The 80s, myth and reality?

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Aside from the Disco, was Saturday Night Fever a good impression of reality in NYC-Brooklyn 70s/80s?

I was born in 1976 so missed this time but several films like American Graffiti and Saturday Night Fever are favs.
My kid brother freaked over Travolta's dancing. Thought he was T and never stopped.

 

[Juanito]

Aside from the Disco, was Saturday Night Fever a good impression of reality in NYC-Brooklyn 70s/80s?

Yes, without question. My wife came of age during that period and while she lived in Queens, she actually went to high school at Brooklyn Tech. Consequently she spent a lot of time there with her friends.

I once asked her about it and she said it was about as accurate as you could get.

It is funny, when we do go back and she visits her friends, they inevitably end up doing all of the disco line dancing they did back then.

 

[Juanito]

That's, what I meant with my question, if the (as we would say in Germany) "Vietnam trauma" was louder discussed than before, after the movie started. And maybe the PTSD topic, too. But as you say, the topic probably went a little under surface, at this point of time.

Sure, it naturally has a different effect in old Germany, I think more than ever.

Yes, absolutely. As someone mentioned earlier there were the movies like Coming Home and the Deer Hunter, but by the time Rambo came out most had been back from Vietnam, were entering their 30s, and (trying) to reintegrate into society.

After Rambo came out, there were a ton of Vietnam related movies that came out: Platoon, Hamburger Hill, Full Metal Jacket, Uncommon Valor, all the Chuck Norris Missing in Action movies, and more.

...and certainly the conversation around all of the PTSD affected Vietnam veterans was brought to the forefront as they now approached middle age.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Platoon, Hamburger Hill, Full Metal Jacket, Uncommon Valor, all the Chuck Norris Missing in Action movies, and more.

And Aliens, Vietnam in space.

 

[Trenchfriend]

If you want a perfume time machine...

I actually got a new bottle of Daniel Hechter Caractère, which was launched in 1989.
But even for the powerhouse 80s, this cologne is not 80s like Drakkar Noir and other Aromatic Fougeres!

THIS is, what I understand as classic, timeless Russian Leather!

Head: Artemisia - Bergamotte - Lemon
Heart: Carnation -Jasmin - Basilikum
Base: Oakmoss - Cedar - Castoreum (!) - Leather

 

[Edward]

And Aliens, Vietnam in space.

In that regard, following in the footsteps of Star Wars, albeit doing it better. Though to be honest, while I can enjoy Aliens, I thought more highly of it when it was still the only film of the franchise I'd seen. It rather diminishes in stature when viewed as a mere action picture up against the dark and brooding gothic horror of its predecessor. Unpopular opinion as it appears to be, I much prefer Alien 3 for its return to the tone of the original.

 

[Edward]

Yes, absolutely. As someone mentioned earlier there were the movies like Coming Home and the Deer Hunter, but by the time Rambo came out most had been back from Vietnam, were entering their 30s, and (trying) to reintegrate into society.

After Rambo came out, there were a ton of Vietnam related movies that came out: Platoon, Hamburger Hill, Full Metal Jacket, Uncommon Valor, all the Chuck Norris Missing in Action movies, and more.

...and certainly the conversation around all of the PTSD affected Vietnam veterans was brought to the forefront as they now approached middle age.

I saw The Deer Hunter for the first time only this last year. An interesting film. The problematic aspects of it viewed at this distance are indeed apparent, though I don't believe were the artistic intent. It is inevitable of its time in some aspect, though. What really jumped out at me is how much the structuring of mainstream movies has changed so much since then. I find it hard to imagine a mainstream release these days being permitted such a long first act (see also Carrie and Taxi Driver, yet it would also be all the poorer for that when we get to the crucial Nam-set second Act.)

As regards the eighties pictures, I should have thought too that a lot had to do with the fact that at that point there were a number of notable Hollywood figures, both in production and direction, who had actually been through Nam themselves. I have heard it said that for those who were there, of the big ticket films Platoon is the most realistic - Stone himself chose to go to Vietnam and was wounded in combat more than once during 67/68. Personally, the one I enjoyed most as a film was Full Metal Jacket. Kubrick of course was never in Nam, but nonetheless provided an interesting commentary on the nature of the conflict itself as a separate entity from those conscripted into it. I remember as a teen in the eighties Vietnam had a sort of mythical quality among my contemporaries, quite probably because while we got the popular culture influences, there was no folk memory of it around, nor were there older relatives or acquaintances who had lived through it (either the conflict directly, or the debate around it), being in Northern Ireland and with the UK and Ireland have stayed out of that war.

 

[Fifty150]

Mr. Escovedo's little girl. Tito Puente's God Daughter. Nicole Richie's Auntie.

Here in Chinatown, Ms. E. from Oakland was already a legend. Everyone already knew her Pops, and her uncle Coke. In 1984, the rest of the world got to know her music. 40 years later, I don't know if I'm cringing because she is still doing 80's dance moves and singing 80's songs. Or if I'm cringing because I had a huge boyhood crush on the 80's version of her.

 

[Fifty150]

Just in case anyone does not know, the blonde girl playing sax is Candy Dulfer from The Netherlands. She is also an 80's icon.

 

[VansonRider]

Has anyone brought up Larry “Kodak” Bird?
I don’t watch sports ball of any flavor, but this guy is amazing to watch.

Here’s a highlight reel… of his Passes and assists. No dunks or Hail Marys, just watch this guy pass the ball. They called him Kodak because he knew where everyone was in the court at all times, like he was looking at a picture.

The story is when Magic Johnson beat you, he made you feel slow. When Larry Bird beat you, he made you feel dumb…

 

[Fifty150]

Morris Day had a dance called "The Bird".

 

[Fifty150]

Aside from the Disco, was Saturday Night Fever a good impression of reality in NYC-Brooklyn 70s/80s?

 

[Benny Holiday]

The Breakfast Club was on daytime TV here the other day. Classic.

You know who was great in the 80s? John Candy. Uncle Buck. Planes, Trains and Automoblies. Spaceballs. Stripes. Good flicks, good memories.

 

[Fifty150]

The Breakfast Club

That was a part of a "package deal". They sold us the movie, the music, the fashion......... Today, you can't think of the film, without remembering the songs, or hear the songs without thinking about the film. Then deny that you ever wore those clothes, or had the hair.

https://youtu.be/qOcvWfMivqQ

 

[Edward]

The Breakfast Club was on daytime TV here the other day. Classic.

You know who was great in the 80s? John Candy. Uncle Buck. Planes, Trains and Automoblies. Spaceballs. Stripes. Good flicks, good memories.

Matt Groening was clearly a fan, hence Bender the robot in Futurama, and Bart Simpson's "Eat my shorts" catchphrase.

Saw it again recently; the upskirting aside, it's aged fairly well as compared to some of its (near) contemporaries, notably Teenwolf.

 

[Zombie_61]

I saw The Deer Hunter for the first time only this last year...

I've never seen it. Released in the U.S. during my Junior year of high school (1978), I think I might have been one of very few in my school who, upon viewing the trailers, thought it looked boring and too derivative of every other American-made Vietnam movie. And since then, I've seen and heard nothing that has changed my opinion.

 

[Edward]

I've never seen it. Released in the U.S. during my Junior year of high school (1978), I think I might have been one of very few in my school who, upon viewing the trailers, thought it looked boring and too derivative of every other American-made Vietnam movie. And since then, I've seen and heard nothing that has changed my opinion.

I found it really quite different from the other Nam pictures I've seen (though, noted, my exposure is primarily the wave of eighties-made Nam pictures that were popular on this side of the world). The pacing is a huge difference. The only other one I can recall offhand that takes as long to get 'in-country' as this is Full Metal Jacket, but the first act of that is a whole different animal than this, divorced as it is from civilian life. The sequence, post-Nam, of de Niro wearing his uniform everywhere as a visual signifier of his inability to quite fit back in to civilian life is beautifully done, not quite like anything else (I'd put it almost on a par with the "Mickey Mouse Club" sequence at the end of Full Metal Jacket, my favourite of the bunch). It has elements that are very much of its time (the VietCong torture sequences using techniques not based on reality having been viewed as problematic in more recent times, though to be fair I took them to be intended to be metaphorical rather than literal, alongside their echo in Walken's post-service Russian Roulette game). I think in part it also intrigued me because it is from a period when 'slower' storytelling was accepted in a way I doubt would be the case in contemporary cinema.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Yeah, the FMJ topic!
The most asskickin' sequence in FMJ for me is the duality/Born To Kill scene in the GERMAN synchro, HAHA!!

THIS is, why FMJ is so popular in old Germany.

 

[Edward]

Yeah, the FMJ topic!
The most asskickin' sequence in FMJ for me is the duality/Born To Kill scene in the GERMAN synchro, HAHA!!

THIS is, why FMJ is so popular in old Germany.

It was always my favourite picture of that bunch of Eighties Nam flicks, though I have heard the opinion from those who were there that Platoon was the most realistic. Oliver Stone, of course, actually fought in Vietnam, so that inevitably gave him quite the insight!

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

I found it really quite different from the other Nam pictures I've seen (though, noted, my exposure is primarily the wave of eighties-made Nam pictures that were popular on this side of the world). The pacing is a huge difference. The only other one I can recall offhand that takes as long to get 'in-country' as this is Full Metal Jacket, but the first act of that is a whole different animal than this, divorced as it is from civilian life. The sequence, post-Nam, of de Niro wearing his uniform everywhere as a visual signifier of his inability to quite fit back in to civilian life is beautifully done, not quite like anything else (I'd put it almost on a par with the "Mickey Mouse Club" sequence at the end of Full Metal Jacket, my favourite of the bunch). It has elements that are very much of its time (the VietCong torture sequences using techniques not based on reality having been viewed as problematic in more recent times, though to be fair I took them to be intended to be metaphorical rather than literal, alongside their echo in Walken's post-service Russian Roulette game). I think in part it also intrigued me because it is from a period when 'slower' storytelling was accepted in a way I doubt would be the case in contemporary cinema.

I first saw this while Aldershot and a favourite it became. However, DeNiro's character is US Army Special Forces
thru its second half, Vietnam, his rotation back, and while on leave he is uniformed as would be normal while in service transit under kit. He returns to Vietnam in uniform, and only appears mufti at the gambling hall wearing white suit.
The concluding funeral service scene he again is in uniform, still on active service and hasn't been discharged.
So such signifies active service soldier wartime with normal uniform attire worn transit/leave.
Your ''metaphorical rather than literal'' is rather shopworn cliche. Larger Vietnamese culture writ literal cruelty based
on reality. The film was broken down with American officers in attendance whom openly discussed American atrocities and that of the North Vietnamese regulars and irregular Viet Cong in quite even handed frankness.
Surprisingly more favourable than might be supposed but the Americans held their former foes with high regard.