10 Best High School Movies

It’s that time of year again. Kids are heading back to school and parents are breathing a sigh of relief.  In honor of such a time, I have decided to countdown the best high school movies ever made. Simple as that. But first please allow me to list a few honorable mentions that came up a bit shy of the top ten.

These are (in no particular order) Sixteen Candles, Stand and Deliver, Clueless, Mean Girls, Pretty in Pink, Cooley High, Rock and Roll High School, Hoop Dreams, Say Anything, Some Kind of Wonderful, Lucas, 10 Things I Hate About You, Flirting, Election, Fame, Footloose, My Bodyguard, The Virgin Suicides, Carrie, The Class, Brick, Bye Bye Birdie, Better Off Dead, Cry-Baby, Peggy Sue Got Married, Risky Business & Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.  That last one just missed the list by the way.  But now, without further ado, here are my choices for the ten best high school movies (and two special mentions) of all-time.

Special Mention: High School

I could say the reason this 1968 Frederick Wiseman documentary is listed as a special mention (along with Grease just below) is because I couldn’t stop at just ten and I wanted to add some extras in a not-so-subtle form of cheating.  Really though, this amazing doc (one of the best I have ever seen) can be looked upon as a groundbreaking piece of non-fiction filmmaking.  Long before the glut of reality TV bombarded the airwaves and dumbed us down about a million IQ points, this fascinating look at the inner workings of high school life (and unlike much of so-called reality television, actually real) is a film that deserves to be on any best of list – even if it is as a special mention as it is here.

Special Mention: Grease

Really, I just wanted this to be a top twelve list.  Seriously though, I think because of the fact that several of these “high-schoolers” were over thirty (only one cast member, at 22, was even close to high school age) and many of the rest of them were pushing it, one perhaps forgets that this is a high school movie.  But it is, and even with its inherent cheesiness (even by Musical standards) the movie is pure fun.  Some would even call it a guilty pleasure (though I personally find no guilt in liking any film).   With songs like Greased Lightnin’ and You’re the One That I Want and Stranded at the Drive-In and Summer Nights and Hopelessly Devoted to You, and featuring cameos by many 1950′ stars such as Frankie Avalon, Sid Caesar, Joan Blondell, Eve Arden and Edd “Kookie” Byrnes (as well as 50′s-esque music group Sha Na Na) this film is a blast.  And the best part?  The moral of the story is “to get your man, you must become a slut”.  Fantastic.

10. Blackboard Jungle

With Bill Haley’s Rock Around the Clock blaring from the soundtrack as the film opens (and as it closes, and as an instrumental piece midway through), Blackboard Jungle, released on March 19, 1955, helped to usher in the rock & roll age.  Haley had released his song as a B-side the year before to tepid sales, but once it was used so prominently in Blackboard Jungle, it became a huge hit and the song that many consider to be the very first rock & roll song (debatable but a strong argument can be made for such) and what gave rise to a whole new musical industry.  Oh yeah, and it’s a pretty good movie too.  Glenn Ford plays a teacher who tries to get through to the kids of a very troubled school.  And it never delves deep into the maudlin territory that such a story usually delves deep into.  The film also stars the beautiful Anne Francis and the mostly forgotten character actor Vic Morrow, as well as a very young Jamie Farr (Klinger on M*A*S*H).

9. The Outsiders

Granted, very little of this film actually takes place in a high school, but many of the main characters are of high school age and therefore it should be included.  Made in 1983 and based on the teen novel by S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, the story about two rival gangs, the working class Greasers and the affluent Socs (pronounced “soashes,” short for the word Social), can be considered to be Coppola’s last truly great work (one could say with 2009′s Tetro, he may be back – one could say).  Acting as a visual (and obviously not storywise) homage to Gone With the Wind, this gorgeous looking film is best remembered as the shooting off point for many a young soon-to-be star.  The film stars C. Thomas Howell and Ralph Macchio and features in roles of varying length, up-and-comers such as Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Diane Lane, Tom Cruise and Emilio Estevez.

8. Heathers

Made back before we all realized Winona Ryder really was just a one-note actress (when you are out-acted by Christian Slater…) this indie black comedy, and later cult film, was a blast.  Released in 1989 (since it never played any closer, I had to travel two and a half hours to Washington DC to see the damn thing) when I still had a bit of a crush on Ms. Ryder (a thing that faded into obscurity over the next few years or so), this surprisingly witty story of a clique from Hell and the boy and girl who would put an end to it all is the classic fuck you of all high school movies.  With its explosive finale, Heathers was one of the last films of the decade of my coming-of-age (twenty-one upon its release) to have an impact on me.  Fun and furious and a bit batshit crazy (and I’m not even talking about costar Shannon Doherty), Heathers insidious fun may have (at least in part) begotten everything from Mean Girls to Rushmore to, well, there was even a short lived musical (sort of).

7. The Breakfast Club

I suppose one could say this is the prototypical high school movie.  One could also say it is the most cliche’d of high school movies.  Luckily the performances of the so-called Brat Pack members Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall and Ally Sheedy make us forget the cliche’d script and just feel as if we are in high school with them – which this critic actually was (in a way) as I graduated the year this film was released.  Then again, as far as the cliche’d script goes, one could assume a purposeful look at archetypal figures and let it go at that.  Nonetheless, what The Breakfast Club means to me is a mirrored look at my own high school life.  Though I could easily claim a resemblance to Nelson’s brusque but insecure John Bender (the criminal) and make myself seem cooler than I actually am (and/or was back in school) I must admit to bearing a much stronger resemblance to Sheedy’s Allison (the basketcase).  However I look at it though, I knew all these types in school (and in my adult life too as I can easily match each of the Breakfast Club members with my friends) and I believe each generation that has come around after can as well.

6. Rushmore

This Wes Anderson directed cult favorite could, for better or for worse, be called the best hipster high school film ever made.  Making a star out of Coppola cousin Jason Schwartzman and helping to jump-start Bill Murray’s latter-day, indie-centric second career (a good five years before Lost in Translation, this is a rol;e that was not only written with the actor in mind, but a role the actor agreed to work for scale), as well as putting Anderson on the map (just his second film), Rushmore is a devilishly delightful bon mot of a movie.  Taking place at a private school (all others in this list are public schools) and revolving around a bright but rebellious fifteen year old (Schwartzman), Anderson’s film (co-written with Owen Wilson) is an acerbic look at teen life, but fueled with a surprising amount of humanity (even by Anderson standards) and humility.

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