Growing Up is Hard to Do

The young man stands on the edge of his Uncle's farmland and stares up at the night sky, wishing that he could leave for university and follow his father's footsteps to greatness. His name is Luke Skywalker and he is one of the many examples of a 'coming-of-age' or 'maturation' plot in a film.

I'm sure that there are a lot of children out there who think that in order to progress into adulthood, they must go up against some force of evil - and preferably the whole galaxy. Since the likelihood of me running into any psychotic hitchhikers, megalomaniac lions or weirdoes in black helmets is pretty much nil, I'm getting slightly worried. Fortunately, the movies have also supplied some more 'realistic' prospects, which due to some quirk of nature tend to deal with dance competitions, sexual awakening or both (although hopefully not at the same time).

So why is this theme of growing up so popular with filmmakers? The fact that most cinemagoers are teenagers and young adults generally causes dollar signs to pop up in the eyes of big producers when they espy a reasonably good teen flick, however warped its ideas about young people are. Be honest - when was the last time you went in search of a dead body with three freaky friends?

The point of these movies, apart from making a nice thick profit - is that teenagers like myself can identify with the protagonists. Even though the hero in the film may be anyone from a twelve year old fighter pilot from Mars to a twenty year old farmer in Afghanistan, these are people we can identify with because they, like us, are searching for the answers to the really big questions: "Were my parents always so embarrassing?", "Do you think he likes me?" and "Does my bum look big in this?". In a nutshell, they are all searching - whether consciously or otherwise - for the big M: Maturity.

This is easy to define in a lot of movies, where the 'coming-of-age' plot is the central one in the movie and the hero is actively in search of this goal. Luke Skywalker tries to find Ben Kenobi in Star Wars®. In Stealing Beauty, Lucy goes in search of her father and true love and Jim Halsey gives a ride to a hitchhiker in defiance of his mother in The Hitcher.

However, in other films it is not the hero's choice to 'grow up'. In Crossworlds, Joseph Talbot has no choice but to join the battle against evil when people start shooting at him in his bedroom - ditto with Peter Banning in Hook when his children are kidnapped.

Although these two protagonists are adults, and would therefore consider themselves to be mature, the evidence in the films suggests otherwise. Joseph hangs around with his friends all day, does no work and is incapable of asking a girl to dance while Peter plays pirates in the business world and escapes responsibility for his wife and children. For these two, other peoples' lives need to be at risk before they realise what they have been doing wrong.

Grosse Pointe Blank is another angle on the story, as Martin Blank returns to his hometown years after missing graduation day and running out on his girlfriend to attend a reunion. While Martin has spent the intervening time either in the army or as a freelance hitman, he has not truly matured. As illustrated when he goes back home, expecting everything to be exactly the same and finds a shop where his house used to be. Martin has to pick up where he left off with everything in order to start living life again, even if he is a few years behind everyone else.

Hollywood has at present turned into something of a teen movie machine, turning them out by the dozen. I must confess to not having seen much more of the new crop than the trailers. This may be because I haven't murdered anyone lately. I hope and pray that there will be more Grosse Pointe Blanks out there than there are mildly witty bore-fests, but that depends on whether my peer group identify with these mildly witty boring people... Ah... I think I've found my answer!

The above examples are taken from films which have all been either critically or commercially successful (apart from maybe Crossworlds, but I like it anyway).

I would like to think that people have gone to see these movies because they included well-written and acted characters that could be identified with. Unfortunately, that would mean not taking into account the publicity wagon, the huge budgets, the megastars...

Recognise the other movies mentioned, or have some other examples to share? Tell us your opinion of "Coming of Age" movies!

- Lonely Walker

The Appeal Of Star Wars

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