电影《老炮儿》：往回看是怀旧，往前看则是希望_大学英语阅读

电影《老炮儿》：往回看是怀旧，往前看则是希望

Watching Mr. Six also reminded me of a similar movie called Midnight in Paris, directed by Woody Allen and starring Owen Wilson. The movie told the story of an aspiring author named Gil who idolizes the era of the “Lost Generation” in Paris, and is magically transported back to those years each midnight. As I watched Gil converse face to face with his heroes like Earnest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, not to mention falling in love with a charismatic beauty, I was treated to a glimpse of the liveliness of that era that no textbook could capture. Although Gil eventually realised that he had to learn to live in the present, he had relished those visits to the 1920s where he could cure his nostalgia. While both movies played with the theme of nostalgia for bygone eras,Midnight in Paris celebrates the past while Mr. Six laments its passing. Perhaps this message resonated the most with my parents and their generation because they grew up in Beijing during the 1970s and 1980s. For them, the character of Mr. Six was a symbol of the values that they were raised with. Concepts such as unquestionable loyalty to friends, respect for elders, and upholding traditions were second nature to them, and Mr. Six embodied all of these qualities. The contrast between Mr. Six and the kind of young people that his son was involved with only emphasized the loss of those values in this day and age. It was like watching their childhood hero thrashing to stay afloat against the floodwaters of modern society. But I found that when boiled down to their cores, both Midnight in Paris and Mr. Six are two sides of the same coin. Both movies illuminate how the past represented pinnacles of beauty or righteousness, which can only be found in nostalgic memories that cannot fit in with the current generation. Yet from another point of view, perhaps that is the true worth of nostalgia: it shows me and my generation which values and traditions are worth holding on to, no matter how society changes or how much money we make. After all, it’s not enough just to live, we must hold onto what is worth living for.