Teen Films of the 80s

I have been going in chronological order by decade from the first post, so for this post I am going to jump to something different. When trying to think of the topic for this week's post, I happened to notice a recurring pattern in films from the 80s that I have seen. The theme that I have observed is the aim towards a teen-aged audience that these films displayed.


The trend for youth films began with a number of late 70s and early 80s films with young actors and actresses. One theory is that the trend toward teen-aged cinema can be attributed to the tremendous success of Star Wars (1977) with youth audiences. The films were geared for entertaining teenagers and younger pre-teen audiences (both were becoming sizeable segments of movie theatre attendance). At the end of the previous decade, Steve Tesich's Oscar-winning screenplay helped to highlight Peter Yates' oft-overlooked, youthful film Breaking Away (1979), about four boys (Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, and Jackie Earle Haley) and their frustrations/hopes in a recession-affected Midwest college town - it was a portent of the times. Writer/director Barry Levinson's debut film Diner (1982) was a bitter-sweet, rites-of-passage tale of six male buddies in their twenties growing up in the late fifties in Baltimore and hanging out in the local diner, Fells Point - with remarkably realistic dialogue scenes. [Levinson would proceed in making other Baltimore-themed films in the same decade, including Tin Men (1987) and Avalon (1990) - and later Liberty Heights (1999).]

One of the earliest youth-oriented films was actually responsible for also launching the teen-sex film. This film was Porky's (1982) (followed by its sequels: Porky's II: The Next Day (1983) and Porky's Revenge (1985)). The R-rated film was typical of sex-drenched, lame films (with lots of gratuitous female nudity) telling about a group of horny males who sought sexual experiences and the loss of virginity through various sexual encounters and schemes (often humiliating) and by voyeurism. Further exploitative comedies were released, such as Screwballs (1983), Revenge of the Nerds (1984), and Hot Dog: The Movie (1984).
Female director Amy Heckerling's energetic, candid and unassumingly real Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), her directorial debut feature film, was the quintessential teen film of the 1980s. It included a number of stereotyped but realistic roles derived from screenwriter Cameron Crowe's (a former Rolling Stone writer) undercover study-exposé of L.A. high school life during a year at a San Diego HS:

• stoned, unforgettable, bleached blonde California surfer dude Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) with checkered sneakers: "I've been stoned since the third grade"
• pudgy teenaged high-school freshman Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who awkwardly lost her virginity in a baseball dugout to older stereo salesman Ron Johnson (D.W. Brown), and after another sexual experience became pregnant and had an abortion
• Stacy's 'worldly' friend Linda Barrett (Phoebe Cates) who taught her with a carrot, in the school's cafeteria, about how to deliver oral sex
• strict US history teacher Mr. Hand (Ray Walston)
• ticket-scalping lecherous male Mike Damone (Robert Romanus) who impregnated Stacy during a quick sexual encounter in a pool bathhouse

[The film was also notable for being the American Graffitti (1973) and American Pie (1999) of its decade, because it introduced so many new and future stars, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates, Judge Reinhold, Sean Penn, Forest Whitaker, Eric Stoltz, Nicolas Cage, and Anthony Edwards).]
Heckerling's only other notable film in her career was another teenage film - Clueless (1995) - a satirical, funny tale that was loosely based on Jane Austen's Emma, about an adorable but rich, bratty, self-obsessed and shallow Beverly Hills teenager named Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone), memorable for her color-coordinated designer wardrobe, and rich California slang.
Also, Francis Ford Coppola's two films of disaffected, angst-ridden youth in the early 80s were both adapted from S.E. Hinton novels and starred Matt Dillon:

• The Outsiders (1983) - with the tagline: "They grew up on the outside of society. They weren't looking for a fight. They were looking to belong" - about 1960s Oklahoma teens divided into two gangs: the underprivileged greasers and elitist Socs (pronounced so-shes); with mostly unknown actors who would later become stars -- Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, and Matt Dillon, and known for the catchphrase: "Let's do it for Johnny!"
• Rumble Fish (1983) - about the love between two brothers: The Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke) and kid brother gang leader Rusty James (Matt Dillon); made as an experimental art film in black and white

In the 1980s, the most consistent output, and the most watchable and solid films of the sub-genre of youth-oriented teen comedies starring teenage characters (who were experiencing adolescent angst) were from writer/director John Hughes. Hughes had first made himself known in the early 80s by co-writing National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) and scripting Mr. Mom (1983). He was responsible for a number of comedic, "teen"-oriented coming-of-age or 'rites of passage' films directed toward a youth audience, frequently emphasizing the tensions of the adolescent and post-adolescent years, the problems of growing up, the high school years, aspects of peer pressure, teen parties, money, rebellion, friendship, romantic relationships among teens, and family strains.

Paul Brickman's satirically funny Risky Business (1983) (with its quoted line: "What the f--k?") commented on the decade's materialistic greed by portraying a conservative teen named Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise in an early starring role) - noted for dancing in his underwear to "Old Time Rock & Roll" - who held an outrageous party in his house, and set up a profitable hooker-business (with call-girl Rebecca DeMornay) as a school project during his parents' absence. And director Susan Seidelman's successfully-marketed feminist screwball comedy Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) starred Rosanna Arquette and pop singer Madonna (in her film debut). It was set in the hip, 80's New Wave culture of New York's Lower East Village SoHo, and helped popularize the chart-topping song "Into the Groove." One of the best teen movies ever made was Rob Reiner's second feature film -- the romantic comedy The Sure Thing (1985), with 17 year-old John Cusack (as Walter "Gib" Gibson) searching for romance with beautiful, white-bikinied and California-tanned Nicollette Sheridan ("The Sure Thing") while finding real love with prim student Alison Bradbury (Daphne Zuniga) on the roof-top by film's end.

One of the best teen romance/comedies of the decade was Cameron Crowe's directorial debut film Say Anything... (1989) with John Cusack (as underachieving, trench-coated Lloyd Dobler) and Ione Skye (as beautiful valedictorian Diane Court) in outstanding roles as high-school graduates and unlikely lovers - the film was most noted for a boom-box blaring Peter Gabriel that he held above his head to serenade his girlfriend. Paul Schrader's naturalistic, melodramatic Light of Day (1987) starred Michael J. Fox and real-life rock star Joan Jett (in her debut film) as brother and sister (in a dysfunctional family headed by Gena Rowlands), who played rock musicians in a local Cleveland band named the Barbusters.

By really looking into why these films were so popular during this time period, I have found that it seems to be a similar trend to my previous blog post about the fifties, in that it was Hollywood’s way of attempting to cater to the appropriate audience to make the most profit. This theme, however, is still seen today, and I don’t think that Hollywood is going to begin to ignore the teen-aged film audience anytime soon.

Sources:
Teen Movies: American Youth on Screen by Timothy Shary
Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers by Alissa Quart
Fast Times: The Rise and Fall of the Teen Romantic Comedies of the 1980s by Erin Nicole Ford University of Tennessee - Knoxville
http://www.imdb.com/

Marilyn Monroe

The 50s were known for many things: post-war affluence with increased choice of leisure time activities, conformity, the Korean War, middle-class values, the rise of modern jazz, the rise of 'fast food' restaurants and drive-ins, a baby boom, the ideal all-electric home, the advent of television and TV dinners, and the rise of drive-in theaters. These drive-in theaters rose to a peak number in the late 50s with over 4,000 outdoor screens, where young teen-aged couples could find privacy in their hot-rods, and a youth reaction to middle-aged cinema. Older viewers were prone to stay at home and watch television (about 10.5 million US homes had a TV set in 1950). 

This should give you a good idea of the atmosphere that was present during this time. I could have called this post 'the 50s, but I thought I'd try something different, and tie the themes of the decade back to Marilyn Monroe, an icon of the time period. 

In the period following WWII when most of the films were idealized with conventional portrayals of men and women, young people wanted new and exciting symbols of rebellion. Hollywood responded to audience demands - the late 1940s and the 1950s saw the rise of the anti-hero - with stars like newcomers James Dean, Paul Newman  and Marlon Brando, replacing more proper actors like Tyrone Power, Van Johnson, and Robert Taylor. In later decades, this new generation of method actors would be followed by Robert DeNiro, Jack Nicholson, and Al Pacino. Sexy anti-heroines included Ava Gardner, Kim Novak, and an exciting vibrant sexy star :Marilyn Monroe.

The fifties gave rise to a new youth-oriented, teenage film industry. Marilyn Monroe was a symbol of this. She began as a model for a professional photographer in 1945. In 1946, she signed her first movie as an actress with 20th Century-Fox: The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, in which she played a small role as a telephone operator. The next year, her contract with Fox allowed her to appear in two more films: Scudda Hoo, Scudda Hay!, and Dangerous Years. After that, her contract was not renewed, so she resorted back to work in the modeling business. Although she starred in other movies before the fifties, her anonymous nude photo-shoot in the first issue of playboy magazine in 1949 is one of the first things that jump-started her popularity in Hollywood. It was something that was widely looked down upon at the time, but she insisted that the only reason she did it was that she was desperate to pay her rent. Her personal life began to be closely followed by many people the same as our modern-day celebrities. A photograph of the baseball player, Joe DiMaggio, visiting Monroe at the 20th Century Fox studio was printed in newspapers throughout the United States, and reports of a developing romance between them generated further interest in Monroe.

She would go on to become what we now know her as within the following years. The year before she signed her first contract with Fox, Emelline Snively told her, "You're very girl-next-doorish." Her face and figure were thought of as pleasing, even provocative, but not yet compelling perfect female shapes on screen. She learned, from being in films, very specific things to do with her face and body to make her appearance on screen just as Hollywood and her viewers wanted it to be. An example of this is that she had to learn to smile with her upper lip drawn down in order to minimize the length of her nose. 

Part of the reason that a sex icon was valued in Hollywood at the time, was Hollywood's war on television. With access to free viewing of films and shows from home, the number of people going out to view movies was decreasing rapidly. Among other strategies to encourage viewers to come to the theater, using sexy and attractive stars in films, such as Marilyn Monroe, was one of the most commonly used. A good example of this is the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Monroe plays the role of a money-thirsty showgirl who is required to sing, and dance in addition to acting in the film. 

As you can see from this clip from the film, there were a lot of bright colors and extravagant filming techniques used to catch the attention of the viewer. Such was one of the most common themes in Hollywood during this decade, and Marilyn Monroe was a very good example of this.

sources:

http://www.filmsite.org/50sintro.html

Heavenly Bodies: film stars and studies by Richard Dyer

Legend: The Life and Death of Marilyn Monroe by Fred Lawrence Guiles

Marilyn Monroe: a life of the actress by Carl Edmund Rollyson

The 1940s

The first post was about the film history and themes of the thirties. I chose to start with this decade, because it was the time period that defined the starting point for a standardized film industry, in that films had to start following certain rules and guidelines. It was also the beginning of fully colored films. I thought, therefore, that it would be appropriate to make my next post about the forties to hit on some of the early themes found in Hollywood's history. I don't want this to be a boring history lesson, but I think it's important to first look to our past to understand how the historical events and culture of the time shape the industry of film.

So let's begin. At this time, the nation was fighting a monumental battle overseas: World War II, the defining event of the decade for the movie industry and the nation at large. The interests of the nation and the industry and never been so closely aligned, and never had the industry's status as a national cinema been so important. From the years of 1942 to 1945, the industry produced a large amount of war films, for obvious reasons. Hollywood became very successful, and enjoyed what may have been its finest hour as a social institution and a cultural force. This is an important decade for Hollywood. This period of time pushed box office revenues and studio profits to record levels. The entire decade was not this way though.The 40s, in terms of the film industry, is usually  broken down into three distinct parts: the prewar, wartime, and postwar periods.

Lets start with the prewar period (1940-41). The end of the thirties was considered to be the flowering of the "golden age" of Hollywood, which is ironic in that the industry itself was sinking economically. Films such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Gone With the Wind were released right at the turn of the decade, and are considered to be some of the most memorable films of the time. The beginning of the war shifted Hollywood into a different gear. The production of many war-related films ensued, and in a lot of ways prevented the industry from degrading into something completely different.

The wartime period was a time in which a lot of war movies were produced, although the biggest blockbusters and the most memorable films of this time, for the most part, were films, indirectly related to the war, that allowed audiences an escape from a world consumed with fighting. 1942 was the year that Casablanca was released in theaters, for example. It is widely considered to be one of the most, if not the most, monumental films of the decade. Some of the most popular escapist films that were released during this time were produced by Disney. These films included Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi. Most of the films released during this time are still widely known today as opposed to the previous decade in which the average person would not recognize many of the movie titles. This period of time saw record numbers of people in theaters viewing the most recent hit movies, as well as many people going to the theaters to view the same movie multiple times. All these things contributed to films becoming widely popular and well-known. This is thought to have been a time in which a multitude of classics were born.

The postwar era of the forties is the last time period that I want to examine. At the end of this decade, reeling from depression, war, problems involving the return to peacetime, and the ominous arrival of the atomic bomb, the world was a more cynical, chaotic, economically-unsure and "film-noirish" place. Studios were also forced to re-evaluate their roles and approaches, with lawsuits that stripped the studios of their lucrative practices. By the late 1940s, the motion picture industry surely faced its period of greatest crisis and challenge, with the depressing bleakness of the Cold War on the horizon.


Here is a clip of the film Casablanca, courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Sources:
History of the American Cinema Vol. 6 by Thomas Schatz
http://www.filmsite.org/filmh.html

1930s clips and sources

Sources:
http://newdeal.feri.org/nchs/lesson01.htm
http://www.learner.org/courses/amerhistory/pdf/Great-Dep_L-One.pdf
http://www.filmsite.org/filmh.html
http://www.ils.unc.edu/dpr/path/goldenhollywood/
http://allmovie.com/
https://304sophs.wikispaces.com/The+Great+Depression

The 1930s

For my first actual post, lets look at the films of the thirties and how they were related to or inspired by this time period. the people of the this time took part in the longest, most widespread, and deepest depression of the 20th century, which has proved to be the most identifiable aspect of the history of this time. it was at the core of thought for many people, and thus greatly inspired certain themes in the world of film.

The thirties also gave birth to what is commonly referred to nostalgically as "The Golden Age of Hollywood". During this period, new genres were created, new stars were born, and the studio system grew enormously. eight major studios collectively produced 95 % of all American films during this time. More than 7,500 films were made by the studios between 1930 and 1945 to eager audiences. More than eighty million people attended at least one film per week at the height of the cinema's popularity, despite the economic depression. This period also saw the introduction of the Production Code, B-Films, and the first animated feature of Snow White as well as the first color films. (Below is the first color short: "Flowers and Trees" a Disney animation from "Silly Symphony".)

The films of this time seemed to follow themes inspired directly from the Great Depression. These themes have been broken down into:

1.Gangsters
2.Urban Civilization
3.Anarcho-Nihilist Comedies (Comedies reflecting the bitterness and despair of the thirties; the purposefulness of chaos)
4.Musicals

Let's start with gangster films of the thirties. They all seemed to express a concern for law and violence as well as mobility and the failure of legitimate institutions. A good example of this would be the gangster classic "Little Caesar" that was produced at the beginning of the decade. It is primarily about the country boy turned gangster, Rico "Little Caesar" Bandelli, attempting to 'rise to the top'. This was a significant film because it was a sensory revelation that actualized the violence that had been suggested purely by visuals in previous gangster classics. At the time, the violence in this film was shocking and visceral. This was highly appealing to audiences at the time, which caused an explosion of similar films to be made. This is interesting in that this was a time in which violence, specifically racial, was surging in our country.

Lets move on to urban civilization. The shared aspect of movies of this theme was the moral corruption of the city. The idea was that the corrput evildoers lived in the city. This is a concept that stems from the popular hatred of people conceived to have money and power at the time. A good example of this concept embodied in film is "Lawyer-Man". The story is of a man who misues the law to work his way up the ladder to assistant prosecutor. Things end poorly for him, but he learns to straighten out his ways in the end.

Anarcho-Nihilist Comedies were important and prevalent during this time period specifically because of the reminder that chaos is important and can be good that they gave people. A very popular example of this style of comedy is the film "Duck Soup". It was considered to be one of the funniest comedies of the decade, and has a very absurd plotline. Even now, it is interesting and entertaining to watch.

The last category, musicals, is quite possibly the most important. This is because they served as an escape for the people of this time. They were considered to be very engaging at the time, and you can observe that they used very many visual aspects to capture their audience, and allow them to forget about the outside world. Examples of this include attractive women, elaborate costumes and sets, and the beginning of a more complex choreography in musicals.

I will post a clip of each movie mentioned as well as my sources of reference shortly.

Introduction

I am just creating this small first blog as an introduction to what this page is about. I am going to be comparing films to the times in which they were made, specifically the stories they told. I believe there is a direct correlation between these two, and hope to explore different time periods, and learn much about why certain themes recurred throughout the history of film.




Here is a random clip of an experimental film made in 1894.

 courtesy of http://2url.org/movies