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The delights and perils of the digital age

One of the great things about this age is that I can show all the movies and TV shows I loved as a child to my kids.  The peril is that sometimes they really do not hold up.

I watched MacGyver with the kids.  They really enjoy his can-do attitude he has and the way he turns chewing gum wrappers into explosives (whether or not the things he builds would be possible in real life).  They see why Dad has MacGyver as his nickname.  On the other hand, women really have one purpose in this series: to be rescued by McGyver.  Even the extremely smart scientists are there to be rescued.  I had found myself skeptical about whether women really had bad parts in TV shows from my past: I was wrong.  It is that bad.  Maybe in the later episodes their roles improve, but I doubt it.  It really makes me appreciate modern writing: it's so much more exciting when everyone gets to help.

We watched The Goonies.  I remembered it as being a fun adventure movie.  It was a bit like that, but the humor was very crude (the bit at the beginning with the statue of Michelangelo's David was funny, but I won't describe it for a family blog).  The kids were really mean to each other---I hope that my kids never behave like that.  I think the kids may not forgive me soon for making them watch the Goonies.

We watched Back to the Future.  On the one hand, the story was just as good as it was lo those many years ago.  On the other hand, the language was terrible!  What were my parents thinking to let me watch that?!?

We also watched War Games, and we found ourselves having to explain the entire history of the Cold War.  I'm not sure the kids believed me about how bad it was---I'm not sure I'm even remembering correctly, and I was there for some of it...  (Not to mention having to explain things like jogging being newly popula, pay phones, and modems.)

Finally, we watched Tron.  Despite the fact that the computers in the story are nothing like computers today, I think the setting (computer programs fighting within the computer for freedom against a Master Control Program) caught their imagination.  There were only two kisses---at one point one of them asked about Yuri, "Is that the love interest?"  The story holds up even now.  Even the cheesy computer graphics are cool.  I am curious to know if the reboot is as good.

For the most part, the books and movies that held my imagination as a kid still inspire me today.  I'm glad I can share them with my kids. 

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