You would be surprised to see how much our culture changes in a few years. These might seem innocuous in a day to day but wait a little and you’ll realize it.
The good old days, were they good?
I had a bit of (emphasis on very little) down time in the last few days. And among other chores I was doing, I decided to watch a couple of old movies in Netflix. One of those was “Start-ship Troopers” and the other two were “Smokey and the Bandit” 1 & 2. Regardless of what you feel about any of those movies, they realization I got was a lot deeper than an almost expected nostalgic sense when rewatching these flicks. These movies unintentionally gave me a snapshot of the culture back in the 90’s and the late 70’s and early 80’s. And more importantly how some of those vestigial cultural traits are still affecting us today.
Yeah, I can almost hear it in my head as I type this. Some people will think I am going on some sort of acid trip, trying to find too much inside something as mundane as a movie. And perhaps, even if by chance these movies become a time capsule of the culture on those decades. Definitely there were some tropes and other “outdated” references that could be considered offensive today. And it does make sense, because things were different back there. Notice I did not say “better” – because that is not necessarily the case.
In either case, I am old enough to have seen both these movies as a young man and as early a small boy. And to be honest, at some point I did just enjoy the movie for what superficially it showed, and to be honest a lot of those cultural references I will speak about today were not anywhere near my radar. But that’s the great thing about growing up, you get more experience, and some of these references that were missing (even though in plain sight) get amplified for better or worse. Let’s talk about each movie to illustrate this point.
Spoilers ahead if you haven’t yet watched these movies. If you haven’t, they’re worth a watch… except for the very last one in this list, it was not very good (in my humble view, and we’ll talk about it).
Starship Troopers
This movie came out in 1997. I saw it in theaters, in the newspaper we read the movie review the critics gave it a one-star – which meant it was supposed to be crap. And to be honest the first time I watched it when it premiered, I did not understand the underlining message; nor did I particularly liked it because it seemed like the plot was absolutely idiotic. Especially because it depicts planet Earth so technologically advanced that they can travel to other star systems, but they attack these planets populated by gigantic arachnids. Yet the humans are fighting them with boots on the ground in their alien planet with bullets. Yes, humans travel through the damned galaxy to this big-bug planet and land to fight them with bullets. And these gigantic bugs are somehow winning. It was not until decades later that I realized it was supposed to be a parody of authoritarianism, and in that sense, it is actually brilliant!
They did sneaked-in a romance among the protagonists in the script. But there is so much more beneath the obvious. And that is something I really appreciate now that I can understand the message. The movie demonstrates the collective brainwashing from a federation where an overmilitarized “service” does not only imply commitment, but also a tacit consent to be brutally killed under the orders of commanders who are pretty awful at leading. It is a depiction of a dictatorial, seemingly fascist-driven mentality. Even the uniforms resemble fascist roots, but we are supposed to root for our guys – in this case the humans in the conflict.
In this movie, the adversary is non-human. They are gigantic bugs, which include arachnids and some other grotesque-looking gigantic bugs. But none of these bugs can invade Earth directly, yet they are able to somehow shoot some rays off their butts which can destroy spaceships, and hurl meteorites towards Earth. But rather than vaporizing those planets from afar, humans are able to take gigantic starships to land on these very distant planets (as in plural) on the other side of the galaxy. Which by the way conveniently, these planets seem to have a climate, gravity, and breathable air that is adequate to humans.
There are bits of “Federation” propaganda added all throughout the film, as well as “patriotic” references for unquestionable obedience to the Federation by those who are serving. Yet, there is a lot of corruption or otherwise mistakes and glaring gaps of judgement by the leadership at all levels.
I can go on, but the point I want to make is that there is so much more than what meets the eye. If you get a chance to watch it (maybe again), do so with a critical eye spotting the traits for fascism. In this case it was very easy to dehumanize the “enemy”- bugs – because most humans would see them as super big and gross. But when you put this plot in a human-centric arena, then you will realize how authoritarians actually mobilize otherwise good people to conduct genocidal actions, justified by a sense of “duty and patriotism.” And this sense of “duty or patriotism” is seeming justifiable under the assumption that these “patriots” are fighting for the “right team.”
Understanding that, real propaganda is a lot more subtle and complex in execution. But this should be a good way to open your eyes towards what might seems to be in front of you. Remember, an authoritarian will give a very limited number of factors for you to “make a decision” – based on this, people’s otherwise good intentions could very well be factored with faulty information. Giving all the correct information is not convenient for an authoritarian, because if you would really know what they know, you would not be one of their followers. Now you know.
The source for this image was found in the public domain search from Smokey and the Bandit movie.
Smokey and the Bandit
Granted that this movie is older than I am as it came out in 1977. I was not even a baby when it came out, and for better or worse is one of those movies everybody enjoyed. First time I watched it is when I was still living in Ecuador, I was still a child and it was being played on TV – and of course, like in many non-English speaking countries, the movie was dubbed into Spanish. I did enjoy the movie, I was entertained and laughed a lot at the time. Of course that back then if you missed a part, well too bad – we did not have on-demand streaming services.
I’ve watched it a few times through the years. I have to admit that each time I’ve watched the movie it was very entertaining, although many of the references that I will speak about soon enough went well over my head. To be honest, at the time I did not even give them a second thought. But as the decades moved forward, more little details became amplified and made me pay a lot closer attention to what was going on in between the storyline. If not specifically intended by the screenplay and by the actors, it still gives a snapshot of what audiences used to enjoy back then. What was the norm.
I’m not going to name any protagonists for this article because I don’t want to implant a bias on your mind in case you have not watched it yet. But if you have, then you’ll probably understand what I mean by this. There are several references spoken both by the “hero” and the “antagonist” that would not be acceptable in today’s general audiences. But back then, “things were different” – or at least that’s what it depicts overtly in the character development. There are derogatory references, albeit in many instances camouflaged as comedy that target these groups: Women, LGBTQ, black people, and regionalism.
However, these scenes also attach some “good old American values” to some folk heroes. Yet some of these “good values” are juxtaposed with religious references or depictions, and camaraderie among people who are not exactly law abiding. There is quite a few references about sexual desire and attraction – but in a way that for today’s audience that would be perhaps considered sexual harassment before it becomes consensual. There is greed, corruption, bribery, destruction and or damage of public and personal property, etc. And that is even perpetrated by the good guys.
Law enforcement is also depicted as overentitled, and even corrupt. However, the main law enforcement figure acts as though he is justified on what he does. This is not only limited to his actions, but to the many homophobic, sexist, misogynistic, and racist comments that seem to be peppering the punchlines. Although the movie makes lite of it, if you just stop for a second and attribute all those “qualities” to somebody who’s not in the big screen as a character and put that in a living-breathing-actual law enforcement figure… well, that should be quite disturbing to anybody who understand what is indeed deeper than the shallow depiction scripted for laughs.
Yes, it was a comedy, and it is supposed to be funny and makes lite of a lot of situations. To my knowledge, there was no deliberated intent into give an actual depiction of what was life back then more than four decades ago – as a time capsule of sorts. But what I can tell you is that all many of those references – now that I can understand them and see them through the lens of today’s societal norms, they sort of made me cringe. And I said sort of, because I understand that it is a comedy, and I understand what was “normalized” back in those years. I was younger when I first watched this film, and that is also why I have very much seen how our cultures have been evolving through the decades.
And yes, I still enjoyed most of the movie – but now that some of those references became amplified based on my understanding, it did make me ponder about what I have learned about myself.
To be honest, a lot of those references did not bother me back then because I was disconnected from the fact that these commentaries were in fact demeaning or disenfranchising to certain groups of people. Growing up, even though we were in a different country when I first watched, I was more entertained seeing the guy in the black trans-am evade this stubborn cop. In other words, the car itself was took primacy rather than the actual plot.
As I grew up a little, then I got to understand more about the plot. For instance, the actual legality and illegality depicted during this this entire movie. And then realize that as this cop was chasing these guys who were transporting illegal booze across state lines… But this cop was not chasing them for that reason, it was chasing it because he was butt-hurt and embarrassed that his son was stood up in the altar by the girl who was now running with the guy in the black car. In other words, the cop is making a lot of false charges because of his ego being bruised, and breaks the law himself by doing all these illegal acts outside his jurisdiction. And although the bandit was instrumental in doing something illegal about the booze, it is not illegal to have a consensual female in his car as she’s running away from getting married to a man she does not love.
Watching this movie once again it made me realize a lot more than I did not quite grasped. I actually paid attention to what each protagonist was actually saying in between the plot lines. As I stated before, plenty of sexist, misogynistic, racist, and at least a few homophobic remarks. Some where more subtle than others.
Of course, that the actual movie, in its simplicity is a lot more complex than that. Because there are actual good values of friendship and camaraderie. However legal or illegal the actual plot lines are being devised. I don’t condone the illegal actions, but I do understand it is a movie. A comedy at that. But I would be remiss if I did not point the obvious. Back then, saying or using certain narratives for comedy were considered “acceptable.” The question now, is it ok to play this movie still?
Loaded question. I would argue that “yes” with a caveat. Yes, because people back then were products of their environment. From what was normalized. That is why I mentioned that as time moved on and I matured my attention to detail toward the movie also evolved. It went from “cool car” to “damn, there is a lot of illegal stuff going on.” To damn, there were a lot of references back then that would not be acceptable today.
And that is why I said earlier in this article that these movies are really a time capsule. Although it is one of those beloved American movie icons, it is definitely something that would give some people pause. For example, this includes the car itself sporting a confederate flag in the front license plate. Some people would think that is ok, others would think it is not ok.
Keep that thought because we’ll talk about that again in other parts of this article.
Smokey and the Bandit II
I have to admit that I don’t have any clear memory of watching this other movie earlier than yesterday (at the time I’m tying this article). I was actually looking forward to watch it. I didn’t care for it, so I will keep this part fairly short. While the first one was more “authentic” – this second one seemed like they were trying too hard. It had a lot of funny moments, but they seemed more slapstick than actually entertaining. I read some reviews, and apparently although this movie did not bomb, it was much less successful than the original.
That is not unusual, a lot of sequels are inferior to the original. I won’t spoil the story line to for you. But I did ask you to put a pin on the Confederate flag. Yes, the movie does have a lot to do with the Southern U.S. and as you would expect a depiction of the Confederate flag would have not been unusual back then. In fact, the narrative for a long, long time is that this flag in particular is about “Southern Heritage” – and the fact is that this is but one of the many actual “battle flags” the Confederacy used during the American Civil War.
And in reality, there were plenty of people around the world (places other than USA) at the time who did not really know much about the details behind the Civil War between the Confederacy and the Union. And spoiler alert, they probably did not care, because it did not affect their lives directly at the time. We did not even learn that in world history, other than just quick topic that USA had a civil war and the North (the Union) defeated the South (the Confederacy). But to be honest, down in South America we did not really know what the Confederate flag represented. Some people even assumed that it was another “version” of the actual American Flag. But you know, the same country. Instead of the symbol of the Confederacy intent to become their own country away from the US. Everyday people around the world did not really stop to understand any differences between South or North.
Generations Gaps
When I was growing up in Ecuador the internet was not a thing. If you wanted to learn something hopefully you would catch a documentary on TV about something or the other. Mostly by chance, because it was playing on TV under the decision of whomever chose the content. Otherwise, if you were lucky there would be an encyclopedia that would tell you “Something” (usually very little bit) about a topic you might be interested about. And if you were really lucky, maybe somebody would teach you about a particular topic you happened to be interested about.
But in that gap of knowledge a lot of misinformation resided. These gaps of knowledge were caused either by the person who actually wrote the book, produced the documentary, or was telling you the story. And yes, that included teachers. I can recall a lot of lectures from history teachers who were – how to say it politely – misinformed themselves. And whatever they were spewing from their mouths (and quizzing us about) were not empirical facts. Especially when it came to history, or if the teacher had a bias about a particular topic. But also, we have to remember that information was either censored or otherwise not available to all. Even libraries would not have all the answers. It really was limited to the information that was available to us.
Hence, to us generally the most “credible sources” that was TV. One of the most beloved TV shows back in the day was the Dukes of Hazard. And their iconic automobile – which was also a muscle car. Not only did this orange car had a gigantic confederated flag painted on the roof, but it was actually named “General Lee” which is the main Confederate general. We’ll talk more about this show in a different article, but I had to bring it here to illustrate my point.
My point is that I loved watching this show without thinking about any of the underlining historical iconography such as the flag. I really just thought it was a very cool car, and to be honest as a kid I had no idea who the hell General Lee was actually in real life, nor did I really care. And I should mention that I watched this show at my home in Ecuador as young child and later as a teenager, as it played right after I was scheduled to return home.
When I was a kid, I had no concept of the Confederacy or the Union. I saw American actors driving around in a car that for some reason was able to jump. Hell, we thought that a lot of America was like that rural community with a small downtown. I remember one time telling my father that I would like to live in “Hazzard County” where the show was set to be. He said that such county did not exist, and it was only made belief. I was not happy with that answer. By the way he was unfortunately right, Hazzard County is fictious, it is actually Newton County in the state of Georgia. The first few episodes of the series were filmed in Covington. Eventually the show was filmed in California.
In either case, I remember having at least a couple of “General Lee” toy cars when I was a child. I even remember affectionately talking with friends and family about the show, and it was always about the protagonists and the cool car rather than anything that was an added “heritage” iconography in the show. And in case you were wondering, nobody bat an eye about the flag or the underlining plot for that matter. Fast forward to today and both those topics do raise many eyebrows. Perhaps still not controversial in Ecuador, but I’ve moved to the USA back in 1995 and this country has been my home ever since. But even as I arrived here, I did not think much of it until I learned more about American History. And for many years I did not even watch the show anymore.
Well, apparently, I am not the only one who has learned a lot about the significancy of the Confederacy and that particular battle flag. Even in one of movies made after the show they did point out some distain for that flag in one of the scenes. But as you mix nostalgia with the actual memories of a show (or a movie), then emotions can become overwhelmed by a mixture of feelings. Some of the iconography might take a back seat to the actual plot of the show. And when it the underlining context gets applied to real life, that can become a lot more volatile.
So all these shows reminiscences were needed as context to talk about this: We are all susceptible to become victims of our environment. Things and symbols could become integral parts of our lives, even if we don’t realize if they have taken a foothold in our lives. For better or for worse, people are very complex. And that is why it is important to understand context before condoning or condemning somebody else outside our immediate environment.
Back in the day we did not have the wealth of information we have today at our fingertips. There was certainly propaganda though. And yes, that also went well over most people’s heads back then. But also, the world was not as connected as it is today. Today something that happens in the opposite side of the planet will affect you in your sleepy town. For example COVID, it took over the world for two years. Conversely, back in the day it was more about how our emotions were based on the information available to us. That is what I am talking about the plot, the characters, and a cool car. The iconography behind that did not mean much for most people because the did not understand the difference between South and North in the U.S. other than a mere geographical distance. And to be honest, without knowing its history, I remember friends in Ecuador saying that it was a cool-looking flag. But as you learn more, then there are things that you cannot ignore.
Let me give you a parallel example. Let’s say that you never noticed somebody was missing a fingernail. And now once you see it, unconscientiously you cannot unsee it. You might remember it each time you talk or interact with that the person. Depending on how you perceive the world it might not be a big deal to you, or it would make you squeamish.
A different example, let’s say that you notice somebody you know that they have a nice feature – perhaps long eye lashes, or a cute expression. Once you see that you cannot unsee it. It will be part of your understanding of that person whenever you see them.
Same thing with cultural references. These can be for better or worse. Some things that we admire could be tarnished by something that we do not approve. Conversely, something we did not approve at first could be justifiable and even endearing if we learn something about it that balances more-good than bad attributes. The point is that our minds can change, but it takes critical thinking and intellectual honesty to discern what was right or what was wrong with our initial assessment.
And to be clear, nothing is going to be 100% good or 100% bad. There will be shades of gray along the way. However, we cannot be blinded if for the sake of keeping something fond in our minds we condone the unjustifiable. You might be in somebody’s corner if you feel they have “better” than bad, but that also implies that they will be held accountable for the bad they did. And we have to remember that somebody else’s mistakes are not our mistakes. Don’t take it personally if somebody you care about is being scolded or being held accountable for a mistake they made. We all make mistakes, but some mistakes are more aggravating than others.
For example, let’s say you have a nephew you really love. This young man is generally speaking a good student, helpful around the house, and generally a nice person. However, he does enjoy drinking a little too much. Let’s say that this young man decide to drink too much and get behind the wheel. As he is driving along impaired, he has an accident resulting in a dead pedestrian – as he ran this person over with the car. You might still love your nephew for all the good he has done, but he will still have to face accountability for manslaughter for killing a person while drinking and driving.
Same thing with these cultural references. To include the Confederate flag we spoke earlier. Between our movies, are there thing that you can still be fond of? Absolutely! Does that mean that you have to agree with everything in the movie? No, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. Nothing is all or nothing, there are always shades of gray. However, not because there are shades of gray means that we have to lose objectivity of what is correct and it is not correct.
As my understanding of the cultural intricacies grew over the years, I see things in a more pragmatic manner. But I am able to compartmentalize my “outrage” in a manner that is proportional and relevant. For example boycotting the “Dukes of Hazzard” or “Smokey and the Bandit” because they have some “Southern Heritage” a lot of people have exception to, that is to me too extreme. Do I personally have a similar fondness attached to the Confederate battle flag as people from the U.S. Southern states have? No, I don’t but it would be the same if as a U.S. Southerner to ask if they have the same fondness for my partiality or distain over bullfights. That is a cultural reference to my upbringing as a person with a Spanish (from Spain heritage). And by the way, I do not care for bullfights. But a lot of Ecuadorians loved the entire spectacle which is known as “Fiesta Brava” or “Angry Festivity.”
Back in the day, as I was growing up nobody would bat an eye when a bull was slaughtered in front of a crowd after being essentially tortured in a festive manner. Sure, there is some “heritage” on that… but it does not make it any better? Besides, the bull’s meat gest lousy after it gets killed in such a manner due to the stress of the ordeal. I’ve been present in actual bullfights as a kid, and it is not something I enjoyed at all. They used to broadcast that over the TV every weekend in fact. People did love it… and they dressed up to go to the bull fight arena (plaza de toros), and would pay extra to get closer to the actual arena. And yes, some people would even eat that assassinated bull.
So, we started with movies but if you are familiar with my writing style, then you know that I will take you for a literary (as in literature) and philosophical ride along with me. Why you think is that? The truth is that I’ve been realizing how our generations have gapped understanding of the world, despite the fact that we are surrounded by more information than ever before. The misinformation is rampant, and there are plenty of opportunists that want to bid for your attention or inattention. Why? There are many reasons, but if I could put in one word it would be “power” – power over you, and your actions. And this power can be enacted by making us believe that some manufactured narrative was our idea all along. That is why it works so well.
Final thought, times will change, and we are supposed to learn from our past. And our past also includes the past from our previous generations. When we are distracted, then these cultural references might get stagnated. True that we might have some nostalgia linked with some fond memories among some not-so-nice ones. But in the end, we control our future if we are capable from learning from our past. HLC