Photos
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Featured review
A great time capsule...
... and it looks like the beginning of Fast Times At Ridgemont High from the same year, except this is Overland Park, Kansas, which is a suburb of Kansas City.
Narrated by Charles Kuralt, it is basically all about the place of Oak Park Mall in the sociology of Overland Park, and about the idea of the shopping mall in general. I was 24 in 1982, and when you look at a mall from that era, and hear from teenagers of that era, you notice several things. Nobody is staring downward, immersed in their phones, nobody is fat, nobody has tattoos. The kids are well groomed and well spoken. They don't look like they're shopping in their pajamas. In fact the parents are complaining that the teenagers all want to be out of the house all of the time, usually at the mall, because that is where teens can meet each other and talk. It is a place to not be alone. Even playing computer games is a social event, because you have to go to the mall arcade to play them. Just wait until these teens are parents of teens. They'll have to blast their overweight kids off the couch because they won't have to move an inch to talk to anybody in the world.
The CBS news special goes into the history of Overland Park and how the mall is displacing the downtown area stores. Some of the downtown store owners talk about how this generic mall experience is displacing the personal touch that they provide. The mall ate the independent stores, the big box stores ate the mall, and Amazon ate the big boxes. But that is all yet to come at this point.
The documentary talks to lots of people who work at the mall, and how they try to provide a safe environment. Some of them say what today would be politically incorrect things. Some of the store displays are politically incorrect. And yet I can almost smell the new shoes, new bike tires, popcorn, chocolate and cigars. In fact, in one scene you see an employee attend to a fire with a cigar in his mouth.
And thanks to the late Charles Kuralt for just letting the people he interviewed talk without feeling the piece would not be complete without his wisdom. It's a style you don't see in the talking heads of today.
Narrated by Charles Kuralt, it is basically all about the place of Oak Park Mall in the sociology of Overland Park, and about the idea of the shopping mall in general. I was 24 in 1982, and when you look at a mall from that era, and hear from teenagers of that era, you notice several things. Nobody is staring downward, immersed in their phones, nobody is fat, nobody has tattoos. The kids are well groomed and well spoken. They don't look like they're shopping in their pajamas. In fact the parents are complaining that the teenagers all want to be out of the house all of the time, usually at the mall, because that is where teens can meet each other and talk. It is a place to not be alone. Even playing computer games is a social event, because you have to go to the mall arcade to play them. Just wait until these teens are parents of teens. They'll have to blast their overweight kids off the couch because they won't have to move an inch to talk to anybody in the world.
The CBS news special goes into the history of Overland Park and how the mall is displacing the downtown area stores. Some of the downtown store owners talk about how this generic mall experience is displacing the personal touch that they provide. The mall ate the independent stores, the big box stores ate the mall, and Amazon ate the big boxes. But that is all yet to come at this point.
The documentary talks to lots of people who work at the mall, and how they try to provide a safe environment. Some of them say what today would be politically incorrect things. Some of the store displays are politically incorrect. And yet I can almost smell the new shoes, new bike tires, popcorn, chocolate and cigars. In fact, in one scene you see an employee attend to a fire with a cigar in his mouth.
And thanks to the late Charles Kuralt for just letting the people he interviewed talk without feeling the piece would not be complete without his wisdom. It's a style you don't see in the talking heads of today.
helpful•20
- AlsExGal
- Jan 29, 2021
Details
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content