The Baby Boomers was the Simpson Trial, while Gen X was the beat down on Reginald Denny and ensuing chaos. Gen Y is Obama.

Most related films based off of J.G. Ballard novels.

Born in 1966, I’m officially an early Xer, but never identified with the Generation X label. I remember being annoyed when Coupland’s book came out. I wasn’t cynical and didn’t appreciate being known as a slacker. Still don’t. (We weren’t lazy, honest; most of the good jobs were taken.)

Before the boomers, there was no NEED to define generations. No group of people before or since the boomers had the same influence. By sheer weight of numbers, their needs and wants changed the world.

Hollywood has always catered to the boomers because that’s where the money was/is (and fair enough – it’s called show business for a reason). When I was a kid there were good movies for teens. When I was a teen there were good movies for young adults. The 30something TV series was a cautionary tale about my near future, not a slice of my life. I was behind the boomers. I hope they will revolutionize the retirement home industry, and I hope there will be room for me when I’m ready to go there.

I think it’s a mistake to assume that other generations are like the baby boomers in any way. That includes the idea of generational influence or homogeneity. No political scandal was like Watergate, but every political scandal since has been tagged as a “gate.” This is the kind of thinking that assumes there are generations of people who think and behave like each other.

I don’t know if The Big Chill speaks for a generation, but no movie speaks for me.

Can you ever listen to “In your eyes” by Peter Gabriel and not think about Lloyd Dobler?

YOU CAN SAY ANYTHING TO ME…

If I think about movie characters and how they correspond to people I knew growing up, I guess The Big Chill is as accurate as any. But so is Kelly’s Heros and the nut cases in that flick. It also seems like all my buddies wanted the relationship Butch and Sundance had.

It seems that the makers of movies tend to be a generation older than the largest group that watches them (whoever is still in school at the time they come out). So, maybe instead of movies, music speaks for generation better? Or maybe even sports?

But I can’t leave out another one that I also think represented the “bridge” group I was in and that was The Exorcist. I know it’s odd to equate the devil with a generation, but we were totally captivated by that movie. Again, maybe it was just my group of friends and not the whole mini-generation, but we watched it dozens of times. I remember one of my friends at the time summing up why that movie scared/entertained us so much more than any of the other classic horror films. He said, “You don’t mess with the devil.” Jason, Freddy Kruger, etc. — they were just Hollywood creations and fake blood. They weren’t scary so much as occasionally startling (“Kid, can’t you hear the screeching violins?!? Just RUN!”) But the devil was “real” to us, especially the children of old-fashioned Catholics. I think The Exorcist represented whatever “boogeyman” was dogging the latter part of the boomer generation — unlike our parents and the early boomers with their nuclear families and white picket fences, this was post Vietnam War and we still suffered that angst; the economy was heading south; the big bad Soviet Union and nukes were always a threat; it was the waning era of the Organization Man, so long-term jobs weren’t guaranteed as we started entering the workforce. Maybe I’m overstating things and we really just liked a good scare, but I’ve identified with that movie as part of a coming of age.

I’m surprised no one’s mentioned Napolean Dynamite. I seem to remember all the articles about how it went from unknown indie to cult classic because kids identified with it so much. I liked it well enough, but I remember thinking “this is what they want to be known as??”

In 2005, the real Troy Dyer (a financial planner from Wisconsin[10]) sued writer Helen Childress, producer Danny DeVito and director Ben Stiller.[11] Dyer claimed that after the 2004 release of the tenth anniversary DVD of the film he had “inquiries from potential clients as to whether he was the fictional Troy Dyer”.[11] Universal, Childress, DeVito and Stiller attempted to seek shelter under California’s anti-SLAPP statutes but in early 2007 the appeals court denied them SLAPP protection with the following decision: “In sum, assuming the issues facing Generation X at the start of the 1990’s are of significant interest to the public, Dyer, a financial consultant living in Wisconsin who happened to have gone to school with Childress, was not connected to these issues in any way. Thus, the defendants failed to meet their initial burden of showing the activity underlying Dyer’s lawsuit was in furtherance of the defendants’ constitutional right of free speech in connection with a public issue or an issue of public interest”.[11]

And,

“Heathers”.

It tackled a very tough issue in what I feel a fairly realistic way. Juno’s parents’ reaction, especially, was apt considering my generation’s relationship with our parents.

While the dialog was a little unrealistic, (and made me cringe at times) I still think the movie has its place in defining our generation.

I think with Arrested Development, Superbad and Juno, Michael Cera has done a pretty good job of representing our generation.

From my youth: 2001… the ultimate SF film for the Apollo Age.
My teens: The Godfather… better than Tarantino in use of gratuitous violence.
Young adult: Apocalypse Now… thank you, Robert Duvall.

Special recognition: A Christmas Story… real kids acting like real kids.

As an X-er, I can identify strongly with the anti-establishment / maverick films already mentioned – Top Gun, Ferris Bueller, Breakfast Club (though this one has really wore thin on me now). Adding one more, how about Broderick as the maverick computer nerd in War Games?

Reality Bites was certainly a generational flick too .. and a hip soundtrack to boot.

I gotta say, I loved Tammy Erickson’s comment about The Devil Wears Prada and how she tied together the generations on the ending of that one … what a great call.

On the timeless classics, I am a huge fan of the Godfather Trilogy (particularly I and II of course) … don’t know what that says.

Extending that, I’d add the maverick gangster Chilly Palmer (John Travolta) in Get Shorty – love that one.

And I’m writing this while watching Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan in Clear and Present Danger tell the President of the United States ‘Sorry Mr. President, I don’t dance’ … what a maverick!

Awesome movie and it’s soundtrack was pretty much the opposite of the Big Chill’s.

For those that haven’t experienced the early Emilio Estevez film, here is a link that explains why it is a classic. Warning: the language gets “a little blue”

http://www.acidlogic.com/mm_repoman.htm

I guess I’ve always felt kind of in-between generations (born in 1962) — not really a Boomer, but not really Gen-X either. So I really liked the Big Chill, but it didn’t feel like watching my friends and I — Breakfast Club was closer, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. But the one I identified with the most was probably Repo Man, for whatever reason.

And in a COMPLETELY different vein, I might also nominate “Demolition Man” — because while it’s not an Xer movie per se, I sure know a lot of people who share my fondness for the way its futurism commented fondly and ironically on our present.

But I have to admit that while I’m a great movie lover, there are damn few movies that I’d say really speak to & for me. Reading some recent coverage of the Sex & The City phenom — the general tone of which is, omigod! women want movies about THEM?!!? — has encouraged me to reflect on how few movies are about women, largely (I gather) because women don’t drive ticket sales. Even in our generally egalitarian home, we tend to see guy flix, because while I am delighted (really, genuinely, shamefully delighted) to see an action flick or dorky comedy, Rob isn’t usually up for the let’s-talk-about-our-feelings movies. (He gave at the office, I guess.)

Sex & The City certainly didn’t fit the bill — I enjoyed it, but it bares just about zero relationship to my reality. Probably the filmmaker who comes closest to capturing women of my particular demographic is Nicole Holofcener — both “Walking and Talking” and “Lovely and Amazing” had moments and characters that felt very evocative.

I would say that in terms of Millennials’ angst being reflected in films, per your last sentence, Harry Potter may actually be quite relevant. Harry Potter’s “angst” is figuring out how to persevere and generally be heroic in a turbulent and confused world. Whereas Boomers’ angst was existential, and Xer’s angst was rebellious against a society they felt abandoned them, Millennials’ angst is about how to, in some sense, “save the world”. This is widely reflected in the films that have been discussed here

This is a fascinating topic; I’m very interested to see where this leads.