My girlfriends and I watched Flashdance almost every weekend in high school (I graduated in '84).
My peeve is that I can pick up Say Anything at any movie-selling store, but I really want Better Off Dead which I think was a much more entertaining movie, and it’s much harder to find. “I want my two dollars…”
Ooh, good call.
I have to agree with everyone who thinks “Fast Times…” should have been on the list. It was very American, of course, but we still enjoyed it.
I agree that **Fast Times **should have made the poll, but my vote would still have gone for The Breakfast Club.
I’ll go with the majority here, as I think the answer has to be The Breakfast Club. But Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a legitimate contender for the title.
Honorable mention for the terminally underappreciated “Three O’Clock High” as well.
Just to be different, I’ll throw “River’s Edge” into the mix for those who had a less upbeat teenage experience.
I voted for the Breakfast Club. I knew those people in high school–all of them. Fast Times would be my second choice.
I posted just recently on another 80’s movie, All the Right Moves and when I was growing up in the 80’s, I related somewhat to the kids, but upon re-watching the movie, with the exception of watching Lea Tompson getting nakey, I did more relate now to the people that were in the background. The workers at the bar, and the lay offs and such.
It would not really surprise me to hear that some people may watch those self same movies from that time, and realize that they have become the enemy and would probably relate more to the authority figures.
You really should watch , not another teen movie.
Declan
I was tempted to say Ferris, but Breakfast Club deals more with the actual school social scene, and is more of an ensemble.
For those of us that weren’t teens until the late 80’s, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure should be on the list. Though Ferris Bueller, Lost Boys, and **Heathers **were still pretty popular, and overall, I first thought of **Breakfast Club **on reading the topic title (before reading any poll choices). It wouldn’t be my personal choice, but it just seems like the quintessential 80’s teen movie. Can’t see too much of an argument against Fast Times either.
I see what you did there.
I wish I didn’t.
My favorite line in the movie is Duckie, when Andy says she is going out with Blaine. “BLAINE??” he asks, aghast. “His name is BLAINE??” This, from someone named Duckie. 
Although I was practically an adult in 1985, when The Breakfast Club came out (the year I graduated from college), I still considered it the best example of a teen movie. I was still doing some of the same self-examination — “do I want to be who I decide I am, or who people see me as?”
I must say though that I did identify more with St. Elmo’s Fire; it seemed squarely aimed at me.
Yup, not having Fast Times as an option is like having a Best James Bond poll and omitting Sean Connery.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Fast Times resonates with me the most. It was filmed where I grew up when I was gtowing up, my favorite to watch is Sixteen Candles, simply because I think it’s the funniest and I actually voted for The Breakfast Club
because I get the feeling it’s the most often viewed /recognized/quoted. There’s scarcely an 80s teen movie I won’t stop and watch if I come across it on TV.
“That’s not a name, that’s a, a, major appliance!”