Remember the Eighties - Page 5

How is it possible that nobody has mentioned John Hughes in this thread. I can't say I liked his movies, but they were certainly emblematic. I think the fantasy/tragedy of the 80s was best depicted in Less Than Zero. There was a lot of truth to that both in high school, college and seeing old friends. Not as bad for the most part, but I wonder if there was anybody who didn't have some sort of Robert Downey jr characer in their lives.

I certainly did. I saw him in a movie theater at home about three years after HS graduation. Before I could control my tongue I blurted out, "My God, you're still alive!" He took it rather well, all things considered.

Not mine. He was a roommate from freshman year in college and by the end of the year he had gotten pretty into coke, even for that time in LA. I saw him again in '99 or 2000 at the engagement party for a friend and he was a mess. Apparently the night for him ended in Berkeley being arrested for masturbating in a public park on crystal meth. IIRC, he was an investment banker for a couple of years. I kind of wonder what ever happened to him, but his name is too typical to find anything on google.

Being older than most of you young 'uns, the '70s were definitely the wildest, craziest, sexiest, druggiest decade of them all! For the vast majority of Americans, the '60s were really a pretty conservative era--the hippies, the student war protesters, the black militants and such--were pretty marginalized and widely hated. For most Americans, the archetypal "Sixties" really happened in the '70s. The '80s were a more conservative era, to be sure. They were my best decade, though. In the '60s I was too immersed in my studies. In the early '70s I was isolated in the middle of the Staked Plains at Lubbock. In mid-to-late '70s I was unemployed or seriously underemployed and chronically broke. The '80s were much, much better for me. I loved my work at Petersen Publishing. I was making more money and getting lots of sex, and I was still young and lusty enough to really enjoy the sex and life in general. (Except 1989, the year of my second marriage. That was a disaster!)

They cared very much what their clothes and hair looked like. Probably more than the average person does today.

The 80s was great fun for some, and a miserable dark period for other people. That goes with any time or decade. For me, I was young, so it was a time of innocence. Right now is the dark period of my life. In sure the next decade will be better for me.

Ahem! The BF Club (John Hughes) was a great movie. Ferris Bueller was good too.

Less than Zero really did hit close to home for many guys. I think Brights Lights Big City was the better novel though (the film was so-so) and captured the zeitgeist even more accurately - or maybe it's just an East coast /West coast difference.

Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful really broke the trend of cute teenybopper movies in the 80s. Teen Wolf anyone?

Crystal meth is a disaster in U.S.A He lucky he got arrested for masturbation not killing someone.

No. Nothing interests me less.

The 80s was a dismal decade best relegated to obscurity with the exception of a few bright spots.

I was going to ask how it is possible that nobody has mentioned Fast Times at Ridgemont High in this thread. I think that movie is at least as emblematic (in a caricature fashion) of teenage 80s life as any of Hughes' movies.

I have a fairly coherent chronological memory of my life from about age 4, which would be from 1967 onward. The 60s and early 70s definitely left the greatest impression on me. I agree that an adult perspective of times when you were very young is fascinating.

Well, it can be amazingly good, (New Order, The Cure) or frighteningly bad: Duran, Duran, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Flock of Seagulls

I so argee with you on that one and how can we forget the movies of the 80's like

*Scarface, The warriors, Ferris Bueller's day off