The Ultimate History of the '80s Teen Movie

Author: James King
Publisher: Diversion Books
ISBN: 1635765838
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 571

Book Description
For fans of The Movies That Made Us, a behind-the-scenes look at what went into making the favorite blockbuster films of the 1980s. A trip back to the era of troubled teens and awesome soundtracks; of Reagan, rap, and Ridgemont High; of MTV, VHS, and “Axel F”; of outsiders, lost boys, and dead poets; of Bill and Ted, Brooke Shields, and the Brat Pack; of three Porky’s flicks, two Coreys, and one summer when “Baby” refused to be put in a corner. The Ultimate History of the ’80s Teen Movie goes behind the scenes of a genre where cult hits mingled with studio blockbusters, where giants like Spielberg and Coppola rubbed shoulders with baby-faced first-timers, and where future superstars Sean, Demi, and Tom all got their big break. Music, comedy, and politics all play a part in the surprisingly complex history of the ’80s teen movie. And while the films might have been aimed primarily at adolescents, the best tackle universal issues and remain relevant to all ages. From a late ’70s Hollywood influx to an early ’90s indie scene that gave youth cinema a timely reboot, film expert James King highlights the personal struggles, the social changes, and the boardroom shake-ups that produced an iconic time in movie history. “Admirably opting for analysis over nostalgia and gossip, King examines the origin, production, and cultural afterlife of seemingly every youth-centric 1980s movie you've ever heard of and more . . . An excellent adventure through a distinct and genre-spanning era in cinema history. For casual movie fans and industry-minded cinephiles alike.” —Library Journal

Fast Times and Excellent Adventures

Author: JAMES. KING
Publisher: Constable
ISBN: 9781472123749
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description

The Outsiders

Author: Ann M. Ciasullo
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000861899
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 89

Book Description
This volume traces the unique trajectory of The Outsiders, from beloved book to beloved movie. Based on S.E. Hinton’s landmark novel, Coppola’s film adaptation tells the story of the Greasers, a gang of working-class boys yearning for security, love, and acceptance in a world ruled by their rival gang, the rich Socs. The Outsiders: Adolescent Tenderness and Staying Gold explores the cultural impact of Hinton’s book, the process by which Coppola made the film, the film’s melodramatic components, the marketing of the movie to a young female audience, and the nostalgia industry that has emerged around it in recent decades, thereby illuminating how The Outsiders stands apart from other teen films of the 1980s. In its depiction of the emotional rather than sexual lives of young men on film and its recognition of the desires of teen girls as an audience, The Outsiders distinguishes itself from the standard teen fare of the era. With seriousness and sincerity, Coppola’s film captures the essence of the oft-repeated, timeless message of the story: ‘Stay gold.’ This volume engages with a wide range of disciplinary approaches—film studies, gender studies, and literary and cultural studies—in order to distinguish The Outsiders as the significant contribution to youth culture that it was in the early 1980s and continues to be in the twenty-first century. The book fills a gap in existing scholarship on youth culture and is ideal for scholars, students, and teachers in youth cultures, young adult literature, film studies, cultural studies, and gender studies.

Mainstream Maverick

Author: Holly Chard
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477321322
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Book Description
Winner, Best First Monograph, British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies In the 1980s and 1990s, John Hughes was one of Hollywood's most reliable hitmakers, churning out beloved teen comedies and family films such as The Breakfast Club and Home Alone, respectively. But was he an artist? Hughes, an adamantly commercial filmmaker who was dismissed by critics, might have laughed at the question. Since his death in 2009, though, he has been memorialized on Oscar night as a key voice of his time. Now the critics lionize him as a stylistic original. Holly Chard traces Hughes's evolution from entertainer to auteur. Studios recognized Hughes's distinctiveness and responded by nurturing his brand. He is therefore a case study in Hollywood's production not only of movies but also of genre and of authorship itself. The films of John Hughes, Chard shows, also owed their success to the marketers who sold them and the audiences who watched. Careful readings of Hughes's cinema reveal both the sources of his iconic status and the imprint on his films of the social, political, economic, and media contexts in which he operated. The first serious treatment of Hughes, Mainstream Maverick elucidates the priorities of the American movie industry in the New Hollywood era and explores how artists not only create but are themselves created.

Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure

Author: Matthew Algeo
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1569767076
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Book Description
From Missouri to New York and back again, this work chronicles the amazing road trip of a former president and his wife and their amusing, failed attempts to keep a low profile.

Be More Keanu

Author: James King
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 147358096X
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 107

Book Description
Keanu Reeves: actor, musician, dog lover. He's the internet's boyfriend. The poetic petrolhead. The guru on a surfboard. Part samurai, part samaritan. He is, very simply, 'The One'. 'James has been my movie guru for years and now he's my spiritual guru too! From now on I'm going to ask myself: 'What would Keanu do?' Jo Whiley In this hilarious book of pocket philosophy, film critic and Keanu fan James King reveals what makes Mr Reeves so special. He unpacks iconic films from the Bill & Teds to the John Wicks, as well as the star's own free-spirited life, showing us why the great man with the great hair has all the answers. And how everyone can #bemorekeanu. 'A handsome, cool, enigmatic Gen X'er who never seems to age, James King is the perfect man to write about Keanu Reeves.' Stephen Merchant

You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried

Author: Susannah Gora
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307716600
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 386

Book Description
You can quote lines from Sixteen Candles (“Last night at the dancemy little brother paid a buck to see your underwear”), your iPod playlist includes more than one song by the Psychedelic Furs and Simple Minds, you watch The Breakfast Club every time it comes on cable, and you still wish that Andie had ended up with Duckie in Pretty in Pink. You’re a bonafide Brat Pack devotee—and you’re not alone. The films of the Brat Pack—from Sixteen Candles to Say Anything—are some of the most watched, bestselling DVDs of all time. The landscape that the Brat Packmemorialized—where outcasts and prom queens fall in love, preppies and burn-outs become buds, and frosted lip gloss, skinny ties, and exuberant optimism made us feel invincible—is rich with cultural themes and significance, and has influenced an entire generation who still believe that life always turns out the way it is supposed to. You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried takes us back to that era, interviewing key players, such as Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Andrew McCarthy, and John Cusack, and mines all the material from the movies to the music to the way the films were made to show how they helped shape our visions for romance, friendship, society, and success.

DK Illustrated Book of Great Adventurers

Author: Richard Platt
Publisher: DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley)
ISBN:
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 104

Book Description
Recounts the true-life adventures of 30 unique human beings such as Marco Polo and Amelia Earhart.

Alice and Gabby's Excellent Adventure

Author: Maya Rodale
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780990635659
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
When I was you? Popular girl Gabrielle Fox only looks like she has it all together. But secretly she's freaking out about failing her classes, failing to graduate and hiding her crush on the nerdy boy next door. When lightning strikes and she wakes up in another body, in another world (England, 1819, to be precise) she definitely does not have her sh*t together and she has a lot to figure out-fast-if she wants to get back to her real life. Of course she wants to get back, right? ?And you were me... Lady Alice Fellows is an oh-so proper young lady about to accept the perfect marriage proposal...or is she? She may be tempted by the bad boy of the neighborhood-and not the boring lord about to propose-but this wallflower would never, ever do anything to cause a scandal. But when lightning strikes and she wakes up in the body of a popular high school girl two hundred years later, she has no idea what the rules are anymore. In fact, she might finally be free to do whatever she wants. And that time we changed our destinies... Alice and Gabrielle couldn't be more different but they might be just exactly what they need-if they can stop causing trouble for each other and start living their best lives.

Endurance

Author: Alfred Lansing
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465058795
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 412

Book Description
Experience “one of the best adventure books ever written” (Wall Street Journal) in this New York Times bestseller: the harrowing tale of British explorer Ernest Shackleton's 1914 attempt to reach the South Pole. In August 1914, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton boarded the Endurance and set sail for Antarctica, where he planned to cross the last uncharted continent on foot. In January 1915, after battling its way through a thousand miles of pack ice and only a day's sail short of its destination, the Endurance became locked in an island of ice. Thus began the legendary ordeal of Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men. When their ship was finally crushed between two ice floes, they attempted a near-impossible journey over 850 miles of the South Atlantic's heaviest seas to the closest outpost of civilization. In Endurance, the definitive account of Ernest Shackleton's fateful trip, Alfred Lansing brilliantly narrates the harrowing and miraculous voyage that has defined heroism for the modern age.