1980s Movies

I enjoyed all three of the movies we watched in class. The first movie we watched was The Breakfast Club. This movie paved the way for all movies about teenagers from this point on. It finally portrayed teenagers as real people, unlike movies in the past. It was well received at the time because of this new portrayal of teenagers. Ferris Bueller's Day Off is also a movie about teenagers. This movie portrayed any high school student's ideal day off. In a way, every student wants to be like Ferris Bueller, even though he is not the best role model. Finally, we watched the Vietnam War movie Platoon. Platoon gave a different interpretation of the Vietnam War. Apocalypse Now from the 1970s portrayed the Vietnam War as being fought by a bunch of kids who only cared about drugs and that did not want to be there. But, Platoon gives the impression that the kids fighting in the war were truly impacted by what they saw. This portrayal is controversial, but is brand new to the Vietnam War genre.