why is the RENT movie set in 89?- Page 2

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/2/06 at 7:40pm

A century is a 100 years.
A millenium is 1000 years.

[badreligion]

Posted: 1/2/06 at 9:36pm

Honestly, they didn't have to indicate what year it was at all. Alot of this and the critics reactions and nitpicking is because a year was chosen. No year being mentioned in the play worked for everyone, it would have worked for everyone in the film. The Pre-gentrification of alphabet city i do understand, but lets remember the gentrification happened over a pretty long period of time and isn't done yet. Emcee-I loved the OBC of Rent and was obsessed with the play, relax a little about people discussing the flaws cos people will, mistakes were made, people were careless, and the film was fair - good. Personally a different director and another work over of the script could and I stress could have made the movie a whole lot better.

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 1/2/06 at 11:25pm

damnit... is anyone here allowed to even ask a question anymore without people thinking they are trying to bad mouth or nitpick something? geez people... relax... i was just asking why they chose to set it 89... that was it... nothing more...

[Chloe]

Posted: 1/2/06 at 11:58pm

As I recall, Anthony Rapp indicated early on that no specific year would be mentioned, but the costumes and set design would suggest the late '80's/early '90's. It would be interesting to know why that plan was changed.

What occurs to me is that a period look with no specific date attached could have led to a lot of second guessing and accusations of vagueness. As it is, even with the date I've seen criticisms that the movie shows NYC as way dirtier than it is. I guess some people don't realize how much things have changed.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 12:01am

heh. I've heard the opposite -- that's it's too pretty!

[colleen_lee]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 12:52am

I think there would have been complaints either way. Without a specified time frame I am sure there would have been people taking issues with the vagueness and inconsistencies in that respect.

[RENTingFAME]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 12:52am

eatlasagna: no! why would you be allowed to just ask a question without it sparking some crazy debate and getting everyone all GRRRish? geez, it's not like people actually want to know things. I mean, isn't there somewhere else you can ask your questions? jeez.

just kidding. I totally agree with you. It was just a question. Lay off people.

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 1:22am

To go way back, I must ask SmartPenguin. Please envision the statue of The Thinker when reading the following.

But What Is Art?

Posted: 1/3/06 at 1:38am

Every bio for Callie Khouri says she started working on Thelma & Louise while at another job (one she got in 1985) and Ive even seen scripts dated June 1990. From what I remember of that one lyric, having knowledge of the screenplay before its movie release could easily settle this timeline issue.

[JHartnow]

Posted: 1/3/06 at 10:23am

I like that Mark's voice-over at the begining is a nod to the stage production. 1989? Meh. Apathy set in a while back about this films anachronism's. This is a beautiful film, extremely well made by the *only* people that could have pulled it off properly without disgrace to the source material.

Can't wait for the DVD...

[DancerGirl16]

Posted: 1/4/06 at 11:14am

Simple --- the movie is set in 1989 because that is when jonathon larson wrote it and there are a lot of details that wouldn't make sense and the music would have to be changed if they set it in a later time....for example, not long after 1989 people stopped having "AZT breaks" which they had to set their watches to.

[collins]

Posted: 1/4/06 at 11:50am

When I first heard "1989" I went, "Huh?", but I wouldn't have given a second thought to any of the mistakes like Thelma and Louise if someone hadn't pointed them out. Mistakes in shows and movies don't bother me, but rather add charm.

[xrent_headx]

Posted: 1/4/06 at 12:06pm

I don't really care , every movie has its flaws, i LOVED RENT!!!

[Feathah]

Posted: 1/4/06 at 12:10pm

It bugs me that they set it at a specific time and then didn't pay attention to the details that would contradict that. Oh well. I still love it!