The Big Chill was a 1983 film that I greatly enjoyed in my mid-twenties. I usually saw movies a few years after they came out, as I was too stingy to pay to see films at the theaters when they were first released. I thought at the time that I was merely thrifty. But no, it was frugality to a fault; I was stingy.
I wish I has watched popular generational movies then in my youth, along with a youth leader from the Baptist Student Union (BSU) or from a local church which served the student community of the college towns where I lived (Athens, GA, UNC-CH, Boone, NC, and Raleigh, NC).
The Big Chill showcases a tight circle of eight college friends from the University of Michigan as they reunite for the funeral when one of their number passes away in his prime. They are presumably all in their thirties.
A dominant theme is that their rich idealism is now largely viewed by them as bogus, impractical, even unrealistic. Their counter-cultural ideals were largely unbounded in their college years, and were an ineluctable part of the "glue" which united them. Now they mostly agree that these ideals were untenable, could not be supported in "real life," under the pressures of successfully advancing in their careers, and providing the required support to family members and being responsible members of society. Those who disagree, mostly Nick, are chastised for not releasing the ideals of their youth.
One lady appears bitter. The actor appears despondent, jaded, full of self-loathing. Karen carries a dark view of her responsibility as a wife. Her husband exclaims as an apologist of taking the responsible route, "Nobody said it was going to be fun."
But, I see far better at age 62, four decades later. There is not one clear Christian voice or witness allowed in the film. Had there been, even I might not have watched it. Or better, it would have radically altered my view of the film. And I would have been far richer for that sole character who held a consistently sane perspective throughout, in any flashbacks to their earlier time together in college, and as well in current-day comments in the several-days sleep-over following the funeral.
https://tastedive.com/movies/like/The-Big-Chill
https://movies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Big_Chill
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085244/plotsummary/
IMDB Quote : "A seminal Thirty-Something movie in which a group of old college friends who are now older and experienced come together for the funeral of Alex, who was at one time the brightest and the best of them at college and yet who never managed to find his way. The friends use the occasion to reacquaint themselves with each other, discuss where their lives have led and speculate on what happened to their idealism which had been abundant when they were younger." —Mark Thompson <mrt@oasis.icl.co.uk>
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Fandom: The Big Chill:
Retrospective Documentary:
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