Before Douglas Coupland dubbed my generation "Generation X", the term was the title of a photo essay by the great photographer Robert Capa on youth people coming of age just after World War 2, the young people of the 1950s. The term never caught on. This was my parent's generation, ironically. The term could have fit them just as easily. As we stand twixt the Boomers and the Millennials, they stand between the Greatest Generation and The Boomers, they, too are, in the words of Tyler Durden in "Fight Club", the middle children of history. My dad's older brother served in the war, my dad was only 16 in 1945. My dad was in the service during the Korean conflict, at the same time, my mom was in high school with bobby socks and poodle skirts. My dad's older siblings had Glen Miller, my dad had Stan Kenton. My mom's younger siblings had the Beatles, my mom had Tony Bennett. They married in 1956. They saw the civil rights era. My mom's younger sisters went to Woodstock. In 1969, my parents had me.
Just for fun, I created a list of the definitive movies of and about my generation. They are in a semi-chronological order ranging from the seventies to the the end of the nineties.
1: The Bad News Bears
I'm talking about the original one, of course, with Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal. In spite of (or because of) all the fighting, and the cursing, and Coach Buttermaker's drinking problem, this movie shows a surprisingly sympathetic look at childhood in the 1970s, even if, like me, you didn't play little league.
2: The Legend of Billie Jean
First of all, the scene with oh-so-lovely Helen Slater at the swimming hole (right before the jerks started messing with brother Binx's scooter) had my 16 year old adolescent head spinning. I don't think I ever really recovered. H.S.'s Billie Jean Davy goes on to lead a full blown youth rebellion that had us all cheering. Fair is fair!
3: Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Why did I include this popular comedy? They called our generation slackers, and nobody put as much effort and talent into the fine art of slacking as Ferris.
4: The Breakfast Club
Throw a bunch of students from completely different high school cliques together in Saturday detention and they learn that they are all equally outsiders and misfits. Nothing defined Generation X better.
5: Heathers
Wynona Ryder and Christian Slater team up to kill off the snobby popular kids in school only to see the plan backfire when their victims become even more beloved in death. This very black comedy is a defining movie for a generation characterized by bleak irony and practiced nonchalance.
6: War Games
Thanks to genius boomers such as Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak, we were the first kids to grow up with our own computers (Sorry, millennials, it's true). A cyberpunk thriller before there was a word for it. Mathew Broderick plays a teenage hacker invading pre-internet bulletin boards looking for free games to download, only to inadvertently activate a NORAD war game scenario that nearly begins world war three.
7: Reality Bites
Lives of the overeducated and underemployed in the 1990s. Gen-X queen Wynona Ryder documents the romantic and career troubles of her friends with a camcorder.
8: Slacker
The very title of this movie is that hated word that the Boomers used to define us with. You've seen the "Keep Austin Weird" T-Shirsts. In this series of vignettes, Gen-X director Richard Linlater takes us to Austin, TX and gives us a grand tour of the weird circa 1991.
9: Clerks
Kevin Smith filmed this no-budget flick in black and white at the convenience store where he worked. It gives us a day in the life of no-future 20-somethings in Leonardo, NJ who spend their time doing such things as debating the ethics of blowing up the second Death Star and judging people by the movies that they rent.
10: Grosse Point Blank
A movie about growing up to realize that life doesn't turn out the way you imagined. This film tells it's message using the unlikely scenario of John Cusack as a hit man with an existential crisis going to his 10 year high school reunion.
11: Swingers
Struggling Brooklynite trying to get his shit together as a comedian in LA while sampling the mid-1990's neo-lounge scene. The film has some hilarious scenes for anyone who lived through that time period, the most uncomfortable answering machine scene ever put to film, and a cameo by swing revival band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
12: Fight Club
Rounding off the list, we finish the journey from The Legend of Billie Jean's fantasies of youth rebellion to "the middle children of history" beating the living shit out of each other in order to feel alive for just five minutes.
I'm going to leave this list at a dozen. What movies would you include?
Thanks to genius boomers such as Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak, we were the first kids to grow up with our own computers (Sorry, millennials, it's true). A cyberpunk thriller before there was a word for it. Mathew Broderick plays a teenage hacker invading pre-internet bulletin boards looking for free games to download, only to inadvertently activate a NORAD war game scenario that nearly begins world war three.
7: Reality Bites
Lives of the overeducated and underemployed in the 1990s. Gen-X queen Wynona Ryder documents the romantic and career troubles of her friends with a camcorder.
8: Slacker
The very title of this movie is that hated word that the Boomers used to define us with. You've seen the "Keep Austin Weird" T-Shirsts. In this series of vignettes, Gen-X director Richard Linlater takes us to Austin, TX and gives us a grand tour of the weird circa 1991.
9: Clerks
Kevin Smith filmed this no-budget flick in black and white at the convenience store where he worked. It gives us a day in the life of no-future 20-somethings in Leonardo, NJ who spend their time doing such things as debating the ethics of blowing up the second Death Star and judging people by the movies that they rent.
10: Grosse Point Blank
A movie about growing up to realize that life doesn't turn out the way you imagined. This film tells it's message using the unlikely scenario of John Cusack as a hit man with an existential crisis going to his 10 year high school reunion.
11: Swingers
Struggling Brooklynite trying to get his shit together as a comedian in LA while sampling the mid-1990's neo-lounge scene. The film has some hilarious scenes for anyone who lived through that time period, the most uncomfortable answering machine scene ever put to film, and a cameo by swing revival band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
12: Fight Club
Rounding off the list, we finish the journey from The Legend of Billie Jean's fantasies of youth rebellion to "the middle children of history" beating the living shit out of each other in order to feel alive for just five minutes.
I'm going to leave this list at a dozen. What movies would you include?
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