'Back to the Future'

What do the high school films of the 1980s tell us about Generation X?

According to popular socialogical studies and whatnot, Generation X was born somewhere between 1965 and 1980, give or take. That means the earliest Gen Xers were about 19 when Back to the Future was released in theatres.

According to the same research, Generation X shares some general characteristics: Due to high divorce rates, many Gen Xers are self-relient and enjoy their freedom; they dislike being micro-managed. This generation is adept at technology. They adapt well to change and enjoy a segregation of work from their private life.

How does this not define Ferris Bueller or Marty McFly?

I was born in 1980 and I didn't see Back to the Future until I was 12, a good eight years after it was released and after the subsequent parts II and III were released.

I totally undrestand why these films are enjoyable, but for my part I don't think they age well and I can't imagine watching them over and over. Frankly, my wife owns them, and she's thee years old than me.

What kills me about Back to the Future the most is the music. Nothing says Huey Lewis and the News' "Power of Love" to get Michael J. Fox pumped about getting on a skateboard to go to school. In fact, "Power of Love," one of Lewis' most overrated songs, doesn't have anything to do with the movie until another 90 minutes later. I would've gone with "Sports."

Generation X is also apparently infatuated with being cool. It's one thing to be good with plutonium, to be self-sufficient and dying to get back to your girl (Marty would upgrade hundredfold with Elisabeth Shue in the next movie), but McFly was just too cool. Not unlike Bueller or any of the crew from The Breakfast Club or Anthony Michael Hall.

Each wore the perfect clothes. If they weren't cool then, they would soon be cool. The puffy vest. The high-top sneakers and the skinny jeans (which would later become incredibly cool in hipster factions ... like right now). The frantic motions and the constant running. Wherever McFly was running, he wasn't only doing it in the coolest fashion possible, but his destination was simply the place to be.

And that annoys me more than anything. A popular movie in the Generation Y faction is Donnie Darko. Ironically, it's about alienation and the harsh realities of high school ... set in the 1980s.

No matter how skinny our jeans get with time, the 1980s are inherently uncool. McFly and Bueller were lipstick applied to a sow.

I do wonder how Homeland Security would have dealt with Doc Brown. The United States doesn't take kindly to dealing with Middle Eastern terrorists, post-9/11.