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There’s nothing more iconic than an ’80s teen movie. They opened the industry to the story of adolescents, resonating with teenagers and revealing what some parents don’t talk about. Today, the influence of the niche genre is seen everywhere, between general pop culture references to entire series inspired by these films.
Newer generations can fall in love with some of these movies. But, others failed to be clever enough, and sometimes progressive enough, to stand the test of time. Looking back at some of these beloved ’80s movies, older fans have to cringe and wonder what they were thinking. At the very least, there are the great ones that continue to live on as cinema legends.
10 Hasn’t Aged Well – Lack Of Representation
In spite of the efforts toward equality for people of all colors, the ’80s teen flicks appeared to leave out almost all people of color from their films. The only notable character from an ’80s teen movie is Long Duck Dong who appears in the film Sixteen Candles.
Long Duck Dong is introduced as the foreign exchange student and is made to look weird and eccentric. His character has little depth. His only traits being that he can’t speak English well and is unconventional – off-putting to the rest of the characters. Racist caricatures like this aren’t a positive or fair representation, especially today.
9 Aged Well – Giving Teenagers A Voice
For many decades, teenagers in popular movies often followed in their parents footsteps. Those particular stories skipped the perspective of the teen. The original idea was that teenagers are only side characters and their stories will be important once they become responsible adults. The ’80s teen movie changed all of that.
’80s teen movies focussed on the adolescents while their parents were the side characters, and The Breakfast Club illustrates this perfectly. The main characters are the 5 students in school for an all-day detention – referred to as the Brat Pack. The only adult with screen time is Vice Principal Richard Vernon, but even he has a small role.
8 Aged Poorly – Treatment Of Female Characters
In a similar vein to lacking representation and diversity, ’80s teen movies also suffer from ill-treatment of their female characters. It’s incredibly rare to find a female character who’s not pushed to the side or oversexualized by male characters. In fact, there’s one movie that excels at this misogyny.
Weird Science features two social outcasts – Gary and Wyatt who need a boost in popularity. Inspired by Frankenstein, they create a beautiful and intelligent virtual woman that magically comes to life. Weird Science perpetuates the idea of woman being toyed with like dolls, the ‘perfect’ woman, and featured a lot of homophobic language. This isn’t an acceptable storyline for women, or anyone, today.
7 Aged Well – Touching On Serious Topics
One of the most notable aspects of the ’80s teen movie is their ability to open conversations on important topics. As ridiculous and tiresome as the nerd-led films are, they did touch upon the teen struggle of class hierarchies. Out of all the ’80s teen movies, the best to tackle serious topics is Heathers.
Playing around with the trope of the popular girl, Heathers follows Veronica as she struggles to stay in her popular clique. She and her boyfriend confront the leader of the group on her cruel behavior but wind up poisoning her to death and calling it suicide. The dark tones of the film might have been a shock back in the day, but Heathers has subtly woven in themes of violence, suicide, alienation, homophobia and rape.
6 Aged Badly – Wild Ideas That Are Taken Nowhere
Crazy ideas didn’t always translate into a strong storyline. Weird Science follows a young teen creating a person from technology – this plot line might be brilliant on its own, but mixed with the unsavory gimmick of the perverted nerd, and it creates a disaster.
If the writers and producers carried the idea with a little more heart and sincerity, then Weird Science could’ve been more relatable and lasted the test of time. Instead, they went for something cheap and weak.
5 Aged Well – A Sense Of Originality
If the ideas behind Weird Science and Teen Wolf were better put together, they’d see more success with today’s audience. It can be hard to find original ideas today because a great deal of them were taken in the ’80s. Any film about teenagers bonding over their problems will be compared to The Breakfast Club. And if any movie fan is looking for a film about a student that commits truancy, look no further than Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
There’s really no character like Ferris Bueller, and his adventures away from high school are so outrageous and original that it’s rewatched by fans yearly. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off also focused on its own original message that has resonated with viewers for decades: “life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around every once in a while, you could miss it.”
4 Aged Poorly – Poor Special Effects
’80s films are known for their remarkable practical effects, but none of that was shared with its teen movies. Granted, the teen flick is more of a slice of life, focusing on the daily struggles of high school students. But, one film tried to play around with the ideas of the struggling high schooler, and its special effects didn’t succeed.
Jumping on the werewolf bandwagon, Teen Wolf follows the story of Scott Howard. His time in high school is turned upside down when he realizes that he and his family are werewolves. Putting aside the issues with writing and pace, Teen Wolf has become an visual atrocity because of its awful special effects.
3 Aged Well – ’80s Nostalgia Helps Them Along
There’s nothing quite like nostalgia to make something terrible look great. In recent years, pop culture has pushed an immense amount of ’80s nostalgia – bringing back fashion statements, styles within music, and of course taking several nods to classic films.
Especially for those who grew up watching these films and enjoying them, it can be hard to criticize any aspects of the movie and sometimes be a crushing disappointment. To some fans, the ’80s teen flick will be a nod to their adolescence, meaning they’ll always age well.
2 Haven’t Aged Well – Characters With Little Dimension
Very few characters in ’80s teen movies have any depth. Most characters fall into the specific class categories that have become so synonymous with ’80s entertainment. There are the buffed-up male jocks, the preppy popular girls, and the character (who is almost always the protagonist), the nerd.
While there is a way to play off these character tropes, most ’80s teen films fail to do so. Even in the film Can’t Buy Me Love, the characters not only fall into these simple tropes, but there’s little depth in their individual character.
1 Aged Well – Watching The Beginning Of Actors’ Careers
Part of the fun of watching ’80s films is seeing how far child actors have gone with their careers. For fans of Molly Ringwald, it can be a thrill just to watch her performance in Sixteen Candles or Pretty In Pink, even if the movies themselves have several flaws.
Sometimes the actors are the best part of the film, and did their best with what they were given. Kevin Bacon surely made a stirring performance in Footloose, despite it ageing poorly.
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