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The 10 best Baby Boomer movies
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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
