I think that result is due to the desperation of the current times, and not to the quality of the film...
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Agreed.
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Although I enjoyed the flick, nothing in it has the staying-power of:
* ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, 1938, Errol Flynn.
* CASABLANCA, 1942, Humphrey Bogart.
* NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE, 1978, John Belushi.
...or a hundred others.
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I think NOMADLAND is a reflective piece, illustrating a minor and hidden segment of that collapsing civilization known as 'former-USA'.
I believe most viewers -- the vast majority -- see it as a documentary/seminar, hoping to glean a few hints for their inevitable transition to living 'without a fixed abode'.
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And therein lays the rub.
I think many millions of Americans and Europeans realize they face a hostile future.
With tragedy -- a vast degradation akin to genocide -- a mere few meals away, how many are teetering on the brink of personal collapse, mental health and common courtesy forgotten, their sole focus a reasonably-safe place to stay the night.
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From this perspective, the stories within NOMADLAND offer a small condolence to those many millions of hurting hearts.
The potential for hope -- not the real thing, but just the potential -- is their tossed life-ring as they flounder in the deep-end, trying to learn to swim *after* falling overboard.
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And yet, where am I in all this?
As a Perpetual Traveler for several decades, I too face the inevitability of limits on my beloved fuels -- diesel and propane -- and the strong possibility of no tires to replace these after they 'time-out', their sidewalls cracked, their treads peeling, their valves reluctant to hold air.
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And I have to ask... how many new adherents can our quiet places absorb without re-creating that hideous monstrosity known as 'city'.
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My prediction:
I think our species faces some difficult decisions.
I think we are slowly realizing the promise of agriculture and its homicidal sibling 'civilization' was a bucket with a rusted bottom, unable to follow-through on the glitz and glamour of the brochure.
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As unlikely as it would be for me to agree with The Ruling Parasites, I see no alternative to a massive de-population.
I think the space-traveling alien locusts of many sci-fi novels -- acquiring a planet, extracting all the resources, abandoning the empty husk -- is a case of 'hey, I resemble that remark!'.