Popular Teen Movies of the '80s
Cult Classics Include The Karate Kid and The Breakfast Club
Sep 5, 2008
Cool characters ruled movie screens in the 1980s. Some were deeply troubled like in the Breakfast Club and others such as Ferris Bueller made audiences cheer.
Why did these films make such a big impression? They were funny, inspirational, intriguing and sad all at the same time. The teenage protagonists were a diverse group of characters and some of them defied authority so passionately it was impossible not to like them from the start.
John Bender (Judd Nelson) from the Breakfast Club was a hero to every high school malcontent when he told the school principal to "eat my shorts!" and got away with it. Others like Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) defied time itself and traveled thirty years into the past with the help of a DeLorean. The following teen flicks of that fantastic decade are timeless, so go ahead, take a trip down memory lane and relive the '80s.
- The Karate Kid (1984) - Ralph Macchio and Noriyuki "Pat" Morita star in this film about a kid named Daniel LaRusso (Macchio) who moves to suburban Los Angeles and quickly runs into trouble when a gang of bullies, who are practiced in karate, decide to make his life hell. He manages to get away the first couple of times, but eventually receives quite a beating. Then he meets a kindly Okinawan man named Mr. Miyagi who takes pity on the young Daniel and teaches him how to defend himself, though in an indirect way through chores and housework, instructing him with the famous line "wax on, wax off!" Mr. Miyagi is more than a teacher; he is the father which Daniel never had. By the end of the film, Daniel has regained his dignity through discipline and hard work.
- The Breakfast Club (1985) - What do you get when you put a nerd, a wrestler, a princess, a basket case and a criminal all in the same room? Possibly the best teen angst movie of all time! On a Saturday morning five students are made to spend the day in detention in their high school. In the beginning they all hate each other, but by the end of the film they're the best of friends. The aggravated principal Mr. Vernon (Paul Gleason) watches over them all and particularly hates John Bender (Judd Nelson) because of his smart mouth. Emilio Estevez really stands out as the young jock, who is tormented by his mistreatment of another student.
- Back to the Future (1985) - Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is the son of a really dysfunctional family. He's always late for school and is therefore an easy target for the tyrannical principal Mr. Strickland (James Tolkan) who tells him "no McFly has ever amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley." Marty's life soon spins out of control when he meets his pal Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) and is whisked back to 1955 in a DeLorean time machine. He meets his future parents and must do everything he can to make sure they meet again after he accidentally causes them not to. At the same time he has to avoid the big school bully, Biff, who was mean spirited even as a young man. This film made Michael J. Fox a star and he went on to appear in two Back to the Future sequels.
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) - On a beautiful spring morning, Ferris decides to pull a fast one and skip school. Waiting until his parents have left for work, he calls his buddy Cameron (Alan Ruck) and after some arm twisting persuades him to enjoy a perfect day in downtown Chicago, but there's a catch. They must drive the Ferrari belonging to Cameron's dad, who is never seen but is described as abusive. Ferris picks up his girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) and off they go, enjoying lunch at a fine restaurant, an art museum and an afternoon at a baseball game. The man who really steals the show is the school principal Mr. Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) who ends up running all over town to catch Ferris and almost succeeds at the film's end. Director John Hughes hit the jackpot with this one, which proved that cool high school kids will always outwit parents and smarmy school administrators.
The copyright of the article Popular Teen Movies of the '80s in Classic Films is owned by Scott Hayden. Permission to republish Popular Teen Movies of the '80s in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
