One of my facebook friends - a good friend from years ago - updated her status recently saying that Ferris Bueller's Day Off holds up to the test of time whereas Flashdance does not. She's right. That got me to thinking...what other movies stand the test of time?
My daughter is weeks away from 15 and loves movies like Easy A and Pitch Perfect. One thing that a lot of the movies she likes have in common is references to The Breakfast Club. "We should watch that movie," I kept telling her, "so that you can understand what they are talking about." Then I started worrying. Would The Breakfast Club live up to the hype? Would it be a movie that my daughter would "get" just like I did when I was 15? Would I get it still at 42?
So I did it. I rented The Breakfast Club (and asked myself, why don't I OWN a copy?) and invited my daughter to watch it with me. I warned her ahead of time - they smoke pot in this movie and they say the f-word a lot. "Mom," she said, "I go to public school. I know about that stuff." "Well just don't do that stuff, ok?" I said. She rolled her eyes just a little bit and agreed not to.
I should tell you that when I rented it I rented some other movies, too. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (my daughter just read the book and wrote an essay for her lit class), Skyfall (my 11 year old son stayed up with me to watch that one...everyone else fell asleep), and End of Watch (still sitting on the kitchen counter...haven't had time to watch it yet). When the guy behind the counter handed the movies to me he said, "The first three are due back tomorrow by 5pm. The Breakfast Club is due back..." "Never?" I asked. He laughed and said, "by Friday." I half expected him to agree with me and say, yeah, just keep it.
So my daughter and I watched The Breakfast Club. Many of the classics stand up. Mess with the bull, get the horns. Pixie Stick and Captain Crunch sandwich with mayo for lunch. Lipstick application talent. No Dad, what about YOU? But what struck me the most was how UNREAL the characters seemed. When I was 15 these kids were REAL. But now they just seemed so fake. Who brings sushi for lunch in Saturday school? Who has a two story library with a DJ booth in their high school? LOCKERS? Forget about it!!! And Judd Nelson...remember how hard core he seemed? Now he looks like a 25 year old guy trying to look 17 and dressed like half the kids in my daughter's class. Weird.
And speaking of lunch (see sushi reference above), why is it called The Breakfast Club anyway? They eat lunch in the movie, not breakfast. What the heck is that about?
The other thing that struck me is how every character talks about how much he or she HATES his or her parents. Did I feel like that when I was a teenager? I remember feeling misunderstood by them and being angry that they didn't let me stay out until 1:30am like my best friend, but hate them? I don't think so.
My daughter and I talked about that afterward. We're a pretty close family and we talk about a lot of things. I never told my parents much of anything when I was a kid. But anyway, I told her I was concerned that she might think that hating your parents is normal. Do kids hate their parents? I guess some kids do, but I don't want my kids to be in that group of some. She laughed and said she doesn't feel that way and she knows it is just a movie. She liked the music (see Pitch Perfect) and she loves that she now understands Simple Minds' "Don't You Forget About Me" and the fist in the air (see the end of Easy A).
And she doesn't hate her parents. At least not today.
