My Five Favorite Teen Movies of the 1980s (Part Two: ‘85-’89)
The madness continues
The 1980s were, in my clearly biased opinion, the Golden Age of teen movies. Today I wrap up the list of my favorites from that most excellent era, this time covering the second half of the decade, 1985 through 1989. The list from the years 1980 to 1984 received a fair number of comments and suggestions both here and on Facebook, with my exclusion of Risky Business being the most mentioned. If you want to check out that first piece, you can find it below.
As I noted in that first article, the films from 1980 to 1984 coincided nicely with my four years of high school, both the best and worst time to be a teenager. Moving past those years, I was still a teen in 1985 and remained stubbornly immature well into my 20s (some would rudely say this has held true up to the present day), so I feel comfortable ranking these films through the lens of one who was a teen then.
I did notice a trend with the movies I list here, an overarching theme that was also partially present in the last list. In the song “Backstreets,” Bruce Springsteen (yes, him again) sings the following verse:
“Remember all the movies, Terry, we’d go see Trying to learn how to walk like the heroes we thought we had to be”
Unconsciously or not, the heroes we see on screen impact us in the real world. And while an Act of Congress could not make me as cool as Steve McQueen and an act of God couldn’t make me John Wayne, I could be the heroes from these films, at least theoretically. Whether I ever actually managed it remains an unanswered question.
That said, here are my five favorite teen movies from the second half of the 1980s. I will also warn you at the outset that this list will likely generate far more disagreement than the previous one, for two films in particular that did not make the cut. Their omission is significant enough that I will address it at the end.
1. The Breakfast Club (1985). I almost couldn’t call myself a member of Generation X if I didn’t put this one on the list. It is the touchstone film of a generation, coming appropriately exactly midway through the decade. Featuring five of the key Brat Pack members in all their early glory, it’s detention the way we all wish it had been. It’s the only teen film that gave equal time to the personified version of each of the cliques we were either part of or excluded from: the Nerd, the Princess, the Jock, the Basket Case, and the Criminal. And for one brief, shining moment every teenage guy in America (myself included) wanted to be Judd Nelson, a desire that has never happened again.
2. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986). Kids whose parents were not yet born when this film was released are wearing “Save Ferris” T-shirts and “Bueller?” has become a part of the national lexicon, which is all the proof you need of the cultural impact of this day-of-skipping-school romp on steroids. And if you love the end credits scenes in all the Marvel movies, thank this film; Ferris did it more than two decades before Iron Man (and Ryan Reynolds hilariously parodied it in Deadpool).
Ferris pulled off in one day more than most of us will in our entire lives, and we loved him for it. Skipping school to catch a Cubs game is one thing; leading a parade through downtown Chicago while lip synching to Twist and Shout is something else entirely (outwitting every adult in the film is simply standard ’80s teen fare). If nothing else, Ferris taught us that “life moves pretty fast, and if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
3. Adventures in Babysitting (1987). This comedy of errors took an unusual turn by making the more dangerous aspects of Chicago one of the main characters; this was not the sanitized, idealized Chicago of a John Hughes film like Ferris Bueller. It also did not feature any of the ubiquitous Brat Pack stars of the era, relying on Elisabeth Shue to carry the story almost singlehandedly, which she pulled off superbly. I also liked that the kids, who were from Oak Park, went to Hemingway High School; Oak Park was where Ernest Hemingway was born, so it’s a nice nod to the legendary author. And yes, kids, there was actually a time when we had to make a collect call from a payphone. Wikipedia can explain to you what both of those things were.
The thing I like most about this movie, though, is the music they used. Southside Johnny shows up during a frat party scene (giving the film a tangential Springsteen connection). It’s the only film on this list to feature the Rolling Stones classic “Gimme Shelter,” something that would surely make Martin Scorsese proud. Iggy Pop and Sam Cooke songs also show up, a pairing that has probably never happened on film before or since. And then there’s the blues bar scene with the late, great Albert Collins, definitely one of the best in the film.
4. Heathers (1989). Surely the darkest film on this list, and the darkest of the teen flicks that doesn’t fall squarely into the horror genre, this black comedy continues to enjoy a cult following today. If James Ellroy and Quentin Tarantino split a bottle of mezcal and wrote an ’80s teen movie, this would be it. The dialogue is a veritable treasure trove of one-liners, with “Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?” and “Fuck me gently with a chainsaw” being among my favorites. Christian Slater and Winona Rider make a believably homicidal couple, but it is Slater doing his best Jack Nicholson impersonation for nearly two hours that wins the day.
5. Say Anything (1989). As I mentioned before, by 1989 I was 23 years old and teen films were already starting to move into nostalgia for me. Say Anything was different, however. Main character Lloyd Dobler (played by ’80s teen icon John Cusack) may have only been 19, but he was wise beyond his years. He summed up my thoughts, then and now, with the following speech:
“I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that.”
Amen, Lloyd. This started a run of me wanting to be Cusack (or at least the characters he played) that continued with Grosse Point Blank, High Fidelity, and Serendipity (all non-teen movies), though none came close to touching Lloyd in terms of sheer awesomeness. From the often imitated but never duplicated boombox scene to one of the most devastating lines ever (“I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen”), Lloyd Dobler was the hero we all most wanted to walk like, especially if it got the attention of Ione Skye.
Now for the two I mentioned earlier that did not make this list, the ones that may have you screaming at your screens right now. The first is Back to the Future (1985). I realize that Eric Pierce may ban me from Fanfare at the least and put out a hit on me at the worst. However, for me this is not a teen movie, even though Michael J. Fox plays a teenager. It’s a sci-fi comedy, which is something totally different.
The other “classic” that is absolutely not one of my favorites is Pretty in Pink (1986). It is omitted because it’s a crap film, so bad that the first ending was so ludicrous test audiences forced John Hughes to change it. In what universe would Molly Ringwald ever choose Ducky over rich hunk Blaine? Ringwald herself has stated in interviews that she believes Ducky’s character was actually gay, something that John Hughes would not have made explicit as it was still Ronald Reagan’s America. If you originally got the ending that wrong, there are clearly more problems with the film. I am also still salty that one of the best soundtracks of the 1980s was saddled with this travesty of a film. The Psychedelic Furs, The Smiths, New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, and INXS deserved better. Hate me in the comments if you must; I said what I said.
Here are five honorable mentions covering the entire decade to wrap up: Porky’s (1981), Risky Business (1983), The Outsiders (1983), Sixteen Candles (1984), and Can’t Buy Me Love (1987). As before, let me know your favorites in the comments.
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