For some reason, I've had that song "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Deep Blue Something stuck in my head this morning. I think I heard it somewhere a few days ago and now I can't get rid of it. It's a curious song; as far as a one-hit wonder jangle pop song goes, I suppose it's not bad, but I can never stop thinking about the fact that actually Breakfast at Tiffany's is a phenomenally terrible movie, and one of the few things about it that is a positive note is Andy Rooney's hilarious portrayal of neighbor Mr. Yunioshi—which naturally people now complain about as "problematic" although nobody (including Asians) ever thought so for at least thirty years after the movie was made.
No, mostly the problem with the movie is that it romanticizes the exploits of a a bunch of dysfunctional, psychologically broken people that are unrelatable and unlikable. It really makes me wonder what kind of person would write the novella on which it was based, and who would have thought that it was a good idea to film. I also wonder about it's "classic-ness"—in the days before the internet and the ability to personalize our experience and taste, it seems very likely to me that it's considered a classic because the broken, dysfunctional Hollywood and media types who eat this kind of crap up tell us that it is. Other than the guy in the song by Deep Blue Something, I don't actually know anyone who likes the movie. And curiously, he actually wanted to use the movie Roman Holiday, which is a much more likable movie, but he thought the title was too plain. It's a rather sad commentary on how early the rot and decline of America had already set in that such a movie was made and was a major headliner title with major stars even as far back as 1961.
On the other hand—the famous theme song of the movie, by Henry Mancini, which is of course "Moon River" is an astounding track, and I even think Audrey Hepburn's inartful, unpolished, vulnerable performance is a big part of why it succeeds.
Of course by 1961 we know that American culture was about to take a nose-dive into the nihilistic and hateful counter-culture that poisoned the better part of a decade and a half of fashion, music, movies and more until there was a revival of sorts in the 1980s, right in time for my own adolescence. But what we didn't understand at the time, or even until many years later, was that the 80s was merely an echo, a last gasp of a Western civilization trying to assert itself before being overwhelmed by anti-Western Civilization which followed and throttled it in the years since. I don't even say Americanism necessarily; one aspect of the 80s (especially with regards to pop music) was that it was Anglic rather than specifically American. And it's no accident that both America and the UK were presided over by last gasp champions of Western civilization, at least in some respects, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
But their efforts were doomed to failure, not because of defeat from without, but because of betrayal from within. The "Right" as encapsulated by George Bush and the neo-conservatives was never part of the Right at all; they were always Trotskyite anti-nationalists who wanted to destroy America and Great Britain so that they could rule over the deracinated globalist empire that they tried to forge using American blood and money. Sigh. That said, the 80s did leave us with a few gems of pop culture nonetheless, and although American culture was healthier in the 50s and early 60s than it was in the 80s, in most respects, I still prefer the 80s because it's my generation. And even the American music that I like from the 80s tries to sound British half of the time, but my favorite music is usually made by actual Brits. For instance; another movie track is "If You Leave" by OMD. Curiously, when the original ending for Pretty In Pink tested badly (any normal person could have told Hughes that it would, but of course, who in Hollywood has ever understood the psychology of normal people?) he asked OMD to whip up another song to match the re-recorded ending, and with less than 24 hours to do it, they came up with their biggest hit by far, and still to this day one of my favorite songs of the entire 80s milieu.
From a movie that isn't nearly as terrible was Breakfast at Tiffany's, of course, but which is also not really all that great either.
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