Baby boomer bullshit

[Z]

All those nostalgia fuelled films for that era of time. There seemed to be a fuckton of them during the Reagan era but they persisted quite strongly well into the 00s after that, didn't they? Can you remember any particularly obnoxious ones?

Was American Graffiti the first one?

[garnish]

Does the Red Dawn remake count here

[mothman]

I'm not sure I understand what the category is. Any nostalgic film set in the late 50s to, say, mid-60s (i.e. from the birth of rock'n'roll up to the "official" start of the Vietnam War)? But made after the Vietnam War ended (so, mid-70s, but I guess American Graffiti is allowed because 1973 is when US combat operations "officially" ceased)?

Stand By Me, would be one. My Girl. The Wonder Years tv show.

[Z]

I'm not sure I understand what the category is. Any nostalgic film set in the late 50s to, say, mid-60s (i.e. from the birth of rock'n'roll up to the "official" start of the Vietnam War)? But made after the Vietnam War ended (so, mid-70s, but I guess American Graffiti is allowed because 1973 is when US combat operations "officially" ceased)?

Stand By Me, would be one. My Girl. The Wonder Years tv show.

Yep, exactly that really. It's inevitable filmmakers will make films set during their formative years so the fact they did isn't even an issue really.

More that there seemed to be more prominent ones for that period of time than any other and the more recent souring of attitudes towards that generation has, for me at least, really distorted my perception of those things.
Like, I genuinely cannot gauge whether any of those you've mentioned are any good any more.

[mothman]

Though there are obviously films about growing up/coming of age in the 70s, and 80s, and 90s (and noughties, and eventually teenies), none of them seem to have the profile, or cachet, of the boomers' films. I wonder why? Is it because the era in which they made their films was a cinematic golden age, the "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" lot, the dawn of the blockbuster age?

[Delete Delete Delete]

No, because The Baby Boomers were controlling the critical media at the time.

[Shaky]

Always had a problem with quite jarringly anachronistic Dirty Dancing. It gets some details right (I would imagine) then piles on thumping 80's pop, hairstyles and attitudes in some scenes.

[greenman]

Yep, exactly that really. It's inevitable filmmakers will make films set during their formative years so the fact they did isn't even an issue really.

More that there seemed to be more prominent ones for that period of time than any other and the more recent souring of attitudes towards that generation has, for me at least, really distorted my perception of those things.
Like, I genuinely cannot gauge whether any of those you've mentioned are any good any more.

Probably because this was a very director driven period in Hollywood I'd imagine compared to what we've had since were studios and producers have taken on more control again.

[Blumf]

Back to the Future must count in this

[mothman]

No, because The Baby Boomers were controlling the critical media at the time.

Yeah, but do they still, now? Partly, yes. But their films remain part of the wider public consciousness than similarly nostalgic films from subsequent decades. In fact, most of the "nostalgic" growing up in the 80s movies were made IN the 80s. Your brat packs, John Hugheses, etc.

[Z]

Back to the Future must count in this

It's by Forrest Gump and full of similarly annoying nods to shit, so absolutely.

I loved it as a kid, still do quite a lot, but I can't help but feel Zemeckis deliberately plays lowest common denominator to the point of disdain towards his audience with the referential bullshit he's prone to

[greenman]

Yeah, but do they still, now? Partly, yes. But their films remain part of the wider public consciousness than similarly nostalgic films from subsequent decades. In fact, most of the "nostalgic" growing up in the 80s movies were made IN the 80s. Your brat packs, John Hugheses, etc.

Depends who you mean, people of that generation are movie execs now but there less involved in the creative side and the generation/s that followed didn't tend to get as much freedom.

Honestly though I don't remember the majority of the post WW2 revivalism of that era's cinema being that obnoxious. I mean Back to the Future has a toy town 50's setting to it but its not really idealised in story is it, Biff isn't just a clichéd bully he's a potential rapist and something like Roger Rabbit is centred to an evil establishment property developer.

If anything I would say whilst it features less directly in cinema the kind of 50's and 60's nostalgia we see these days tends to be more questionable, the era has basically warped into a Reagan flavoured utopia.

[gilbertharding]

How's about the work of Richard Linklater generally, but Dazed and Confused (which I like) and School of Rock (which I despise) in particular?

Too late for this wave you're talking about? I know D&C is like a 90s American Graffiti - basically the 70s through Mudhoney-coloured glasses.

[garbed_attic]

Was American Graffiti the first one?

haha I was going to write "or the American New Wave"