High School/Teen flicks by decade

[dean_martin]

help compile a list of decent high school/teen flicks by decade depicted.

1970s:
Dazed and Confused (released in early 90s)
???? (drawing a blank here - although I seem to remember a film featuring the Ramones called Rock-n-Roll High School?)

1980s (these are easier for me to remember):
Valley Girl
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Just about anything from John Hughes, e.g., The Breakfast Club

1990s:
????

2000's:
not too sure about this decade - maybe something like Super Bad or Napolean Dynamite?

[ForeverAutumn]

1980's:
Porky's
Heathers

2000's:
Mean Girls

[GMichael]

80's
Weird Science
My Bodyguard - (Adam Baldwin before we knew how good he was going to be)
Risky Business - (Tom Cruise before we knew how annoying he was going to be)
The Karate Kid
Back to the Future

90's
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The Craft

00's
Bring It On - (if you are laughing, it's because you saw it too. So don't pick on me)

[3LB]

I always thought the John Huges flicks were a tad too sophisticated to really represent anything I went through; houses the size of City Hall, Ferrari driving rich kids, money never an issue, allegedly weird kids who were also poor because they're parent/s were divirced and/or drunks (not just because their parents didn't make as much money)...etc, etc. Molly Ringwald's character in Breakfast Club was such a pathetic brat, but her turn as the "different" poor girl with big dreams and a broken home was so stereotypical, as if rich people had to assume that poor people musta really fucked up somewhere along the road to be poor.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High was fun, a tad underacted, which in hindsight, means its not as embarrissing to watch as an adult like the Porky's movies, which was fun when I was a teen, but in hindsight, they really sucked. In the first movie, Porky (the stripclub owner) calls the main characters, "a buncha rich Angel Beach pussies"; it was a true assessment of those characters, and yet it seemed that these assholes were the blueprint for success in the '80s...go figure. Fast Times took on some serious subject matter without being overly preachy about it, which means it may come across as too sanitary by todays standards, but it was for younger audiences, not jaded adults.

Dazed & Confused is the only movie I've ever seen that related to anything I experienced as a kid (yes, that kinda hazing went on in my school), but like all movies, was a tad over-the-top. But like that little Texas town, my experiences growing up in a small southern town in Tennessee were similar in that it seemed some guys could do anything and as long as they had the right last name, every adult within eyesight would just look the other direction. But it also showed the resiliency of those put-upon kids, who somehow managed to find meaning and happiness with what they had, but also the drive to change their lot in life.

I think the key to a movie like Fast Times or Dazed & Confused was that it was an ensemble cast, with multiple side stories. No, these stories never really get fleshed out or explored to the Nth degree, but it makes for a fast paced movie. (Since a lot of screenplay writers suck at what they do anyway, an entire movie revolving around teen pregnancy/abortion would be awkward and clumsy, not to mention rife with bad anecdote on top of bad advise). Maybe one could say some teen movies are bad at character development, but the best of them really aren't character explorations anyway, they're merely observations.

The prototypical teen movie, American Graffitti, really tapped this method of movie making, which sets out to capture a place and/or time, rather than focus on any particular story. Not to say you can paste together a bunch of uninteresting stroies together and call it a movie, because there are a lot of variables that have to mesh. But what you usually have with some of the more memorable teen movies, is decent acting, decent stories, evocative soundtracks, and great editing. These movies are always greater than the sum of any one character or stories, though the movie itself can become iconic. Maybe Fast Times wasn't intentionally nostalgic the way Graffitti or Dazed was, but over the course of time, it has become a sort of snapshot to a bigone day, thus invoking nostalgia for some. Surely, something must be said for not delving to deeply into these kids' psyche, because these movies play out like real life in that manner - how deeply did we know our class mates? We knew snippets of their lives when ever they interacted with us and the best of the teen flicks present their characters in much the same way.

Porky's makes the same mistake the TV show Happy Days made - it was supposed to be a period piece, a paper-thin excuse for a nostalgic look at the early '60s which was mainly personallity driven with poorly conceived characters, contrived stories, no attention to detail and no real sense for the period. These movies always seem to have some shark-jumping prank right in the beginning too. Unfortunately, this became a blueprint for a slew of dumb, forgetable movies. The Hollywood Knights is another excuse for a nostalgia movie which, like Porky's, was just a vehicle for vulgar prank after vulgar prank. And like Porky's, they try to mix in a serious subplot involving one of the characters going off to Vietnam - with Porky's it was racial/cultural prejudice. Unfortunately, its the premise of both movies that while you can spend an entire movie exposing your private parts for a laugh, people will care what you think with regards to social/political matters.

In short - the best teen movies capture a feeling of nostalgia for a place in time and not so much the stories or characters themselves...and you can count those movies on one hand.

[dean_martin]

Great post 3LB!

I forgot about American Graffiti. I guess that's why I didn't include the 60s. And Porky's...well it came out in 81 or 82 but I think it depicts the 50s or very early 60s - another one I forgot.

1990s:
The Faculty - not your typical teen movie, maybe a genre bender crossing with SciFi/Horror, but it's a fun one.
American Pie (of Porky's lineage?)
The reference to Heathers (1989) reminded me of Pump Up the Volume (1990) both of which seem to be intentionally anti-John Hughes films

[GMichael]

Too bad this is restricted to HS or we could have mentioned the two classics, Animal House and Revenge of The Nerds. Maybe another thread.

[Auricauricle]

When I think about the eighties, there are three movie themes/genres that stick out:

Slasher horror: Friday the Thirteenth is the epitome of this one. Teens go to camp and get sliced and diced. Also note Halloween and Fright Night.

Capitalism/excess: Risky Business. Tom Cruise had the movie scene locked up, IMO. Every boy wanted to be him, every girl wanted to be Rebecca de Mornay. Also note Ferris Buhler's Day Off.

Red Peril: The Russians were on our door step, and Reagan and his crew made sure we knew it. Note War Games and the inevitable Stallone fare (Rocky 3 [the one with the Russian dude] and Rambo Goes to Afghanistan).

[3LB]

Tom Cruise had the movie scene locked up, IMO. Every boy wanted to be him, every girl wanted to be Rebecca de Mornay.

Every guy wanted to be like Joel (in the movie) and every guy wanted every girl to be Rebecca de Mornay

Speaking of de Mornay, while she was perfectly beguiling in Risky Bidness, she was a spotty actress in everything else I've seen her in.

As for teen flicks, remember when most of the '50s movies about teens were horror flicks? Oh, there were a few exceptions, like Rebel Without A Cause or other 'rebel' type movies with the roles of teens played by people in their late 20s, early 30s.

And don't forget 16 Candles starring once again, Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall (actually, I think this movie predates Breakfast Club). Its hard to buy the teen angst thing from such shiny, pristine rich people.

The oft used plot device in '80s teen flicks was the unrequited love story where protagonist secretly loves the unobtainable popular kid while their opposite sex best friend is secretly in love with the protagonist; Somekind Of Wonderful is another Huges film that gets somewhat overlooked, while at the same time, it may be his best stab at the unrequited love angle. Another movie in a similar vein was The Last American Virgin, with its tagline of "See it or be it!", you'd think just another teen sexploitation film, but the story is much different, the protagonist is actually likable, and the ending is the kind of punch in the nuts that makes you hate the opposite sex.

[dean_martin]

Great point on teen horror movies of the 50s and 60s! Similar to the teen/slasher films of the 80s mentioned by Aa. Geez, now I'm thinking of the Juvenile Delinquent films of the 50s culminating with John Waters' homage Cry Baby.

Teen movies are more varied than what was in the front of my brain when starting this thread. I blame those damn brat-pack movies of the 80s.

[Smokey]

Here are couple from my collection.

From 70's......Cooley High


From 80's......Outsiders

[BallinWithNash]

00's step it up 2 ... dont laugh at me haha

[ForeverAutumn]

The Outsiders is a great choice Smokey! It was a great book too. While we're at it let's not forget Rumble Fish and Stand By Me.

And for the dark side in me...River's Edge.

[Auricauricle]

Teen movies are more varied than what was in the front of my brain when starting this thread. I blame those damn brat-pack movies of the 80s.

I'm with ya there! Never got into that Molly Ringwald, et al. thing. My brother, OTO, had a serious crush on the girl...

[3LB]

aahhh...The Outsiders. Talk about yer style over substance.

a Francis Ford Coppola vanity project (along with Rumble Fish) in which FFC focused so much of his energy trying to capture a "look" that he sort of just let the actors interpret the characters any old whichway - some underacted, some overacted. The dialog and acting in these movies were sometimes unintentionally funny, some of the scene were overly sentimental, or as I said in another thread from a few years back,"one of those over stylized 'coming of age' movies where style is emphasized over story/character development and acting ability is optional"

[ForeverAutumn]

Never got into that Molly Ringwald, et al. thing. My brother, OTO, had a serious crush on the girl...

My husband's brother still does!

[Auricauricle]

You think we can blame Kasdan and crew (The Big Chill) fer all this mess?

[dean_martin]

just remembered watching a film from 2001 called Bully based on a true story. Man, that was like watching the aftermath of a bad car wreck. I couldn't turn away. If that accurately depicts the state of a significant portion of our youth today, then we're in trouble.

Bully is from Larry Clark who gave us "Kids"(1995) - turned it off within the first 20 minutes. Can't say it's a bad movie but it was hard to watch because my boys were about the same age of the characters at the time.

[bobsticks]

I'm down with 16 Candles, I'm rollin' with the homies, and me and Christian Slater both have our "Ich Luga" bullets...

...but c'mon, the mother of all teen movies (not chronologically) is the parody of all teen movies...

[thekid]

My 2 cents....

50's - The Blackboard Jungle
60's - To Sir With Love
70's - Summer of 42' or Breaking Away ( a bit of a stretch because it post HS/pre-college
80's - Risky Business
90's - Clueless

[Auricauricle]

This was pretty big when I was comin' up.

[Groundbeef]

@3LB

I grew up in an area (and went to school) with lots of kids who lived in homes like those in 16 Candles/Pretty in Pink/Breakfast Club.

Just because people have money doesn't preclude them from having problems. In some ways the money exccaserbated problems, because they were "priviledged". I think it's fairly common for people to wonder why rich people have issues, I often daydream about winning the lottery because "it would solve everything". But it doesn't. And living near very wealthy people and going to school with their children only made that clear.

I liked the Breakfast Club, and frankly I thought it was pretty spot on.

[ForeverAutumn]

I grew up in an area (and went to school) with lots of kids who lived in homes like those in 16 Candles/Pretty in Pink/Breakfast Club.

Just because people have money doesn't preclude them from having problems. In some ways the money exccaserbated problems, because they were "priviledged". I think it's fairly common for people to wonder why rich people have issues, I often daydream about winning the lottery because "it would solve everything". But it doesn't. And living near very wealthy people and going to school with their children only made that clear.

I liked the Breakfast Club, and frankly I thought it was pretty spot on.

LOL. That's exactly my experience. I grew up in a lower middle class neighbourhood. When high school came around, my parents shipped me off to a school in a much wealthier part of town hoping that something (not sure what) would rub off on me. What I learned was that rich kids had the same problems as all my other friends, only often the problems were worse because people did expect more from them because of their wealth.

I also learned that rich kids could afford better drugs and were very generous with them. Which was a great irony since one of the reasons that my parents shipped me off was to get me away from that sort of thing.

[Auricauricle]

I liked the Breakfast Club, and frankly I thought it was pretty spot on.

This is an interesting aside, Beef. I watched these movies thinking that the characters were rather prototypical and idealized. At the risk of exposing my ignorance, most people I have known of the Molly Ringwald set were quite genteel and well-behaved; not quite the jet-set, supercilious and petty sort depicted in Pretty in Pink, etc.

[Groundbeef]

This is an interesting aside, Beef. I watched these movies thinking that the characters were rather prototypical and idealized. At the risk of exposing my ignorance, most people I have known of the Molly Ringwald set were quite genteel and well-behaved; not quite the jet-set, supercilious and petty sort depicted in Pretty in Pink, etc.

Just in public. Must keep up apperances and all stuff.

[Auricauricle]

Noblesse oblige!