The moments are seared into the pop culture pantheon. And our collective consciousness.
A friendly alien taking Henry Thomas' character Elliott on an airborne bike ride with the full moon as a backdrop in 鈥淓.T.鈥� Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) in 鈥淧oltergeist,鈥� getting out of bed, staring into a pulsating TV screen, turning to her family and warning: 鈥淭hey're here.鈥� titular hero Conan the Barbarian succinctly listing for his compatriots what is best in life: 鈥淭o crush your enemies. See them driven before you. And hear the lamentation of their women.鈥�
Former Entertainment Weekly film critic Chris Nashawaty walks readers through the significance (and making) of each of the films, as well as five other science fiction/fantasy classics 鈥� 鈥淏lade Runner,鈥� 鈥淢ad Max 2: The Road Warrior,鈥� 鈥淪tar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,鈥� 鈥淭he Thing鈥� and 鈥淭ron鈥� 鈥� that, incredibly, were released within two months of each other in the summer of 1982.
In the ultra-entertaining and informative 鈥淭he Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982,鈥� Nashawaty makes the case that the octet of flicks altered the trajectory, not only of the auteurs at the helm, but of Hollywood filmmaking.
鈥淭he summer of 1982 was the moment when sci-fi, fantasy, and splashy blockbusters ripped from the pages of comic books would grow up,鈥� Nashawaty writes. "These films could no longer be nonchalantly dismissed as kids' stuff.
鈥淭hey became the harbingers of a new era and eventually the most dominant force in popular entertainment.鈥�
His thesis is solid, sure. But it's not what makes 鈥淭he Future Was Now鈥� a great read. The behind-the-scenes intrigue does that.
Nashawaty digs deep into the history of how these groundbreaking films got 鈥� and were 鈥� made. Perhaps most fascinating is the tale of burgeoning cinema maestro leading his young charges through the filming of the now-classic 鈥淓.T.鈥� and more or less taking over the production of 鈥淧oltergeist,鈥� a much different kind of film that now is considered to be a landmark in the horror genre.
Add in the complex origins of the 鈥淪tar Trek鈥� and 鈥淢ad Max鈥� sequels, plus odyssey in transforming a Philip K. Dick novel into the big-screen cult classic 鈥淏lade Runner,鈥� and you've got a must-read for any cinephile.
The summer of '82 paved 鈥渢he way for our current all-blockbusters-all-the-time era,鈥� Nashawaty writes.
But the real treat is having a front-row seat as the author's painstaking research and expert recounting bring to life how these silver-screen gems came to be.
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AP book reviews:
Mike Householder, The Associated Press
