Movies

So, Snoop Dogg got my attention the other day.

Indirectly, I should say. See, I was browsing the morning-coffee news — which, for me, means binge-reading fascinating Playboy interviews from 1995 — when I unearthed David Sheff's absolutely fearless Q&A with the big Dogg of rap himself, a roaming and roiling (NSFW) introspective that somehow clearly dates itself as 20 years old while still proving pertinent to the modern day. I dare you to read it. Double dogg dare.*

*-I'm not sorry.

It's a long read with countless things worth discussing, but one topic really got my attention — when the writer asks Snoop if his music affects the way people act and think. Snoop is, to put it mildly, unconvinced:

• Playboy: But does the message get past the headlines and the image? Don’t kids just see you, your success and the guns? 
• Dogg: The message is always going to get through. Me being able to speak is a message in itself. The little black kids are saying, “Well, damn! Snoop Dogg comes from the same neck of the woods we do, and he made it and he’s able to say what he wants to say. I want to be like him.” That’s the dream right there. So don’t blame me for the problems. You can’t fault me for it. You can’t blame me. 

To a certain extent, he's correct — it's extreme to wholly saddle an artist with the ramifications that come with people's reactions to their art. But it's also pretty naive to insinuate that media doesn't affect people. Snoop never goes quite that far, but if you read the interview in it's entirety, I think you'll find the sentiment lurking between the lines, like I did.

Media, in all its forms, absolutely affects people's world views. Music, movies, TV, books — they all help shape our opinions, our interests, our pasts and our futures. People say love is the most powerful force known to man, but in today's world, you could argue that media consumption is far more potent — because, for better or worse, it teaches entire generations what love is. 

Just take movies for example. The characters we foolishly idolize, the timeless one-liners we all wish we could find a way to use, the ridiculous standards we hold relationships to. Movies did this to us, or at the very least exacerbated an existing issue. 20th Century Fox shaped our generation's opinion of love. And that's just one emotion we're talking about! Stretch this out across the spectrum of human emotional complexity, and you get the point.

I mean, let's be honest — we've all wished we could dance like a badass. 

And see Patrick Swayze's hair up close just ONCE.

I think millennials have it tougher than most, too. We were born in the '80s, right when films were starting to get real and visceral in a way that '60s and '70s cinema was still trying to refine. And now that we millennials are in our 20s and 30s, Hollywood (and the limitless funding at its disposal) has streamlined the illusion of reality. I think we've been shaped by media more than any generation in American history, and movies — truly the perfected fine art of the '00's — hold the gold standard.

Lucky for you, I decided to put this theory to the test.

Keep in mind, I'm not an expert. I'm not sure I would call myself a movie buff, but I'm probably well-versed enough to spot one on the street, and, regardless, I'm damn sure I can Wiki my way through 32 years of movie history to prove a point. Which I did.

What follows - both below, and in three subsequent posts that will publish over the next few (undecided)s - is what I believe to be the most impactful movies on the millennial generation. I broke this up by decade — '80s, '90s, '00s, and '10s — ending with 2015. I would have started in 1984, when I was born, but that's CRAZY talk, because Return of the Jedi came out in 1983, and any list like this without the original Star Wars films is horseradish. So, instead, we started with the year of my conception. Which probably involved Star Wars anyways. So sue me. A few quickie criteria points for you to know.

- There is a loose correlation between age of the watcher and the movie, by about a 10-year window. A movie that hit 40-year-olds in the 1980s didn't hit millennials the same way. This is known as the Schindler's List metric.

- Sequels were treated the same as originals. They have to stand alone as impactful films. An epic original does not save a seat for a suboptimal follow-up. This is known as the Die Hard metric.

- Just five movies per year, listed in order of importance. In case you were wondering, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 were the toughest. The easiest was 2010, where I only found five movies worth mentioning. This is called the Black Swan metric.

- I ranked the five most impactful movies of the entire decade, as well. It's the little numbers to the right of a handful of titles. This is called the Jurassic Park Needs Its Own Category metric.

Everybody ready? Here we go. No bathroom breaks.

The 1980s

1983
Star Wars Episode IV: Return of the Jedi  (#1)
- Absolutely shaped an entire generation's views and attitudes about space. And aliens. And sword fighting. And daddy issues. And slave bikinis.

National Lampoon's Vacation
- It wasn't the best of these movies — that belongs to the Christmas installment — but it paved the way for how our generation viewed humor for almost 20 years.

A Christmas Story
- Next time you go through a Christmas season without somehow referencing a Red Ryder air rifle or a leg lamp, you just call me and let me know.

Scarface
- Controversial opinion, but I think this movie is what officially migrated the young populace away from viewing mafia/drug violence through the "Italian gangster" lens.

Risky Business
- More or less cemented Tom Cruise as our definition of cool. And then came the scientology thing. I feel like I practiced my sweet underwear slide move for NOTHING. My life was a lie.


1984
Sixteen Candles  (#4)
- Our first teenage angst tale, and Molly Ringwold became the face of young America. This also kicked off writer John Hughes' 10-year run of unparalleled greatness.

Ghostbusters
- Dorks courageously standing up against ghosts? There's a chance for all of us! Also, caused every boy to ruin at least one tablecloth in his lifetime. Oh well. Worth it.

Karate Kid
- The fact that this didn't end up in my 1980's top five is a crime. But Daniel-san had us all chopping air for months. I swear I took karate because of this. I was terrible.

The NeverEnding Story
- Our first true fantasy tale — it was weird and fantastic and we couldn't get enough of it. It was like Star Wars in that sense ... an entirely new universe for our consumption.

The Terminator
- I'm not sure if this is the quintessential Arnold movie, but it's probably in the running, and the career that this film helped spawn convinced our generation to make him a governor. (shakes head)


1985
Back to the Future  (#2)
- Is it crazy to say this film, at the very least, shaped our fashion sense? Didn't every guy kind of dress like McFly for a while? Stop it. Of course you did. Maybe I should bring this trend back.

The Goonies
- Instilled a love for treasure hunting that would hold us over until, what — Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? Pirates of the Caribbean? Also taught us to love our monsters.

Teen Wolf
- Great movie, but completely ruined werewolves for us as a scary/sexy topic until Twilight. I'm also counting this as a basketball movie, whether you like it or not. Slim pickings.

Weird Science
- How impactful was Weird Science? Oh, I dunno, it only wrecked Frankenstein for an entire decade of teens. He built it out of body parts? What? Why not just make a super hot chick?

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
- Initially, it taught us the whimsical fun of absurd characters and odd plot lines. Later, Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee) taught us to avoid adult theaters. The gift that keeps on giving!


1986
Ferris Bueller's Day Off  (#3)
- Ferris represented the best that us young boys could possibly be: tactically brilliant, irresistibly charming and singularly fearless. And his girlfriend was beautiful. Game, set, match.

Top Gun
- The original bromance story for our time — and our first taste of how undeniably cool fighter pilots are. Also, this celebration style is still very much in play. Rightfully so.

Hoosiers
- At least in the conversation for best sports movie of all time, and it emphasized a team-first culture that parents and kids both loved. Thankfully it didn't impact jersey styles.

Aliens
- Yay, Star Wars, space is awesome! Wait, no — space is completely terrifying. Aliens, like its predecessor, was one of the first films to make the final frontier scary.

Crocodile Dundee
- Look, it's not necessarily killer cinema. It may not even be good cinema. But it certainly short-circuited our viewpoints on Australian people for many misguided years.


1987
Dirty Dancing  (#5)
- Almost too many classic moments to count, but this movie was brilliant for both making dancing a masculine thing to do, as well as reminding us that love can pick surprising partners.

The Princess Bride
- Spectacular in its charming sense of absurdity, and arguably the most quotable movie from the '80s. If this wasn't our generation's first cult classic, it has to be close.

Wall Street
- Call me crazy, but did Gordon Gekko help spawn the Occupy Wall Street movement? Did our intense hatred of him sow the seeds of a generation raving about income inequality?

Predator
- This looks like an obvious Travis-is-biased selection, but you're wrong — if I was just picking movies I liked, this spot would have gone to The Brave Little Toaster. Don't care what you say.

Full Metal Jacket
- This was a stretch, because most of us didn't even see this movie (much less appreciate it) until the mid '90s. But this film was one of our first looks at America as a less-than-savory shade of gray.


1988
Die Hard
- Our generation's John Wayne movie has become a Christmas-time staple, but definitely gave us our first 'motherf&#$*@' a bit too soon. Mouth, meet soap. Bruce Willis is always getting me in trouble.

The Land Before Time
- Our first solely-animated movie set the stage for both Jurassic Park (still one of the biggest movies of all time) and our lifetime love of dinosaurs. Littlefoot is a (prehistoric) American hero.

Big
- As if growing up weren't hard enough, this confused us even more. Part of me feels like I spent my youth trying to be older than I really was, and I blame Tom Hanks and his big coat. 

Who Framed Roger Rabbit
- We were really lucky to have one of the most original film concepts in recent memory land at the exact right time for our age group. Judge Doom is legitimately scary, man.

Bull Durham
- Kevin Costner's struggle against father time sparked a flurry of baseball films, while basketball and football counterparts were hard to find. As expected, every kid in the '90s loved baseball.


1989
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
- Guys loved him for his knockout punch, and ladies loved him for his patented unshaven chic. In short, it's what made us love Harrison Ford, and him hate all of us.  

The Little Mermaid
- This Disney heavyweight spawned a golden age of animated film — almost every year of the '90s supplied a marquee cartoon classic. Plus it made red hair fashionable. This is Ron Weasley's favorite movie.

Dead Poets Society
- Like Full Metal Jacket, this one hit us a little later in our lives, but parent vs. child was a theme a lot of kids were struggling with at the time. Common problem, brilliant movie.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
- If the geeky pseudo-science didn't hold you, the refreshing theme of parents being the clueless lumbering monsters probably did. I've never really been able to eat Cheerios again.

Batman
- Planted a comic book-loving seed in us that would finally blossom almost 20 years later. Our first taste of the DC universe was weird as hell, but it was enough to pique our interest.