Summary

• Hollywood transitioned in the 80s to focus on youth narratives, led by the Brat Pack actors.
• The Brats documentary explores the cultural significance of 80s films and their impact on Hollywood.
• The Brat Pack movies revolutionized cinema by centering on young adults and their friendships.

In the new Brats documentary by Brat Pack member Andrew McCarthy, the group's connection to the transition cinema made in the 1980s is explored in detail. The Brat Pack movies of the mid-1980s are as fun to watch as they are definitive of a transition happening in American film culture. Memorable coming-of-age flicks like The Breakfast Club, 16 Candles, St. Elmo's Fire, and Pretty in Pink gave young people a reflection of their own life on the big screen that was previously unavailable in Hollywood cinema.

David Blum's New York Magazine article coining the term "Brat Pack" positioned the actors as immature and somewhat undeserving of their success. However, despite their age, the Brat Pack actors were skilled artists of their craft. Definitive Brat Pack actors Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy brought refreshing qualities to Hollywood film culture by creating a relatable perception of youth in the movies.

Hollywood Was Emerging From The Gritty New Hollywood Era Of The 70s

American Cinema Went Through Major Transitions In The Mid-Twentieth Century

The Brats documentary soundtrack, complete with all the best synth-heavy beats of the 1980s, is a perfect reminder of where the Brat Pack movies existed in time. In the '80s, Hollywood was emerging from the gritty New Hollywood Era. Also known as the Hollywood Renaissance, the mid-1960s to the early 1980s was a time for Hollywood cinema where film directors exercised more agency over their productions. During this time, new directors came to Hollywood and could be auteurs of their work, whereas before, major studios had limited production.

Essential New Hollywood Era directors include Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Martin Scorses, and Steven Spielberg.

Before the Hollywood Renaissance, cinema was dominated by musicals and historical films. Released in the late 1960s, films like Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde, Mike Nichol's The Graduate, and Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider, defined and jumpstarted the New Hollywood Era, signaling the tides shifting away from Hollywood's old ways. Essential New Hollywood directors created more commandeering, individualized narratives. The shift made way for gritty, edgier filmmaking to push the previous limitations on personal expression by both characters and directors. The transition paved the way for the personal narratives of young people to take shape in the 1980s.

Hollywood Realized That Movies About Young People Could Be Huge Moneymakers

The Brat Pack Formed At A Pivotal Time For Young People In And Out Of Hollywood

In Brats, McCarthy honed in on the transitions happening in the 1980s that led to the rise of the Brat Pack. Susannah Gora, author of You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried, talked about the role malls played in the 80s' youth movement in her Brats interview. Teenagers went to malls to see movies with their friends, driving up the incentive for filmmakers to win over young audiences. Bret Easton Ellis, author of Less Than Zero, echoed the same sentiment. He added that teenagers were willing and able to invest their time purchasing tickets hours in advance, ensuring their seats.

Tim Hutton's role in Ordinary People in 1980 paved the way for young people to be represented more honestly in cinema. In 1981, at just 20 years old, Hutton won the Academy Award for Best ing Actor, signaling that audiences accepted Hutton's honest portrayal of young adulthood. Even today, Hutton is the youngest actor ever to take home the award, confirming the significance of the transition for Hollywood.

Andrew McCarthy also interviewed Malcolm Gladwell in Brats to explain the social shifts orbiting the Brat Pack. Gladwell explains that the group's moniker signified a generational transition happening in Hollywood. The Brat Pack label signified the transformation to a new era of Hollywood, as was emphasized by the pun on the Rat Pack. As Gladwell explained, the "Brat Pack" label would not have had such staying power were it not a metaphor for that larger cultural shift. It was the moment when Hollywood began to focus on the lives of young people, and the Brat Pack was at the helm of that.

Before The Brat Pack, Hollywood Hadn't Focused On Young Actors As The Main Drivers Of Movies

Before The Brat Pack, Hollywood Relied On Adults Or Young Kids To Drive The Narrative

Before the Brat Pack, Hollywood hadn't tapped into the potential of featuring young adults as the main drivers of movies. Movies traditionally centered around adults or much younger people. Gora described the cultural shift that the Brat Pack helmed in of her experience, ing that movies were reserved for "grown-up things," either serious or comedic. She explained how the quotable, quintessential Brat Pack movie The Breakfast Club changed that for her, as it was the first movie she had seen concerned with the events relevant to her life. In that way, she says, the Brat Pack movies were "the golden age of youth cinema."

The Brat Pack movies gave the bonds between friends the same status in films as those central connections previously reserved for romantic love.

Gore explains that part of the draw of focusing on young people in movies is that they created a visual model of the friend groups that young people desperately wanted to have. The Brat Pack movies gave the bonds between friends the same status in films as those central connections previously reserved for romantic love. Michael Oates Palmer, a screenwriter interviewed in Brats, echoed the idea that the Brat Pack movies succeeded not only because they focused on youth culture but because they "took young people's lives seriously."

Legendary 1980s movie director John Hughes perhaps best described the time in Hollywood. The Brats documentary features a clip of Hughes calling young people at the time "a very receptive audience." It echoes how author Bret Easton Ellie described youth culture and movies, that young people are sponges that take in everything around them. Near the end of the film, Rob Lowe adds in his interview that not only is youth culture where films landed in the 1980s, but it's where they have stayed since the culture made that transition.