“Blast from the Past”
Albeit I cannot say that I’m a history freak, I have always found a topic of the USSR fascinating. I remember that my favorite topic of the history classes devoted to the USSR was the Cold War between the USA and the USSR. That interest is easy to explain because, unfortunately, the tension between Russia and the USA lately is a consequence of the war in a way. That’s why it was interesting for me to learn the background.
Well, it’s time for a short historical note. The “Cold war” is a term used to describe a rivalry (political, economic, and ideological) between the USSR and the USA which began after the end of the Second World War and ended in 1991. The tensest point of the war was the Cuban Crisis in 1962. The beginning of the movie “Blast from the Past” shows that most Americans were scared stiff when the USSR placed their missiles in Cuba. Frankly, at first, I was walking on air because I thought that the whole movie would be about the situation in the states at that time. Regretfully, it was only briefly mentioned in the movie. The father of the main character, Calvin Webber, led that part.
Calvin Webber was a wealthy and paranoid scientist. He was sure that a blast was inevitable. That’s why he built a fallout shelter to hide from it. When the blast was really possible he locked himself and his wife who carried a baby in the shelter for thirty-five years. The father wanted to wait out the radioactive contamination. Honestly, Calvin acted ridiculously. Anyway, we only take pity on him. The man was just scared to death. The thought that Russians were dangerous for him was so strong. That’s why he couldn’t assimilate that the Cold War had finished. That was all. At first, I thought the storyline about the war was short. However, while writing the passage, it occurred to me that it was enough. We actually learned a lot about the impact of the war on people’s minds.
Basically, the movie is about a boy, Adam Webber, who was born and bred in the shelter. Thanks to his parents, he got a well-rounded education. Adam learned good manners and dancing from his mother Helen. His father taught him sports, languages (Latin and French), history, mathematics, and etc. He even tried to explain to Adam the basic rules of baseball. All in all, the parents taught the boy everything that would help him in his life. During the years he spent in the shelter Adam admired the way his parents treated each other. That’s why the most desired dream for him was to find a wife.
Only after thirty-five years, it was time to get out of the shelter. Calvin was the first one who left the underground but what he saw made him experience a heart attack. To my mind, if the family hadn’t had to replenish their supplies, Calvin would have never let his son go to the surface. Anyway, Adam left the shelter. His goals were to buy food supplies off and to find a wife.
Although the world outside was not an example of piety, Adams wasn’t afraid of it. Instead, he was on cloud nine to see everything: the sky, a Negro, a little girl. He had been carried away until he realized that he got lost. He didn’t know where he lived. Trying to find the place, he wandered around the streets. And then he came across a baseball card shop. Adam wanted to sell the box filled with different baseball cards he had received from his father. As wide-eyed Adam didn’t know the value of the cards, a baseball-card buyer wanted to buy the cards at a lower price. Fortunately, a smart but a little self-important young woman Eve rescued him of being fooled.
Adam immediately fell for good-looking Eve. As Adam had his heart on his sleeve, Eve warned him not to even think of dating her. It turned out that she was in an abusive relationship (at least, I thought it was abusive) before striking a friendship with Adam. Adam didn’t want to push her, so he just asked her to help him find the supplies and a wife.
Anyway, while helping him Eve understood that she could not resist her feeling to the character who had good manners, courtesy, intelligence, clean language, and a good sense of humor. She was ready to share his feeling but she only wanted to learn the truth about Adam. When Adam told the heroine that he lived in a fallout shelter, she assumed that he was as nutty as a fruitcake and decided to help him by putting him to a mental institution. Fortunately, soon she had a change of heart and understood that Adam was a normal man and she loved him.
At the end of the movie, we see that the characters built the house which looked exactly the same as the shelter inside for Adam’s parents to help them adjust to the reality and start a new life.
In terms of my reaction to the movie, I can say that it left me with ambiguous thoughts. On the one hand, I was a little disappointed because I had expected the movie to be about the Cold War (just a bit more information, maybe). On the other hand, I enjoyed the movie because of its simple plot and a few wise ideas. The first idea was connected with good manners. The fact that Troy considered good manners as a way of coming off as you are superior to others surprised me. It was so strange to hear because my mother taught me (like Adam’s parents did) that good manners are a sign for people that you respect them. The second idea was related to Adam’s definition of a gentleman and a lady: a gentleman and a lady are people who always try to make sure that people around them are as comfortable as possible. From where I’m sitting, it’s so pure and reasonable, so I wish everyone would be either a gentleman or a lady. The world would be a nicer place.
I highlighted these moments from the “Blast from the Past” because by the end the film became pretty lame (“lame” has been my favorite word lately) so the ideas just saved the movie for me. Besides, while watching I had a feeling that I had seen the movie (or at least I had come across the same idea) before. Who had the same feeling and has recognized the idea, please, let me know!
