Hollywood targeted teenagers as far back as Andy Hardy but, as John Hughes’ death in 2009 reminded us, the 1980s are remembered by many as the golden age of teen movies. In The Ultimate History of the ‘80s Teen Movie, British film critic James King looks back at the decade of The Breakfast Club and Footloose and finds much to disdain as well as admire.
He sets the context simply enough: America, having endured Vietnam and Watergate, just wanted to have fun in the last years of the ‘70s. Gritty cinematic realism was suddenly in less demand, with John Travolta as the bridge between The Godfather and Sixteen Candles via the disco dance floor. He wanted to be Al Pacino. Thanks to Saturday Night Fever, a hit among younger audiences, he ended up as a poster boy in an ice cream suit. That he was already too old to star in a John Hughes movie by the time of Sixteen Candles was his tragedy.
King closely examines some two dozen ‘80s movies. One of the pacesetters, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, was adapted from the undercover reporting of Rolling Stones’ Cameron Crowe, youthful enough to infiltrate a high school and record his observations and interactions. As a result, Fast Times came closer to an insider’s perspective rather than the usual middle-aged guesswork. The ‘80s ended with a film from a much different high school, Dead Poets Society, whose Eisenhower-era private academy was recognized as a stand-in for the Reagan years. Almost miraculously, Dead Poets Society was saved from being turned into drivel. The studio wanted the movie to be about dancing, not poetry, but somehow good judgement held the line.
King admits that shadows were cast by the likes of Sixteen Candles, including that movie’s implied date rape and lots of sexual smarm. Along with their often implicit racism, many of the era’s teen flicks refused to imagine anything better than a race into the past in a fast car. Back to the Future, indeed.
