Yesterday's Tomorrows

Overview

Showtime's "In the 20th Century" is a millennium-related strand of feature-length documentaries in which famous directors take on major subjects of their choosing. In the third of the six films, "Yesterday's Tomorrows," filmmaker Barry Levinson delves into what we, as Americans, thought the future would be as we traveled through the 20th century. Houses and cars of the future, the promise of technology, and the other hopes and dreams of the early part of the century gave way to the fears and anxieties brought about by the atomic age and the Hollywood disaster films that followed. Soon we wondered if we could control technology, or if it would control us. This film is by turns light-hearted and thoughtful, and rare historical and archival film, produced by government and industry, alternates with on-screen interviews with people as diverse as consumer advocate Ralph Nader, cartoonist Matt Groening, futurist Alvin Toffler, comedienne Phyllis Diller, and actor Martin Mull.

Directed by Barry Levinson

Top cast

Richard Belzer

Self

Octavia E. Butler

Self

Phyllis Diller

Self

Spalding Gray

Self

Matt Groening

Self

Charlton Heston

Self

Robert Klein

Self

Fran Lebowitz

Self

Isaac Mizrahi

Self

Walter Mosley

Self

Martin Mull

Self

Ralph Nader

Self

Bob Newhart

Self

Andrew Rooney

Self

Alvin Toffler

Self

H

Heidi Toffler

Self

John Waters

Self

Details