Blast From the Past - Notes from re-watching the film

Blast From the Past

A Brief Review of the Film

Give me a weird comedy. Give me a happy diversion. I often research to find fun, odd and peculiar films to watch. I didn't do that to find Blast from the Past. I knew about it when it was released. I decided to watch it again when I saw it on HBOgo.

I never just watch a film. I overthink things. You've been warned. I know it's a movie but I won't shut off my brain and watch. I'll enjoy a film but I'll also pick it apart because that's fun for me.

Recommendation: I enjoy Blast from the Past. If you like the 90s odd Romantic comedy genre, you'll probably like it. If not, you might not.

The Very Basic Facts of the Film

A guy, who grew up in a fallout shelter, journeys into the world for the first time to find a wife.

The same basic plot concept could have easily been developed into a thriller with a few minor changes. Instead, it's a romantic comedy.

What's the Movie's deal?

Kooky couple Calvin and Helen Webber live in a fallout shelter after a plane crashes on their house. They think the big one hit and that the Valley is an irradiated cesspool of mutants. It isn't and they don't know this because Calvin left the radio on the surface. They live there in relative harmony for 35 years until their grown son Adam ventures into the world for the first time and meets Eve and falls in love.

Some Vital Statistics of the Film

Blast from the Past is about 18 years old. The normal in the movie is retro now. Blockbuster, most people not being affixed to their cell phones,  The movie is about a guy born in 62, raised watching a show from 55, emerging into the late 90s and now we're in the Ought-teens. We're about 55 years away from the start of the story.

Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek, Alicia Silverstone, and Brendan Fraser star and seem to enjoy working on the film. Dave Foley of Newsradio and Kids in the Hall stands out as a costar. He was the reason I saw the movie in the first place. There are several well-placed cameos and enjoyable side characters.

I might ruin the movie for you. Or I might give you a few interesting thoughts.

Television

If they didn't have Adam, Helen would have murdered Calvin after the three hundredth Honeymooners repeat. Honeymooners was already 7 years old in 1962. The top shows in 1962 were The Beverly Hillbillies, Candid Camera and Red Skelton.

Helen

Helen's not happy in the shelter. She finds happiness in Adam and the hope of going back to the surface some day. In the beginning of the film showing their lives in the shelter, in the background Helen is suffering from depression. Dark, right? Did I ruin the movie for you yet? Adam gives her a mission and keeps them going. Maybe they would have had a child while in the fallout shelter or maybe Helen would have murdered Calvin and spent the rest of the years working on a way out of the fallout shelter while slowly succumbing to delusions and madness. I just got darker.

Calvin

Calvin thinks society collapsed and Calvin is kind of right. Society as he knew it did collapse. But he never seemed to be that in touch with reality. The life he lead was insulated from the world even before they went into the fallout shelter.

Ultimately, they would have died if Calvin wasn't a nutter who had spent years constructing a fallout shelter under their house because the plane would have killed them if they weren't waiting out the Cuban missile crisis underground. The lack of a radio begs the question, why didn't he have a back up radio in the fallout shelter? He bought thousands of yacht batteries, pipe tobacco and everything else but just one radio. Why did he cheap out on the radio? Did he have a secret radio that he listened to while Helen was giving Adam swing dance lessons?

Adam

Adam would be a profoundly screwed up guy. He has never seen the sky. There must be some neurological consequence to never seeing the sky. Would it effect the wiring of the brain? He's been comprehensively educated but his only social interactions have been with his parents. And explain the dance scene to me. I love a random dance scene and maybe it would make sense if the women were professional dancers. But imagine Adam flipping his mom like that.

Adam evolves during the story but sometimes it reads as Brendan Fraser dropping character. It's a hard character because of the narrative potential for tragedy in his story.

Eve

Eve is a rational romantic comedy lead. She is faced with a man telling her he wants to take her underground and calls the authorities. Good for Eve.

Makeup Art

The aging makeup for Calvin, Helen and Archbishop Melcher is very effective. Matthew W. Mungle is the reason for the elegant and convincing work. He is an all-star makeup artist. It's a classic case of money well spent. Bad aging makeup would have been a glaring problem through the rest of the film.