Tuesday Tally: Gen-X Marinade Edition

One of the weird things about coming of age in the 80's was the ubiquitous hold of the 50's and 60's on everyone and everything. You have to remember that this was the time when the Balding Boomers, who have never been able to shut up about anything, were not able to shut up about their youth.

Now by the mid-1980's the Balding Boom had amassed considerable power in Hollywood. As a result they churned out movies about what it was like to be a mid-century young American. Gen Xrs like me marinated in 50-60s culture. We liked the music and we had 50's and 60's days at school, always fun and you could even get away with a pack of Marlboros rolled up in your shirt sleeves. The girls wore a lot of poodle skirts but sadly not a lot of hot pants.

To that end here's a list of the movies that made the 80's feel like the 50's and 60's,

-Back to the Future (1985): Is this the movie that started it all? I don't know, but it certainly seems to start Gen X's fascination with the 50's.
-Dead Poet Society (1989): Private boy's school in the late 1950's. Very Salingerian.
-Hairspray (1988): Every girl in Hairspray and in 1988 used a lot of hairspray. Nuff said.
-Stand by Me (1986): Given my upbringing and friends did this ever hit home. Four mischievous boys making mischief. I was probably a hybrid of the fat kid and the kid with the glasses.
-Dirty Dancing (1988): [gag...snort...oh fuck no]: If you had a girl in 1988 she made you take her to see this. Jake Bloom did. The wussification of Patrick Swayze begins. [wussification, you know how much tail he must have gotten?-ed].
Hoosiers (1986): Basketball movie taking place in the 50's. Lot's of Indiana kids in Chuck Taylors.
Full Metal Jacket (1987): Kind of weird on this list I know but it really helps kick off a spate of Vietnam War movies and has lots of contemp cultural references.
Good Morning Vietnam (1988): See above, with tons of mid-60's music.
Animal House (1978): To answer the above question, no, Animal House is the movie that started it all. It could have taken place in the 70's just as easily. At the Wesley College chapter of AXP, we did out best impersonation of this movie, down to the toga parties and a pledge named Flounder.