I CAN'T BELIEVE MY GRANDMOTHER ACTUALLY FELT ME UP: Well, it's it's a Tuesday night in June, so we're all set for the American Film Institute to take over CBS once again for a three-hour countdown of something like the Top 100 Heroes & Villains in film history, or Top 100 Inspiring Films, Top 100 Quotes, Top 100 Songs, a revised Top 100 Films of all time or its genre-specific Ten Top Tens.
Except we're not, because the AFI and CBS stopped doing these things in 2008, and it's an NCIS/NCIS:LA/48 Hours Mystery block instead today.
I'm not the only person who misses the annual broadcasts, and, really, was the advertising revenue that poor? Did the American Film Institute lose the desire to promote itself? Did they run out of themes for a Top 100?
Well, if it's the last one, I can help: why not an AFI's Top 100 Youth Films? Define the genre as "movies about featuring characters of school age, often dealing with issues of maturity and identity" and okay there may be some definitional issues, but why not have a night for Back to the Future, Animal House, Rebel Without A Cause, and The Last Picture Show to duke it out, where we can complain about Dead Poets Society being overrated compared to Dazed and Confused and School Daze? Television, make this happen.
My pitch on Twitter was for action scenes. Sure I'm playing to the cheap seats but . . . I don't care. I love a good action set piece!!!
ReplyDeleteI took a special topics film class in college (around 1999 or so) that was bascially this topic. Films we watched:
ReplyDeleteFast Times at Ridgemont High
Heathers
Dazed and Confused
Pump Up the Volume
Footloose
Risky Business
The Breakfast Club
Lucas
Clueless
Disturbing Behavior
and I think, maybe, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
And the professor wanted to add, but did not have time to include:
Bring It On
Can't Hardly Wait
Awesome list! (Why didn't my college have this class?!) Most of my teen favorites are on there, including those that are sometimes forgotten like Can't Hardly Wait and Pump Up the Volume. I'd also add Say Anything (one of my favorite movies of any genre), Some Kind of Wonderful, and Mean Girls (which came out after the time of your class).
ReplyDeleteThe weirdest thing about the class was that I was older than my classmates by about 4-5 years, which is A LOT at that age. So, I'd seen Heathers as 15-year-old, and pre-Columbine. They were coming to it new at age 19, post-Columbine. In that context, I saw a VERY different movie than they did. Some of them even found it reprehensible.
ReplyDeleteAlso (and this is going to require skating near the edge of the no-politics rule), but because of where the class was (Deep South) and when (late 90s instead of post-70s), the class got REALLY focused on one plot point in Fast Times and discredited the entire movie because of its inclusion and depiction.
It occurs to me I could watch clips from high school dance/prom scenes for a good two hours, easy.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Sue. I want to take that class.
ReplyDeleteI want to take the class too. Agree on the lack of inclusion of Say Anything.
ReplyDeleteOther movies needing inclusion:
Better Off Dead
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Ferris Bueller
American Pie
American Graffiti
Little known gems that I'd add -
ReplyDeleteThree O'Clock High
My Bodyguard
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
Angus
Flawed but interesting -
The Chocolate War
Dead Poets Society is overrated compared to almost every movie of this type, for what it's worth.
ReplyDeleteDeleted an earlier one because I read your description more carefully. Of COURSE they were hung up on the matter of factness of that plot line.
ReplyDeleteI'll have Watts' list (with a giant gold star next to My Bodyguard) and add Gregory's Girl.
ReplyDeleteBreaking Away, for sure.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, Gregory's Girl is a gem. I just found out recently they made a sequel, but I haven't the heart to watch it.
ReplyDeleteBut the cast is very nice to look at.
ReplyDeleteGregory's Two Girls. I've heard it's horrible. The trailer doesn't look promising.
ReplyDelete