Blog Directory CineVerse: Time and time again

Time and time again

Thursday, August 20, 2015

For some, it's hard not to be both cynical and sentimental while watching an old-fashioned romantic drama like "Somewhere in Time." The film has obvious appeal to hopeless romantics everywhere, yet can be as repellent as kryptonite is to Superman to others. Still, it represents a fascinating experiment as a pop culture phenomenon and female-friendly cult movie. CineVerse examined the picture last night and came away with these conclusions:


WHAT IS INTERESTING ABOUT THIS FILM AS A CULTURAL PHENOMENON?
It bombed when originally released in theaters in 1980, but it enjoyed a strong second life after a cable company bought the rights to air it and it was later released on home video; repeated viewings generated a strong cult film -like following.
Consider that the movie was released during a period when this type of old-fashioned love stories and romantic dramas were decidedly out of fashion with audiences, as demonstrated by low box office revenue for this genre – yet, its underground appeal made it rise like a phoenix from the ashes.
10 years after its original release, a die-hard fan club was created – one that continues to meet yearly at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, where it was filmed. This same club pressured the powers that be to put Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
It’s also impressive that this film subsequently succeeded in finding an audience, despite the fact that it is actually a science fiction film that vastly differs from other time travel films featuring glitzy special effects and action-packed plots.

HOW IS THIS STORY DIFFERENT FROM OTHER TIME TRAVEL STORIES AND FILMS?
Many other films related to time travel, including the Back to the Future movies, The Time Machine, and others, concern themselves with the technology required to achieve time travel, time paradox problems, and altered destiny possibilities, asking questions like what if someone forever alters the future or the past?
This film, instead, isn’t concerned with technology or metaphysical paradoxes. It’s strictly focused on a love story that spans time and space, without getting bogged down in scientific detail and rational explanations. For some, the film’s deceit that you can go back in time simply by meditating, practicing self-hypnosis, or using your concentrated mind, is a ridiculous notion; but for fans of this film, it’s actually a more romantic, organic explanation.
Blogger John Kenneth Muir wrote: “This film asks us to ponder a love so powerful, so out of the ordinary, that it goes beyond the veil of our reality. This element imbues Somewhere in Time with some sense of the spiritual, of the longing for the impossible in our everyday lives.” Muir also posited: “Stories of the heart are always more difficult to dramatize… And downright chancy. Love is a deeply personal thing, isn’t it? In a motion shared between two – not one easily transmitted between the masses via a technological medium.”

DID THIS MOVIE LEAVE YOU WITH ANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS OR AMBIGUITIES?
Is it possible that Robinson is a time traveler like Collier?
Where did the gold watch come from?
How is it even remotely possible to travel through time merely via self-hypnosis?

OTHER FILMS OR BOOKS THIS MOVIE REMINDS YOU OF:
Titanic
The Notebook
Time and Again (novel)
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Two Worlds of Jenny Logan
Peggy Sue Got Married
The Lake House
Time After Time

  © Blogger template Cumulus by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP