I can't believe out of all the reviews no one has zeroed in on the same issue that makes this movie "genius" in my opinion. The film's release was timely in that it correlated with the 1996 Presidential Campaign. Dadetown, better than any other film of that era, succinctly sums up the opposed and at least juxtaposed worlds that the two candidates at the time, Bob Dole and Bill Clinton, presented as the future for America.
In every way, the divided community of Dadetown represented the many talking points delivered by both candidates: Dole's WWII experience, the dignity of his service, All-American apple-pie values and the legacy of America's 20th century industrialization v/s Clinton and Gore's advocacy to advance the information age and its digitization of everything and to accept and successfully compete in a new global economy that was believed to deliver a greater American prosperity for the 21st century.
Dadetown is one of many, but limited cultural markers of the late 20th century that successfully foreshadows the American cultural divide that we are still living with today. Dadetown was not widely distributed and because of that unfortunately, was not referenced in later and seminal works on American political culture such as John Sperling's "The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America" (2004).
In every way, the divided community of Dadetown represented the many talking points delivered by both candidates: Dole's WWII experience, the dignity of his service, All-American apple-pie values and the legacy of America's 20th century industrialization v/s Clinton and Gore's advocacy to advance the information age and its digitization of everything and to accept and successfully compete in a new global economy that was believed to deliver a greater American prosperity for the 21st century.
Dadetown is one of many, but limited cultural markers of the late 20th century that successfully foreshadows the American cultural divide that we are still living with today. Dadetown was not widely distributed and because of that unfortunately, was not referenced in later and seminal works on American political culture such as John Sperling's "The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America" (2004).