MovieChat Forums > Golden Years (1991) Discussion > First impressions - Was this meant to b...

First impressions - Was this meant to be farcical?

posted 13 years ago by kiraalt
2 replies | jump to latest

I have to admit, I am only about halfway through this (streaming via netflix.)
First time seeing it.

But so far is striking me as almost making fun of the whole genre. The dialogue and characters seem so stereotypical and exagerated - almost comic book like. That is how it is playing for me thus far. Wondering if this was intentional on King's part?

This was done in the early 90's right? Everyone still smoking indoors? Terry doesn't use or have a cell phone? In the lab the scientist has a very modern looking phone, but in a couple scenes elsewhere rotary dial phones are still in use. Modern light fixtures and office decor, yet some other things seem straight out of a 40's film noir set.

Maybe all this will make more sense to me at the end. Once I finish I will
probably be back. Maybe with more questions than answers!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You can't fix faith, River. Faith fixes you." Shepherd Book, Firefly

[–] blackknight273 11 years ago

That was my take on it too

I'm surprised noone mentioned the WW2 era military uniforms.

[–] ficoce 10 years ago

Most of the cars were old, too. Mostly 70's era. It contrasts in the North Gate mall scene. All the old cars and a new pickup and car in the background. The sci-fi felt like 50's and 60's, too.

Everything old is new. There's references to this all through the movie; the touch screen entry at the lab front gate wasn't around in 91 while the gate guard wore a 50's/60's uniform, the admin office had old style office desks set up like they did in the 60's, but had computers, the lab had big honking switches, but no computers, the hippy house was right out of 1968.

Even the scenes showed this, like when the mad scientist tried to plug an old style extension cord into a computer cable, and the scene with King where he stopped the bus on the side of the road - buses had not done this for years, and he comments how he hates side of the road pickups. My favorite was in the ep7 where the man on the porch asks for the agents name, "Jude Andrews", and the guy replies, "Hey Jude". Hey Jude by the Beatles came out in 1968.

At first glance the show seems pretty campy, but you get that feeling there is more to it - there is. Every year is a golden year.

King was a little ahead of his time when he wrote this, nobody got it.