
Like it or not: "Saturday Night Fever"
Here, in one Baby Boomer's estimation, are the 10 best movies that encompass the themes that defined the generation: peace, love, war, music, and self-identification.
1) "The Big Chill" (1983) -- Included many of the Boomer elements of post-college identity crisis and friendship around a terrific music score;
2) "The Graduate" (1967) -- Talk about Boomer angst ... find a job, find a love, find Mrs. Robinson instead ... whew;
3) "Woodstock" (1970) -- The documentary for a generation -- sex, drugs and rock n' roll;
4) "Easy Rider" (1969) -- A story of the open road and the consequences of intolerance, definitely not a retelling of John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley";
5) "A Hard Day's Night" (1964) -- The Beatles led the English music invasion on the "Ed Sullivan" then followed it up with a movie that still had the girls screaming;
6) "Apocalypse Now" (1979) -- Epic take on the Vietnam War that pilloried the insanity of American foreign policy;
7) "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) -- Buddy movie with the passing of the hunk baton from Paul Newman to Robert Redford (and Katharine Ross to boot).
8) "Dr. Zhivago" (1965) -- A chick flick that appealed to guys, what with the Russian Revolution and all ... and "Lara's Theme," the song that launched a billion music boxes;
9) "Star Wars" (1977) -- Episodes IV, V and VI trilogy that first appealed to our inner geek;
10) "Saturday Night Fever" (1977) -- Defined the attitude of disco, the music and the dancing, whether we like to remember it or not.
Honorable Mentions:
"Last Tango in Paris" (1972) -- Pushed the envelope in its time for its sexuality, mild by today's standards;
"Love Story" (1970) -- About as sappy a movie as you can find, but one of the great date movies of its time;
"Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979) -- A movie about divorce when divorce wasn't all that public a topic but was a growing social trend.
Here's "The Big Chill" trailer:
Internet Movie Database











Comments
instead of "Apocalypse Now" i would have gone with "Born on 4th July."
Umm, "On the Road" was written by Jack Kerouac, not Steinbeck.
LitSnob: Thanks for the catch. Correction made.
nice. you should do another, on 10 best films about the baby boomer generation, made lately... like Taking Woodstock, Almost Famous, etc.
"The Hot Chameleon" -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eemq5DTeeYk
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