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October 11, 2005
The Chronic Curmudgeon Pop Culture Top 50: #42-39
Even though this little list has been slow to catch on, you know that by the end you'll be on the edge of your seat, wondering what I'm gonna name number one. You know you will. And one point to make clear: Corey was ragging me a little on his blog for having included Top Gun. All I will say is, as a student of pop culture, I can assess something for having an impact without endorsing it. Some of these moments/influences, I downright loathe (especially anything involving Cult Boy). But if they impacted the larger culture, I'm including them. These aren't necessarily my favorite moments and influences (though the closer we get to the top, the more likely that I do like/love them). So that said... on with the countdown.
42. Sex and the City (1998-2004) SIngle-handedly made the cosmopolitan the most popular chick drink in the land. Probably drove up sales of Manolo Blahniks about 200%. Oh, and I think there was some explicit talk about sex. The first show to successfully walk the line between smart yet open discussions of sexuality, and playing sex up for all the fun and humor it can have... and no shocker, it featured women characters. (Had the lead characters been male, the dialogue would never have progressed past lockerroom vulgarity and male bonding slaps on the back. Hey, even I can admit that we're basically pigs. Not that there's anything wrong with that...) But suddenly, America -- and American women -- were having water cooler conversations about teabagging, back door entry, and all sorts of other highly explicit subjects. Hell, even men started watching a chick show just to hear hot women talk in guy-like detail about sex.
41. Beverly Hills Cop Sure, Eddie Murphy was hot before this movie came out, between 48 Hours and Trading Places. But with Beverly Hill Cop in 1984, Murphy reached practically unheard of heights. If you weren't around for conscious memories of 1984, it's hard to explain how hot this guy was. Think Justin Timberlake when he was dating Britney, combined with Leo diCaprio in the middle of the Titanic fuss, plus a touch of Jon Stewart. That combination wasn't half as on fire as Eddie Murphy was in the mid-80s. This movie even put a soul-less piece of crap like Howard Faltermeyer's "Axel F" into the top 5, and five minutes of screen time in it while playing a gay immigrant in an art gallery got Bronson Pinchot a TV series for seven inexplicable years. And if you're old enough to remember it, tell me you didn't try to mimic that laugh?
40. Rambo/First Blood - 1982 Before this movie, Sylvester Stallone was still an Oscar-nominated serious actor, and people around the world who wanted to insult the US's attitude still called us "John Wayne." After this movie, Stallone began a decade-long run as Hollywood's favorite monosyllabic grunter, and anti-American caricatures got a new face. The sad thing is, the first "First Blood" movie at least tried to take a semi-serious look (even if through an embarrassingly jingoistic set of glasses) at the problems some Vietnam vets had readjusting to life at home. But by the time Rambo II came out, it had degenerated into "Die, Foreigner, Die" and dialogue that even the Republican National Convention would find to be over the top pretentious "patriotism." Still... the headband... the grunts... the self-righteous love it or leave it attitude... no question, Rambo became an American pop culture icon. And if you don't agree, he'll kill you.
39.Samuel L. Jackson quotes Ezekiel in “Pulp Fiction” - 1994 I happen to believe that this movie was an achievement in and of itself, both in filmmaking and in cultural impact. But if I had to choose one single moment out of this movie (because I don't think any single moment stands out in Rambo, for example) that seared itself into our collective imagery, it's the 30 seconds that made Samuel L. Jackson a perpetual bad-ass for the rest of his career... he'll be 80 years old and still seeming like a cat you don't want to mess with.
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish, and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and fuuurr-rious anger those who would attempt to POISON and DESTROY my brothers. And you will KNOW my name is the LORD... when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
Tomorrow... #38-#35... unless I feel like doing more or fewer. This one'll be an inexact countdown, kids - however many it strikes me to write each night is what I'll put down.
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Comments
You're killing me here....
I've got a love/hate relationship with these fantastic posts of yours....
Posted by: jillian at October 12, 2005 12:25 AM
I'm with you on Pulp Fiction, Curmy.
Posted by: Mileah at October 12, 2005 04:14 PM
Your right, there has only been 3 posts since March.
So I did my version of the music MeMe. Feel free to stop on by and check it out.
Posted by: Cuzin Jose at October 12, 2005 05:12 PM
