20150825.0702

Something the Mrs. and I do from time to time is revisit movies from a few decades back, movies we remember from our youth (whether seen in initial release by her or seen on television or in school by me). We watched The Neverending Story a while back, finding that it has not held up well; we watched The Dark Crystal more recently, finding that it has. So have Labyrinth and Willow. So also has the one we most recently watched, using streaming video to bring it to us as we sat and Ms. 8 played on the floor of the living room: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. It had shown up on the streaming service not long before, and I queued it up so that we would be able to watch it. I am glad we did; watching it was enjoyable, and I found a few things in it that I had not noticed before. (How could I be expected to? I think the last time I saw it was when I was in high school--if it was that recently. I flatter myself that I know more now than I did then.)

Among the things I noticed is the oddity of Bill's usage. His speech is supposed to be a caricature of Valley talk, voiced by a character of limited intelligence and understanding. The polysyllabic words he deploys, however, are used "correctly." That is, they are used in a manner consistent with their denotations--and of their connotations, as it happens, since time travel in a budget TARDIS provided by a George Carlin character is the kind of extreme situation that calls for elevated language, being rare, wondrous, and, in its connection to a series of prominent historical figures (albeit in caricature), of singular importance. The idea of "flattening," that using elevated terms for the mundane strips the terms of their import, does not apply. It is a small thing to note, to be sure, but entertaining, adding to the enjoyment of a simple, open, innocent movie.

And the movie is largely innocent. Sure, there is some vandalism in it, and there is some interpersonal violence, but most of it is comic and leaves no lasting harm (that the film depicts; it does not do well with following up on the implications of its own events, although time travel need not necessarily do so...and the complications of time-travel plots emerge suddenly). Bill and Ted are, in effect, harmless, stumbling through life and entertaining those around them while themselves remaining good-natured (despite comments deemed appropriate at the time the film was made that no longer obtain). They are fundamentally happy people, and if they are perhaps a bit foolish and decidedly naïve, and if their core message is trite, they are still worth an occasional viewing decades later. They offer a good way for a family to pass an evening now and again, and if that is ultimately a small thing, it is no less to be treasured.