… Yes, it’s true, Winona was not my first love.
The old teev during the non-ratings season has been a bit of a write off, which in many ways isn’t a bad thing. But I have enjoyed a lot of what SBS has had on (and I’m also pleased to see that the Rudd government is seeking legal advice on the decision to run in-program ads as promised). I could mention some of the Wong Kar-Wai flicks, and many others, but one doco that turned out to be heaps better than I’d anticipated was the one last week on teen movies, partly because it had a lot of interesting talking heads, and partly because it inspired me to go out and rent movies I hadn’t seen for donkey’s years like The Outsiders and remember with what emotional force it struck me way back when (I was a middle class boy going to a working class school, so I was alternately fantasising about being in a John Hughes world and being a “grease”.) It really is amazing to feel exactly how much I did identify with some of the characters and how much I felt – something that’s really very rarely the case now. Perhaps the 80s was something of a golden age for teen cinema, or maybe it’s about the difference between being in your teens and in your thirties.
Anyway, I was kinda struck by two things. First, the comment made by quite a few of the critics – that because there was no sex ed in America, teens learnt about sex and dating from movies. I’m not sure that’s right – I vaguely remember some sort of rudimentary sex ed stuff in science, but I’m sure that it didn’t make much of an impact. I suspect the comment that America is not the sort of society where people are open about sex and intimacy just at the point when we’re hormonally nuts is right – and I think it is (or was) right about Australia too. So I do think that a lot of us thought about, and tried to emulate, movie rituals when it came to dating and sexual fumbling and flaffing about. And indeed the date movie was a big thing – my first one being The Outsiders when I was 15. Whether that’s still true, given all the evidence about the recent trends to sexual experience happening at much younger ages, I don’t know. Certainly my impression was that most of us were basically fairly innocent, and a lot of us had fairly romanticised perceptions about sex and intimacy back in the 80s.
Which leads me to my second point – I was very much struck by something that would be second nature to me now, but which I don’t think would have been at the time – the question of how girls and same-sex attracted people feel about the narratives of teen lerve. When I became more aware of all this, and also less heteronormative in my perception of my own sexuality in the early 90s at uni, that’s why I was so excited to see films (at the old Classic on Stanley Street in East Brisbane) such as Gregg Araki’s (which Im enjoying reliving in a different way on dvd). I thought it was fantastic, therefore, that by the late 90s and into this decade, film makers were trying to do a gay boy John Hughes in films like Another Gay Movie and from a female perspective in But I’m a Cheerleader, and focusing on the girl’s perspective in a film about orgasms, Coming Soon. So thanks, SBS.
Oh, and you can always derive some pleasure, aside from the nostalgia, from any film where the young Rob Lowe gets his shirt off. And there are lots of them. Incidentally, watching The Outsiders again really reinforces how accurately (perhaps unconsciously) it portrays teen homosociality, and I suspect this sort of thing is a partial answer to the question of the point of identification for gay male teens.
<img src="http://larvatusprodeo.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/ally_sheedy.jpg"
<img src="http://larvatusprodeo.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/curtis_brothers_talking.JPG"
Interesting that you should mention The Outsiders this week, Mark. On Monday last, I found a new copy on the bargain table at the local video shop for $4.99.
Mark, have you seen a film called ‘High Art’ starring a much older Ally Sheedy as a heroin addicted photographer based, I’ve heard, on Nan Goldin. It dovetails nicely into your article in that the character is gay. So it’s as though the Ally Sheedy character in “The Breakfast Club” has grown up in a very interesting way. It’s a very good film.
Your article also brings back memories of Molly Ringwald, what an astoundingly good young actress she was, particularly in “Pretty in Pink”. Sadly, a lot of those actors went precisely nowhere once thy lost their teen adorability.
Sans Blog, I wish I’d been in that video store. I subsequently bought it for $34.99.
I’ve seen High Art, Fine, and it’s a fantastic movie. I think it’s also consciously utilising memories of the younger Sheedy and the characters she played.
It’s interesting to see which of the actors went somewhere and which didn’t.
I often wonder how Sean Penn went from Gnarly to unwatchable in his quest to be a serious actor. Ally Sheedy didn’t do much for me though, I still remember the audible grunt that went through the room when Phoebe Cates got out of the pool in aforementioned film. “…Ridgmont…” is a particularly silly film, but I find it more watchable and (in some ways) closer to the way my later high school years progressed in a way that “The Outsiders” didn’t, albeit in a cartoonish parody of those awkward years.
Melbourne’s’ gang culture was quite strong in the mid 70s when I ran with a gang of rockers, (basically you had bikers, rockers, sharpies and fair game for any of the aforementioned) The Outsiders came out a few years after that era had ended.
A hot double at the drive in was American Graffiti and The Lords of Flatbush which featured Henry Winkler (pre Happy Days) and Sylvester Stallone in a surprisingly strong performance http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071772/
After many years in and around gang culture I still come across as a typical alpha male at first glance but abhor the misogynistic, homophobic and racist attitudes that prevail there, seem to have made myself a true outsider amongst them and would rather drink with queer folk than paranoid losers
Anybody here a fan of Coppola’s bizarre (but engrossing) “Rumble Fish”?
j_p_z,I love Rumblefish – mainly for the Stewart Copeland (The Police’s-drummer)soundtrack, but also for Mickey Rourke’s performance as Motorcycle Boy.
Unaccountably, I haven’t seen Rumble Fish! I should, yeah?
I’m going through a re-familiarisation with the director Gus van Sant’s movies at the moment. A lot of people don’t like his work but I find it improves immensely with repeated viewings.
Gus van Sant
Mark, I always check JBHiFi Online before buy DVDs but in the case of The Outsiders they are are selling it for the price you paid which is a rip-off.
I’ve bought around 30 DVDs in the past couple of weeks and am having a nice lazy time (the 10 weeks or so of rain in the Blue Mountains plus 8 weeks of daily radiation treatment for returning prostate cancer is making me movie-friendly).
http://www.jbhifionline.com.au/
PS I have been experiencing lengthy lag times with LP just about everyday this week.
Yes, I had a feeling I was being ripped off – it was a special something or other edition I think. I should buy more online.
Hope your health improves, Sans Blog!
Thanks, Mark.
If you like old movies this is a bargain, I think. Can’t wait for it to arrive.
http://www.jbhifionline.com.au/dvds/id/1083654
Sans Blog, that is a great deal.
I buy a lot of DVDs at Amazon, because there’s still a lot of stuff you can’t get locally.
Mickey Rourke, now there’s an actor who went badly wrong.
Sans Blog, I saw the latest Gus Van Sant in Paris recently’ “Paranoid Park”. It’s another one of his dreamy exploration of adolescent males, with largely amateur actors. One interesting thing is that it’s shot in the old Academy ratio, which mkes it seem peculiarly claustrophobic. It’s very good and I believe it’s being released here later in the year.
Rumblefish is well worth checking out, Mark. Tom Waits plays a Soda Bar owner, SE Hinton appears as a lady of the night, and Mickey R was never more charismatic.
Would the beginning of the fall of Mickey Rourke date to 9.5 Weeks?
I didnt see the movies but read both Rumblefish and The Outsiders in the OLMC Library and swear to God, for 20 years or so based my ideal guy on those characters, right down to eye colour. How tragic. Damn SE Hinton. Damn those bad boys with hearts of gold.
Oh, we got sex ed. In religion class. From a teacher who was 8.5 months pregnant. Propping up her sex ed book on her over ripe stomach, she would say “Girls, masturbation is a sin. And you will go to hell if you do it”
And we would look at the resulting fecundity of her particular rolls in the hay and think: “Alright for you sister…”
Tom Waits had a bit part in The Outsiders, too, and SE Hinton played one of the nurses. Movies with Tom Waits in them are generally worth watching!