BOOMERPDX

FAILED MOVIES FIND FACEBOOK LIFE

How many times on a Facebook scroll do you find posts on failed movies, usually movies I haven’t seen to know if they failed, or how they failed, with a caption like: “Ignored and pulled from screens just after release has aged like fine wine.”

Or, “while considered a failure on it’s first release it has proven to be ahead of it’s time and grown into a cult classic.”

I’m happy to see people are watching old movies from the 80’s and 90’s, the 1980’s and 1990’s, not 1880’s and 1890’s, and finding renewed value in the work from that era.

I’m not watching them to get in on the buzz and post a review, but I will recommend Harold and Maude from 1971:

This film had a very mixed reception when it was released.

Fortunately many others loved it, turning it into one of the original “cult classic” films that flop at the box office but still find their fans, and ultimately gain recognition.

 

To see it in the proper setting you’d need to time travel way back to the Esquire Theater on NW 23rd.

 

Nostalgia v Real Life

If you look out from the right setting you see beauty of the world and get a, ‘what do you know, it’s nice’ kind of feeling.

A big tree with a crown does that to a person.

What about that crown?

 

 

You don’t have to go to Paris to see Sacré-Cœur when it’s down on the SW Park Blocks of Portland.

If you’re on the outdoor part above the new entry to the art museum this is the view, and it’s a beauty.

This is what it usually looks like.

 

 

I’m not the first one to say this, but it bears repeating: Life looks better when seen through a veil.

Question: What, like a curtain?

Answer: Yes, like a curtain.

 

 

On one side a church spire in all of its clarity, on the other the golden ring softened behind a veil.

One side shows nature and hope, the other freshened up urban blight.

My favorite part? The dog, coyote, wolf. The critter keeping watch.

 

‘Failed Movies’ Is Just An Opinion 

Failed movies all have one thing in common: Credits.

It’s what’s often missing from those who decide what constitutes a failure, then reconsiders.

If you have no name and no credit to besmirch you can change your mind on everything at any time.

Movies get a second life on social media, a Facebook life.

There’s only one problem: the trend is spreading. People are posting new evaluations, re-reevaluting things, like Nixon.

A failed president is not the same as a failed movie.

The movie doesn’t get the right budget, doesn’t go to the right festivals, and people find it by word of mouth.

We found Nixon by words from his own mouth, his own recordings.

Oops, not opps.

If watching life through a veil is comfort, do continue, but go outside too.

And if you do something you’re proud of, put your name on it.

 

PS:

 

PSS:

This is the artist who made the object in the top image.

Thanks, Tony.