Movie Anachronisms

I finally watched No Country for Old Men, which many reviewers believe to be the Coen brothers' best movie since Fargo. I have to disagree. It's better than Fargo; it's their best movie, full-stop. Don't get me wrong - I liked Fargo a lot, but the pacing, the suspense, and most of all, the overall context for the violence was far superior in No Country. Also, Tommy Lee Jones rocked a part that could easily have been too full of small-town old-timer wisdom and gets special recognition for that uber-rarity: making you interested in hearing about a dream he had, a dream that has a frickin' point even.

But one thing that surprised me was the reference to an ATM in a movie set in West Texas in 1980. I have found out that the first ATM in Texas was opened in 1978, but it's hard to imagine that they were very common in some small town in the Del Rio area. (Various sources online suggest they did not come into common usage until the mid-1980's. This matches up with my experience.) Of course, it's possible that the non-local who refers to the ATM could have been lying about its existence. So it's not certain to me that it's an anachronism, but it was kind of jarring.

Last week, I also enjoyed the silly fish-out-of-water-coming-of-age-story-with-quiz-bowl movie Starter For 10 (which also featured two actors from the TV show Rome in further evidence of my "there are only 50 British actors" hypothesis) that was set in 1985. The soundtrack was full of mid-80's favorites, but also two songs from the 1989 Disintegration album by the Cure. I know, "Pictures of You" is a fantastic song, almost impossible to resist putting in a movie like this, but come on, guys, it's a full 4 years too early.

Of course, the most egregious recent use of that song is in this HP commercial. What part of lyrics like "I've been looking so long at these pictures of you that I almost believe that they're real / I've been living so long with these pictures of you that I almost believe that the pictures are all I can feel" did the ad agency not understand? This is a totally inappropriate song for that ad.

It's funny that from watching modern movies set in the 1980's, you would assume that bands like the Smiths, the Psychedelic Furs, the Cure, the Replacements, New Order, and the Pixies were the dominant bands of the era. And OK, these groups were pretty popular, and they definitely have held up well with time, and I basically love them, but they were totally eclipsed by the vastly different, pre-alternative pop rock of people like Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson, the Police, U2, et al., who owned the 1980s. I don't mean to seriously complain - I would much, much rather listen to a Kate Bush song than a Whitney Houston song in a movie soundtrack. I never need to hear that song "Every Breath You Take" ever again. No question this selective memory fits my own tastes. But the 1980's soundtrack of most people's lives did not feature Camper van Beethoven.