When I was young (I never needed anyone, and making love was just for fun, those days are gone :() I had a dream. Yes, I dreamt of a day when black children and white children could hold hands and walk together as brothers and sisters, but I also had a dream of a land where anything was possible, where adventure was to be had in your own neighbourhood, on your own doorstep. All you needed was a parka jacket, a bmx and a plan and you were away. You could call it The American Dream.

These days I’m all grown up (well kinda,) but I’m still dreaming. Dreaming of the land where even as a grown up there was still adventure to be had, crazy capers and scrapes to get your self into. This was the land where anything was possible. This land, America. But oh how my dream has soured. And so, if you’ll permit me, I’d like to tell you a little tale of one girl’s broken dreams and a country that lost its way, all through my cinematic eye…

Growing up in the 80’s is something I hold very dear. It was a great time for kids, possibly the greatest decade in history to be a child. I wanted to be a boy, of course. Boys had all the best stuff (mhmm, yes you did.) When I wasn’t donning my dungarees climbing trees, or playing A-Team with my brother’s friends, I was down the road with our more well-off buddies messing about with Star Wars figures. Yes, media consumption was really blowing up and it was truly the era of the very superb action figures. But what of the films themselves which spawned such delights?

Pre-VCR days’, going to the pictures was a rare treat and I relished it as a young consumer. I guess I don’t need to name names, but the usual suspects were apparent in my life – E.T., The Goonies, Labyrinth, etc. Kids were having the greatest of adventures on screen and I was right along there with them. And so I dreamt. Dreamt of this land where anything was possible, anything and everything you could imagine could really happen, happen to you. As a child, grown ups would ask me where I would go in the world if I could go anywhere at all. “America!” I would reply. What was wrong with these people? Wasn’t it obvious? Didn’t everybody have an American dream?

Of course, the 80’s was a boom era with a true “anything is possible” sense, and cinema reflected this. There was magic in the air and movie magic on the screen. Stephen Spielberg was in his element conjuring up big screen wonders that adults and children alike were lapping up with glee. Mainstream wasn’t a dirty word like it is today and it was open to everyone, young and old, to be part. Several spinning newspapers later and we’re at the present day, 2008, and all is, I fear, lost. The dream has soured and the impact upon cinema has never been so apparent. The moral majority are winning and cinema, as art, has lost its critical edge. Where does that leave us today? Find out later in the series.

Coming Next: Part 2: The Death Of Imagination