“It seems that most popular new movies these days are sequels, prequels, reboots, or remakes. The reason Hollywood seems unoriginal is because, when it comes to films, we prefer nostalgia to novelty. Every human has a basic desire for how things are actually meant to be. Nevertheless, this ideal is perverted by sin to the extent that, more often than not, our desires themselves are wayward. The reason sequels, reboots, and remakes become mixed up in this desire is because our broken world is deficient to satisfy our hunger. Instead, we attach the desire to something more tangible, but still vague enough to provide an ineffable hope, like memories of feelings we have had during certain times in our past when things seemed just right. We are drawn to sequels and prequels because they promise to take us back to a place we remember enjoying. We are drawn to remakes because they promise to recreate encounters with characters and stories that once gave us comfort.”
This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Jeffrey Porter about his 2017 Postmodern Realities column article, “Looking for Heaven at the Movies: What our Fondness for Nostalgic Films Says about Us.”
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