"Donnie Darko" seemed like a perfect representation of 1988.  You know, it seemed like the '80s but also like real life.

"The Wedding Singer" seems pretty close, but a little too '80s.  What does anyone from the '80s have to say about that?

I think it is slightly over stated. After all, not everyone wore all the 'flashiest' clothes. There were people still wearing their levi's and T-shirts. Although, in the clubs most places you looked were loud colours and super gel'd hair, often with peices standing on end.

Id have to say, as a description of the 80's, The Wedding Singer is a little over stated, but then its a comedy and is meant to be openly plain that it is set in the 80's.

I guess its like, say, if someone made a movie about the club scene in the 70's (like the movie 54). Its pretty close to fact, but it still has that fantasy feel to it and makes it a little unrealistic.

They're movies, and they're meant to be fantasy.

A good depiction of the 80's are movies like Pretty In Pink, The Breakfast Club, and TV shows like 21 Jump Street, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Punky Brewster and Murphey Brown. They were made in the 80's and show 80's fashion and ways of talking and music without really trying to seem 80's like, they were simply trying to look up to date.








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I love The Wedding Singer! Granted, it does rely heavily on an overdose of 80s pop culture iconography, but it is still a great movie that always takes me back!  :)

"Donnie Darko" seemed like a perfect representation of 1988.  You know, it seemed like the '80s but also like real life.

"The Wedding Singer" seems pretty close, but a little too '80s.  What does anyone from the '80s have to say about that?


It's fake.  It's funny and cute, but that was not the reality.  I don't remember every man dressing like Don Johnson and every woman dressing like a Madonna.  That's like making a movie set back in 1999/2000, where EVERY chick is made out to be a Britney Spears wannabe.  You're old enough to remember 2000 (around Britney's peak of popularity), and you know that wasn't true.   

Does everyone dress in style today?  Does everyone know all the latest lingo and fads of today?  Even a lot of people under 25 don't know all the latest styles and slang of today.   And the same was true back then too.

I don't know about the club scene of the 80s, I was in 5th grade back in 1986 and way too young to be in the clubs back in those days.  But The Wedding Singer was not reality.   

It's fake.  It's funny and cute, but that was not the reality.  I don't remember every man dressing like Don Johnson and every woman dressing like a Madonna.  That's like making a movie set back in 1999/2000, where EVERY chick is made out to be a Britney Spears wannabe.  You're old enough to remember 2000 (around Britney's peak of popularity), and you know that wasn't true.   

Does everyone dress in style today?  Does everyone know all the latest lingo and fads of today?  Even a lot of people under 25 don't know all the latest styles and slang of today.   And the same was true back then too.

I don't know about the club scene of the 80s, I was in 5th grade back in 1986 and way too young to be in the clubs back in those days.  But The Wedding Singer was not reality.   


Have you seen Donnie Darko?  If so, does it seem more accurate than Wedding Singer or not '80s enough?

i agree - if you want to see a "normal" year of the 1980s watch something (either TV or film) made back then - Wedding Singer's problem is not that it's "fake" but that they take aspects from various points within the 1980s and act as if they all existed at the same time - mix and match - although as the IMDb says this was intended to created an "'80s feel" rather than a strict recreation of the genuine 1985.

good comedy though

The Wedding Singer seemed too over the top. Like someone took a fluffy 80's nostalgia magazine, and made a movie out of it.

As for Donnie Darko, it needed more 80's hairstyles. With Drew Barrymore's hairstyle in DD, you wonder if the filmmakers even remembered they were setting a movie in the late 80's.

Have you seen Donnie Darko?  If so, does it seem more accurate than Wedding Singer or not '80s enough?


I have seen parts of Donnie Darko, but not all of it.  I can't make enough of a comment, I need to see that movie again, and the whole thing.  I do remember many of my teachers wearing an outfit similar to what Drew Barrymore wore in that movie though.

You know, sometimes if they make a movie about the 80s, if it's "not 80s enough" it may actually hit more home to the actual reality.  Just because the early and even mid 80s had a lot of goofy late 70s styles hanging around.  There was this perm or wavy haircut around the mid 80s that is very 80s, (the Cobra Kai guys all had this cut in The Karate Kid), but I never see it being used when people recreate the 80s---probably because it doesn't look 80s enough. 

Then in the very late 80s, things did not look stereotypically 80s enough, because the decade was dying down.  The Wedding Singer was going for the spirit of the 80s, but in no way was that reality.

Chris what do you think of what i said in my post?

i agree - if you want to see a "normal" year of the 1980s watch something (either TV or film) made back then - Wedding Singer's problem is not that it's "fake" but that they take aspects from various points within the 1980s and act as if they all existed at the same time - mix and match - although as the IMDb says this was intended to created an "'80s feel" rather than a strict recreation of the genuine 1985.


I think you're dead on and have always felt that way about the movie.

The movie has a good nostalgic "feel" anyway and is still entertaining.

I have seen parts of Donnie Darko, but not all of it.  I can't make enough of a comment, I need to see that movie again, and the whole thing.  I do remember many of my teachers wearing an outfit similar to what Drew Barrymore wore in that movie though.

You know, sometimes if they make a movie about the 80s, if it's "not 80s enough" it may actually hit more home to the actual reality.  Just because the early and even mid 80s had a lot of goofy late 70s styles hanging around.  There was this ridiculous perm or wavy haircut around the mid 80s that is very 80s (the Cobra Kai guys all had this cut in The Karate Kid), but I never see it being used when people recreate the 80s---probably because it doesn't look 80s enough. 

Then in the very late 80s, things did not look stereotypically 80s enough, because the decade was dying down.  The Wedding Singer was going for the spirit of the 80s, but in no way was that reality.


I define '80s enough as being accurate, that is not making it look like the 90s/New 90s but also not making it unrealistically and ridiculously '80s. Wedding Singer looked a little too '80s, but I guess a lot of it was in clubs and stuff and plus Drew Barrymore didn't look too '80s in it (btw what's up with Drew Barrymore and '80s nostalgia?  I guess it's because she was in ET)

I think you're dead on and have always felt that way about the movie.

The movie has a good nostalgic "feel" anyway and is still entertaining.


The Wedding Singer seems to be more like 1983 or 1984 than the summer of '85. 

I agree with you.  It is like the equivalent of setting a film in 2006 and mixing up The Matrix, Sin City, boy bands, pop princesses, and 50 Cent.  Not totally inaccurate, but too '00s.

You agree with me or BCR?

(wishes someone would check my Samantha Smith thread)

Chris what do you think of what i said in my post?


I think that's about right.  Wedding Singer was going for the spirit of the times, it was not going for reality.  The Wonder Years was a good version of reality about the 1960s, and that show was made in the late 80s/early 90s.


On a side note:  What the hell is that haircut called that I am talking about?  I can't for hell seem to ever remember the name of it.  I never had this hair style, but it was VERY POPULAR during the years of 1982 to 1986, especially with high school aged boys.  A few guys even walked around with it in the late 80s.  I'll give everyone the same reference....nearly all the Cobra Kai bad guys from The Karate Kid (1984) had this sort of permish wavy haircut.  Chad McQueen who played Dutch was the only one that didn't have this cut, because he had his curly blonde do.   It's sorta similar to the style Kelso (Ashton Kutcher) has on That 70's Show, so the truth is this is somewhat of an offshot of a late 70s mens style.  There is probably an easy answer to this that I am missing, and I bet people younger then me know the answer to this.

This is such an 80s hair style for guys, but I NEVER see this style used when people are doing a TV show or movie set in the 1980s.  I don't remember any man in The Wedding Singer having this hairstyle.  My suspicion is that's because it doesn't look enough like the "stereotypical 80s", even though it is very, very 80s.   

Side note:

If your show or movie is set in the 1960s 1970s or 1980s, then at some point a radio will be heard. But it will only be playing well-known songs that with hindsight are seen as the coolest of their era. Never novelty singles, one-hit wonders or any form of teen pop.

example: Everyone in "Life on Mars" listens to The Who, Led Zeppelin, Cream and Lou Reed. And never Chicory Tip, The Osmonds, Lieutenant Pigeon or Gilbert O'Sullivan.''

Side note:

If your show or movie is set in the 1960s 1970s or 1980s, then at some point a radio will be heard. But it will only be playing well-known songs that with hindsight are seen as the coolest of their era. Never novelty singles, one-hit wonders or any form of teen pop.

example: Everyone in "Life on Mars" listens to The Who, Led Zeppelin, Cream and Lou Reed. And never Chicory Tip, The Osmonds, Lieutenant Pigeon or Gilbert O'Sullivan.''
Very good point ! I hadn't really thought about that before but yes it is always 'cool' stuff playing.

For the love of God, what the hell is that haircut called!?

Does anyone remember those unisex solid colour wincheaters -http://www.ycdtotv.com/images/200308/cast%20pics%20235x176/Pdvd_080.jpg - again you don't see them in shows or movies that are set in the '80s even though they are very '80s indeed

8)

"Donnie Dark" seemed like a perfect representation of 1988.  You know, it seemed like the '80s but also like real life.

"The Wedding Singer" seems pretty close, but a little too '80s.  What does anyone from the '80s have to say about that?


   The Wedding Singer suffers from being too aware of itself.  "A little too 80s", as DD put it.  A good movie is character and story driven with the era the story is set in serving as the backdrop.  Movies highlighting cultural, historical aspects of a given era are called documentaries...

   For instance, while in the 80s I had no notion of the, um, "eighties-ness" which engulfed me.  It was just another day of just another week of just another year of just another decade.  The fact that the pop culture of the time existed in the time that it did was purely by accident...

   That's also one of my problems with decadeology...

   I've said before, and I'll say again: Dazed & Confused and The Wonder Years are the standard by which all in this genre are judged by groove ;) on...

Wedding Singer was not "too" 80's, it was photographed in
an oversaturated high resolution manner, unlike what we grew
up on with Bulky TV's and vhf/uhf.

If it (movie photography) would have had a retro grittiness
(poorer quality) and emulate the saturation of red-green-blue values of Caddyshack, it
would have been percieved differently, and i think the 80's jokes
would have been better recieved without the highres/ovrsaturated clarity reminding
us that we're still in the 00's

Cheesy, is also a way of defining photos with too much yellow in them and need
to be color corrected.




This is an interesting post to me as a beginning filmmaker. How did the 70s movies get that haze about them?

:-X

Side note:

If your show or movie is set in the 1960s 1970s or 1980s, then at some point a radio will be heard. But it will only be playing well-known songs that with hindsight are seen as the coolest of their era. Never novelty singles, one-hit wonders or any form of teen pop.

example: Everyone in "Life on Mars" listens to The Who, Led Zeppelin, Cream and Lou Reed. And never Chicory Tip, The Osmonds, Lieutenant Pigeon or Gilbert O'Sullivan.''


I can only think of one movie where something was played that was a "novilty", and that is The Partridge Family in "Summer Of Sam".  However, it was being historically accurate, because 2 of the victems were shot in their car listening to that tape.

And the reason nobody listens to Gilbert O'Sullivan is because we all want to forget he ever existed.  After hearing "Alone AGain, Naturally" for weeks on end on the radio, we all swore that we would kill ourselves if we ever had to listen to it again.  :P

I've said before, and I'll say again: Dazed & Confused and The Wonder Years are the standard by which all in this genre are judged by groove ;) on...


What about the movie American Graffiti from 1973? It probably started the whole wave of 50s nostalgia in the 70s, which eventually led to TV shows like "Happy Days". American Graffiti might have been the first nostalgia movie, even.

I can only think of one movie where something was played that was a "novilty", and that is The Partridge Family in "Summer Of Sam".  However, it was being historically accurate, because 2 of the victems were shot in their car listening to that tape.

And the reason nobody listens to Gilbert O'Sullivan is because we all want to forget he ever existed.  After hearing "Alone AGain, Naturally" for weeks on end on the radio, we all swore that we would kill ourselves if we ever had to listen to it again.  :P


yeah - but like the others it was a popular song* that you don't hear even in recreations where it _should_ be heard to be historically accurate - and therefore why i mentioned it

* According to Wikipedia: "In 1972 his international star raised, after his self penned ballad, "Alone Again (Naturally)," a No. 3 hit in Britain, became a chart-topper in the USA, spending six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard chart and selling nearly two million copies there."