Revisionist Science Fiction

[BadBeast]

Yeah, I reckon America's got a shitload of pretty lively mythology. There's Elvis. Dillinger. 9.11. Bohemia Grove. The Cthulhu Mythos. Roswell. Geronimo. Joshua Norton. Charlie Manson. The Civil War. The Wild West. Salem Witch Trials. Thunderbirds. Star Trek. Montauk. Chupacapris. Steven Seagal. Kit Carson. Calamity Jane. Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Robert Johnson. Owsley Stanley. Men in Black.

To name just a few. All we've got is Robin Hood. (Who's really Errol Flynn) And Wally Hope. Who no-one ever heard of.

[LMNO]

FUCKING SCREAMING JAY HAWKINS. EVERYTHING OVER. FOREVER.

[AFK]

Oh I get it (though don't you diss Casio synths!!).

I just think it's interesting how a lot of US people on this board feel strongly about it. And why it wasn't Gremlins

Gremlins was pretty big when it was released.  Tons of marketing and products, toys, etc., came from that.  But it was pretty short lived.  Just didn't have that same staying power.  It really doesn't seem to have much of a cult following either.  I think it was probably a little too 80's for its own good. 

[AFK]

Thinking about it a little more, as far as they mythology angle.  I think that movies and Hollywood itself definitely has become a sort of mythology for the US.  One of the mantras you hear a lot in the US is the American Dream.  The idea of "making it".  Many, many times, that dream comes in the form of becoming famous, and more often than not, that road has gone through Hollywood.  There are countless movies that lionize this idea. 

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Thinking about it a little more, as far as they mythology angle.  I think that movies and Hollywood itself definitely has become a sort of mythology for the US.  One of the mantras you hear a lot in the US is the American Dream.  The idea of "making it".  Many, many times, that dream comes in the form of becoming famous, and more often than not, that road has gone through Hollywood.  There are countless movies that lionize this idea.

Luke Skywalker was a nobody from East Podunk who somehow became extremely important in galactic affairs, even though he should have remained a nobody. There is a correlation.

[AFK]

Precisely.  We Americans love us the rags to glory/fame story. 

[Triple Zero]

Thinking about it a little more, as far as they mythology angle.  I think that movies and Hollywood itself definitely has become a sort of mythology for the US.  One of the mantras you hear a lot in the US is the American Dream.  The idea of "making it".  Many, many times, that dream comes in the form of becoming famous, and more often than not, that road has gone through Hollywood.  There are countless movies that lionize this idea.

Absolutely. And it spills over a bit to Europe as well, cause we eat up a lot of your cultural output. Except never quite in the same way, I learned from my visit to the USA, because a lot of situations you see in movies, don't quite "fit", you don't encounter them in the same way over here, just because of small things, our houses and the way our towns are built slightly different, police is slightly different, all sorts of things are slightly different. But in the US, it surprised me how much all those things "fit", of course it would, it's based on the way life in the US is, not entirely made up as a fairytale universe, so it makes sense that the things that are made up, will naturally also rub off more strongly in the US real life than in EU.

An example, I read on HN last week, about the leaked Symantec Antivirus code. Apparently Symantec offered Anonymous $50k in exchange for deleting all their copies of the code, as a sting operation in cooperation with FBI. In the end Anon didn't bite because Symantec kept stalling and Anon wasn't stupid and didn't agree to anything that would get them traced. That's the background.

Now a commenter on HN argued "Well duh, in my experience, 9 times out of 10 an offer like that is a trap"

His experience?? There is of course some chance that he has a lot of experience with blackmail operations.

But, I sooner think that "his experience" is what he's seen in movies and on TV. And that's not necessarily how it goes in real life. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but on TV if there's blackmail or hostage, there's nearly always some clever ruse to expose the bad guy, I'm fairly sure that in real life 9 out of 10 blackmail or hostage attempts are silently paid off, as long as the demands are in any way realistic, because that's the easier way. On TV the demands are usually also not realistic, but IRL a blackmailer would want to obviously make receiving payment be the most painless option by far, instead of putting the victim in some cruel lose/lose situation like on TV, that would just make them more liable to try crazy shit. In a similar sense people on HN commented "wow, they only offered $50k? that's not much", maybe not, but it IS a realistic amount. Make it $500k and Anon would've been "yeah right, pull the other one" straight away.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

What's this bastard going to do to my favorite two characters?

[Kai]

I would really like to see the original version again, as I remember it from the first time. Sure, it was fun to see it in theaters later, but I /remember/ thinking about the film after I saw it, I was only 7 or 8 at the time, and I remember thinking wow, that was really cool. I don't at all remember my reactions to the "special" edition, despite having a copy of those.

[Chairman Risus]

The main problem, as I see it, is that the original version is no longer available in any current format. If a DVD had the option of "theater release" and "director's cut", none of this would be happening.

I have found them on Amazon. They are ridiculously expensive though

That sounds like probable cause to me.

[Sita]

Oh I get it (though don't you diss Casio synths!!).

I just think it's interesting how a lot of US people on this board feel strongly about it. And why it wasn't Gremlins

Gremlins was pretty big when it was released.  Tons of marketing and products, toys, etc., came from that.  But it was pretty short lived.  Just didn't have that same staying power.  It really doesn't seem to have much of a cult following either.  I think it was probably a little too 80's for its own good.

I know that something was changed in E.T. but hadn't heard about Gremlins. What changed there?

[P3nT4gR4m]

They cut out a couple of sex and drug taking scenes to get a PG13 rating

[BadBeast]

They cut out a couple of sex and drug taking scenes to get a PG13 rating

But they left in the scenes explaining the fun that ensues from feeding your Mogwai after midnight, and pouring water water on them? That's plain irresponsible in my opinion!

[AFK]

You know, they kind of fucked that first one up.  I mean, technically, it is always after midnight. 

[Sita]

Someone explained to me once that, for mystical things, after midnight simply means between the hours of 12am and 6am.

I always felt sorry for Gizmo when the water hit him. That's gotta be an awful way to give birth.