I don’t know, I always took the “Libyans” in Back to the Future as sort of a tongue-in-cheek poke at those who were presenting Libyans as the latest “bad guys” and Muammar Gaddafi as the Hitler of the week. But maybe I was wrong. Did anyone take that part of the movie seriously? Was it deliberate stereotyping? Was it part of a larger Arab demonization campaign?
My biggest complaint about that scene was the second time it was shown at the end when Marty sees himself (with the “Libyans”). Isn’t that a time travel story no-no?
And speaking of Back to the Future, it’s funny to watch now because all the modern (1985) references they use to contrast with the past (1955) now are dated too. I’d like to do a blog post sometime about how ordinary props in an older movie actually become fun distractions (to me, anyway) while watching the film, thereby changing the way the movie was intended to be perceived.
My biggest complaint about that scene was the second time it was shown at the end when Marty sees himself (with the “Libyans”). Isn’t that a time travel story no-no?
And speaking of Back to the Future, it’s funny to watch now because all the modern (1985) references they use to contrast with the past (1955) now are dated too. I’d like to do a blog post sometime about how ordinary props in an older movie actually become fun distractions (to me, anyway) while watching the film, thereby changing the way the movie was intended to be perceived.
1 comment:
To this day, every time I see a VW van, I think, "The Libyans are coming."
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