We watched the Brat Pack documentary Brats on Hulu tonight.
I feel old.
And also so shocked.
I’m just young enough that when the term was coined, I thought it was cool. And I sure didn’t read an article in The New Yorker. I was busy reading Tiger Beat and Seventeen.
It’s so sad to listen to these incredibly talented actors and hear the pain in their memories as they share about that time.
Society likes to trash teenagers. To say they don’t understand, don’t know.
I taught incredibly talented teenagers for 30 years, and what I have always seen is that teenagers get stuff done. Look at video of every huge cultural change in the US and you’ll see young people leading the way.
Back to the documentary: I loved the 80s teen movies. It’s so incredibly sad the artists making them were torn down by a society that has always tried to belittle young voices.
Looking forward we’re in a space now where young voices are at risk. Book bans and the war on the public school along with the attacks on women’s rights and the push to take us back in time to white christian patriarchal rule above all else. That is something young people have rebelled against forever.
In the section of the documentary on race, Malcolm Gladwell says watching the movies reminds you that if you were a kid in Chicago in the 80s, you had one Black kid in your class. That’s the way it was.
Unbelievably in 2024 we’re in a fight with a huge contingent that wants to take us back to that time. It’s going to take Brat Pack energy and loud youth voices to keep that from happening.
It’s fascinating how many of the movies from the Brat Pack time and actors have become part of the ethos. The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Dirty Dancing, The Outsiders, Ferris Bueller, Back to the Future. We still watch them, today with a critical eye about what was acceptable to society then, but we watch and enjoy and remember. That’s a good thing. I’m glad by the end of the documentary, the tone shifts to affirmation, love and acceptance. It’s a great journey.
I’m grateful for these talented actors who created such great art in the 80s and on. The documentary is great. Kudos to Andrew McCarthy for making it happen.
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