help some understand what living in that era was really like.
I would have linked "Threads" if it was on YouTube, but sadly it is not. That and Fail Safe are two other of my favorites, as is obviously "Dr. Strangelove". When I saw the replica of the "Fat Man" at the White Sands museum, I could not resist having the picture taken of me "riding the bomb" as Slim did in the movie. However, Threads is available as a free public domain download or to watch streaming from the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/threads_201712
You don't know I guess that it is estimated that the Cold War killed roughly 11 MILLION people world wide. Check the section on the Cold War in Matthew White's "The Great Big Book of Horrible Things".
Better pedigree though. Former Secretary of State Al Haig as part of MGM (IIRC) played a major role in getting it made the way it was made. I was always impressed with the realistic looking Soviet military hardware in the movie.
Haig wanted to be involved, as he saw that as a way for him to jump=start a career in Hollywood as an advisor. But he was never actually involved other than advising director John Milius in some aspects when the shooting script was being made. But much of it was taken from then public war plans. Such as the Soviets following in civilian airliners to do the invasion. The exact same thing they did in 1979 when they invaded Afghanistan. And the replicas were good, as should be expected. At that time the US was using real and replica Soviet equipment at Fort Irwin, so it was not hard to replicate what they had been doing. For example, the HIND in the movie was actually a modified Aérospatiale SA 330 Puma. That was back when practical effects ruled Hollywood, and a lot of care was made to make things look as real as possible. And while there was a "Nuclear War" in the movie, it happened before the start and was barely mentioned. If I remember, the backstory was that the USSR-NATO had a brief war, where it ended before more than a few bombs were dropped and most of NATO-Europe was essentially Finlandized. Hence, Mexico and Canada becoming neutral, and the actual invasion being done by the Soviets and Cubans. And many miss that it was supposed to take place over like 2-3 years between the start and the end of the movie. But in typical Hollywood time compression, it seems to take place in about a year. Not unlike how many seem to miss that the start of LOTR and Frodo leaving the Shire was a gap of 17 years. Most who never read the book thinks Frodo left on his adventure a short time after Bilbo left. Not almost two decades later.
Not unlike how many seem to miss that the start of LOTR and Frodo leaving the Shire was a gap of 17 years. Most who never read the book thinks Frodo left on his adventure a short time after Bilbo left. Not almost two decades later.[/QUOTE]
For the most part, reviewers tend to hate movies that pain the US in a good light like that. The New York Times ravaged it, as did most of the press (it ranks 48% at Rotten Tomatoes). However, it was a successful and profitable movie, and a cult classic. Just shows how out of touch the reviewers have been from their audience for decades. The thing is, those executions were taken right from WWII. From reports of French fighters singing their national anthem as Germans executed them. The movie was heavily inspired by WWII, and many of the segments were taken from actual history, if changed to fit the changed setting.
I seem to remember something about Al Haig insisted on the statements about the fall of U.S. supported governments in central America as being a prelude to the invasion. I could be wrong though.
You want reality? My grandfather expected the Commies to invade. He kept a few 30.06, a few pounds of lead and a big jug of gunpowder. Most of the time, Right wingnuts talk about armed insurrection, you know, their silly 2nd amendment rants... Rambo wannabees..
I used to be a NRA member. If you are that deep in denial, nothing will satisfy you. If you aren't deep in denial, you really ought to know. It's not like gun nuts are subtle..
I got to see it up close and personal. The NRA shoving out sleazy propaganda, and the gun nuts loving it. I've been watching that for over half a century.
Of course they are. Why, look no farther than lifetime NRA member John Kerry. A "right wing gun nut" if I ever saw one. As I said, nothing but a troll.
And he is not alone. Collin Peterson, from Minnisota. Sanford Bishop also from Georgia. Case in point, about 25% of the NRA are now Democrats. It used to be much higher, but over the decades it has largely become "verboten" for a Democrat to be seen associating with them, so the organization has moved much farther to the Right as they have largely left it. It is not so much that the NRA is "right wing" as the truth, that as the "left wing" increased their attacks on it and left the organization, it naturally moved to the Right as that became the majority of the membership. Not unlike say Planned Parenthood. Which once had a lot of support from the Right. But as the organization put more and more of its emphasis on abortion and not family planning, the Right left it. Causing it to move even farther to the Left. But those who do not look at the cause and effect and only concentrate on politics either do not see such, or refuse to see it and only point fingers over politics. Of course, notice how the troll is doing all he can to derail the topic, and bring up political coprolite into a subject that should not even be political. But what can I say, the trolls and political animals simply can't leave politics out of anything. That is all they live for.
