I prefer 80s teen movies with less troubling themes, like murder and rampant eating disorder (Heathers) 
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Gawdamit this is really fucking hard. My reach is for My Own Private Idaho (1991, though written in the 70s)…
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I think you are addressing an important point here, that even then those scenes were supposed to make you uncomfortable. It was a given that it was wrong, just not driven home with a wooden mallet. These were movies that were supposed to capture the actual teen experience, and not offer judgement. That’s why they were hits.
The movies did not intend to celebrate as much as shock back then. Think of all the “shockingly frank” movies through the ages, and how they now seem quaint. Or how movies that tried to attack racist attitudes are now denigrated as racist themselves, because they helped move attitudes. How The Breakfast Club did call out how girls are either sluts or prudes in the eyes of boys, the black or white damned if you do, damned if you don’t. That is what was supposed to remain with us, how it tried to strip away the sugarcoating that other movies like Porky’s applied.
Again, I was a teen then, I was in the target demographic when they were first released. And the kids in my high school talked about how “honest” these movies were. (I didn’t go, and instead spent my time discussing Star Trek and Star Wars with my friends over various role playing games, so YMMV.)
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Two out of three of the John Cusack trifecta:
The Sure Thing fails the test just in the title, but Better off Dead and One Crazy Summer stayed pretty clear of it, other than bad behavior of over-the-top villians.
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What about Say Anything? I don’t remember it well enough to recall if there was any gross behavior in there or not.
Or would this be considered coercion?
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Lloyd was pretty stalkery after Diane broke up with him. It was my favorite movie at the time, but it had some problems. Best thing about Lloyd was his genuine friendship with Corey and DC, and how they advise him on his relationship with Diane.
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Uh… I have to disagree there.
In 16 Candles, neither the passive-aggressive racism (Long Duk Dong) or the perpetuation of rape culture (Jake ‘trading’ his unconscious girlfriend for Sam’s panties) are presented as wrong or even problematic.
In the Breakfast Club, Bender’s sexual harassment of Claire is presented as “he’s just picking on her because he really likes her” and even worse; it was something that Claire ‘needed’ because she was too snobby and “needed to be taken down a peg.” And of course, Bender still ‘gets’ Claire as a “prize” in the end.
And I could go on, but I’ll refrain.
There’s still a lot to love about these movies, but it’s very important to acknowledge the problematic aspects they contain, and there’s more than a few.
An example of where Hughs overcame some of the pervasive influence of toxic rape culture is Some Kind of Wonderful:
Keith doesn’t end up getting the ‘girl of his dreams,’ and belatedly realizes a good relationship was right there in his face, the whole time.
Watts stands by her best friend no matter what, even though seeing him with someone else hurts her terribly.
Meanwhile, Amanda Jones learns how to stand on her own two feet and not cave into peer pressure.
No gross behavior per se, but a ‘refusal to take no for answer’ falls under:
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Is stalking gross behavior? Cause it’s kind of a stalkery kind of movie.
Whoops! I should have read ahead, as not one, but TWO people got there a ahead of me…
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Agreed…but it always seemed a bit innocent to me. Heartbroken teenager pining for his ex rather than the creepy stalker kind…but what do i know. I suppose there really wouldn’t be much of a movie then.
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As someone who was stalked, it’s not. It’s scary. But I’m sure the stalker thought he was being romantic and all.
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It always does, when you’re not the one who’s on the receiving of someone’s unwanted attention.
I’ve also dealt with the love-sick guy who couldn’t let it go, and who ‘just wanted everything to go back to the way it was…’ and like @anon61221983 already stated, it’s not ‘romantic’; it’s just disturbing, and often scary as fuck.
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“He put his testicles all over me!” “His what?” “Testicles, like an octopus?” Comedic gold!!
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As a child of the 80’s (HS '82, college '86) I can say these films reflected the culture of the times. The crap Judge K. is accused of was a common occurrence at drunk frat parties all the time and “low grade sexual assault” was exceedingly common at drunken HS parties. Things change, and I would like to believe that the arrow of history trends upward. What was “OK” 35 years ago is not OK now. What was OK 60 years ago is certainly not OK now. And so on. I would not hold up the '80’s teen flicks as models of desirable behavior, but as time capsules of what it was like to grow up in that time. The vast majority of us did not assault girls, but the ones who did were usually the BMOC’s who were above criticism (again, see Judge K.) Does that make it OK? Hell no. Gotta keep in mind, Sen. Robert Byrd was a member of the KKK in the 40’s and 50’s. Do you think that would fly now? Things change. Mostly for the better. Over time. At least until now.
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Thanks for the details. As I said higher up on the thread, I never really watched John Hughes movies with the exception of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. And even that, I waited until it got to VHS and instead spent my cash on various RPG’s and stuff like that. I saw The Breakfast Club once, and that was enough for me. I really don’t remember it all that well, only how critics called it “raw and honest” and other bullshit.
It is kind of weird, to be from the generation but still clueless. But ask me about playing AD&D, or phone phreaking, or when The Dark Knight Returns first hit the comic stores, and I’m your man.
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I guess that’s why there really is no movie from the past that doesn’t have some problematic element to it. Plots require drama and tension among characters in order to move the story along. I suppose any kind of male/female power dynamic or sexual tension can be scrutinized thru the critical lens of modern standards.
While I’m sure there would be a way to script around it, in Say Anything part of the charm was the intensity of emotions between the two main characters. Would be a pretty boring movie if Diane said “I think we should stop going out on dates.” and Lloyd said, “Ok. I respect your decision. Goodbye.” No boombox scene. End.
But yeah, I can certainly see how it can come across totally different in the real world:
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Technically written in the 16th Century as it was based on Shakespeare’s Henry IV
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It was never okay. People might have accepted it (boys will be boys!) or resigned to it, or living in constant fear, but it was never okay.
Why do you think these stories are coming out? Why do you think the women telling them are still in pain? Not because it was okay, but because other people didn’t give a crap, and/or enjoyed the power and superiority in being cruel.
It never was, and never will be “okay”.
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Wow. Way to excuse sexual assault. There was also a time when it was acceptable to: lynch black people for looking at white people the “wrong” way, make children work in mines and factories, beat your wife, and lock Japanese-Americans into internment camps. THAT DOESN’T MAKE IT RIGHT AT THE TIME. Stop excusing sexual assault. STOP IT.
That’s part of the reason why we talk about films in this way and tease out these problems.
I… don’t think always. We have to force change.
Okay, but the fact is that women DID talk about sexual assault back then, too. It’s not like it wasn’t something that people didn’t understand.
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If you read my post, I said exactly that. Acknowledging that a thing is, or was, does not imply that it is, or was, ok. Merely that it is.
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