Today's Escape from Reality?

The nostalgic opening production number at last night's Academy Awards looked like a Busby Berkeley musical from the 1930s. That got me to thinking. During the Great Depression, people went to the movies to escape from their grim reality. These days the economy is pretty grim, but people are so busy with all the technological distractions of the day that there's really no escape. Even when we go to the movies, there are still at least a half-dozen people in any theater texting or actually answering their cell phones and carrying on a conversation during the movie. No escape.

It's not like Hollywood hasn't tried to get our attention. Big-budget CGA films like Avatar go all-out to pull in the viewers, and box office receipts would indicate that they're succeeding. But the industry insiders aren't buying it; the film won only in categories recognizing its special effects, which was where it deserved to win. The modern-style fantasy musical Nine was pretty much overlooked entirely. (Maybe those Hollywood types aren't so shallow, after all.) The Best Director and Best Picture Oscars went to...a film based on today's war environment. More reality.

But if the movies are just another dose of reality, where do we find our escape? Can we go for a nice drive? Not with the traffic on most of the highways. And then there's that concern about somebody texting while driving and killing us in our cars. At home? No, there we have dozens of TV channels showing "reality" shows. Then there are the video games based on real-life crime to remind us, or social networking and a host of other online reminders of the real world. Some people escape into Farmville or Mafia Wars...again, games based on real-life situations. We've become like junkies Jonesing for increasing levels of action, each more spectacular and gory than the last.

Remember the old TV commercial -- "Calgon, take me away!" Where's the old-fashioned, hopeful fantasy in our lives now? Must we make do with Guitar Hero? Where are the regular people, poor but hopeful, bursting into song and dance from sheer joy as they walk down the street? Where are the overhead camera shots of synchronized swimmers diving into huge swimming pools? Even Dancing With the Stars doesn't get that grandiose. And the variety shows of the 1960s, like Jackie Gleason's with the June Taylor Dancers, are a distant memory that only remind us how old we really are.

Truth is, if you're over about 15 years old, the reality of life tends to stick with you no matter where you go. Maybe that's why we're all so stressed out that we can't sleep, but go around shooting each other and yelling at little old ladies in traffic. Maybe what we really need is a good old Busby Berkeley-style musical to forget about the real world for a couple of hours. Have we become too jaded and cynical for that to work for us any more? Has "hope" these days become merely a hollow campaign promise from a politician, a poster icon reminiscent of the Cold War-era placards of Chairman Mao?

I say, bring back the old musicals! Let's get our fat duffs off the couch and start learning to tap dance again. Let's go out and rediscover romance -- pure, innocent, golden-age-of-Hollywood-style romance. Grab our attention and keep us so riveted to the screen that the cell phone can take a rest. Is anybody in Hollywood listening? Or is the best you can do a Hot Tub Time Machine? If so, "Calgon, take me away!"