Out of the Blue 4K 1980

In spirit and overall storyline, the 1980 film Like Thunder from a Clear Sky is quite close to Serge Gainsbourg's 1986 Charlotte Forever, which, however, does not speak of plagiarism. It's just that Hopper himself is in some ways similar to the French composer-director Gainsbourg, whose life could have served as an excellent agitation about the 'decadent West' in Soviet times. Neither film is very convincing. To view them from a realistic perspective is utopia.

It's a farce. It's kitsch, even. But it's also gentle. And sentimental - sentimental like Chaplin's, not Spielberg's. It's American cinematic poetry. The older and more moving 'Easy Rider' is almost a sequel. Vulnerable Neil Young songs on the soundtrack. Long unmounted and silent scenes. The final catharsis.

It's a confession about alcoholism that Hopper knew firsthand. A confession about a lost generation of aging rebels and their children unable to choose between a teddy bear and a cannabis cigarette. It's art. Fragile and honest.