Our theme week for August 2014 will be The Brat Pack.
The infamous Brat Pack of the 80s was and still remains a huge cultural phenomenon. A term inspired by the Rat Pack of the 5os and 60s (which included iconic names like Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, etc), the Brat Pack immortalized a group of young actors whose films had a tendency to overlap. David Blum coined the term in his New York article: “Hollywood’s Brat Pack.” Though the actors themselves disliked the moniker and some complained it hurt their careers, the term stuck.
Scholar Michael J. Palmer scathingly describes the Brat Pack as “the socially apathetic, cynical, money-possessed and ideologically barren eighties generation.” On the other hand, film critic James Thorburn claims that “Eighties teens drew instruction and inspiration” from Brat Pack films and “had their faith in society reinforced, and their moral fabric strengthened.” Author Susannah Gora weighs in, stating that Brat Pack films “changed the way many young people looked at everything from class distinction to friendship, from love to sex and fashion to music.” Whether identified as a positive or negative contribution to film, the Brat Pack is universally considered “among the most influential pop cultural contributions of their time.”
We’d like you to write about the Brat Pack. Examine a single film, a series of films, the actors’ careers or the effects that the Brat Pack had on an era. Some questions worth considering are:
- Who constitutes the Brat Pack?
- Did the grouping of these actors under the blanket term Brat Pack help or hinder their careers?
- What did/do they stand for?
- Was the Brat Pack influence good or bad?
- How do these young actors and their works compare to the Rat Pack?
Feel free to use the examples below to inspire your writing on this subject, or choose your own source material.
We’d like to avoid as much overlap as possible for this theme, so get your proposals in early if you know which film you’d like to write about. We accept both original pieces and cross-posts, and we respond to queries within a week.
Most of our pieces are between 1,000 and 2,000 words, and include links and images. Please send your piece as a Microsoft Word document to btchflcks[at]gmail[dot]com, including links to all images, and include a 2- to 3-sentence bio.
If you have written for us before, please indicate that in your proposal, and if not, send a writing sample if possible.
Please be familiar with our publication and look over recent and popular posts to get an idea of Bitch Flicks’ style and purpose. We encourage writers to use our search function to see if your topic has been written about before, and link when appropriate (hyperlinks to sources are welcome, as well).
The final due date for these submissions is Friday, Aug. 22 by midnight.
The Breakfast Club
St. Elmo’s Fire
Oxford Blues
Fresh Horses
The Outsiders
Hail Caesar
Less Than Zero
Blue City
One Crazy Summer
Weird Science
War Games
Mannequin
Young Guns
About Last Night…
Sixteen Candles
Class
Betsy’s Wedding
Johnny Be Good
The Pick-up Artist
Pretty in Pink
Taps