S3E20: The Ballad of Adam and Eve
1999's "Blast from the Past" joined a roster of time-period-clashing movies of its era
Some version or another of time travel has been present in film making for most of the medium’s history, but Hollywood seemed to have ratcheted it up quite a bit as the 90s went on. Even more pervasive is the “fish out of water” trope, where audiences get to enjoy seeing what it would be like when very different cultures are met face to face. 1999’s Blast from the Past dabbles in both themes by presenting a character, Adam Webber, who was (accidentally) born and raised in a fallout shelter beginning in 1962 when a jet crash-lands on his family’s house during the Cuban Missile Crisis. His brilliant/mad scientist father, Calvin, and decreasingly patient mother, Helen, keep Adam in perpetual 1962 for 35 years until he is forced to resurface.
Adam is essentially a time traveler and his first-half-of-the-20th-century-raising makes him goofily stand out at first, but often serves him well as he gives doses of long-forgotten traditional morals and ethics to his 90s counterparts, both friend and foe. The movie, starring Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, and Sissy Spacek, is a joy to watch in both its forms. The 1999 theatrical release has some sexuality and (kind of oddly placed) language, but much of that is cleaned up in the 2001 “Family Edition.” Having the two versions speaks volumes about the perceived and actual value of this comedy, and sets it apart from its peer movies.
I mark modern time travel/ culture-clash movies with 1985’s Back to the Future as the main source of humor is comparing and contrasting the same place and people between 30 year span. Summing up both time periods, the 50s come across as far more pleasant to live in than the 80s. This practice of comparison between periods continued in the 1990s with films such as Encino Man (also with Brendan Fraser), The Brady Bunch Movie, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, and Pleasantville, with that last one being the only which condemns the past more-so than the present.
Include Blast from the Past to the mix and we can see what the society thought of itself as we approached the turn of the century and millennium: Goodness and wholesomeness still existed, but it was harder to see in the decaying culture and environment.
It was wonderful having Jeremy Ebersole back on the show to break down Blast from the Past and make some determinations about what it says to us about 25 years ago.
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