I confess it with a complete lack of shame. I love teen movies. Not so much the flatulent ones that have been coming out for the last decade or so, but the classic ones that came out in the 1980’s. C’mon, you know the ones. EVERYONE has seen them. The Breakfast Club. Ferris Bueller’s Day [...]

I confess it with a complete lack of shame. I love teen movies. Not so much the flatulent ones that have been coming out for the last decade or so, but the classic ones that came out in the 1980’s. C’mon, you know the ones. EVERYONE has seen them. The Breakfast Club. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Summer School. Say Anything. Three O’Clock High. The list is long and I like almost all of them.

I was talking to a young guy at work today. The conversation began with the recent death of Paul Gleason, who of course played Principle Richard “Dick” Vernon, from The Breakfast Club. Like so many others, he professed a love of the older teenage movies. He said that he liked the first couple American Pie films (I did too), but he went on to say that with the exception of Dazed and Confused, none of the teen films since the 80’s will stand the test of time. Who will be talking about them in reverential tones in twenty years?

I told him that it was because so many of the later ones simply go for the cheap shot. When he looked puzzled, I explained that so many go for the gag reflex of a grossout, or ridiculously over-the-top sex to get a reaction from viewers. How many (and I’m sure there must be some) really try to go for real emotion? How many have a genuine message like The Breakfast Club? TBC even had the sack to portray pot as something positive. That’s honesty. Because getting high did open a hell of a lot of young people’s eyes over the years.

John Hughes and some of the other writers and directors made honest attempts to get at the real issues and traumas that young people go through. Hughes in particular nailed the styles and music down pat. George Lucas recreated the 50’s wonderfully with American Graffiti, but he did it 20 years later. John Hughes did it while it was happening.

Another thing about these movies that I love is showing them to my kids. When I say 80’s teen movie, they perk up. And they most certainly do not kiss my butt over everything I try to tell them is cool. Sex is an omnipresent part of teenage life and it is dealt with in these films. Yet it is done so in a way that is suggestive. Most of them deal with sexual situations in subtle ways that go right over younger children’s heads. Fast Times At Ridgemont High is the exception in that regard and I still haven’t shown them that one.

I watch these movies obsessively and I will always continue to do so. I still love the styles and music of the time. I was really raised in the 70’s and I thought that most of the music of that period was pretty drab. Same with the 90’s. In the 80’s, with so many of the New Wave groups, at least they were trying to be artistic. Many of them succeeded, I believe.

Yeah, I’m a sentimental old fart that is stuck in the past. Go ahead and laugh. I’ll certainly be laughing as I watch Anthony Michael Hall in Sixteen Candles or Chainsaw and Dave pontificate about the cinematic brilliance of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in Summer School.

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