Teen Films: Box Office Builder of American Culture

Teen films became a popular genre in the 1950s, saturating the imagination of both adolescents and parents alike with stories of out-of-bound behaviors or teens saddled with grown-up predicaments. In this course, we review scenes from films ranging from the saccharine and cautionary tales of Annette and Franke to the cringeworthy, hedonistic behaviors that would frighten any parent, such as Grease (1978), Dazed and Confused (1993), and Clueless (1995). We also discuss how each film influenced or defined cool behaviors and whether their guardians were portrayed as repressed killjoys or morality champions.