YOUTH CULTURE AND TEEN MOVIES- A COMPARATIVE OVERVIEW We can cite some things that had to happen in American culture before the High School Picture could develop: the Pill, a revolt against authority, Sputnik, and the educational reforms of the Sixties. Most important, we had to have rock music before we could hear the High School Picture. Without it, we would never have shifted to the point of view of the kid. (Reed 136)? Rebellion. Sex. Drugs. Rock `n' Roll. The essence of youth. Their desires might seem simple, but teenagers are such complex human beings that sociologists have been debating for decades the existence of an actual separate culture-a youth culture-that includes only adolescents, their behaviors, their speech, their clothing, and their interests. Leave it to the motion picture industry to capture these elements of the modern youth culture for the world to enjoy. The High School Movie, or Teen Movie as it is sometimes called, has become a very popular method of displaying and examining youth culture over the past forty years. Finding its roots in movies such as Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), the High School Movie has metamorphosed over the past few decades into a wide variety of sub-genres: the Rebellion Movie, the Teenage Pregnancy Movie, the Virginity Movie, the Surrealist High School Movie, the Teen Angst Movie (similar to the Rebellion Movie, but with more flannel). The High School Movie generally tries to "deal with" at least one, usually several, issues facing teenagers. In doing so, these problems and their solutions are usually either oversimplified or presented as so overwhelming that they end up causing death and destruction. This is a definite drawback in the High School Movie formula, but these movies still remain popular. This idea brings about another interesting characteristic of High School Movies-their popularity. The well-done High School Movies influence teenagers for many years after they are made and become a part of youth culture while simultaneously putting it on display and sometimes even poking fun at it. Fast Times at Ridgemont High, for example, was popular in 1982, currently "supplies high school kids with dialogue for those in- between times" (Cohen 53), and will undoubtedly be popular with the first graduating classes of the new millennium. But how do High School Movies address teenage problems? How do they portray youth culture? What gives these movies such long-lasting impact? And why are they so popular? Before any of these questions can be answered, we must first determine exactly what is meant by the expression "youth culture." WHAT IS YOUTH CULTURE? Most anthropologists believe that culture includes the beliefs, attitudes, values, and behavior patterns of a group of people (de Marrais and Lecompte 86). So what does this mean in terms of adolescents? Anthropologists and sociologists have long argued over the existence of a youth culture. Some argue that, since children grow up and become non- youth, they cease to be a part of that culture, and as a result, youth culture has no real shape or definition since its members are constantly changing (deMarrais and LeCompte 87). However, it is possible to move into and out of cultures, as long as one obtains the particular characteristics required for entrance. Adolescents develop their own set of behavior patterns, usually in rebellion against adults and their institutions, which set them apart from adults as well as each other (deMarrais and LeCompte 87). In simpler terms, youth culture is the entire reason behind skinny ties, legwarmers, Jell-O slurping, the grunge movement of the early 1990s, belly-button rings, and the success of MAD magazine. Youth culture is why every child, at one time or another, feels the need to break away from his or her parents, and why high school students form cliques. High school is a showcase for youth culture: walk into any cafeteria and you will find yourself inundated with all the current fashions, fads, slang, and music. Adolescents form ideas from watching television, from reading books, from listening to music, and from talking to their parents and relatives, and they bring these ideas to school with them. High school students form groups based upon similarity-of ideas, looks, dress, intelligence, scholastic achievement, interests, et cetera-and these groups change with the ideals of the students that make them up. America's youth is represented by its own music, literature, clothing styles, fads, and, ever increasingly, technology. It seems as though anything that displays raw energy and emotion and/or that adults dislike has the potential to become a part of youth culture. Notice that this description of youth culture is somewhat vague. This is because youth culture is constantly changing. The youth culture of the sixties is certainly not the same as that of the nineties. If youth culture never changed, none of us would ever have heard, "When I was your age." from our parents. However, there are several aspects of American society that seem to be standard parts of youth culture. Sexuality, drugs and alcohol, rebellion, perception of adults and authority figures, and home life are all parts of our world that affect teenagers more profoundly than any other group of people. And these are the very subjects that High School movies focus on. JOHN HUGHES: STAND UP AND REBEL! The teenage perception of adults-parents, teachers, authority figures-is an important product of youth culture. Film director/writer/producer John Hughes dealt with this issue in two of his biggest movies of the 1980s, The Breakfast Club (1984) and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) (Carter 34). Rather than telling America's youth, "Respect your elders," John Hughes seems to be saying with these two films, "Your elders are morons." In American Scenarios, Joseph Reed comments on the role of adults in the teen film, saying that, "In High School Pictures, parents are always just leaving home.or nowhere to be seen.or idiots.After they leave or run amok we in the audience are free once again to become kids." (138) The prominent adults in Ferris Bueller, principal Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) and Ferris' parents, Tom and Katie Bueller (Lyman Ward and Cindy Pickett), following this formula, are portrayed as one-dimensional, dim-witted oafs. In the opening scene of Ferris, the title character (Matthew Broderick) tricks his parents into letting him stay home from school with a well- polished and very corny "sick routine" that any parent with half a brain would be able to spot from miles away. And poor Ed Rooney does not fare much better than Ferris' parents, either. Throughout the course of the movie, he is fooled by a phony phone call made by Ferris' friend Cameron (Alan Ruck), squirted with Pepsi by a female Ferris look-alike, soaked with a garden hose, mauled by a Rottweiler, and beaten up and outsmarted by Ferris' younger sister Jeannie (Jennifer Grey) who mistakes him for a burglar. On top of that, his car is towed and he is forced to ride home on the school bus with a pack of stunned teenagers. Besides focusing on making his fictitious adults look like fools, John Hughes also deals with teenage rebellion through Cameron's struggle against his father. He feels unloved and unnoticed within a torn household in which his parents hate each other. Cameron decides, toward the end of the movie, that he will not allow his father to push him around any more, and that he must take a stand. The only object of his father's love, a classic Ferrari, becomes the object of Cameron's aggression in the climax of the movie, in which Cameron sends the car careening out of the back of the elevated garage and into the woods below, completely destroying it. After this dramatic catharsis, Cameron decides, after some objection from Ferris, to stand up and "take the heat" from his father. The audience is given a feeling that everything is going to be fine with Cameron and his father, and the focus returns to Ferris and the last of his hijinks. The Breakfast Club is a more somber depiction of youth culture than Ferris Bueller, but the two films share some of the same themes. Mr. Vernon (Paul Gleason), the vice principal of Shermer High School, is assigned to monitor a Saturday morning detention attended by Brian (Anthony Michael Hall), a "brain", Andrew (Emilio Estevez), an athlete, Claire (Molly Ringwald), a "princess", Alison (Ally Sheedy), a "basket case", and John (Judd Nelson), a "criminal." John and Mr. Vernon butt heads several times throughout the movie, and John usually wins. When he doesn't, Mr. Vernon is left looking like an unprofessional tyrant, so the audience is brought even closer to John and hates Mr. Vernon even more. Mr. Vernon doesn't need John to make a fool of him, though. Relatively minor scenes such as the lunch scene in which Mr. Vernon, mouth stuffed with an orange slice, spills coffee all over his desk, and the scene in which he enters the library with a toilet seat cover hanging from his pants, serve to emphasize his impotence as an authority figure. At one point in the film, Carl the janitor (John Kapelos) has a conversation with Mr. Vernon which reveals exactly how out of touch he is with the children that he teaches. Carl, a lowly janitor, an "untouchable peon," is shown to be wiser and better informed than the vice principal, the head disciplinarian, of Shermer High School. This seems to leave Mr. Vernon with a feeling of embarrassment, of fear and anger-exactly what John Hughes was shooting for. He seems to be saying, "See, kids, this is what happens to you when you let go of your youth-you end up like Vernon here." Like Ferris Bueller, The Breakfast Club switches its focus back and forth between adults and adolescents. Hughes deals with the peer group issue early on in the movie: the central conflict is initially between the students themselves. They all belong to different cliques and have a difficult time tolerating each other, especially John and Alison, the "misfits of the group." However, during a marijuana influenced powwow, the students realize that they really are not as different as they once thought and reveal the true reason for their situation: their parents. Brian's parents constantly pressure him to keep his grades up; Andrew's father pressures him to excel in wrestling so he will be able to go to a good college; Claire's parents use her as a weapon against each other; John's parents abuse him verbally and physically; and Alison's parents just totally ignore her. Once again, the focus is shifted back to the evil ways of adults. The only parents who physically appear in the movie are Brian's and Andrew's, yet the audience still dislikes all of the students' parents. Once again, Hughes has portrayed adults as fools; this is, for the most part, how many teenagers view adults. AMY HECKERLING: A PINK AND LIGHT BLUE WORLD In an interview with Rolling Stone, writer/director Amy Heckerling said, "Part of me must want to escape into a world I can make all pink and light blue." This attitude shows through in her two highly popular High School Movies, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and Clueless (1995). These movies are completely different from the two Hughes movies mentioned before: they take a frivolous, somewhat unrealistic view of high school and come across more like video collages than structured movies. Fast Times is the less structured of the two, giving the feeling of a whole bunch of mini-movies rather than one long film: In Fast Times, "we get a Male Virginity Picture; Female Virginity Picture and Abortion Picture...frustrations on the job and freckless sexual fantasy..." (Reed 143) as well as a depiction of adults that contrasts sharply with the view Hughes presents in his films. If a central character of Fast Times must be chosen, then it should be Stacey Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a high school freshman battling with sexuality, romance, and her goofy brother Brad (Judge Reinhold). Stacey and her best friend Linda (Phoebe Cates), an older girl much experienced in realm of sexual relations, talk at length about sex and relationships during several scenes in the movie. Sex is treated very casually in this film, more like a rite of passage into high school life than as a way for two people to share their love for one another. Stacey loses her virginity early on in the movie to a sleazy stereo salesman who dumps her after the sexual encounter (Female Virginity Picture). She soon falls in love with a sweet-yet nerdy-Mark "Rat" Ratner (Brian Backer), who shies away from sexual encounters (Male Virginity Picture). Stacey mistakes Mark's shyness for a lack of interest and, convinced that he doesn't like her, goes for his smooth-talking best friend and mentor, Mike Damone. In no time, the two have sex and Stacey gets pregnant. Stacey and Mike decide to get her an abortion (Abortion Picture), which is also treated very casually: it is, in Stacey's words, "no big deal." Inevitably, Mark and Mike have a huge fallout and their friendship fails. Another central element of the film is the conflict between Mr. Hand (Ray Walston), the stern American History teacher, and Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn), the resident surfer dude/pothead. Throughout the film, Spicoli and Mr. Hand have quite a few run-ins, all of which Mr. Hand wins. The key part in this conflict comes at the end of the movie, when Mr. Hand makes a surprise visit to Spicoli's house for a private lesson in order to make up for all the time that Spicoli wasted in his class during the year. Of course, Spicoli softens up and shows some respect toward Mr. Hand, and Mr. Hand shows some warmth toward Spicoli. Problem solved, just like that. In the very next scene, Mark and Mike make up, Stacey helps Linda resolve a problem with her older, estranged boyfriend, and not long after, Mark and Stacey make up. Easy. Neat. Simple. The formula for Clueless is basically the same, with two exceptions: Clueless has much better continuity than Fast Times and a much more defined focus than Fast Times. The film centers on Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone), a highly sophisticated high school girl who faces many of the same problems Stacey of Fast Times faces: dealing with sexuality (Cher is "saving herself for Luke Perry"), putting up with a dorky sibling (in this case, it's Cher's maudlin ex-stepbrother Josh [Paul Rudd]), romance, and adults. Peer groups are examined more closely in Clueless than in Fast Times, however. Cher and her best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash) belong to the "upper crust" of Bronson Alcott High School, a satirical high school in which all the girls wear bandages from their plastic surgery and everyone carries a cellular phone. They take it upon themselves to transform Tai (Brittany Murphy), a dumpy transfer student from New York, from a "loadie," or a drug-user, into one of them-one of the beautiful people. They end up turning Tai into a complete snob who will not even think of speaking to anyone outside her clique. The adults in this film are portrayed very similarly to how Mr. Hand is played in Fast Times. Mr. Hall (Wallace Shawn), Cher's straight-laced speech and debate teacher, is shown to be a stern individual who truly cares about what his students learn. When he will not change Cher's grade, she and Dionne decide to soften him up by starting a romance between him and Miss Geist, the ditzy but well-meaning environmental studies teacher. Of course, everything works out for the best in the end. Once again, simple. Cher's father (Dan Hedaya) also appears in the film, which is a departure from the parent-less formula of Fast Times. Mr. Horowitz is a litigator, "the scariest kind of lawyer," according to Cher, and he presents a pugnacious, stern, demanding exterior. However, when Cher is feeling depressed or needs to talk, he opens up and shows his sensitive side. Mr. Horowitz is exactly the opposite of the Bueller parents: he is sharp-witted, intelligent, and aware of what his daughter is up to. Cher also struggles through a series of relationships throughout the course of the movie. Her sex-hungry friend Elton (Jeremy Sisto) tries to put the moves on her after a party, but she rejects his advances and their friendship ends. Cher falls in love with a gorgeous transfer student, Christian (Justin Walker), but later discovers that he is gay. This puts an end to their romance, but the two become good friends. Finally, in a flash of lucidity, Cher realizes that all she really wants is in Josh, and the two immediately fall in love. Of course, all of the conflicts are resolved in the end. Mr. Hall and Miss Geist marry. Tai realizes the error of her ways and hooks up with this film's token skateboarder/pothead, Travis, whom she had shunned earlier. Boom. Everyone is happy. SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY The four films that I have discussed here present prominent teenage problems and their solutions in a highly simplified form-much too simple to be considered realistic. Consider The Breakfast Club. In the first place, it is highly unlikely that five high school students representing each major clique of the high school would be brought together for Saturday detention. And even if this were to happen in real life, none of these kids would come away as changed as the characters in the movie do. These characters outgrow their alienation and emerge as true young adults, never again to suffer the hormonal anxieties or petty insecurities of adolescence." (Leland 110) Real kids do not generally do this. The same goes for Ferris Bueller. Granted, no human being could have pulled off the type of tomfoolery in one day that Ferris did, but the way Cameron deals with his problem is completely unrealistic. Sending the car through the back of the garage is believable-people are capable of anything in a fit of rage-but not many teenagers would stay and face the music as bravely as Cameron does after destroying such a valuable piece of property. Most teenagers would run away, or cry, or possibly even follow the car into oblivion knowing what the consequences of their actions would be. In both Clueless and Fast Times, relationships are mended flawlessly, conflicts are resolved without a hitch, and storybook romances are formed. It generally does not work that way in real life. Real high school students are generally not open minded enough to admit they are wrong the way Tai does toward the end of the movie. Spicoli almost seems grateful for the visit Mr. Hand pays him at the end of Fast Times, but many real high school students would not appreciate a visit at home from a teacher they do not get along with, much less a visit to discuss schoolwork. Stealing a friend's girl is one of the worst things a boy can do in high school-unforgivable by some people's standards-but Mark and Mike of Fast Times had no problems making up. SO WHAT'S THE POINT? If the problems and solutions presented in these High School Movies are so simple that they almost become silly, why are they so popular? First of all, most of these movies are only really silly if you think about them too much. Most of them are not intended to be deep, probing social statements, but rather an hour and a half of fun that might make us think about a few things but mostly just make us laugh. There are basically three reasons why people like High School Movies. The first is that these films allow us to be kids for a little while, whether or not we are grown up already. The key to making a person feel like a kid is giving them something they can identify with, such as characters, situations, and problems. As Joseph Reed puts it: What we see is barely removed from what we suffered at that girl's, or that bully's, or that teacher's hands-humiliation, triumph, momentary regret, tearful farewell. Any high school picture seems certain that it depicts our high school, that any one of us is one of its types. (145) In other words, Jeff Spicoli reminds everyone of someone they knew in high school; there is always an audience member or two that was exactly like Brian Johnson, Anthony Michael Hall's nerd from the Breakfast Club; everyone had a stern but fair teacher like Mr. Hand or Mr. Hall; everyone had that one school official that they just detested, like Mr. Vernon; and everyone butted heads with their parents at one time or another. High School Movies put us in the shoes of the kids and allow us to see things from their point of view, which was once (or possibly still is) our point of view. The second reason we enjoy the High School Movie is the pure energy the characters convey to the audience. Each of the movies I discussed in this paper has at least one scene in which the main character or characters puts on a display of unbridled teen energy: the parade scene in Ferris Bueller in which he sings Wayne Newton's "Danke Schoen" and the Beatles' "Twist and Shout" on top of a float; the graduation dance in Fast Times in which Spicoli sings "Wooly Bully" and dives into the crowd; the scene in The Breakfast Club in which the five students jam to "We Are Not Alone;" and the party in Clueless, featuring the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, in which Cher gets the anti-fun Josh to dance. Even the poor continuity of Fast Times gives it a sporadic, episodic, energetic feel. All of this energy makes us feel good-it gets our adrenaline flowing, much like the hills on a rollercoaster do-and allows us to identify with the characters even more strongly. The last major reason people like the High School Film is because of the Hollywood ending: everything always turns out fine. Mark and Mike make up in the end of Fast Times. Tai sees the error of her ways in the resolution of Clueless. Even though Cameron sends his father's priceless automobile through the back of the garage and over a cliff, he can still muster a smile and convince himself and the audience that everything is, in fact, going to be okay. The gang from The Breakfast Club walks away from Saturday detention smiling, giving the impression that they have broken down their walls, that they are better than their friends and do not have to do exactly what other people say. The characters in these movies always turn out to be very lucid and mature-they are able to take a step back from their situation and figure out the correct moves to make in order to set things right again. This is exactly what we want to see. We as humans like to see the lighter side of ourselves; we like to believe that we are better than we usually act. This is what the High School Movie shows us. Critics tend to dislike most High School Movies for artistic reasons-poor continuity, schmaltzy dialogue, unrealistic handling and resolution of teen problems. As it turns out, what is artistically unsound from a critic's point of view is exactly what makes these movies fun for audiences. The point of these movies is not to solve the world's problems or to make radical statements about the way movies should be made, but to give you some hope, make you think a little bit, and allow you to have fun. Youth culture is a prominent part of America's overall cultural makeup. It's all over television, the newspapers, in books and, of course, in movies. High School Movies are an important vehicle for displaying, examining, celebrating, and poking fun at youth culture. Most High School Movies tend to oversimplify what real-life teenagers go through on a day by day basis, but they still provide audiences with a whole lot of fun. They generally portray life further from the way it really is and closer to how it should be, but they allow us to share the unflagging energy of young people, and that is why they are so popular. They can sympathize with a young audience's feelings while reminding an older audience of what it was like to be a kid. They show us how great life is and remind us to enjoy it. It's just like Ferris Bueller says: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you might miss it." Essay by Mr. Adam Messner (ab673@acorn.net) Copyright 1998 by the author Youngstown State University May 1998 Works cited - Reed, Joseph W. American Scenarios: The Uses of Film Genre. Middletown: Wesleyan UP, 1989. - deMarrais, Kathleen Bennett, and Margaret D. LeCompte. The Way Schools Work: A Sociological Analysis of Education. New York: Longman, 1995. - Carter, Bill. "Him Alone." New York Times Magazine 4 August 1991: 30-53. - Leland, John. "Rebel Yells." Video March 1988: 62, 108, 110 - Cohen, Rich. "High School Confidential." Rolling Stone 7 Sept. 1995: 53. - Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Dir. John Hughes. With Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, Jeffrey Jones, and Edie McClurg. Paramount, 1986. - The Breakfast Club. Dir. John Hughes. With Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Paul Gleason, and John Kapelos. Universal City Studios, 1984. - Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Dir. Amy Heckerling. With Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Brian Backer, Robert Romanus, Phoebe Cates, Sean Penn, and Ray Walston. Universal, 1982. - Clueless. Dir. Amy Heckerling. With Alicia Silverstone, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Justin Walker, Wallace Shawn, Stacey Dash, Dan Hedaya, Twink Caplin, and Jeremy Sisto. Paramount, 1995.