Back to School - Brat Pack Today
The Brat Pack played a huge part of my pop culture upbringing. There are many arguments as to who was in The Brat Pack and who wasn't and, whilst those actors themselves despised the term, I hold that entire era in very high regard. For the sake of argument I am going state my OPINION as to who were officially included in this play on words on the 1950's Frank Sinatra gang and, once I've done that, I will look at today and hopefully answer the question as to whether we have a modern day incarnation of the group. If you take the supposed two most famous Brat Pack films, The Breakfast Club by the legendary John Hughes and St. Elmo's Fire, possibly Joel Schumacher's only decent film, then your members are:
Emilio Estevez
Anthony Michael Hall
Rob Lowe
Andrew McCarthy
Demi Moore
Judd Nelson
Molly Ringwald
Ally Sheedy
Through Class and Sixteen Candles you can maybe throw in John Cusack, The Outsiders adds C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, the Dillon brothers, Patrick Swayze and Tom Cruise and, due to the love of Pretty in Pink, you could give Jon Cryer an honorary nod. The late 1980's started a new version of the gang with Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, and Kevin Bacon often starring in each other’s projects and the cast of Young Guns was pretty much an almost Brat Pack movie. But for the sake of these articles (Yes, there are more after this one) I am going with what I deem the core.
Is there a modern day Brat Pack? Probably not, but a few stars of today have met on screen on more than one occasion and added their own legacy to Hollywood. My Estevez of this piece is Bradley Cooper. Cooper came to prominence in The Hangover after quite a successful television career but it is Silver Linings Playbook, The Place Beyond The Pines and American Hustle that you could state would be his Brat Pack entries. In Pines he teams up with another who could be considered Brat Pack material, Ryan Gosling. In Hustle and Playbook it is Jennifer Lawrence that links to a group that turn up in other projects. Hustle also brings into play Christian Bale and Amy Adams. Bale and Gosling are currently in Pre-Production on Terence Malik's new film, Bale has starred alongside Adams and Lawrence, and another possible member Matthew McConaughey. McConaughey has been in so many films that he even starred alongside nearly member of the original Brat Pack John Cusack in The Paperboy. He also links with Bale through another possible member of the modern day incarnation in Anne Hathaway. Hathaway is in Interstellar with McConaughey, The Dark Knight Rises with Bale, Valentines Day with Bradley Cooper, and in a couple films most notably Sex, and Other Drugs and Brokeback Mountain with my final member of the Dream Team Modern-Day Brat Pack one Jake Gylenhaal.
You could argue the case for other stars, you could argue against all or some of the stars I have included, you could argue the whole notion of a Brat Pack is absurd, you could even argue that I refuse to let go of the past and am trying to relive my golden era through the more modern stars of stage of screen. Argue away! Use the comments or our social network accounts to add your own thoughts, possible members, or to just tell me to (politely) grow up and let go of the 1980's.
Image - IMDb.
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