Tomorrow is dragsville

Above is a snippet from the movie High School Confidential showing a beatnik babe reciting some beatnik poetry accompanied by a jazz band.

Every generation, when they're first entering adulthood have little money and face entry-level jobs. From their youth ghettos the more artistic of them cook-up their own style. Beatniks were from the 1950s, followed by hippies in the 1960/70s. Gen X, busy as they always are whining about every other generational cohort were their usual nondescript selves. The Millennials gave us the ever-entertaining hipsters, and I guess the latest group is giving us TikTok nonsense. It's just part of youth and is all good.  

 

Squaresville vs the Beatnik

This short film, edited down from its original run time to 6 minutes but with a simple enough plot to still understand, would ordinarily be forgettable. However, it ends up as an odd cultural intersection today. In it a smoking jacket clad Ronald Reagan, playing an upright doctor and family man, is confronted by two hopped-up beatnik hooligans, one played by a scenery-chewing James Dean.

In film, beatniks are kind of like zombies -- once spotted you just have to watch. Ronald Reagan and James Dean sharing the screen is the cherry on top.

Via the Atlantic.