Formal Film Studies: Teenage Movies in the 1980's

Although teenage movies today has sex and scandal and murder and sometimes they might even have

 the typical teenage drama where a girl likes a guy and she thinks he does not like her, when in reality he does. But no one era, can compare to the 1980's era of teenage films. I happen to love this movie era because the movies meant something, there was always a message even if it was goofy or serious

the messages meant something to people. This era was full of love and hate and in some cases there was a murder and kids had to take a journey to find the missing body. But still, I think that people can grow to like them and like the messages behind every story even if it's little and you don't quite catch the meaning until you're thinking about it. But for the sake of time and sanity, we will look and discuss three movies: The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and Ferris Bullers' Day Off.

In all the movies, the style is some what the same and some what different. In The Breakfast Club, they happen to all be in detention and they seem to grow closer as the detention goes on and they find to like each other, even though they know Monday morning when they see each other in the halls, they are not to speak because they come from a different clique. In Pretty In Pink, the boy likes the

girl, even though they come from different social classes, that hardly matters to him because he really likes her and nothing can change that not even a social class. These two movies happen to be the same in style and they way the story is told. They both share a story about class differences or clique differences. In one standpoint it shows that class differences do not matter and that even if you're from a different clique it can work out but then it shows after the time together that can go away based upon people's opinion of who should be with who. And in Ferris Bullers' Day Off, when they decide to ditch school and go have fun in the city and they know that they have to make this day count because this is the last time they can ditch because if caught Ferris will have to do another year of high school and Cameron and Sloane will get suspended. These three movies differ because they each have their own message behind each movie and they convey about the love of each other and they say yes you can have fun but you can't ditch school while doing it, or you can't be together because he is rich and you aren't, or he's a rebel and you're a princess, so why go through the trouble of even thinking about being with him.

The messages in two of the movies were the same while one was different. In Pretty In Pink and The Breakfast Club, they have similar messages. The messages for both of them were yes you can be together even if you aren't from the same social class or from the same clique. And both directors (John Hughes and Howard Deutch) made sure to include this factor into the movie, so that the audience understands this message. In The Breakfast Club, towards the ending, the teens state: "So what about Monday, will we be talking to each other and saying hi?". Of course, the right answer

would be yes, but unfortunately knowing that to talk to each other while with their clique would be out of the ordinary and would mean possible exclusion from their group they state: "No". And in Ferris Bullers' Day Off, the only message is to have fun and if by ditching school, and almost getting caught means having fun then do that. These films influence the culture because it teaches teens that you can like each other and be from different social classes or cliques or that you can have fun by ditching class with their friends. This last message in Ferris Buller is negative about the values that people teach their kids and it says yes you can have fun but you should ditch class and then once you're done you can make it home and still not get caught and get in trouble by your teacher. In Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club the message is positive and it says you can be with anyone and it does not matter whether or not you're in the same social class or not. This is very important to the fact of public perception because people can argue that these movies are important to American values or not.

These movies have no real political views or mentions something political about them. The only movie that mentions war, is Pretty in Pink when her dad talks about when he was in war and afterwards when he meets her mom. And due to the fact that her dad and her live in the bad part of town and they aren't really financially supported because her father does not have a job. Maybe that has to do with the economic part of the government. During the 1980's, there was a failed U.S. rescue attempt to save hostages in Tehran, John Lennon was assassinated, Mount Helen erupts and Ted Turner establishes CNN. None of these connections are purposeful and there is no none connection between the film and the content of political views. 

In the movie The Breakfast Club, the quote that stuck out to me the most was most definitely when Andrew says "We're all pretty bizarre, some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all." This is very important to me because, it makes me look at everyone in my own life differently. Such as the fact that, I have my own likes and dislikes and sometimes when I see someone different then me, I might comment or smirk because they have a different taste then I do. Or maybe the fact that they're aren't as fortunate as me, and I will pity them and feel bad and maybe say, "If I had money, I'd give it to

them." I tend to not realize, that everyone has their own troubles or worries in their life and that they don't need me to make it worse for them by snickering or making fun of them. Or how I shouldn't pity another person because, I would not like for someone to pity me. In Ferris Buller, the quote that made me think is when Ferris says "Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop to look around once in a while, you might miss it." This means a lot to me because, I truly never think about others around me unless they have any significance in my everyday life. I don't seem to think oh that person is happy or that person is sad. I just don't care unless it effects me or someone I care about. I guess we all have something to work on. And the last quote from Pretty in Pink was said by Andie she states "I just want them to know that they didn't get to me." I guess all high school students can say this, but once I graduate all the people who said I never could, or all the people who wasn't there to help me to that point, I really couldn't care less about and tell them that it hurt sometimes to know that they didn't care enough to stay or that I wasn't worth it, but hell, they aren't worth the trouble anyhow.

1935 Movie Project: The Talent Show

Mickey, Minnie, Donald, needs fruit and the fruit tree that they normally get the fruit from is no longer there. They see a poster for a talent show, and to their surprise the winner of the talent show gets a big basket of fruit. So by working together, the friends join the show and they sing and dance and they think that they might lose. But, they win just by a landslide and they get to take the fruit to their tree house and they enjoy the fruit together as pals. This movie would have worked well in 1935, because there was still the Great Depression going on, and the children especially needed

something to make them happy and not feel so down about their situation and/or just keep them occupied and not getting into trouble. Also, the fact where people needed up building from their situation and they wanted hope and maybe a cartoon might have done the trick. There was no important message or underlying meaning behind this cartoon, the cartoon was made for kids and maybe even for people who has it rough and just needed a good laugh or cartoon to cheer up their situation. The genre is Animation and Kid-Friendly. We chose this genre because it was the easiest and the children would most likely find this cartoon amusing and they would really enjoy seeing something to liven up their day. We chose to do The Walt Disney Company to produce this movie because the cartoon characters that are being used, are from this specific company and we could not have used these cartoon characters and chosen MGM. For one, MGM did not produce cartoons and two they did not use these characters because they did not have the legal precedent from The Walt Disney Company to use these cartoons. This would be on a nationally scale and the scale would fit perfectly with the studio because Walt Disney Company was

well known then and they would have a better pay out in the end if it was shown nationally then shown just in local movie theaters. The cast and crew was an easy fit and find. The cast was the 4 original characters, that Walt Disney had created and they were easy and not too hard to find. The crew as well, to be honest not needed because this was a cartoon and really we did not need lightning technician or a stunt man because it was a cartoon. In reality all that was needed was a director and people to voice the characters which was Walt Disney to voice Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse voiced by Marcellite Garner and Donald Duck voiced by Clarence Nash. The Hays Code did and it did not effect our movie because it is a cartoon and in cartoons there is no violence or bad language. However, on the flip side it did effect our movie because, even if we wanted to choose a movie where

there is violence and some bad language we could not because that was against the Hays Code. The technology we are using is Technicolor because instead of just doing this cartoon in black and white, we chose to use color to make the movie more vibrant and the cartoon exciting. We were always going to do a cartoon, but we disagreed on what the whole story should be about. I think that if I were working alone, maybe I would have done like a little party or sleepover or something to celebrate about to make the kids happier and show that even they can have fun while living in their certain circumstances.