I had this discussion with my sister and my dad the other night and now I’m interested in hearing other people’s thoughts on the matter.
My sister and I got on the topic of classic teen movies and we realized that we couldn’t think of many that were made before the '80s. We both grew up in the '80s (and '90s) so obviously we may be a bit biased, but I do think that the '80s were the golden age of teen moves.
What I’m interested in is if people who can remember back to decades before the '80s had movies that could be considered ‘teen movies’.
More importantly perhaps, I’d like to hear what you think makes a teen movie. Many seem to involve some kind of romance, antagonistic adults (though there is often at least one sympathetic adult), youthful hi-jinks (often perpetrated by secondary characters, though not necessarily), and some sort of lesson that is learned towards the end of the movie when everything comes to a head.
I think that one crucial element that was probably added in the '80s (or maybe the '70s) was sex and nudity. Before that it seems like there was romance in mainstream teen movies but it wasn’t clear within the context of the movies that sex was the ultimate goal of the romance (for most characters).
A quick Google search for ‘teen movies’ returned only porn on the first page. A quick search for ‘80s teen movies’ produced pages and pages about teen movies from the '80s. ‘70s teen movies’ didn’t really turn up anything that I could see. Both '50s and ‘60s teen movies’ return surf movies and stuff like that, but noting like the profusion of ‘80s teen movies’. I turned on the parental filter and searched ‘teen movies’ again which turned up mostly '80s and '90s movies.
So did the genre start in the '80s? What do you think qualifies a movie as a teen movie? What about the sub genres (romance, buddy movie, raunchy sex farce, etc.)?
(By the way, I like many of the teen movies, at least enough to sit through them if someone rents one.)
Bascially what makes a movie a teen movie is having the main characters be teens or people just out of their teens. Generally the film should reflect ‘real life’ for teens. (whatever the hell that means)
American Grafitti
Your basic elements are basic elements of story telling. None of those are exclusive to teen movies. For instance what you say is easily applied to The Shawshank Redemption. (the romance is that he loved his wife) You get sex from the posters.
There are tons of teen movies from the 50’s From Beach Blanket Bingo to The Wild One. Tons and Tons of them.
There was a French film of Romeo and Juliet made in 1900. That could have been the first teen movie. After all, it does have a lot of the same elements that can be found in American Pie.
Damn, the list from the '50s alone is endless. In addition to those already named: Blackboard Jungle, the Gidget movies, Rock Around The Clock, The Girl Can’t Help It, a dozen or so featuring Annette, The Blob, I was A Teenage Were Wolf, on and on and on. Thinking of them all makes me tired.
Tommy Kirk and Kurt Russell made a bunch of “Teen” flicks for Disney.
There were “Delinquent” stories, (“Hiway to Hell” “Hot Rod Hiway” etc).
Even ‘Slasher’ flicks, (“Homicidal” a direct rip-off of “Psycho”
As mentioned above; Annette & Frankie, (5), Gidget, (4), and an inordinate number of bad monster movies.