Post Script - Essays in Film and the Humanities Go to Journal Record
19:2 (Winter 1999-Spring 2000) Go to Journal Issue. p. 3-7
*Lynnea Chapman King*
*In an interview with /Details/ magazine, Douglas Coupland, the
individual commonly credited with ''naming'' Generation X, declared that
''Generation X is dead'' (Owen <#OWEN1997> 1). Perhaps he is right.
Perhaps, however, it would be more accurate to say that the media frenzy
which surrounded the generation for almost a decade is over, and if not
at the time of Coupland's comment in 1995, then definitely by the turn
of the century, as the media and Madison Avenue have devoted themselves
to the ''Echo Boomers,'' the generation following X, as exhibited in
print, films, and television. Generation X, however, is not dead; the
individuals who make up this phenomenon called GenX still live and
breathe and have moved on from angst-ridden youth to jobs, marriage, and
families as all generations do. In some cases, Xers still encourage
stereotypes as they lounge at corner bars and coffee shops, occupy their
time with ''McJobs,'' and lament the social legacy left to them by the
baby boomers, but nobody--not their fellow Xers and certainly not the
media--is listening any more. The love/hate affair between the media and
the generation has long since ceased. On Wednesday, March 4, 1998, the
/San Diego Union-Tribune/ featured a story which named the generation
following Generation X the ''Echo Boomers,'' signaling a shift in the
attentions of Madison Avenue and cultural critics to the next
generation--Generation Y, Generation.com, Generation Next (Zaldivar
<#ZALDIVAR1998> par.2). Now it is the task of these teens and young
adults, as it was that of Generation X and the baby boomers before them,
to learn to exist within the context of generational media and
advertising which has by now become so familiar in American society.
It is at this point, with the shift in generational emphasis, then, that
perhaps scholars and members of Generation X alike can take a deep
breath and, having sufficiently composed themselves without the benefit
of the limelight, look back at the history and culture which contributed
to the formation of Generation X and produced the films which both
reflected and impacted their lives. To this end, this collection of
essays examines the chronological evolution of Generation X film,
beginning with a brief history and definition of the generation and the
films of the 1990s generally recognized as comprising the GenX canon. It
is important to note that generational scholars con consistently
emphasize the near-impossibility of speaking collectively and
authoritatively about any group of people as a generation. The
challenges which confront generational generalizations include the
definition of the
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term ''generation'' itself, the lack of long-term generational studies
which could speak with more authority about the causes and effects of
cohort experiences, and the temptation to ''assume that all persons of a
similar age ... will have the same outlook, much less that they will
share a common psychological identity as a result of their experiences''
(Bennett, Craig, and Rademacher <#BENNETTETAL> 4-6). These challenges
often cause scholars seeking to comment on generational issues to begin
their studies with a disclaimer regarding the very nature of
generational analysis.
*edward burns, cameron diaz and mike mcglone behind the scene in edward
burns'* */she's the one./* © *1996 twentieth century fox.* In light of
this commonly-invoked cautionary measure, readers should recognize that
when dealing with any large portion of the population such as Generation
X, all statements, even when supported with statistics, are
generalizations and cannot purport to represent every individual who
falls into the category of Generation X, either due to birth year or
attitude.
Following the history and definition of Generation X and its films as
chronicled in the first essay, Julian Crockford's essay discusses the
materialism of the 1980s and the resultant GenX attitude towards the
economy in the 1990s in his examination of /Wall Street/ (Stone 1987),
/Reality Bites/ (Stiller 1994), and /Slacker/ (Linklater 1991). These
films and Crockford's discussion span the late 1980s and early 1990s, a
period during which much of the Generation was entering the workforce.
That the booming economy of the Reagan era indelibly influenced the
developing Xers cannot be denied, and the discovery that the ''real
world'' and adulthood were not what they had expected contributed
largely to the attitude which came to characterize the generation. While
/Wall Street/ reflects the economics which helped to forge Generation X,
it is Richard Linklater's 1991 film /Slacker/ which is commonly heralded
as the inaugural Generation X film. Released shortly after Douglas
Coupland's novel, /Generation X, Slacker/ helped to cement the aimless,
whining stereotype of the generation in the mind of the public. Jon
Radwan's discussion of Linklater's benchmark GenX film traces the effect
of post-modern cinema on the Generation X attitude and the reciprocal
influence of Generation X on both the form and content of postmodern
film. As Radwan states, the film's multi-faceted perspectives and
reliance upon the postmodern aesthetic help to situate /Slacker/ firmly
in the context of both late twentieth-century cinema and the Generation
X experience.
While examining the cinematic and literary depictions of the generation,
viewers and readers alike will note that the largely negative image of
Xers which resulted from the early Generation X films and novels is
notably masculine in gender. Films such as
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/Kicking and Screaming/ (Baumbach 1995) present a veritable buffet of
male ''slackers'' in the forms of Grover, Skippy, Chet, Otis, and Max,
recent college graduates and professional students who are reluctant to
give up the college lifestyle in favor of real world responsibility.
Similarly, in /She's the One/'s (Burns 1996) Mickey is ''the only
English-speaking white guy who drives a cab in New York,'' and in
/Clerks/ (Smith 1994) Dante is content to work, irresponsibly at
*dennis hopper, peter fonda, and jack nicholson in* */easy rider./* ©
*1969 columbia pictures.* that, in a convenience store despite the
urgings of his girlfriend, who encourages him to get on with his life.
In contrast to these male, slacker characters, the women in Generation X
films are more motivated, emotionally mature, and responsible. While
/Reality Bites'/ Lelaina and Vicki are employed or actively seeking
employment, Sammy and Troy wait tables and sing, respectively, at the
local club; /Before Sunrise/'s (Linklater 1995) Celine is attending the
university in Paris, while Jessie wanders aimlessly around Europe,
despondent at the loss of his girlfriend; Heather, Hope and Renee in
/She's the One/ are actively bettering themselves with marriage,
education, and divorce, while the men in their lives, by their own
admission, are ''sittin' here, crying in our beers while our women are
all out living their lives.'' This negative male / positive female
dichotomy, however, has not always been the case in generational cinema,
as evidenced in Timothy Shary's chronology of the evolution of the
''tough girl'' from the teen films of the 1950s through the Generation X
films of the 1990s. Shary begins with the teen film genre which depicted
the adolescent baby boomers and traces the development of the female
characters through five decades of cinema, concluding with those films
deemed Generation X near the conclusion of the twentieth century. While
the men of GenX film promote the negative image of the generation, the
women redeem it; a statement which is even more interesting in light of
the fact that the majority of these films were directed, if not written,
by men.
Generation X films, beginning with /Slacker/ and moving through the
1990s are often characterized as ''conversation'' films, in which the
action and plot are subjugated to the ponderings and discussions between
the characters, typically dealing with the confusion and apparent
hopelessness of their young adult lives. Glen Norton examines /Before
Sunrise/, a truly conversational film, and the ''seductive slack'' which
affects both the characters and the viewer alike, serving to define the
generation both by its form and content, capturing the aimless,
wandering nature which is oft noted by the generation itself as well as
its critics. Like many of its companion GenX films, it offers virtually
no conclusion at all, much like the nebulous ending of the
self-propagated statement of the baby boomers in /The Graduate/ (Nichols
1967) and /Easy Rider/ (Hopper 1969), leaving the characters and
p.5
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the viewer in mid-narrative, with minimal clues as to the eventual
outcome of the plot, perhaps a comment on the very image of Generation X.
Teen films were originally created for the baby boom generation as
Hollywood recognized the purchasing power of the sizeable cohort of
adolescents who were the result of the rise in the post World War II
birth rate. This new genre became a staple in the industry, with waves
of teenpics sweeping the nation as successive generations of young
people patronized the movie theaters. Just as the beach films of the
1960s preceded young adult films like /The Graduate/ and /Easy Rider/,
the 1980s teen films of John Hughes prepared the way for the Generation
X films of the 1990s. At the close of the Century, the cycle begins to
repeat itself as the new breed of teenpics, created in response to the
next generation of teens--the Echo Boomers, Generation Next--replace
GenX films. The inaugural Generation Next teen film, /Clueless/ (1995),
like early GenX teen film /Fast Times at Ridgemont High/ (1982), was
directed by Amy Heckerling and was followed by /Scream/ (1996), /Scream
II/ (1997), and /I Know What You Did Last Summer/ (1997), all directed
by Keven
*director amy heckerling works out a scene with judge reinhold in*
*/fast times at ridgemont high./* © *1982 universal city studios.*
Williamson. Many of these new teenpics initially tended toward the
horror genre, in contrast to the romantic comedies of the 1980s
teenpics. Steven Schneider examines this trend in his discussion of the
neo-stalkers of Kevin Williamson and the dual appeal of these films to
Generation Next and Generation X.
These new horror teenpics present an interesting comment on the future
of the new generation and the societal ills which await it as it matures
to adulthood at the conclusion of the 20th century. Horror films
traditionally represent the hidden fears of society manifested in
tangible, if not fantastic villains who can be defeated at the
conclusion of the film, reassuring the audience that they can, indeed,
overcome those seemingly insurmountable boogie-men of real life trials.
In these new horror films, however, the trend is towards a very human,
often teenaged ''monster'' who haunts the lives of the screen teens,
rather than the space aliens, werewolves, and mutants which peopled
horror films in decades past. Perhaps this is a comment on the
adolescent fears which have resulted from teen violence, schoolyard
attacks, and gang warfare. Beyond the immediate cultural connections
that exist in these new teen films, the relationship between the teen
and GenX films of the 1990s and new teen films is a topic which cannot
be fully explored until the scope of the most recent adolescent films
has been determined, in retrospect.
Every generation, throughout its adolescent and young adult years, sees
itself and its struggles as unique and often misunderstood by the
generations which precede it. Generation X is no different, as the film
and literature statements by the generation in the early
p.6
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1990s present the generation as much maligned by its elders and, in
essence, cry out for recognition of the situations in which GenX finds
itself. However, with time comes perspective, and age allows for the
recognition which has come to the baby boomers and will come to the Xers
as well. It would seem, perhaps, that the issue which most troubles
boomers about Xers, and which will in turn trouble Generation X about
Generation Next is, as stated by boomer /New Republic/ columnist Michael
Kinsley <#KINSLEY1994> , ''No one was ever supposed to be younger than
we are'' (6).
**
*DATE: *1995
/Before Sunrise/. Dir. Richard Linklater. With Ethan Hawke and Julie
Delpy. Castlerock.
*Stephen Earl Bennett*
*Stephen C Craig*
*Eric W Rademacher*
*DATE: *1997
''Generations and Change: Some Initial Observations.'' /After the Boom:
The Politics of Generation X/. Ed. Stephen C. Craig and Stephen Earl
Bennett. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 1-19.
*DATE: *1994
/Clerks/. Dir. Kevin Smith. With Brian Halloran, Jeff Anderson, and
Marilyn Ghigliotti. Miramax Films.
*DATE: *1995
/Clueless/. Dir. Amy Heckerling. With Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd.
Paramount Pictures.
*DATE: *1969
/Easy Rider/. Dir. Dennis Hopper. With Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and
Jack Nicholson. Columbia.
*DATE: *1982
/Fast Times at Ridgemont High/. Dir. Amy Heckerling. With Sean Penn,
Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Judge Reinhold. Universal Pictures.
*DATE: *1967
/The Graduate/. Dir. Mike Nichols. With Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman,
and Katharine Ross. Embassy Pictures Corp.
*DATE: *1997
/I Know What You Did Last Summer/. Dir. Jim Gillespie. With Jennifer
Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Anne Heche. Columbia Pictures.
*Michael Kinsley*
*DATE: *21 March 1994
''Back From the Future.'' /The New Republic/: 6.
*DATE: *1995
/Kicking and Screaming/. Dir. Noah Baumbach. With Josh Hamilton, Olivia
D'Abo, Carlos Jacott, and Eric Stoltz. Trimark Pictures.
*Rob Owen*
*DATE: *1997
/GenX TV: The Brady Bunch to Melrose Place/. The Television Series. New
York: Syracuse UP.
*DATE: *1994
/Reality Bites/. Dir. Ben Stiller. With Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, and
Janeane Garofalo. MCA.
*DATE: *1996
/Scream/. Dir. Wes Craven. With Drew Barrymore, Neve Campbell, Courteney
Cox, and Skeet Ulrich. Dimension.
*DATE: *1997
/Scream 2/. Dir. Wes Craven. With Jada Pinkett, Neve Campbell, and
Heather Graham. Miramax.
*DATE: *1996
/She's the One/. Dir. Ed Burns. With Jennifer Aniston and Ed Burns. 20th
Century Fox.
*DATE: *1991
/Slacker/. Dir. Richard Linklater. Detour Film Productions.
*DATE: *1987
/Wall Street/. Dir. Oliver Stone. With Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen,
and Martin Sheen.
*R. A Zaldivar*
*DATE: *9 March 1998
''High-Tech Generation Emerges in America: Echo Boomers Ready to Take
Center Stage.'' /The San Diego Union-Tribune/ 4 March 1998, Online.
Accessed. Available: http: / / www2.uniontrib.com/news/utarchives/
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