Children of the Corn or Y2K: Year to Kill

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Below is my post to the TB2000 forum about the new Y2K flick, Y2K: Flick to Kill. I mean, Year to Kill. As bad as the movie was; it did get me to thinking about the MTV Generation or whatever they are called (ages 16 to 28) and what we might expect from them if Y2K is something more than a bump in the road. I find myself thinking that they can only make matters worse: foolhardy, moody, and capable of unthinkable evil (and good). Left to their own devices to survive, they may become terrifyingly ferral.

...

After calling over 20 video stores in our area, we found a video store that had Y2K: Year to Kill. I'm glad I got to see it so that I can tell you now: it's not worth the couple bucks you may want to spend to rent it. Buy a couple more cans of baked beans, instead. Or get a big box of brownie mix. What's a couple bucks? It maybe one day's ration, and one day's ration will do more for you than wasting good money on renting this video. But I bet some of you won't take my word for it.

Is it really that bad?

It's a B movie for Generation Xers. This is as low budget as it gets. It almost reminds me of a Romeo and Juliet (but not really), and this time Juliet is crooked. There are moments that remind me of Clockwork Orange. Yes, there is romance in the only way that romance can happen between a modern boy and a modern girl: innocence, sex, and treachery. Yes, there is friendship too and it shows that Aristotle was correct: the best friendship is between men. But best of friends will also die.

What about Y2K?

You won't learn anything new. No, let me correct myself. You will not learn about how you might survive Y2K. You won't even get a glimpse of things to come-- if you are looking to see how cities look when they have fallen. Remember, this is a low budget movie. While there is some narration that describes the devastation that brought Y2K, the script writer would have done better to come here and get a sense of all the terrors that we imagine here. This forum, our words, is where it's at.

Anything else?

There is something to gain from this flick, however. And it is not a pleasant realization. If Y2K hits hard, the young and dangerous will rule the world with a sound and fury that is terrifying. One moment, they will be the nice boy or girl who grew up down the street. The next moment, they will smile as they shoot you for your impertinence. This is not from the movie: they'll drive through the front door and do unthinkable cruel things while laughing like sprites and roaring like demons.

And if you shoot one?

You better finish them all, each and every one, maybe even your own.

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobl.com), September 08, 1999

Answers

Stan -- nah, they won't gang up on you and come through the door. By the time they get worried about things, they'll be too weak from hunger.

-- helen (sstaten@fullnet.net), September 08, 1999.

Stan - I have two of those Xers. The first is not remotely as you describe. I took her fishing once. When we came home, I went in the kitchen and found her trying to feeding the "catch" salmon eggs in the sink. She does have a saber-like tongue, but is as soft as a marshmellow.

Number two is of the deer-hunter variety. His first response to y2k was to clean his guns. These kids are more like the ones in Red Dawn than Mad Max. They wear jeans and flannel and packer's or cowboy boots. Most have an after school job and a truck. They will probably be assembled into some defensive unit by a hunter-type Dad who served in Nam. By an interesting twist of fate, my son's graduating class of 70 has only 19 girls. Ready-made homeguard.

The type of Xer you describe must be a city variety.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), September 08, 1999.


Marsh,

Brats from the city and suburb, mostly.

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), September 08, 1999.


Stan

You said "And if you shoot one? You better finish them all, each and every one, maybe even your own."

If you can't count on your own kids when things get stark than perhaps you should acknowledge failure in the role of the parent. Every family is going to have friction between parents and young adults. But I expect when things get serious they'll be more than happy to listen to a parent who has actually prepared for hard times. And you would really need to pass along the wisdom that prompted you to prepare. If you take on the role of parent, your primary mission in life should be to turn out kids who grow in to viable citizens. If Y2K strikes hard all the more reason to push the skills down to the next generation. And it might be easier with the stupid ray cut off from power.

As far as other peoples ferel kids? If they attack they will likely be the more amoral members of a mob that includes thier parents. Looters are looters. (But they are teenagers so you'll have to lead them a little farther).

Generation X? More like Generation Zero.

Watch six and keep your...

-- eyes_open (best@wishes.net), September 08, 1999.


Eyes Open,

The last sentence was written with tongue in cheek. Some of the lines above it, too.

I don't have children. Not yet. But I do connect with some crazy kids and chaos theory applies to them in understanding how they will react.

I guess if 2000 gets really bad around here, I might have a gang here -- if I sheltered in place and took some of those crazy kids into my home.

Got a gang? [grin]

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), September 08, 1999.



I thought this ought to be repeated here:

There is no one face to any generation, although there are certainly sociological/psychological traits that distinguish those growing up in different ages and places. To see all youth as either good or bad is to miss their reality.

As I've said before on this forum,I live in a neighborhood where across the street is subsidized housing. We have a serious gang problem there with the youth. They shoot others, often killing them. When our condo management office had our handyman ask them to not loiter on our property (they were pretty scarey, particularly to our preponderance of older residents), they returned in three autos and jumped out and began trying to break our office doors in with iron pipes! When that didn't succeed, they trashed our handyman's auto with same...he lived there 10 years and was loved by us all...and he promptly quit and moved out.

We have had to pay $8 more per month, $96 annually, on our condo fee to pay off-duty police to drive around the grounds. Fairfax County has had to add bicyle police to the premises across the street. We had the Gangbuster's Unit of the County Police address our homeowner's group (and 60+ people turned out, the biggest attendance ever for any advertised gathering there!) They brought mug books, photos of arrested gang members in their clothing and with their tattoos and other symbols, and ran slides. All of this to alert us to what to watch for in order to protect ourselves. The most telling sentence spoken in a LONG evening of heavy information was when the main speaker said, "These (two ethnic) gangs come from countries in which they were trained to kill their own people. They would kill you in a heartbeat." They also deal in drugs and fight for the turf.

Remember the brutality in the riot newsfilms in America in very recent history? See the newsfilms of Timor right now?

Anyone who thinks that they will be safe from predators, of any age, in a civil upheaval such as Y2K could cause, is living in a dream world. Today's reality is harsh and painful to contemplate, but it must be looked at for what it is if one is to survive it.

- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), September 08, 1999.

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), September 08, 1999.


Stan, no one wants to hear a description of a movie. Tell us what HAPPENS in the movie. We'll decide if it's worth renting or not.

BTW, "Trigger Effect" is interesting. It's about an unexplained summer blackout in Sacramento & how three self-absorbed yuppies bicker their way thru the eventual chaos. The film ends a few days later with the power inexplicably back on, which is a good thing as our heroes clearly lack the common sense to survive a crisis for very long. (See, I've actually TOLD you something about the film. Try that next time.)

-- thanks (anyway@nice.try), September 09, 1999.


Everybody is a critic! There's even critics of a critic. [grin]

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), September 10, 1999.

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