Nostalgia is a mirror maze, funhouse like no other in our culture. Just as our own memories taint or help fulfill new moments, art that looks backwards instead of to the new (or the future, I suppose) can be a very heavy loaded, bloated endeavor.

George Lucas may have single-handedly refined the past most famously by looking way, way, back. Forget about American Graffiti’s 1962 timeline. I’m talking about…a long, long time ago in a galaxy far away. Star Wars was about the past looking like the future, but it was billions of galaxies away. Now my understanding of Einstein’s theory of relativity is rusty at best, but that is some epic kind of mindfuckery. Bravo to him and his Disneyfied billions of dollars. So kids, keep the bowl close along with your action figures & childhood memories closer because one day, they may be coming for them in the form of a reboot.

If you view or re-watch this classic, make sure you check out Tarantino’s take on the sixties in California too.