tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post4133580828367310526..comments2024-03-14T18:09:09.667-05:00Comments on Do Some Damage: The Heart of ItUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post-20784196266378747352013-04-04T07:48:27.658-05:002013-04-04T07:48:27.658-05:00I'm late checking back here, but wanted to be ...I'm late checking back here, but wanted to be sure to say Jay is dead on with his comment.Dana Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01350344882342624735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post-55810145014258093742013-04-02T10:12:34.771-05:002013-04-02T10:12:34.771-05:00The 80's are often called the GREED decade. Bu...The 80's are often called the GREED decade. But I think it was something else. <br /><br />I think the divide and conquer you talk of from the 70's is alive and well in these harsh economic times, with the 'working poor' being turned against each other. But another trick worked in the 80's. It was the decade of distraction. Misdirection. <br /><br />People in the 70's began to realise they were getting the shaft. We can't have that. They might do something about it. The 80's saw a sleight of hand that swapped "aspiration" for "mortgages." Credit, credit, credit.<br /><br />A certain evil woman over my side of the pond convinced people in social housing that what they really wanted -what was a real sign of success- was to buy the social housing for themselves. Except, nobody had the money for that, what they were doing was taking out mortgages by the thousands. High interest credit cards that would last for 25 years and which could be revoked any time you missed a payment- so don't miss a day at work.<br /><br />Credit. Shiny things. Everybody got to own STUFF, and they liked it. Because STUFF was a sign of success. Even if you didn't really own it. Even if you never really would. Or if, by the time you'd paid off your 25k house, you'd paid 75k for the honour.<br /><br />Building an economy on credit was great in the short term because it distracted everybody from reality. But it was also a plan with a built-in life span. When that distraction went away, it was time to divide and conquer again. <br /><br />I think it was around this time, as the 70's reality shifted to 80's distraction, that we saw social writing drift off the "mainstream" bookshelves and into noir, hardboiled and crime. <br /><br />For a film like SLAPSHOT to be made now, it has to be dressed up as a crime film. Jay Stringerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08764183157841848163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post-45894772773464205152013-04-02T07:51:42.389-05:002013-04-02T07:51:42.389-05:00Yeah, Dana, it's a story that has been repeate...Yeah, Dana, it's a story that has been repeated all over the rust belt. I guess it's tough to tell that kind of story without being really depressing, so good on Slapshot for making it funny. I guess...<br /><br />John McFetridgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09442198820998606682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post-39364094817643240992013-04-02T07:42:55.773-05:002013-04-02T07:42:55.773-05:00SLAPSHOT was filmed in Johnstown PA, about 65 mile...SLAPSHOT was filmed in Johnstown PA, about 65 miles east of Pittsburgh. I was in college at Indiana University of Pennsylvania when it was made, about 25 miles away. A good friend of mine appears in a couple of crowd scenes. <br /><br />You're right. Few movies captured how our economy was falling apart in the 70s as well as SLAPSHOT. The town I grew up in was about the same, but not big enough to have a hockey team.<br /><br />The sad part is, while Pittsburgh converted to a medical/financial/education economy and has done very well, those smaller towns never really recovered. I go home to see my parents these days and things look abut the same as when I left for the army, just different signs on the buildings.<br /><br />No one ever got rich in these towns, but people made good working/middle class livings. Now they operate half a notch above JUSTIFIED, the pilot for which was filmed in Kittanning PA, about 20 miles north of my hometown.Dana Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01350344882342624735noreply@blogger.com