Nostalgia… Nostalgia is the feeling we have when we meet again with someone or something that belongs to our past. The most common nostalgia we can see is, for example, when you watch a movie you used to love when you were younger or meet your childhood best friend whom you haven’t seen in ages. Nostalgia is also what I call a comforting feeling. What I mean by this is that some people use nostalgia to cover their present and somehow forget about the now. Nostalgia is a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning to return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition. The weird thing about nostalgia is that it can be good to remember good old times or even to bring a person back to earth when they forget who they were before becoming who they are now. But it can also be challenging to deal with, for example, when you lose someone. 

Here are some movies that show the face of nostalgia, and you might not notice.

1. Forrest Gump (1994)

(PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE CONTINUING SPOILERS BELOW:  If you are interested in watching the movie and don’t want spoilers, please ship this part until you get to watch the film. Also, no spoilers in the comments, or I will be forced to delete your comment. Thank you!)

It is a classic movie. I am sure most of the readers have seen it. And if you haven’t, is your homework for next week?  Made in 1994, Forrest Gump is a movie based on a 1986 novel. It is the story of Forrest and all the things he has done. The film has four parts: Childhood, Vietnam, Fame and Fortune, and the Final Act.

Childhood shows how difficult it was for Forrest to grow up with kids bullying him for being different from the rest. But his mother was always there for him, teaching him valuable life lessons like the famous quote, “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get.” She always encourages him to pursue his dreams and leave those kids behind. During childhood, he also meets Jenny, who becomes his best friend and starts being teased just as Forrest gives us the quote we all love, “Run Forest, run.” Time passes by, and thanks to Forrest’s talent to run, he gets a scholarship to the University of Alabama, where he becomes a Football player.

Forrest’s studies last only briefly as we enter the movie’s second part, Vietnam. He became one of the best soldiers in his group and won a Medal of Honor for bravery. However, Forrest was traumatized by everything he saw in the war and lost many friends, including Bubba, who dreamed of opening a shrimp restaurant. 

Then, we enter the third part of the movie, “fame and fortune.” Forrest becomes a millionaire by investing in a new technology called Apple II and becomes an extravagant man of the 70’s. With all his fortune, he opened the shrimp restaurant in honor of his friend, calling it Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. But sadly, the business does not do well and is destroyed by a hurricane. But one day, he receives a call from Jenny, a Folksinger living in San Francisco. They get romantically involved but don’t stay together because of Jenny’s fear of commitment.

Then, it gets to the final part of the movie. Forrest and Jenny finally get married and have a child together, but sadly, it doesn’t last long because Jenny becomes seriously ill. He raises his kid as a single parent, and the movie closes with him and his son waiting for the school bus. 

So, where do we see nostalgia in Forest Gump?

Considering that the movie was produced in 1994 and based on different decades, we can see various aspects in the four parts that give us that emotion of living in the decade. The movie’s cinematography differs in each piece, showing what characterizes each decade. Also, Jenny and Forrest have two particular ways of living that were “popular” in each decade. Jenny represents the liberal way of living during the decades; being a hippie during the Vietnam War is a clear example. On the other hand, Forrest went to college for a bit and then went to war. 

Another thing we can see in the movie is when Forrest returns from the war with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). He starts thinking about the war and all the friends who didn’t return. There, we can see how nostalgia plays an unfair move in Forrest. Also, the nostalgia hits him again when he has been awarded and sees Jenny after a long time. This didn’t appear in the movie, but I am sure nostalgia came to Forrest again when he opened the restaurant in the name of his friend. 

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

(PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE CONTINUING SPOILERS BELOW:  If you are interested in watching the movie and don’t want spoilers, please ship this part until you get to watch the film. Also, no spoilers in the comments, or I will be forced to delete your comment. Thank you!)

One of my favorites from Jim Carrey. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a complex movie. It is difficult to understand as it starts in the “future” with “past” fragments and ends in the present, where all is finally explained. 

It all starts with a beach party where Joel (Jim Carrey) goes with his friends Rob (David Cross) and Carrie (Jane Adams). Joel meets a green-haired girl named Clementine (Kate Winslet), or how they meet. After Joel leaves her afraid after breaking into a house, he finds her at her job in Barnes and Noble, where they finally start their relationship. 

Meanwhile, in the “present,” Joel goes to his friends after discovering that Clementine is cheating on him, and they recommend him to go to Lacuna to find a way to access those memories with Clementine. We don’t know exactly why, but he seems desperate. He collects a lot of stuff that belonged to her and goes to Lacuna to start the procedure. Dr. Mierzwiak, Stan, and their secretary Mary create a map with Joel’s memories using the objects he brought earlier. Here, we can see the intention of erasing all the memories of the two-year relationship with Clementine. 

What confuses many people (and I don’t blame them) is that Joel is inside his mind and walks around his memories interacting with them. But when he realizes he is being brainwashed, he tries to avoid it because he regrets his decision. Also, they let us know that Mary had the same procedure because of an affair with Dr. Mierzwiak. Joel finally finishes the process and travels to Montauk, where he meets Clementine again and bonds immediately, just like the first time. But it doesn’t last long because when Joel returns home, we see that Clementine did the same procedure as Joel to forget him. She got her memory back thanks to a tape sent by Mary and wants to do the same thing with him. But he thinks she is crazy and sick for believing something like that and kicks her out of his car. Joel gets home and is surprised when he finds the same tape but with his memories. He catches up with Clementine, and they decide to give the relationship a second chance. 

 So, where do we see nostalgia in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?

This movie expresses nostalgia more deeply in comparison to Forrest Gump. We can see that this nostalgia came from a relationship that didn’t end well in the case of Joel and Clementine. They didn’t know how to manage the breakup and ended up with a guy who erased their memories. Breakups and broken hearts are delicate; it is not something you can do from one day to the other. But a common thing when you break up with your partner is that you don’t want to know anything about the person, especially if there was betrayal. But good or bad memories are essential to us as those memories come from experiences where we learned something. Those memories are nostalgia. The message here is that we need nostalgia in our life. 

We can see this in Mary. Even if the Doctor erased her memory, she returned, and the feeling didn’t go away. Nostalgia shows itself in a different face. Mary didn’t even have the chance to process her emotions after the doctor’s wife knew she was having an affair with her husband. When she gets her memories back, we can see how nostalgia hits her face, and tears start running down her face.

Thank you so much for reading the blog. I know I have been absent for a while, but I promise I will return to the normal blog starting this week. In compensation for my absence this month, I will also upload a movie review for an animated movie called “Wolf Walker.” If you want to see more movie reviews, please contact me and tell me what movie you want to see here. Don’t forget to subscribe so you can receive a notification every time I upload content. 

See you next week!