The 1990s is in some ways a unique decade. Sandwiched between the last gasp of Cold War mania (the 1980s) and the global “war on terror” (the early 2000s), it was a time of relative peace and prosperity. The internet had not yet permeated every facet of life; the isolation and atomization of the current era had not yet become a depressing feature of the social landscape. The movies of the 1990s reflect this energy and optimism. The cinema of the 1990s may lack the searing conviction and anger of 70s movies, but the decade’s film catalogue is a very respectable one. We must temper this generally positive picture with tones of darkness, however. In hindsight, the 1990s now seem to carry distinct overtones of Gen X delusion and ossified Boomer autocracy, a decade of smug stasis in which critical problems affecting the country were either ignored or downplayed. Perhaps the 1990s simply reaped the 1980s foul harvest of greed and self-indulgence. You will have to decide for yourself.  

It isn’t easy, of course, to reduce an entire decade to convenient encapsulations.  But it is possible to put our finger on its corporeal pulse.  The 1980s did not have the grim, disillusioned, bitter flavor of the 1970s; nor did the decade have the self-satisfied triumphalism of the 1990s.  In some ways the 1980s was a period of recovery, hopeful interlude, and buoyant optimism.  I think the movies of the decade reflect these generally positive sentiments.  There was a collective feeling that the future would be bright, and that if a man rolled up his sleeves and took a deep breath, he could accomplish almost anything.  Yet when speaking about an entire decade, things are never quite so simple.  We find that, behind the optimistic façade of the 80s, there lurked more than a little foreboding and dread. The tension between these competing cultural emotions was responsible for some of the decade’s greatest cinematic art.