Have I mentioned that my 20th high school reunion is coming up later this summer? Or that it happens to be the same weekend as BlogHer? And the same weekend we are planning to be in transit to our new home?
Well it is. But even though I probably won't make it to the reunion, I am somehow involved in the planning of it. Because I am a planner. And I like bringing people together. And I still have this idea in the back of my mind that I will magically find a way to be in two places at once. That I will be able to fly back to my hometown that weekend, leaving my husband and kids camped out on the floor of our new house waiting for the moving company to deliver our stuff in the four- to eight-day window they have promised, and enjoy myself. There's no way that could happen, is there?
Anyway, thinking about my high school reunion got me thinking about John Hughes movies, and how many movies from the 80's -- and since then -- have focused on the mid to late 80's high school years. Think about Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Sixteen Candles (1984), Pretty in Pink (1986), Heathers (1989), The Breakfast Club (1985), Footloose (1984), Risky Business (1983), Say Anything (1989)....all of those were set quite specifically in those years.
Were the 80's simply a great time for teen movies? Do people in other age ranges have that many movies that reference their high school years so clearly and specifically? Or am I just so self-absorbed that I don't realize or remember all the great high school movies that are NOT set in the mid to late 80's? All that really comes to mind are Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982 -- just a little bit early to be grouped with these others) and some of the high school movies from the last five years -- like Napoleon Dynamite and Mean Girls (which happened to be written by Tina Fey, a product of the mid to late 80's high school years).
Even after we graduated from high school, those of us from the classes of '85, '86, '87 (and around there) were the subject of many other "period" movies -- Reality Bites, Singles, and reunion movies like Grosse Point Blank and Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion. Hollywood seems fascinated by those of us in this age range.
A lot of writers have shared lists of their favorite high school movies, or their favorite 80's movies, or their favorite 80's high school movies -- but I've never seen anyone discuss why the 80's high school experience was so significant. And I'm curious.
A friend of mine suggested that this has something to do with Reagan's presidency and how his administration impacted popular culture. Others have suggested that people my age are unique because we came of age during the early years of the AIDS crisis. I think both of these things play a role, but I also think some of you might have some insights.
If you experienced high school in the 80's, what do the 80's high school movies mean to you? If you experienced high school before or after the 80's, do you relate to these movies? And what is it about 80's teen culture that brought about so many movies set in those years?
June 20, 2007
Reliving My Teen Years
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8 comments:
As a member of the Class of '88, I have to say I enjoyed your list, even though you left off three of the top four 80s high school movies: Some Kind Of Wonderful, Valley Girl, and The Last American Virgin. The 80s teenage movies rocked!
But I don't really think the 80s high school experience was really that significant in terms of movies. High school kids make up a large portion of the movie-going audience, so producers are always producing movies that the high school kids can relate to. Movies that "they" star in.
Just out of curiosity, I picked a year (1999) and here are some high school movies released that year: American Pie, Drive Me Crazy, Election, Jawbreaker, She's All That, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Varsity Blues. While most of these are crap, I do consider American Pie and Election to be "classic" films worthy of repeated viewings.
I do think that the 80s were the last visually identifiable decade. You can make a movie today and easily set it in the 80s through wardrobe, hair styles, etc. You can also do this for the 50s, 60s, and 70s. But can you do this for the 90s? I don't believe so. Unless your period piece takes place in a small portion of that decade, like the Seattle scene.
Ok. That's enough babbling from me. I still don't think I answered any of your questions.
I'm from the class of '82, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High pretty much says it all for me. But a few others from the early 80's that I identify with:
All The Right Moves
Gregory's Girl (best movie ever about awkward young love)
My Bodyguard (I still hate Matt Dillon to this day because of his bully role in this one)
Oh, and, while I certainly don't identify with it, I do remember laughing so hard I almost threw up my popcorn... Porky's!
Ironically, my 20th high school reunion is also the same weekend as BlogHer. But I'm skipping both. :-)
(p.s., you didn't go to high school in NY state, did you?)
Chag, you make some excellent points. Especially about the 80's being the last visually identifiable decade. Also, the music is so recognizable, and some of those movies have very 80's soundtracks.
Phil, I remember sneaking into Porky's when I was probably 13 or 14.
And Nancy, no, not NY. Iowa.
Scary. I am a product of the 70s, in college in the 80s. Yes, I had "big hair". Movies? Well, the Blues Brothers comes to mind. Still a classic!
16 Candles, Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo's Fire, I loved the 80's.
Class of '84, checking in.
I think the teen films of the '80s were pretty important (as far as entertainment goes) because most of them dealt fairly realistically with the central issue of most middle class teenagers' lives—discovering who they are and how they interact with parents, authority figures, classmates, friends, and society in general. There had been some movies in the '50s and '60s that did this (Rebel Without a Cause, of course, and even Gidget dealt with a young girl trying to figure out whether to be who she wants to be or who everybody keeps telling her she should be), but in the '80s they were funny and fun to watch, even when they dealt with serious matters.
For example, has there ever been a better movie about teen pregnancy than the always-underrated For Keeps? A pregnant young woman, bright and college-bound, struggles with the decision of whether or not to have the baby, faces pressure from her family, her boyfriend, his family, and her friends, and has to deal with the consequences of her decision. There are funny parts, and realistic parts, and good dialogue. Even though it has a happy ending, it's happy because of the decisions the characters make, and you know they still have a rough time ahead of them. That movie would simply not be made now, at least not for teenagers. Their Baby Boomer parents are so protective that they wouldn't let them watch it, less because they might get the idea that teenage pregnancy is somehow neat or glamorous than because they might get the idea that life doesn't always go the way they want it to.
We were more cynical than that, and I think the directors of the '80s teen flicks (especially John Hughes, who was only in his early 30s when he started writing and directing them) tapped into our readiness for movies that addressed our cynicism and even encouraged it.
Wow. I spend WAY TOO MUCH TIME thinking about this stuff. :-)
I just came over from Chag's blog. I'm class of '86 and love these movies too. There have been high school movies since the 80s of course, but I think the 80s were the real golden age of high school movies. It's kind of odd too, since we're relatively such a small generation. I think MTV helped put the focus on teens in the 80s...we're still really the MTV generation having come of age when it debuted.
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