YEAR: 1988
DIRECTOR: Robert Zemeckis
PINBALL MODEL(S): The model nearest the exit on the right is a Hurdy Gurdy machine (1966, Gottlieb). I am still working on identifying the other two pins in the scene.
GAME LOCATION(S): Bar
NOTES: In this still-satisfying pastiche of classical Hollywood noir and investigative films, America's cultural history is visually resurrected via mise-en-scene; including the ever-familiar pairing of pinball and the tavern. Though the historicity of the film's visual elements and street-car sub-plot becomes a bit muddled, it is nonetheless successful in its ambitions as a period piece (albeit an inexact one).
The set design discloses a historical context by appealing to our familiarity with the images it projects. In this way, it hardly matters that the Hurdy Gurdy pin was manufactured after the time period in which the film's events are likely taking place. What is more important is the presence of the pin within the specific environment of the tavern—alongside other genre tropes such as fedoras and trench-coats—which ultimately informs the viewer as to how to make sense of the imagined time and space of the film.
