Each Generation’s High School Movie

[Texas St. Armadillos 1,381]

HS Class of 98.  As mentioned upthread:

Can’t Hardly Wait (I miss Jenna Elfman)

Varsity Blues

Edited January 16 by Texas St. Armadillos

[mdleast 8,289]

Definitely, although that wasn't Hughes, was it?

Savage Steve Holland, who followed up Better Off Dead with One Crazy Summer and How I Got Into College.

Also just to name a lesser loved 80s high school movie:

Three O'Clock High

[Hornbeliever 712]

Many appropriate titles named.

Criminally underrated as a spoof is Not Another Teen Movie though.  

[Neonmoon 38,129]

I fucked up Gen Z

 As a Gen X, I have no idea what they think defines them as a high school movie. Most of the movies I googled seem depressing. 
 

Blockers was funny 

[dogbreath 434]

It wasn’t strictly high school, but Breaking Away fits for high school friends figuring out what to do in life. 
The tail end of the boomer generation born 60-64 is who I have in mind but it deserves a wide audience. 
 

[Pig Bellmont 8,712]

2 hours ago, Texas St. Armadillos said:

Varsity Blues

Outside of TX I don’t think this rates as a defining HS movie for kids of any age 

[Apep 645]

1979 Xennial. A movie that hasn’t been named yet: Go

It’s up there with Clueless, Can’t Hardly Wait, and American Pie. 

[Dutchrudder 11,133]

What about all that dumb "Glee" and "High School Musical" shit for the youngins?  

[NWBuck 8,552]

8 hours ago, South Austin said:

See above analysis for why The Outsiders doesn’t fit.  A movie about 1960’s high-schoolers isn’t really Generation X in my humble yet correct opinion, even though it came out when a chunk of Gen X-ears were in high school.

 

6 hours ago, mininghorn88 said:

1984 HS grad here. No one mentioning Footloose?

There was a whole "50's revival" during the 80's, and that nostalgia seems to fit with The Outsiders and Footloose (and "Back to the Beach", but I digress). Grease would fit here, at least from a "things that popular due to the new-fangled VCR thing".

A movie series that I'd add: High School Musical. May fit with the Millennials (2006 release, middle of their generation) OR with Gen Z (if they watched it as kids). 

[NorthLoop 14,181]

1 hour ago, Apep said:

1979 Xennial. A movie that hasn’t been named yet: Go

It’s up there with Clueless, Can’t Hardly Wait, and American Pie. 

Good call. '82 Xennial here and I remember going to see Go because the Star Wars prequel was sold out. Solid flick. However from a HS perspective it's definitely AP and CHW. 

 

Also love the Gen X'ers whining about the Oregon Trail shit... yeah it technically came out in the 70s but your school didn't have a computer to run it until the mid 80s. If you say otherwise you're lying your ass off or you went to NASA high school. 

[GoPokes83 2,240]

There were a few (79 grad) Animal House and Saturday Night Fever come to mind as cultural icons, but really not teen movies. A few lesser recognized but impactful would be Over The Edge, Breaking Away, or hell even Meatballs. If you’re talking defining a generation then maybe Up in Smoke! Years later but Linklater hit the generation squarely on the head with Dazed.

[BonzoMontreaux 1,038]

Fast Times is the one that hits closest as far as my time in high school is concerned.  Dazed and Confused was dang near a documentary of my time in HS in small town (suburb, bedroom community, Bubbaville) central Texas.

[utee94 15,805]

As a mid Gen X and a born and raised Austinite, I like Dazed and Confused a lot, but it's definitely not a "high school movie" for me.  Breakfast Club is much more so.  

Sixteen Candles is, as well.  Speaking of, anybody watch Sixteen Candles lately?  I watched it with my teenaged kids and I forgot about the cringey date-rapiness of it.  Some scenes definitely did not age well...

[DalTxHornFan 3,097]

Dazed and Confused was exactly my HS experience in NW Austin.  Late 1970s.

 

Edited January 16 by DalTxHornFan

[KaiserSoze 998]

9 hours ago, NorthLoop said:

Also love the Gen X'ers whining about the Oregon Trail shit... yeah it technically came out in the 70s but your school didn't have a computer to run it until the mid 80s. If you say otherwise you're lying your ass off or you went to NASA high school. 

My elementary school had Apple IIs in 1980, and we played Oregon Trail on them. Houston yes, but not NASA.

Edited January 16 by KaiserSoze

[HouTex 1,866]

10 hours ago, dogbreath said:

It wasn’t strictly high school, but Breaking Away fits for high school friends figuring out what to do in life. 
The tail end of the boomer generation born 60-64 is who I have in mind but it deserves a wide audience. 
 

This.  I was born in 62 and Breaking Away is a good fit.  Though it came out much latter, Dazed and Confused was set in the 70’s and was a lot like my HS experience in Texas.  

[South Austin 52,448]

8 minutes ago, DalTxHornFan said:

Dazed and Confused was exactly my HS experience in NW Austin.  Late 1970s.

There are some aspects of Dazed and Confused that are timeless regardless of your generation:  High school coaches, driving around to find a gathering to get drunk/high, scheming to throw a party at your parents' house.

But it seemed like high schoolers stopped caring as much about cars somewhere in the late 70s or early 80s.  And I don't think hazing freshman is a thing anymore, at least it wasn't when I was a freshman in 1988.

[DalTxHornFan 3,097]

15 minutes ago, South Austin said:

There are some aspects of Dazed and Confused that are timeless regardless of your generation:  High school coaches, driving around to find a gathering to get drunk/high, scheming to throw a party at your parents' house.

But it seemed like high schoolers stopped caring as much about cars somewhere in the late 70s or early 80s.  And I don't think hazing freshman is a thing anymore, at least it wasn't when I was a freshman in 1988.

My car was a big thing to me.  I washed it in the morning before I went to school if it needed it.  I drove it on Mesa and Burnet road at night a bunch. It looked like this one (though I've always been a fan of blackwall tires, so I would have turned those tires around):

The hazing was not a thing in my world.

Edited January 16 by DalTxHornFan

[BonzoMontreaux 1,038]

Hazing was a thing my freshman year.  I was in band and football.  Caught a lot crap from Football seniors but nothing too serious.  Band seniors tried to give us shit but football seniors basically said "Na, we own their freshman asses."

[South Austin 52,448]

9 minutes ago, DalTxHornFan said:

My car was a big thing to me.  I washed it in the morning before I went to school if it needed it.  I drove it on Mesa and Burnet road at night a bunch. It looked like this one (though I've always been a fan of blackwall tires, so I would have turned those tires around):

The hazing was not a thing in my world.

[South Austin 52,448]

By the way @DalTxHornFan, I was about 4-5 years old when you were cruising Austin in that car.  But back then I could've ridden shotgun with no seatbelt.

[DalTxHornFan 3,097]

2 minutes ago, South Austin said:

By the way @DalTxHornFan, I was about 4-5 years old when you were cruising Austin in that car.  But back then I could've ridden shotgun with no seatbelt.

Good times!  You would have loved the red upholstery while you were eating fries and ketchup from Holiday House or Top Notch!

[Texas St. Armadillos 1,381]

11 hours ago, Pig Bellmont said:

Outside of TX I don’t think this rates as a defining HS movie for kids of any age 

Ali Larter in a whipped cream bikini begs to differ.

[utee94 15,805]

57 minutes ago, DalTxHornFan said:

Dazed and Confused was exactly my HS experience in NW Austin.  Late 1970s.

 

Sure, that was the intention, based on setting.  But it didn't come out until much later so it couldn't have been a defining high school movie for you, at the time you were in junior high/high school.  

 

46 minutes ago, KaiserSoze said:

My elementary school had Apple IIs in 1980, and we played Oregon Trail on them. Houston yes, but not NASA.

Same here, in Austin. 

Regardless, I don't feel like "Oregon Trail" defines my generation in any way so if the millennials want to claim it, more power to 'em.

[atomheartbevo 89,626]

1 hour ago, utee94 said:

Sixteen Candles is, as well.  Speaking of, anybody watch Sixteen Candles lately?  I watched it with my teenaged kids and I forgot about the cringey date-rapiness of it.  Some scenes definitely did not age well...

You should watch this little movie called “Back to the Future” with them.

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

There are some aspects of Dazed and Confused that are timeless regardless of your generation:  High school coaches, driving around to find a gathering to get drunk/high, scheming to throw a party at your parents' house.

But it seemed like high schoolers stopped caring as much about cars somewhere in the late 70s or early 80s.  And I don't think hazing freshman is a thing anymore, at least it wasn't when I was a freshman in 1988.

We cared in the late 80s/early 90s, but this was the Houston suburbs and no car = stuck at home or maybe walking over to a shitty convenience store,

[DalTxHornFan 3,097]

13 minutes ago, utee94 said:

Sure, that was the intention, based on setting.  But it didn't come out until much later so it couldn't have been a defining high school movie for you, at the time you were in junior high/high school.  

 

Same here, in Austin. 

Regardless, I don't feel like "Oregon Trail" defines my generation in any way so if the millennials want to claim it, more power to 'em.

Good point.  Summer of 42, Jaws, Shaft, Godfather II, or American Graffiti were movies that I took girls to the drive-in (remember those?) in my Mach I.

Edited January 16 by DalTxHornFan

[South Austin 52,448]

1 hour ago, utee94 said:

Sixteen Candles is, as well.  Speaking of, anybody watch Sixteen Candles lately?  I watched it with my teenaged kids and I forgot about the cringey date-rapiness of it.  Some scenes definitely did not age well...

I still laugh my ass off at the movie and quote it often, although yes, the date-rape aspect and Asian slurs would cause discomfort if I ever watched it with my kids.  Similar things could be said about Blazing Saddles.

[DalTxHornFan 3,097]

2 minutes ago, South Austin said:

I still laugh my ass off at the movie and quote it often, although yes, the date-rape aspect and Asian slurs would cause discomfort if I ever watched it with my kids.  Similar things could be said about Blazing Saddles.

Blazing Saddles, Airplane!, Caddyshack, Animal House, and I am sure many others, could never be released today.  We are doomed.

Edited January 16 by DalTxHornFan

[DalTxHornFan 3,097]

1 minute ago, DalTxHornFan said:

Blazing Saddles, Airplane!, Caddyshack, Animal House, and I am sure many others, could never be released today.  We are doomed.

But at least there is still Surly!

[BurntEyes 5,958]

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

There are some aspects of Dazed and Confused that are timeless regardless of your generation:  High school coaches, driving around to find a gathering to get drunk/high, scheming to throw a party at your parents' house.

But it seemed like high schoolers stopped caring as much about cars somewhere in the late 70s or early 80s.  And I don't think hazing freshman is a thing anymore, at least it wasn't when I was a freshman in 1988.

It's a different thread, but I think caring about cars carried on through all of Gen X.

Back on topic, while I loved Daze and Confused I had actually classes with M.M. so that's a massive break that makes it not a HS movie for me. 

As a 90s tech worker in Texas, Office Space is real to me and I grew up with Beavis and Butthead.

I think I'd have to put Heather's and Breakfast Club as my generational teen movies.

[South Austin 52,448]

2 minutes ago, DalTxHornFan said:

But at least there is still Surly!

Sir, we are upstanding citizens who do not make disparaging remarks about race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. 

But please do not read the Noah Knigga thread.

[Beau Vine 54,207]

20 hours ago, slorch said:

Gen X

Risky Business

I wish I had a dollar for every time HS me said, "Sometimes you've just gotta say 'What the fuck?'"

[DalTxHornFan 3,097]

7 minutes ago, BurntEyes said:

It's a different thread, but I think caring about cars carried on through all of Gen X.

Back on topic, while I loved Daze and Confused I had actually classes with M.M. so that's a massive break that makes it not a HS movie for me. 

As a 90s tech worker in Texas, Office Space is real to me and I grew up with Beavis and Butthead.

I think I'd have to put Heather's and Breakfast Club as my generational teen movies.

Still love Office Space. Watched that commeratative DVD last night.  [edit -- I know that watching a DVD vs. streaming ages me, but I still have VHS tapes and a VHS player!  On the positive side, I held on to some turntables -- they seem to be making a comeback!)

Edited January 16 by DalTxHornFan

[dcar00 14,153]

10 hours ago, NorthLoop said:

Good call. '82 Xennial here and I remember going to see Go because the Star Wars prequel was sold out. Solid flick. However from a HS perspective it's definitely AP and CHW. 

 

Also love the Gen X'ers whining about the Oregon Trail shit... yeah it technically came out in the 70s but your school didn't have a computer to run it until the mid 80s. If you say otherwise you're lying your ass off or you went to NASA high school. 

I played the "text only" version of Oregon Trail at my elementary school.  ASCII graphics for the win.

[South Austin 52,448]

8 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

I wish I had a dollar for every time HS me said, "Sometimes you've just gotta say 'What the fuck?'"

It was a funny movie indeed, and Rebecca De Mornay gave young South Austin a few prepuberty hard-ons (I think I saw this on HBO for the first time around 1985 or so, when I was in 5th or 6th grade).  But watching it as an adult, I think it's a more seriously well-made film than people give it credit for.  I've read some who have called it The Graduate of the 1980s.

Edit:  And it has one of the greatest 1980's film soundtracks.  (Yes, we are drifting off course.)

Edited January 16 by South Austin

[Reynolds Woodcock 4,739]

It’s gotta probably be 10 year increments rather than entire generations. If you are a millennial in high school in the mid-aughts like me, it doesn’t get more defining than Superbad 

Edited January 16 by Reynolds Woodcock

[DixonHur 11,292]

3 hours ago, utee94 said:

As a mid Gen X and a born and raised Austinite, I like Dazed and Confused a lot, but it's definitely not a "high school movie" for me.  Breakfast Club is much more so.  

Sixteen Candles is, as well.  Speaking of, anybody watch Sixteen Candles lately?  I watched it with my teenaged kids and I forgot about the cringey date-rapiness of it.  Some scenes definitely did not age well...

Or the one granddad commenting on Sam's boobs...yikes.

[Aqua Buddha 14,582]

3 hours ago, utee94 said:

As a mid Gen X and a born and raised Austinite, I like Dazed and Confused a lot, but it's definitely not a "high school movie" for me.  Breakfast Club is much more so.  

Sixteen Candles is, as well.  Speaking of, anybody watch Sixteen Candles lately?  I watched it with my teenaged kids and I forgot about the cringey date-rapiness of it.  Some scenes definitely did not age well...

Try watching Revenge of the Nerds.  I remembered the Nerds as lovable underdogs but they should have been thrown in jail along with all the frat and jock dudes.  VERY rapey.

[Aqua Buddha 14,582]

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

It was a funny movie indeed, and Rebecca De Mornay gave young South Austin a few prepuberty hard-ons (I think I saw this on HBO for the first time around 1985 or so, when I was in 5th or 6th grade).  But watching it as an adult, I think it's a more seriously well-made film than people give it credit for.  I've read some who have called it The Graduate of the 1980s.

Edit:  And it has one of the greatest 1980's film soundtracks.  (Yes, we are drifting off course.)

Still not bad at 64:

[DixonHur 11,292]

7 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

Try watching Revenge of the Nerds.  I remembered the Nerds as lovable underdogs but they should have been thrown in jail along with all the frat and jock dudes.  VERY rapey.

It doesn't get much more rapey that Porky's.  I watched it again recently and at the end of the movie they literally use peer pressure to coerce one of the HS girls to have sex with Pee Wee so he can lose his virginity.

 

Edit, I take that first part back...I guess it can get more rapey...I just remembered the movie Kids.  Although not technically a HS movie, they were teens.

Edited January 16 by DixonHur

[Don Johnson 4,752]

24 minutes ago, DixonHur said:

It doesn't get much more rapey that Porky's.  I watched it again recently and at the end of the movie they literally use peer pressure to coerce one of the HS girls to have sex with Pee Wee so he can lose his virginity.

 

Edit, I take that first part back...I guess it can get more rapey...I just remembered the movie Kids.  Although not technically a HS movie, they were teens.

[C-Man 27,184]

On 1/15/2024 at 12:19 PM, Aqua Buddha said:

Heathers it he most Gen X of movies.  The teenagers there are adulting the entire time with no supervision.  They're fucking, drinking, smoking, and killing.  The adults are just on the periphery, if anything.  The movie is also very morbid, which is also very Gen X.

Add on that all, if not most, of the key actors were actually teenagers themselves.  

This is a good take.

I'd also argue that while Gen X is the smallest of the generations in existence today we've got an inordinate number of the "classic" HS-era, coming-of-age films because the 80's was jam-packed with them. It was movie upon movie upon movie. John Hughes was a big part of that.

• Fast Times at Ridgemont High
• Sixteen Candles
• The Breakfast Club
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off
• Pretty In Pink
• Weird Science
• Less Than Zero
• Heathers
• Porky's
• Better Off Dead
• Risky Business
• Can't Buy Me Love
• Back to the Future (though I guess you could give this one to Boomers)
• Teen Wolf
• Private School
• Valley Girl
• Some Kind of Wonderful
• Footloose
• Summer School
• Dead Poet's Society
• Red Dawn
• The Outsiders (see Back to the Future note)
• Just One of the Guys
• Three O'Clock High

[Chewbacca 7,766]

5 hours ago, utee94 said:

As a mid Gen X and a born and raised Austinite, I like Dazed and Confused a lot, but it's definitely not a "high school movie" for me.  Breakfast Club is much more so.  

Sixteen Candles is, as well.  Speaking of, anybody watch Sixteen Candles lately?  I watched it with my teenaged kids and I forgot about the cringey date-rapiness of it.  Some scenes definitely did not age well...

Definitely rapey.  Still a good flick, though.

[Aqua Buddha 14,582]

1 hour ago, C-Man said:

This is a good take.

I'd also argue that while Gen X is the smallest of the generations in existence today we've got an inordinate number of the "classic" HS-era, coming-of-age films because the 80's was jam-packed with them. It was movie upon movie upon movie. John Hughes was a big part of that.

• Fast Times at Ridgemont High
• Sixteen Candles
• The Breakfast Club
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off
• Pretty In Pink
• Weird Science
• Less Than Zero
• Heathers
• Porky's
• Better Off Dead
• Risky Business
• Can't Buy Me Love
• Back to the Future (though I guess you could give this one to Boomers)
• Teen Wolf
• Private School
• Valley Girl
• Some Kind of Wonderful
• Footloose
• Summer School
• Dead Poet's Society
• Red Dawn
• The Outsiders (see Back to the Future note)
• Just One of the Guys
• Three O'Clock High

I had thought of Can't Buy Me Love but forgot to mention it.  I thought it was a good take of social cliques at the time.  (Popular kids, nerds, jocks, etc.)  Accurate look at the dynamics and the interactions between them.  Also aged surprisingly well.  The fashion in the movie is kind of popular again and the hairstyles weren't THAT 80's.  Still a good rewatch.  If I remember right, the actress that played Cindy Mancini was only 16 or 17 at the time.  I like that a lot of these movies back then had actual teenagers playing teenagers and now it seems to be 25 year olds who look young. 

Bonus points for having Gerado (Rico Suave).   I didn't realize that until like five years ago or something.  More morbid trivia is the actress who played Cindy Mancini died of an overdose in 2015.  Patrick Dempsey is now Patrick Dempsey.

 

 

[C-Man 27,184]

6 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

I had thought of Can't Buy Me Love but forgot to mention it.  I thought it was a good take of social cliques at the time.  (Popular kids, nerds, jocks, etc.)  Accurate look at the dynamics and the interactions between them.  Also aged surprisingly well.  The fashion in the movie is kind of popular again and the hairstyles weren't THAT 80's.  Still a good rewatch.  If I remember right, the actress that played Cindy Mancini was only 16 or 17 at the time.  I like that a lot of these movies back then had actual teenagers playing teenagers and now it seems to be 25 year olds who look young. 

Bonus points for having Gerado (Rico Suave).   I didn't realize that until like five years ago or something.  More morbid trivia is the actress who played Cindy Mancini died of an overdose in 2015.  Patrick Dempsey is now Patrick Dempsey.

 

 

And one (maybe two) of the popular girls in Cindy Mancini's clique was a Playboy Playmate. Amanda Peterson was so damn hot. I think you're right and she was 15 or 16 when they filmed Can't Buy Me Love. She was a train wreck later in life, though. (Oh, and Seth Green was Mancini's little brother.)

Edited January 16 by C-Man

[TexasHooch 5,122]

1 hour ago, C-Man said:

This is a good take.

I'd also argue that while Gen X is the smallest of the generations in existence today we've got an inordinate number of the "classic" HS-era, coming-of-age films because the 80's was jam-packed with them. It was movie upon movie upon movie. John Hughes was a big part of that.

• Fast Times at Ridgemont High
• Sixteen Candles
• The Breakfast Club
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off
• Pretty In Pink
• Weird Science
• Less Than Zero
• Heathers
• Porky's
• Better Off Dead
• Risky Business
• Can't Buy Me Love
• Back to the Future (though I guess you could give this one to Boomers)
• Teen Wolf
• Private School
• Valley Girl
• Some Kind of Wonderful
• Footloose
• Summer School
• Dead Poet's Society
• Red Dawn
• The Outsiders (see Back to the Future note)
• Just One of the Guys
• Three O'Clock High

Just One of the Guys! Now that one resonates with this X'er.  

 

[TexasHooch 5,122]

What about Scream?  That'd be Millennials right?  That was a big deal- started an entire sub genre.

[T’Boo Ted Marshall 2,732]

Where does Project X fit in?  Not the monkey one.  

[F250 28,764]

On 1/15/2024 at 11:59 AM, Aqua Buddha said:

Gen X:  What's your damage, Heather?  

This. Heathers is the Gen-X wheelhouse.

Breakfast Club and those John Hughes films seem to be a bit out of the Gen X orbit. Those early 80's movies seem more related to that slightly older unknown group that are too young for boomers and too old for Gen-X.

 

Edited January 17 by F250

[mchookem 16,321]