So I got a trip to Mars
The post I made late yesterday generated some nostalgic thoughts in me so I am quickly going to write it here for the Great Repository which of course is destined for the Future Digital Wasteland...
Let's go back to the year 1990 and what I like to refer to as the peak of Western civilization. It was my peak, perhaps not so for others but it was for me. Peak of physical fitness, peak of happiness and so on and so forth. Obviously I enjoyed that era immensely and it's not because I'm looking back upon it while wearing the proverbial rose colored glasses, I genuinely knew at that moment of time that I was experiencing a peak in just about everything that I was experiencing around me. I liked it all, the fashion, the music, my friendships, my job and the movies which this is primarily about as it marks my perceived ideological peak.
I enjoyed going to the movies and every Friday I'd check out the papers to see what was playing at one of many local movie houses. Arnold Schwarzenegger was on the cusp of becoming a box office sensation and I was keen to jump on anything he might be appearing in, especially after seeing him in movies like Terminator, Predator and The Running Man. So when I heard that he was going to be starring in a new Sci-Fi action movie I could hardly wait since it was going to be touching on topics that were near and dear to me, namely Mars and a twisted perception of reality, what a combo!
June 1st 1990 It was Friday and I was driving to work in Coronado California and listening to the morning talk show on radio when the DJ announced that he would be giving away two tickets to the premiere of Total Recall starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, you just have to be the 5th caller and the tickets are yours. A few moments go by, perhaps a commercial or two and then the DJ was back with a caller on the line, a woman was the lucky winner and the conversation went something like this: Congratulations you're caller number 5 and you've just won two tickets to the Premiere of Total Recall starring Arnold Schwarzenegger! The female caller responded with "Arnold Schwarzenegger... No thank you, I don't want the tickets". I was blown away by that. As I sat in my car on that foggy morning, making my way to work so that I could count down the hours until I myself would be seated in the theater that evening, I could not believe her reaction. Oh well, that only cemented my desire to see the movie even more.
I had already called my local theater and knew that there was a 5pm showing of Total Recall and I made haste to get home quickly and make my way to the theater, once inside I made sure to find my preferred seating area, left most seat of center section, 1/3rd of the way back from screen. I don't know why, I just happened to like watching movies from that area. Once the movie began I knew that I was going to love it and I did. It was everything I had hoped it would be. It was a great time to be alive and I was having the time of my life.
True love found on Mars - But only in a dream
Now let me shift gears here and give my take on the movie Total Recall. You see, while I was watching the movie I was hoping that what he was experiencing was all in his head and I believe that is the case. There are just too many clues early on that give evidence of Douglas Quaid experiencing a Schizoid Embolism. So without going off on a tangent about why he spent all the time strapped to a chair at Recall Inc. Let me delve into why that is important to me and perhaps other Total Recall movie enthusiasts.
It is very likely that none of us will ever actually go to Mars. It is very likely that none of us will ever find true love or anything close to an action/adventure laden romance. So deep down, we don't really want to see Douglas Quaid experience those things either, not in reality at least. But a complete malfunction of the mind which thereby enables him to go off on this adventure, well... that seems within our pathetic reach so we cheer for him and this premise. We too can fantasize about such an experience and in a distant way we too can live such an adventure inside our own heads, just as Douglas Quaid experienced his.
Would I visit Recall Inc. if it became available... No. I don't have to and neither do you. We can experience a mind trip by reading a book, watching a movie or writing in a blog. I had hoped that the remake of Total Recall would be something worth writing about, but it is not. I wanted to relive that time all over again but alas it was not to be. For me the peak of everything I desired was reached in the summer of 1990. I would have wanted it to plateau and carry on for decades but it did not. I still had moments and experiences that I enjoyed going through the 90s, 2000s but they never matched the sense of wonder and newness I felt on June 1st 1990.
