I have been working on a photo project today and have not been able to spend much time on the Blog. I wonder if you might permit me to re-present an older blog on a movie that has a lot to say to us about our culture and what we have lost. Perhaps some new readers to the blog will not have seen this post that I wrote about a year and a half ago.
There was a movie from back in the late 1990s called “Blast From The Past” The Movie begins in the early 60s at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. An eccentric man and his pregnant wife have built and elaborate fallout shelter underground in their backyard. It is no ordinary bomb shelter but a large and well stocked one that even allows the growing of food and fish and has many amenities.
When a plane crashes nearby they think the country is under attack and that the Atom Bomb has hit. They run into the shelter and lock it behind them setting the automatic locks not to open for 35 years when the radiation had dissipated.
During this time the pregnant wife gives birth to their son, Adam whom they raise in that shelter. Adam receives the usual education one would expect in the early 60s, strong on reading, writing and arithmetic, American and world history. He also obtains a liberal arts college education from his father who was a professor. The education included Latin, Greek, French and German. Adam also learns all the usual social skills of that time such as basic manners, how to treat a lady, ballroom dancing, the meaning of life. He is also raised to reverence God.
In a way the family was frozen in time and preserved the values of that time of the early 60s. The film does not present that time as flawless. The mother has a bit of a drinking problem, the father is rather eccentric and xenophobic etc.
Suddenly it is 1997 and the locks come open. The family makes its first excursion since the “bomb” went off. The father expects to find that those who survived will show signs of radiation poisoning and that the world will surely manifest many signs of the destruction the bomb surely wrought so they go forth cautiously.
Now, you and I know that no atom bomb ever did go off. Or did it? As they emerge from the bomb shelter the once quaint neighborhood they lived in has become a red light district. They see shocking things. Not only prostitutes and adult book stores, but also drug addicts, trash-filled streets and signs of grave disorder. People are coarse in their behavior etc. They run back into the shelter concluding that things are worse than they thought. They send their son Adam out to get provisions and possibly to find a wife if he can locate someone who is less effected by the “radiation.” Then they will once again throw the locks on the shelter and wait for things to improve on the outsiide lest they be poisoned by it all. In this scene Adam emerges from the shelter and first encounters a drug addict who thinks Adam is God. Adam then goes forth and sees things and people outside for the first time.
As Adam goes forth he discovers that beyond the world of the red light district is less devastated but he still struggles with what he experiences. Families seem in disarray, people are coarse, cynical, and use God’s name in vain. The technology amazes him as do simple things like rain, the open sky and the ocean. In this scene he is troubled by some modern cultural trends and then sees the ocean for the first time:
It is quite clear to us who watch the movie that much has been lost. Adam is head and shoulders above the modern people who surround him. He is kind, respectful, polite, innocent in his interpretation of the world. He is much smarter than those around him as well, having quite an encyclopedic knowledge compared to the moderns around him. In this scene two things are illustrated: his superior education and also his coming to grips with modern technology. How can a computer (a giant thing in his world) be in a house?
And he can dance, really dance! Not just the gyrating common in modern dance floors but the flawless execution of 40s swing is natural to him since he was trained in every form of ballroom dancing by his parents. Here is a dance scene that shows that, while dancing was getting a little risque, it still required training and talent. Pardon some of the language in this clip, but remember the coarsening of culture is what is in on display here.
He is befriended by a young lady named Eve and her brother. They think him to be strange and naive but come to discover he has much to teach. In this scene they ponder something he has taught them about graciousness, kindness and the blessing of strong family ties.
This movie is worth seeing. It is not preachy (like me). It gently suggests to us that we have lost some important things in the past 40 years. Things like kindness, optimism, the value of traditional education, the importance of parents teaching and raising their kids. In many ways the movie gently suggests that we have become coarse, cynical, even vulgar. Family ties have often been severed and culture has melted down to more base level. Education is less thorough and broad, simple things like learning to dance are lost.
As I have already said, the early 1960s was not a perfect time. Many troublesome cultural trends were already well underway. These are not unreported in the movie. But still the point remains, some things of great value have been lost. Adam and his family entered the shelter at the end of an era. Then, a young man steps out the past and is bewildered by what he finds. Technology is impressive, but people seem lost and cynical. The world is hostile and disordered. But he brings with him some healing balm, some of the best virtues of the past, to remind us all that we have lost important things along the way.
The bomb did go off. Not the Atom Bomb, but an even more devastating cultural bomb. Rebuilding will take time.
Better to hope in Christ Who is to come than dwell on the past. Better to build, than to look at what was once built.
Yes, on the other hand it is a rather strage thing to eshew the past in a Church rooted in tradition. Do you argue that the past has nothing whatsoever to teach us?
Y’know, Monsignor, there’s been quite a bit in the blogosphere recently on the loss of Catholic identity and culture. It’s too hard not to conclude, from what we see in the movie, that the loss of our identity is tied to the loss of identity of our surrounding culture. Certainly, “it’s better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness” … but how do we know the darkness except from the memory of of a past light? If we’re on the wrong road, then how do we get back on the path except by remembering where we left it and retracing our steps? I think we can rebuild; we just can’t expect the new structure to resemble the old structure in all respects.
Yes, well said.
What a perfect Sunday to take pictures. The Holy Sspirit is always on time. I greatly await these teachable moments. A blast from the past that launches us into our future! (click, click – snap, snap) LOL
http://picasaweb.google.com/MsgrPope/Liturgy#
wow– what a great movie insight– will have to watch it.
Yes, It’s a very nice movie
At the opening session of an adult catechism class, I was doing my best to teach what the Church taught directly from the Catechism. One man declared, “You’re stuck in the past; I’m interested in the future!” He never came back. I was a little upset at the time, but now I think of it as a great compliment.
Yes, in the end we must keep out feet rooted in the Tradition!
Msgr.,
Msgr.,
What is it that led us to the 60’s? As a father of 4 I want to raise good citizens, scholars and saints, but I have a suspicion that I know only a little of the errors of the past. I am learning more, especially about our education system that was co-opted by industry in the early 1900, yet I think I am missing a few things. What I mean is, how did we get to the place the Margret Sanger was so accepted, or the promiscuity that you see even in the old movies? These came long before the 60’s.
Of course one can traced our currrent problems all the way back to Eden. But or current malaise might also be seen as rooted all the way back to the Cartesian divide where Decartes and the philosophers that followed him all began to fundamentally question reality. The famous Cartesian statement: “I think therefore I am” places reality merely in the mind and not really anything outside myself. This then leads to the skepticism and and relativism which has plagued our modern era. Thus most people today reject immutable truth and the notion of instrinsic evil. Truth becomes opinion only and rational principles give way to a mere point of view. As this infects a civilization more and more deeply as it has in the West, the possibility of a shared vision of the truth and a common “cultus,” which are the basis for culture and learning, is jetisoned. What we are left with is power struggle. When nothing is self-evident or accesible to reason, as is argued, then the one with the most power, money or influence or loudest voices wins. Eventually communities, and nations splinter into factions and interests groups.
How to get back? Well, we have to start by accepting that truth is something more than what I merely think. It is a reality outside of me which I can recognize through my senses and apprehend with my mind. It is something reavealed by someone or something bigger than me. As a Christian and a Catholic I of course consider this to be God speaking through the Church. We begin by accepting the authority of something other than just my own mind. We allow the truth to be revealed to us and proposed to our mind and we assent to it. I guess, in a sentence the way back is to say, “Back to reality.”
I remember this movie … it ends with hope.
Blake, I believe in good education for all, but when we start thinking that we know better than God that’s when we get into trouble. Margaret Sanger said, “No God and No Master” when she saw women dying with self-induced abortions. She wanted women to have control over their bodies … and she thought she was doing a great good. But she went down the slippery slope, promoting eugenics and euthanasia … She rejected her Catholic heritage.
I was reading an article on eugenics that cited some excerpts published from the 1920s and 30s and was appalled at the language used and the total disregard for life. These were all “intellectuals” in our universities. They knew better … they were enlightened.
What’s scary is that in my 20s, I was just like that … educated and full of myself, thinking that religious people were backward, clinging to their old ways and tradition. I thank God every day for letting His hounds chase me. I am caught! On the right path finally … and will be atoning for my sins a looooong time.
Yes, humility is a critical virtue.
I take your point, Msgr, about the apparent coarsening of public discourse and culture. Not everything is negative, however. Consider how terribly those with even mild disabilities were treated in years gone by. Now we have both powerful legislation as well as (more) widespread understanding of core issues and empathy with those people. Consider as well that in the 1960s, many Christians believed wholeheartedly that whites had a God-given superiority over blacks and others.
I do suspect, however, that a real-life family emerging from a 35-year stay in a time capsule would be delighted with many developments and despondent over others. I suspect they might be despondent about the rise of a seemingly alternative moral framework that is decidedly un-Christian (perhaps even anti-Christian) in its foundations. They might be despondent about the extraordinary modern focus on the individual ego and the (apparent) freedoms that the new moral framework gives them. Perhaps, like many real life Christians, they would get sucked into that new way of orienting their lives over time and relegate Christ to a private, optional extra.
You are correct that we cannot simplify or overly-idealize any time or culture. But I think the one thing that would be most glaring and obvious (which the movie shows) is the breakdown of order and the coarseness of behavior. Other changes that you note are important too, we are better about some things today, clearly this is also the case.
The past was not without evil influences. African-Americans were deprived of many opportunities, and were discriminated against widely. The use of tobacco and the elevated death rates from cancer and heart disease due to tobacco use were widespread, and the causes were not recognized. These are two areas where the present is far preferable to the 1950s-early 1960s era. You may be able to think of others.
TeaPot562
Agreed, as with Terrance above.
Thank you for this article, Msgr. Paul. It is certainly a thought-provoking piece. I went through the story that you presented and illustrated, and after that, I was left to wonder whether the so-called modern man today can build his own fallout shelter. I think some of them have done that already due to the explosion of the relativistic and secularistic attitudes that are the main cause of society’s moral decline, especially here in the United States and Europe. It seems that man has fancied himself to be the supreme ruler of his God-given life and privilege to exist in this world. God is shut out, or if ever His presence is acknowledged, it is only during those times when man stands before his finiteness, and find no escape from the horror he has created for himself. Or maybe, too, he has completely sold himself to the devil that he cannot see Him at all.
The “fallout shelter” that some people have built for themselves is prayer, a relationship with God. These people do not deny their humanness, as exemplified by the son in the film. With the best education he got from his parents, he could marvel at many things as they are: the sky, the ocean, people, and his giftedness, as shown in his ability to dance. His human faculty was not lost in the isolation, but was even enhanced. And he could see, appreciate and descriminate better the things around him because his eyes were trained to see God’s manifestation. Isn’t this true, too, if we find refuge in Jesus who spoke the Truth: that He is the the way, the truth, and the life? By really accepting and experiencing this Truth, man can sincerely give of himself in the service of others for the greater glory of God. Without Him, man will not find satisfaction or fulfillment in whatever he does.
Families should learn a lot from this film. Our responsibility is to protect our selves and our children from the misguided thinking of the “worldly”, and educate them about life in God. That indeed, life in God, who is Truth, is not restricting, but allows one to soar in freedom and marvel at the beauty of the world and the rest of creation through God’s eyes! In this fallout shelter, one gets a glimpse of his beginning and his end, and because of that, he strives to give his all to serve God through his brothers and sisters. The center of his learning and giving is Love.
Well said.
I thought I was pretty much alone in appreciating this movie. Few of my acquaintances have even heard of it.
That said, what leads me to chime in is Blake’s question: “What is it that led us to the 60’s?” I was a young man during that period and it was a surprise to me and, I believe, to many of my contemporaries. It was a difficult time for those of us who had been reared in the Church and were suddenly exposed to an obvious relaxation in moral behavior. More surprising was the lack of resistance the “new morality” experienced.
Over the intervening years I have had many occasions to reflect on those times. After reading enough history, I’ve come to believe that that era was an economic anomaly. At the time we firmly believed that the obvious expansion of our wealth, on both individual and national bases, were a continuation of the progress we had experienced earlier in the century.
In retrospect, however, never had so many enjoyed so many “luxuries” and “freedoms.” We failed to recognize that our bounty was made possible through the wartime destruction of the world’s other great economies. We believed we were a Colossus while, in fact, we were just the same as ever, but every one else had been economically dwarfed.
The key scene in the movie is the discovery of the father’s portfolio of stocks and its astounding valuation. During any other time in history a portfolio of blue chips left dormant for 35 years would certainly have appreciated noticeably. However, the stupendous growth of that portfolio reflects the windfall wealth that this whole country experienced.
Unfortunately, it was to be a one-off occurrence that was significant enough to benefit several generations – generations which, like my own, felt that never-ending growth was a birthright rather than a once-in-a-millenium event. The movie accurately reflects how cavalierly we treated this abundance, and how far our society wandered from a path that had always been clearly defined, if not joyously followed.
Adam represents the man we should have been: indifferent to wealth but faithful to principles. Blake, we led ourselves into the ’60s.