Tuesday, October 10, 2006

I'm So Rone-ry
On the weekend Kim Jong Il announced that North Korea had tested a nuclear bomb in an underground explosion. Is it just me, or is it like the new television season predicted it? In the 1950s kids were scared of an atom bomb attack, and were taught to hide under their chairs in school, like somehow hiding under a small wooden desk would protect them from a full-on holocaust. The threat was on, and it was mirrored in TV shows and movies. In the 1980s, when I was a kid, the Cold War was still raging, and the movie The Day After scared the bejesus out of any kid who watched it. (I was always worried that my family didn't have a bomb shelter.) The much BETTER movie, When the Wind Blows, which featured music by David Bowie, came out a few years later, and it was still a frightening and sad film, but it was after I'd stopped being scared of any nuclear threat.

Now, rather than art imitating life, it seems things are moving the other way around. Jericho is about a town in Kansas that believes it's the only place still standing after nuclear bombs have gone off around the world. We've learned what radiation poisoning can do to us, how inadequate old fallout shelters are, and that crows will plop onto the road in hordes if they've been flying in the area of the explosion.

On Heroes, Hiro zips forward 5 weeks to witness a nuclear explosion that completely levels Manhattan, one that was predicted by Isaac. Since he immediately time-travelled back to the present, there were little details about why or how such a bomb could have gone off.

Kim Jong Il has admitted he's a massive film buff... maybe he's been watching too much American TV as well? What's next? Will Chris Rock begin talking about watching The Day After: Julius: "I can't believe they'd just blow up 90 million dollars and 47 cent worth of materials like that!" Will we find out the rest of the world really WAS zapped by some bomb on Lost? Will Aaron Sorkin begin writing bomb jokes on Studio 60? Time will tell...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

On the subject of post-Apocalyptic stories, have you ever had the chance to read Nevil Shute's On The Beach? One of my all-time favourites. I never saw the movie (either one: the one with Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner nor the newer one with Armand Assante). I held the latter in my hand at a hotel in T.O. and couldn't bring myself to watch it... I love the book too much to have it ruined in any way shape or form...

All the best,

Jay

Jonathan said...

Ah, in the great words of a classic movie:

We're dicks! We're reckless, arrogant, stupid dicks! And the Film Actors' Guild are pussies. And Kim Jong Il is an asshole. Pussies don't like dicks because pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes. Assholes who just want to shit on everything. Pussies may think they can deal with assholes their way, but the only thing that can fuck an asshole... is a dick... with some balls. The problem with dicks is that sometimes they fuck too much, or fuck when it isn't apporoporate, and it takes a pussy to show 'em that. But sometimes pussies get so full of shit that they become assholes themselves. Because pussies are only an inch and a half away from assholes. I don't know much in this crazy, crazy world, but I do know that if you don't let us fuck this asshole, we are gonna have our dicks and our pussies... all covered in shit.

Not really relevant, but classic all the same. :)

Reel Fanatic said...

Interesting stuff .. I was shocked to see them do that on "Heroes" .. that show is getting awfully complicated for the entertainment value it delivers, but I'm gonna stick with it for a while longer

Corey said...

We're all scared. The Day After shook me to the core at the time, although since then, I found it leads to a very funny story.

I'll tell you about it in person, if you like. Remind me.

And yes, Team America is Je*** ti**yfu***ng Chr**t funny.

Nikki Stafford said...

Jay: I haven't read On the Beach, but now I will. I read The Last Man years and years ago. I love that sort of stuff... I just hope these books don't soon become how-to manuals.

Jonathan and Corey: I agree 100% re: Team America being a classic. Nyar nyar... in fact, I was going to run a photo of Kim Jong Il beside the marionette, but people wouldn't have been able to tell them apart. (And Corey: Yes, I do want the hear the story!)

Reel Fanatic: Heroes is DEFINITELY complicated (the last 10 seconds of the episode had a sort of WTF??!! factor I haven't seen in a long, long time) and I'm with you... I'm sticking with it. :) I love complicated. (It's why I love Lost so much...)