’80s Teen Classics Revisited
If you were the kind of teenager that I was, movies could have a profound effect on your life. I watched … And Justice for All when I was 13 (apparently my older sister thought it was a good idea to take a 13 year old to a film that deals with rape and suicide), which inspired my decision to get a law degree. Did I buy legwarmers, a black leotard and an off-the-shoulder top after watching Jennifer Beals in Flashdance? Guilty. Did I write a fan letter to Matthew Broderick after I saw War Games? I’d really rather not say. But how do the movies that shaped our youth hold up now? A quick spool through the highlights reel reveals some surprising twists.
Endless Love. 1981
Even the poster for this got my heart beating: “She is 15. He is 17. The Love Every Parent Fears”. Brooke Shields was the impossibly beautiful early ’80s It girl who inspired us to let our eyebrows run wild. Endless Love’s heated sex scenes had many of us returning for a second viewing. (Fireplace. That’s all I’ll say.) Directed by Franco Zeffirelli – who loved soft focus before movie stars wrote it into their contracts – Endless Love makes for fairly creepy viewing today. Does Brooke’s mother in the movie have an unhealthy interest in the young couple? Yes. Does Brooke feel desperate enough when she’s separated from her lover to take sleeping pills? Uh-huh. Does – spoiler alert – her star-crossed lover THEN SET HER FAMILY HOME ON FIRE resulting in him going to an institution? Oh my goodness. And she goes back to him after his jail sentence. Ugh.
Anthem: Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross’ Endless Love, which seemed romantic at the time and appears obsessive now: “My love, there’s only you in my life/ The only thing that’s bright.” Viewer advisory: Watch until it starts to feel like a benevolent take on stalker series You, then promptly turn off.
The Breakfast Club. 1985
One of director John Hughes’ teen classics – there’s also Pretty in Pink and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – this film focuses on five high schoolers who spend a Saturday in detention. There’s the athlete (Emilio Estevez), the rebel (Judd Nelson), the prom queen (Molly Ringwald), the weirdo (Ally Sheedy) and the geek (Anthony Michael Hall). They spend the day arguing, mucking around, swearing and smoking pot, but ultimately get to know each other better and shed those preconceptions. Good message, right? Ah, not when you read an article that Molly Ringwald penned for The New Yorker, in which she reveals what it was like to watch it again with her young daughter. “I worried that [my daughter] would find aspects of it troubling, but I hadn’t anticipated that it would ultimately be most troubling for me,” she wrote. Most problematically, Ringwald’s character is felt under a table – without consent – by rebel guy Bender, who sexually harasses her throughout the movie. Ringwald points out, “He never apologises for any of it, but, nevertheless, he gets the girl in the end.”
Anthem: Don’t You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds, which stands up better than the movie does.Viewer advisory: Through a modern lens it’s hard to overlook the icky bits (see also: Roman Polanski movies), but it’s worth noting that today’s teens find this movie as relevant as we did.
Little Darlings. 1980
Another beloved movie that looks very different in the #MeToo era. Rough-around-the-edges Angel (Kristy McNichol) finds herself at summer camp with the wealthy Ferris (Tatum O’Neal); they engage in a bet to see who can lose their virginity first, involving the whole camp in the wager. I mean, STOP. NOW. If you think that’s the worst part, brace yourself: Ferris, 15 in the movie, tries to seduce a much older camp leader (14 years older than the teenager in real life) while Angel gets it on with a moody Matt Dillon. Special mention: Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon plays a hippie teen named Sunshine.
Anthem: No, but there is a memorable scene with Blondie’s One Way or Another playing. It’s probably the best moment of the movie. Viewer advisory: Just. Say. No.
About Last Night. 1986
Demi Moore and Rob Lowe star as a couple who become madly smitten with one another and then need to work out what the pull is: sex or love? What elevated this movie then was the script, based on the David Mamet play Sexual Perversity in Chicago. This is what St Elmo’s Fire was aiming for – an angsty, talk piece, essentially – but it never achieved this film’s rawness. Shout out to Demi Moore’s ’80s feathered fringe.
Anthem: Bob Seger’s Living Inside My Heart plays its achy breaky tune when your heart is already about to explode. It’s a perfect pairing. Viewer advisory: Still holds up.
Heathers. 1989
Although they were never part of the so-called Brat Pack (see: St Elmo’s Fire), there was hardly anyone cooler at the time than Winona Ryder and Christian Slater. What made this hit the right notes – then and now – is that it parodied the cult-like experience of being in a teenage clique, and then dyed that concept 10 shades darker. The premise: four teenage girls – three of them named Heather – take joy in humiliating their less popular classmates. When Ryder’s character gets a boyfriend, the trio pay the ultimate price for their bad deeds. Heathers has lasted the distance to become a cult classic and garner both a TV show and stage musical. Best line: “My teen angst has a body count.”
Anthem: Not one but two versions of the song Que Sera Sera were used but neither were the Doris Day original; she wouldn’t have her name associated with the movie’s profanity. Viewer advisory: Everyone holds up. Have you watched Ryder lately in Stranger Things? She’s a stayer.
Words_ Rachelle Unreich