Back to the Future

History triumphed at the Oscars.  From Argo to Lincoln, Anna K and Les Mis, this year's blockbusters shared a way-back-when patina that lent an extra gravitas to their theatrical brilliance.

Less brilliantly, Seth MacFarlane's appallingly minsogynst performance, complete with an ode to cleavage and jokes about domestic violence, reminded us of history's darker underbelly.  (When you get scolded by Denny Crane, you know it's really, really bad.)

Hollywood often looks to Great Men and Great Moments for great drama. At their best, historical films can broaden our understanding of and appreciation for the past—far more so than the abysmal textbooks and memorize-to-death approaches of standard high school social studies courses.

I can't imagine the Civil War without Ken Burns and for better and worse, my memory of the Civil Rights era will be forever shaped by The Help.

War wins disproportionate cinematic attention, pre-designed for suspense and special effects: Hurt Locker, Band of Brothers, Full Metal Jacket, Good Morning Vietnam—you could fill a page without even trying.

This year's Zero Dark Thirty made history as much as any film ever has, with a powerful ideological gaze back upon 9/11 and the global response to twenty-first century terrorism.

Argo, a bit tamer, got the highest honor, announced from the White House in a coup of Oscar-night performances.  (Even descending from the Star Trekked heavens, William Shatner can't come close to competing with Michelle Obama.)

Indeed, Iran better watch out because the next movie in which it appears might have a lot more bunker-busting, nuclear-weapons-destroying drama than this quite tame story of hostages' escape.

Why all the backwards-looking films?

We have a troublesome future, from cyber warfare to super storms, failed states and needless human suffering—poverty, disease, violence against women and poorly funded or non-existent educational systems.

We combat this future with well-coifed beards and other subtle signs of male power.

Having grown up in the futurist worlds of Terminator and Blade Runner, I've both enjoyed and been profoundly troubled to watch these movies of yesterday become the reality of tomorrow.  Though I think I got a head start from reflecting upon the costs and consequences of these dystopic depictions.

With the Oscars as a reflection of popular culture, we've got our backs to the future. Not a Michael J. Fox-like adventure with the chance to change the fate of human relationships, but a closed-minded, narrow-minded view of the way things were that blinds us to the desperate, trying realities we now and will soon confront.

It's time we turned around.