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Each Generation’s High School Movie


Neonmoon

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Probably just easier to pick the best for each decade or even every 5 years period.  I'm late Gen X (1977) and while I love The Breakfast Club, I was in 3rd grade when it came out and don't relate to it at all.  

American Pie, I absolutely related to.   Came out when I was a senior in college and very much felt like my HS era just 4 years prior.

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43 minutes ago, South Austin said:

I love Dazed and Confused, but it’s an odd fit to be considered a Generation X film.

Gen X’ers (the real Greatest Generation) are largely considered to have been born in the 1965-1980 range. The film came out in 1993, when most of Generation X was out of high school (I was a sophomore in college). It was set in 1976, when the oldest of Generation X was 12-13, not quite in high school. So for the most part the viewing audience and the characters in the time setting of the film aren’t really Generation X.

My nerdy analysis, for what it’s worth.

It's sort of timeless. We loved it in high school because it was loosely based on where we were going to school at the time. For us, it didn't matter when it was set or when it came out. Everything landed just the same. 

Edited by ztejas
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1 minute ago, ztejas said:

It's sort of timeless. We loved it in high school because it was loosely based on where we were going to school at the time. For us, it didn't matter when it was set or when it came out. Everything landed just the same. 

It's sort of timeless. We loved it in high school because it was loosely based on where we were going to school at the time. For us, it didn't matter when it was set or when it came out. Everything landed just the same. 

It's sort of timeless. We loved it in high school because it was loosely based on where we were going to school at the time. For us, it didn't matter when it was set or when it came out. Everything landed just the same. 

Okay, I fucking get it.

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Gen X.  Breakfast Club for me.  Relating to the movie while in high school seems like a prerequisite.  I was in high school when The Breakfast Club came out and remember talking to people in algebra class about it.  At the time, I knew several classmates that would fit each character to a tee.  Although the same could be said for Sixteen Candles, I think Breakfast Club does a better job of defining the various cliques and the relationships between them.   

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smack dab middle of GenX...

Breakfast Club was without question the first thing that popped in my mind when i read the title, no doubt it's a winner...but the argument for Heathers is pretty damn persuasive.

could go either way 🤔 as someone else said...pure proliferation/proficiency of John Hughes in the genre might give him the edge. 

Edited by mchookem
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4 minutes ago, ztejas said:

It's sort of timeless. We loved it in high school because it was loosely based on where we were going to school at the time. For us, it didn't matter when it was set or when it came out. Everything landed just the same. 

It's sort of timeless. We loved it in high school because it was loosely based on where we were going to school at the time. For us, it didn't matter when it was set or when it came out. Everything landed just the same. 

It's sort of timeless. We loved it in high school because it was loosely based on where we were going to school at the time. For us, it didn't matter when it was set or when it came out. Everything landed just the same. 

Alright, Alright, Alright.

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1 minute ago, Jerry Callo said:

Gen X.  Breakfast Club for me.  Relating to the movie while in high school seems like a prerequisite.  I was in high school when The Breakfast Club came out and remember talking to people in algebra class about it.  At the time, I knew several classmates that would fit each character to a tee.  Although the same could be said for Sixteen Candles, I think Breakfast Club does a better job of defining the various cliques and the relationships between them.   

Same for me, except that it came out two years before I started high school. Most of us didn’t see it in the theaters, but by the time we were in high school we were repeatedly renting it from Blockbuster or watching it on HBO. Yeah, even back then parts of it seemed  a little over dramatic to me (like a lot of movies), but we all related to the characters and what they were going through.

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1 hour ago, South Austin said:

I love Dazed and Confused, but it’s an odd fit to be considered a Generation X film.

Swap the cars with  80s cars and it easily slides into Gen X.  Even then I (born in mid 70s) knew that setting and those characters and did the same activities and plenty of my high school friends had 70s cars, because we got the hand-me-downs, and we hung out with older siblings etc .  Once you creep into the next generation, hanging out probably changed quite a bit with video games, etc.  I’m sure there’s probably a change with hanging out at the malls etc as wel.  

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

Gen X’ers (the real Greatest Generation) are largely considered to have been born in the 1965-1980 range.

Generation-X-Lost-Forgotten-Omitted-Gene

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3 hours ago, Aqua Buddha said:

For that time of life, might I also suggest....Office Space?  At first glance, it's a comedy but on a deeper level, it's a coming of age movie for white collar/junior tech types.  If you were in Texas and worked in tech in the 90's, the show is a cultural documentary.  

Hate to break it to you but Judge came out with an even more accurate cultural documentary 7 years later.

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4 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Swap the cars with  80s cars and it easily slides into Gen X.  Even then I (born in mid 70s) knew that setting and those characters and did the same activities and plenty of my high school friends had 70s cars, because we got the hand-me-downs, and we hung out with older siblings etc .  Once you creep into the next generation, hanging out probably changed quite a bit with video games, etc.  I’m sure there’s probably a change with hanging out at the malls etc as wel.  

Generation-X-Lost-Forgotten-Omitted-Gene

Did they forget to even put us on the list?  Whatever.  Nevermind.

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2 minutes ago, MrX said:

I’m an older millennial (‘83) and it’s American Pie for me. 

It might be a generational thing, because I had just graduated from law school when the movie came out in theaters, and I thought it was good but not great, and the the actors all felt so young to me. But I imagine that if it came out my senior year in high school I’d have probably seen it six times in the theaters.

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1 minute ago, South Austin said:

It might be a generational thing, because I had just graduated from law school when the movie came out in theaters, and I thought it was good but not great, and the the actors all felt so young to me. But I imagine that if it came out my senior year in high school I’d have probably seen it six times in the theaters.

Has to be. Going off from other nominations upthread, Mean Girls came out when I was 21 and I had the same reaction as you - damn everyone is young. And then Superbad which is a definite millennial movie I was already working my way through law school so didn’t relate - my brother who is 5 years younger than me loves that film. 

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1 minute ago, MrX said:

And then Superbad which is a definite millennial movie I was already working my way through law school so didn’t relate - my brother who is 5 years younger than me loves that film. 

I was 33 when Superbad came out. I laughed like a 14-year-old and my sides were hurting. Go figure.

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3 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Yes.  Born in 82 and American Pie vs Can't Hardly Wait is perfect for the Oregon Trail Generation

I wish I could argue for Dazed and Confused, but that's really Gen X territory.

No fucking way do you punks get to claim this.  My crowd was playing this on the school library Apple IIe in 20 minute time blocks when you were shitting your Huggies.  

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4 minutes ago, Guadaloopy said:

No fucking way do you punks get to claim this.  My crowd was playing this on the school library Apple IIe in 20 minute time blocks when you were shitting your Huggies.  

Game came out, to the masses, in '74 so, yep...Gen X all day.

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3 hours ago, slorch said:

Gen X

Risky Business

16 Candles

Fast Times at Ridgemont High- might not be ours, but it influenced us.

Weird Science

Back To The Future

Red Dawn- cultural and it starts in a school.

C Thomas Howell today. Feeling old yet?

image.jpeg.9891a25ce9531db4c0d3f22ca78e3887.jpeg

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6 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

C Thomas Howell today. Feeling old yet?

image.jpeg.9891a25ce9531db4c0d3f22ca78e3887.jpeg

Lol, speaking of HS, he married a girl from my school.  She was a year older than me, and I drooled over her daily.

We took physics together and all the guys tried to be the top in the class because she's want to study with you if you were smart, and she'd wear low cut tops.

Just thinking of it give me a mini-chub

image.png.c86ce9c71a08553c5176d450fccc72de.png

Edited by DixonHur
rules are rules
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2 minutes ago, DixonHur said:

Micro-generation?  GTFO with that shit.  You can't portal out of a generation and just create your own.

What year were you born?  

1982. As I said. We played Oregon trail on Apple IIe’s in 20 minute blocks also. I didn’t make the rules. But them’s the rules. 

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3 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

King of the Hill....?  They did not work in tech.

Mike Judge GIF by Idiocracy

Shooting Terry Crews GIF by Idiocracy

 

Note, I didn't say it was a better movie....just sort of scary in its accuracy which is coming way faster than even Mike foretold

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I'm Gen X, and my Top 10 High School movies, without regard to generation, are...

  1. Breakfast Club
  2. Dazed and Confused
  3. Superbad
  4. Fast Times
  5. Ferris Bueller
  6. Sixteen Candels
  7. Heathers
  8. Say Anything
  9. Clueless
  10. My Bodyguard

There are so many others, it's hard to limit it to just 10.

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American Pie is the movie not belonging to my generation that still brought a shit-ton close to home, not the apple pie..LOL.

Varsity Blues was a much better depiction of my  Texas High School football/ growing up in a small town than FNL ever was.

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2 hours ago, Parliament said:

Did they forget to even put us on the list?  Whatever.  Nevermind.

 

mcbain-thats-the-joke.gif

 

1 hour ago, DixonHur said:

Lol, speaking of HS, he married a girl from my school.  She was a year older than me, and I drooled over her daily.

We took physics together and all the guys tried to be the top in the class because she's want to study with you if you were smart, and she'd wear low cut tops.

Just thinking of it give me a mini-chub

image.png.c86ce9c71a08553c5176d450fccc72de.png

 

tell me that isn't Justin Tucker

330px-Justin_Tucker_Ravens_Camp_AUG2022_

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7 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

Silent Generation: Rebel Without A Cause

Boomers: American Graffiti

Generation X: Breakfast Club

Millennials: American Pie

Generation Z: Superbad

Generation Alpha: ?

 

Anything John Hughes could be the Gen X movies.  

Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Pretty in Pink

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1 hour ago, mininghorn88 said:

1984 HS grad here. No one mentioning Footloose?

good one.  footloose is weird though as I can't imagine more than a handful of people on this site growing up in a town in high school where you couldn't have a prom because church.

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47 minutes ago, DixonHur said:

I'm Gen X, and my Top 10 High School movies, without regard to generation, are...

  1. Breakfast Club
  2. Dazed and Confused
  3. Superbad
  4. Fast Times
  5. Ferris Bueller
  6. Sixteen Candels
  7. Heathers
  8. Say Anything
  9. Clueless
  10. My Bodyguard

There are so many others, it's hard to limit it to just 10.

I was waiting for someone to mention Say Anything, great movie. Personally Weird Science or Dazed and Confused are my faves.

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2 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

good one.  footloose is weird though as I can't imagine more than a handful of people on this site growing up in a town in high school where you couldn't have a prom because church.

True. But I grew up in a small town and there was a certain level of what was assumed to be acceptable.  We were all a bit naive to a certain extent.

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21 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

Anything John Hughes could be the Gen X movies.  

Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Pretty in Pink

Better Off Dead is another one that deserves a mention.

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