Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

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Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by tennisplyr »

This is a blurb about the top movies for and about baby boomers. What others would you add?

http://www.azcentral.com/story/entertai ... s/7741489/
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by tennisplyr »

I'd add the original Jaws.
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by The Wizard »

Nine of the ten listed were good solid films; Dazed and Confused I'm not so sure about.
I'd put Midnight Cowboy in there instead...
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by ResearchMed »

I'd add "Diner" instead.

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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by Jim85 »

So many more to add. For starters - the Godfather, Annie Hall, Goodfellas, North by Northwest, Rear Window
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by Professor Emeritus »

If you limit it to moves ABOUT baby boomers most of the list has to be dumped. Even American Graffiti (a great movie) is set in 1962 when the oldest boomer would have been 16
Neither Bernstein nor Woodward were boomers. George Lucas is not a boomer.
Boomers were born 1946-1964 in most accounts. Older boomers can be Vietnam war vets. Or anti war protesters. Boomer girls had birth control pills from 14 years old.


The Graduate is a boomer movie (Barely)
Oliver stone is a boomer

Kramer vs Kramer is a boomer movie.

Just my $.02
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by rixer »

Family Vacation
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by Faith20879 »

Nah, I am at the tail end of the boom, so most the movies on the list are before my time. Saw them all but perhaps I was too immature to really appreciate any.

The one not mentioned but I remembered the most is Silence of the Lamb. I made a mistake by going by myself and there were about 4 other viewers in the huge room. I swear I watched 2/3 of the film from under my seat and since then I am forever looking over my shoulder when I am walking alone.
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by JupiterJones »

I'm not a boomer, but... what about The Big Chill?
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by VictoriaF »

My additions:
"It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" and
"Victor and Victoria," of course.

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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by Random Musings »

What the world really needs is another movie list.

Saying that, one of my favorite movie lists is the all time domestic box office inflation adjusted list - adjusted by ticket pricing. My oldest daughter was upset that Frozen isn't in the top 100 (yet).

But this does give a flavor of what movies were really hot at the theater over time. Then again, today you can wait to watch them on cable, Redbox or streaming.....

Top 200 domestic movies - adjusted for ticket inflation

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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by DouglasDoug »

The Godfather for sheer size & impact. Breathless, with Belmondo & Seberg, for utter cool & chic, and still remaining utterly cool.
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by theduke »

I would add the movie "Mash"
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by Jerrybaby »

VictoriaF wrote:My additions:
"It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" and
"Victor and Victoria," of course.

Victoria
Mad, mad world, yes, yes.

Cool Hand Luke if its not on the list.
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by VictoriaF »

Jerrybaby wrote:
VictoriaF wrote:My additions:
"It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" and
"Victor and Victoria," of course.

Victoria
Mad, mad world, yes, yes.
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by chaz »

The Godfather was great (and still is).
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by freddie »

I like that list but it is also biased towards pre 1985 or so films as used to get rereleases on a constant basis.Take gone with the wind. The original release earned 32 million. By 1971 it was up to 116 (granted inflation lowers that number a bit) through all those rereleases. Now a days most of that added money would be captured by DVD sales and TV licensing rather than rereleases. Eventually population increases will be enough to overtake those advantages but it will take a couple more decades.
Random Musings wrote:What the world really needs is another movie list.

Saying that, one of my favorite movie lists is the all time domestic box office inflation adjusted list - adjusted by ticket pricing. My oldest daughter was upset that Frozen isn't in the top 100 (yet).

But this does give a flavor of what movies were really hot at the theater over time. Then again, today you can wait to watch them on cable, Redbox or streaming.....

Top 200 domestic movies - adjusted for ticket inflation

RM
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My list

Post by davebarnes »

As an old (65) fart Boomer.

Gung Ho (I loved this movie in 2nd grade)
Bridge Over the River Kwai
Lawrence of Arabia
The Graduate
The Longest Day
Das Boot
Star Wars (first one)

WW2 and the Korean War and the Vietnam War were a big factor when growing up.
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by swaption »

Animal House....seriously
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by abuss368 »

Godfather, Jaws, Das Boot.....all classic films.
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by sscritic »

Professor Emeritus wrote:If you limit it to moves ABOUT baby boomers most of the list has to be dumped.
...
Boomers were born 1946-1964 in most accounts. Older boomers can be Vietnam war vets. Or anti war protesters. Boomer girls had birth control pills from 14 years old.
Forrest Gump was a boomer. Oh, no he wasn't.
Forrest's birth in 1944
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by dl7848 »

"Top Gun" - Tom Cruise was one of the main stars during the boomer era, and Top Gun was the movie that really launched his career

"E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" - Steven Spielberg was a key director of the boomer era, and ET was one of the landmark films

"Saturday Night Fever" - This film was iconic of the disco era -- an era many would like to forget, but no use sweeping history under the rug
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by reggiesimpson »

Last Tango in Paris
Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Greetings
Putney Swope
Strangers When We Meet
The Magnificent Seven
The Searchers
The French Connection
Bullit
The Men
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by reggiesimpson »

#11..........A Clockwork Orange
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by sscritic »

If I understand the criteria, a baby boomer movie is any movie released between 1946 and 1964. And the winner is .... drum roll ...

It's a Wonderful Life.

Written for the real babies of the baby boom. I am not sure, but I may have seen it while in my mother's womb.

[I lie. It wasn't released until Dec 20, 1946. I need to look for my favorite late 1945 release for the womb's eye view.]
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by texasred »

The Way We Were
The Odd Couple
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by goodenoughinvestor »

The Sound of Music--soundtrack of childhood
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by Whiggish Boffin »

Li'l Abner cartoonist Al Capp, a man of the Right, did a college lecture tour in the late '60s. A student asked his opinion of Easy Rider. He said "I liked it. It had a happy ending."
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by sscritic »

Anything done by Chuck Jones was tops in my book.
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by Fallible »

I think I mentioned Dr. Strangelove on another movie thread, but saw it again last night and was just as riveted to some scenes and the dialogue as the first time around.
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by TravelforFun »

My top three:

Godfather
Godfather II
The French Connection
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by Valuethinker »

Professor Emeritus wrote:IBoomers were born 1946-1964 in most accounts. Older boomers can be Vietnam war vets. Or anti war protesters. Boomer girls had birth control pills from 14 years old.
Although it appears the Pill was first available in 1961, I doubt many 14 year old girls had access for some time. I am not sure if it was legal to provide birth control to 14 year olds then, it certainly was not legal to do so without informing their parents.

Rather, the Pill impacted their *mothers* who suddenly had reproductive freedom. The birth rate dropped precipitately, or at least it did so in Canada when the Pill came on sale (from memory 9 months after the USA).

AFAIK it would be the mid-;late 60s before *college* aged girls had access to birth control. Hence the steep fall in fertility in women aged 18+ from that time onwards-- pregnancy really became a matter of choice for middle class women. Not coincidentally so began the big breakthrough of women into the professional workforce (again, a 1970s phenomenon rather than a 1960s one).

Many of things that people think happened in 'the 60s' really happened (to the majority) in the 70s. I would include:

- free use of drugs and alcohol in college
- sexual liberation especially of women in the workforce
- gay liberation
- access to 'dirty' books and movies (the videotape had an incredible impact when it came)
- black liberation (in all its many forms)

Although we could find instances of all these things back to Greenwich Village and San Francisco in the early 60s, the mainstream of middle class Canadians and Americans (and Brits) tended to hit them in the 1970s.

On Vietnam that's a clear cleft. Up until about 1965 or 66, people just got drafted, and if they were unlucky, went to Vietnam (as I understand it you had to be really unlucky, or poorly educated ,to get sent into a front line combat unit role, I believe later they toughened up on that, made it more fair, also they were desperate for front line troops, hence the contraction of the basic training period depicted in 'Full Metal Jacket'). After that, there was active resistance to the draft, people went to prison or fled to Canada, etc.-- I'd have to do some digging to know exactly *when* the split came.

For Americans, the Vietnam War marks the clear dividing line between 'early' and 'late' boomers-- anybody (male) born up to about 1953 it was a clear issue, after that it just died away (from memory Selective Service was ended in 1973 but by that time all US troops had withdrawn in any case).
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by Grasshopper »

I would include Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by chw »

Blazing Saddles classic humor. Caddyshack too.
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by LadyGeek »

Good Morning, Vietnam (1987).
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by wilpat »

bill1958 wrote:Blazing Saddles classic humor. Caddyshack too.
I love Blazing Saddles!
It is the last movie I ever saw in an actual theater --in 1974 when it first came out. Haven't been in a theater since.
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by sans souliers »

"To Kill a Mockingbird" (movie and book)
"Young Frankenstein"
"A.I. Artificial Intelligence" , but only if you're the firstborn child with younger siblings
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by sschullo »

1. Space exploration, early special effects and negative implications of technology: "2001"
2. Culture: "Bob and Carol, Ted and Alice." Saw it again a year or two ago. It's hilarious!
3. JFK conspiracy buffs: "Executive Action." Early 70s speculation of who killed JFK. Unknown movie, but done well with Will Greer, Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan.
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by bengal22 »

I think the writer was trying to list the spirit of the Baby Boomers. I agree that Dazed and Confused has no reason being on the list. Other films that I think defined the baby boomers were

Hard Day's Night
Cool Hand Luke
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by sscritic »

The article is dazed and confused. It starts with this premise.
When the generation born from 1946 through '64 started making movies (and when Hollywood started making movies for them) in the late 1960s, they had inherited an ailing studio system that the culture at large had outgrown. What followed was nothing short of a cinematic revolution, starting with the banishment of the constricting, moralizing and outdated Production Code and resulting in some of the best films America ever made.
So the list is supposed to be about baby boomer movie makers, which I read to be mostly directors, although it could include producers.

Then the article goes off track with
this list focuses on films that capture a portrait of the era or most powerfully reflect the cultural shift taking place
so a director born in 1920 could make a movie that meets the criteria.

Then the OP changes the topic yet again.
top movies for and about baby boomers
Frozen is for baby boomers. I am a baby boomer. I watched Frozen with my grandchildren.

Seriously, does anyone know what this thread is really about? So far, my two nominees are It's a Wonderful Life from 1946 (obviously for early baby boomers) and Frozen, for the still living baby boomers.
Last edited by sscritic on Sat Apr 19, 2014 10:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by peppers »

Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey

I miss HAL
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by Nestegg_User »

Valuethinker wrote:
Professor Emeritus wrote:IBoomers were born 1946-1964 in most accounts. Older boomers can be Vietnam war vets. Or anti war protesters.
from memory Selective Service was ended in 1973 but by that time all US troops had withdrawn in any case.

Actually, Valuethinker, the earlier selective Service system ended in '76 ...the "draft", of course, had ended but the system still required sign-up {I still have my card from '74}. In '76, when they stopped the system, was also the beginning of the "repatriation" movement for those that "headed north" orotherwise resisted. I think a better range for the Boomers is up until the end of "Camelot" (end of '63). {Of course, that begs the question of what to do about those "tweener's" from '64 to '69.}

As far as the OP, I would agree with "Animal House".... it also had the undercurrent of the effect of what happened if you flunked out in college... which was a defining point as well as your "number" from that "other lottery"
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by sschullo »

peppers wrote:Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey

I miss HAL
And the brilliant Stanley Kubrick.
BTW, I would think his "Spartacus" is a Boomer favorite too.
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by Hexdump »

I would put Dr. Strangelove on any list of movies not to be missed.

Loved it and still do.
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by Old Guy »

On the Beach
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by Bustoff »

Peter Sellers was pretty good in the Pink Panther movies. He was really funny in "The Party".
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by Tadpole »

I guess these were technically originally plays but:

Hair
Jesus Christ Superstar

And then, of course, since I am listing things that technically weren't originally movies, Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (film).
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by boomergeneration »

Lost in America(1985). It's about 2 yuppies who quit their jobs, sell their highly appreciated house, buy an RV, and set off to discover America. One of my favorite movies of all time.
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by wilson08 »

Spartacus
Cool Hand Luke
Judgement at Nuremberg
The Music Man
Charly
Patton
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Re: Baby Boomers: Top 10 Movies

Post by bertilak »

wilson08 wrote:...
The Music Man
...
Patton
One of my favorites. It is good enough to get me past having Buddy Hackett in it. To think the studio almost didn't go for Robert Preston.
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