I've wanted to watch Valley Girl for a long time now and last night I watched it...WOW!!!
What a great movie...only had it for 2 days and I've already watched it 4 times, can't beleive its taken me all these years to get round to watching it...great movie and great soundtrack.
So many excellent scenes...It as it all!
I Thought it shared some elements with John Hughes "Pretty in Pink"...you know 2 people from different sides of the tracks getting together and it causing all sorts of problems...I wonder if John Hughes watched Valley Girl and was inspired ?
Totally loved it. Posted by Valley (Member # 1322) on :
Tripendicular response McFly! I love it when someone gets to experience the movie I rank above all others and truly enjoys it.
I could probably talk about "Valley Girl" everyday, but though it doesn't look that way from my numerous postings.. I try to keep from focusing on it so much that people get sick of my love for it. Though after 7 years .. I understand if they are to a point.
Go find my "I watched Valley Girl for the first time" thread and read it before you watch it again. You might have fun with it!
Posted by Muffy Tepperman (Member # 1551) on :
Thats great to hear! I admit I never saw Valley Girl in the 80's. When I moved to Washington at 20 I met this great friend from Southern California who talked non stop about how great VG is and how it reminded her of home.
I can watch it over and over too. They just got it right.........and I still wonder why so many people don't know about it? I'd never heard of it!! Still when I bring it up I get the blank stares.
Posted by Secret Admirer (Member # 3574) on :
To me, it seems this film would easily be on any top 5 or top 10 80s movie list. So it's odd to me when I see threads like this on an 80s movie board. You might expect people on this board to have seen most of the top 10 all-time 80s movies. It does make me wonder about the age of the person who is posting, because that could be a main factor. Not that it matters at all, it just gets me wondering about things. I'm certainly happy that you've finally seen it, and have fallen head over heels for it. I know it makes Valley happy too!
edit: I'm speaking of 80s teen or 80s pop culture movies of course.
Posted by Valley (Member # 1322) on :
Secret Admirer .. one of the main reason is the fact that "Valley Girl" was only released on a wide scale in the states. We did a Rewind Movie Poll once and Valley Girl dominated the US vote, but was virtually non-existent in the UK and elsewhere. They voted "The Breakfast Club" as the top movie overall.
I agree that the younger generation could have missed "Valley Girl" in the 80's, but TBS love it in the 90's... so I think it was probably seen by many of the younger crew in the states then.
Posted by Secret Admirer (Member # 3574) on :
Oh yeah, good point, Valley, of course the location has a huge effect as well.
Posted by pork pie mcfly (Member # 6802) on :
Valley is right,I live in the UK and I didn't really know much about it until the early 90's, I just forgot about it until a few years ago but what a real gem of a movie...I'm glad I finally watched it and I can't recommend it enough to anyone who hasn't watched it yet!
Valley and Secret Admirer just curious what are your top ten!
Posted by Secret Admirer (Member # 3574) on :
I'm too much of a weenie to put together a top 10 list, sorry mcfly.
So, since you are from the UK, is your top 10 mostly English films? I suppose my list would be fairly Hollywood-centric. Two great non-American 80s teen films that just came to mind are Gregory's Girl and The Rachel Papers. Love 'em both!
Valley, would you happen to be able to link me to that old movie poll thread you mentioned?
Posted by kevdugp73 (Member # 5978) on :
I've seen Valley Girl for the first time this year as well....loved it of course. Watched it a second time with my wife, and she loved it...so sure to be lots more viewings in the future. Our son tuckers us out, so lots of times, when we are kinda too tired to watch a movie we've never seen, we stick in an old classic, and if we fall asleep...no big deal...Valley Girl will become one of those old faithfuls for us.
Posted by logan5 (Member # 1467) on :
quote:I wonder if John Hughes watched Valley Girl and was inspired ?
Romeo and Juliet?
quote:To me, it seems this film would easily be on any top 5 or top 10 80s movie list. So it's odd to me when I see threads like this on an 80s movie board. You might expect people on this board to have seen most of the top 10 all-time 80s movies.
It's worth pointing out that when I was first a lurker on here (before registering), almost nobody had even heard of the film let alone seen it. It's fame has grown exponentially since then because the net is made up of people talking about stuff, so the ball rolls faster and faster. Now it's an all-time classic. Then it was a hardly-seen classic.
quote:Secret Admirer .. one of the main reason is the fact that "Valley Girl" was only released on a wide scale in the states. We did a Rewind Movie Poll once and Valley Girl dominated the US vote, but was virtually non-existent in the UK and elsewhere
Gonna be a contrarian here (as usual) and say... most of those people (UK or US) hadn't even heard of 'Valley Girl' until they came onto the Rewind including those who would've voted for it in the poll. Prior to the internet almost nobody at all seemed to know about it (like... 95%). It's one of those films whose popularity grew after the decade in which it was released had passed. The internet really boosted the impact cable had started on the number of people who knew of the movie. Now it seems like part of the furniture - in 1995 to most people it was nothing.
quote:So, since you are from the UK, is your top 10 mostly English films?
Hahaaaahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!! You kidder!
The British film industry died in the 70's!
quote:Two great non-American 80s teen films that just came to mind are Gregory's Girl
I think you just listed all of the great British teen movies of the 80's!
Posted by oneyedwilly (Member # 8730) on :
these i think are uk production....
american werewolf in london the omen chariots of fire long good friday gahndi fish called wanda a room with a view (3 oscars) the killing fields the shinning superman superman 2 the elephant man hawk the slayer time bandits blade runner (ridley scott is a brit) top gun (tony scott his brother directed it)
im sure there are others Posted by logan5 (Member # 1467) on :
Ok ok... I'll rephrase what I said (check out how different it gets!)...
The British ability to finance movies all but died by the end of the 70's. However, despite a few notable exceptions, most films produced in the UK and / or those that used British studios in the 80's were made with American money. This didn't stop people working, but it did make the industry more or less reliant on funding from the US. There were some movies made in the UK with UK money, but they were often low-budget and made by independents who struggled to get projects off the ground without the benefit of a studio system. Most filmmakers found; if they weren't making films for American studios, and / or for an international audience (Merchant Ivory), they weren't able to make films at all.
Now, if we're talking about British directors or the use of British studios, then yes, Britain did fine.
As for teen movies... off the top of my head I can only think of 'Gregory's Girl', 'Rachel Papers' and 'Party Party'.
Posted by Valley (Member # 1322) on :
logan5.. I agree that "Valley Girl" wasn't considered as highly in 1983 as it is today, but it was far more well known in the US than you might think.
The whole Valley Girl sensation started in 1982 with the release of the Frank & Moon Zappa tune by the same name. That sparked interest in the Valley speak and a subsequent movie. Frank Zappa was actually approached and he said no.. thus the reason the "Valley Girl" tune is not in the movie.
This Zappa rejection luckily didn't stop the film from still being made. "Valley Girl" was filmed on a budget of only $350,000 and grossed over $17 million on release. These were quite good numbers considering that "Valley Girl" was an R rated teen romance. Most people have heard of the Tom Cruise movie "All The Right Movies".. well "Valley Girl" outgrossed it that year..
Oh and Frank Zappa later sued the film producers and lost..
Posted by logan5 (Member # 1467) on :
quote:logan5.. I agree that "Valley Girl" wasn't considered as highly in 1983 as it is today, but it was far more well known in the US than you might think.
Well... yes, but that isn't exactly what I'm saying. The film istelf may not have been "considered highly" (many teen-oriented movies weren't), but it had almost *no* psychological impact. Within a couple of years the fashions were dated, and the John Hughes movies (amongst others) were taking centre stage. As the 80's clicked over into the 90's 'Valley Girl' was all but forgotten. One of the reasons people swallowed it wholesale as a great movie when it was being 'rediscovered' post-internet, is that it represents the era so well. The Val-speak, the haircuts, the soundtrack - it was perfect! Perfect 80's. But originally that was its achilles heel; two years after it came out it looked and sounded quite old. (Think of a movie like 'House Party' for some kind of comparison).
quote:The whole Valley Girl sensation started in 1982 with the release of the Frank & Moon Zappa tune by the same name.
I think 'Val speak' was already appearing in culture from time to time. The tune was a reflection of that. Val speak was the female version (kind of) of the whole surfer dude speak that appeared with things like Spicoli in 'Fast Times'.
quote:"Valley Girl" was filmed on a budget of only $350,000 and grossed over $17 million on release. These were quite good numbers considering that "Valley Girl" was an R rated teen romance. Most people have heard of the Tom Cruise movie "All The Right Movies".. well "Valley Girl" outgrossed it that year..
Yeah... I know all that. Box office figures alone can be deceptive though. 'All the Right Moves' was very critically acclaimed at the time, got a lot of hype, but the audience found it to be a rather uninspiring serious drama. But it's name had legs because it featured the years 'breakout' young star (little Tommy). Also, video counts for a fair amount, and I'm not convinced Valley Girl had a really decent large-scale video release. I think AtRM had legs on video because both Lea and Tom had big hits in the years that followed it. Whereas when Nick properly broke-through he was already playing 'adult' roles ('Moonstruck' / Peggy Sue Got Married') and his earlier appearances already seemed a world away (unlike Tom, who had a transitional phase).
Anyhoo, this is all spitting in the wind. I'll stick by my point; before the internet came along, in terms of fame and memory Valley Girl was all but dead. Its fame was no greater than, say, 'Secret Admirer' (sorry SA!). I'm willing to place a small wager that if we went through all the posters' on this site with over 500 posts who were here prior to 2004/2005 we'd find that 95-99% of them hadn't seen Valley Girl (and probably - prior to the internet - not heard of it). In fact, just to paint a huge target on my chest I'm going to say that the three movies which have seen their respective fame grow most post-internet are these... 'valley Girl'... 'Better off Dead'... and (shock! Horror!)... 'Sixteen Candles'! FLAME ON!
quote:Oh and Frank Zappa later sued the film producers and lost..
Good! You can't copywrite something that existed before you wrote a song about it!
Posted by Veronica Sawyer (Member # 2221) on :
Logan, I used to have this Leonard maltin movie guide book, and his review of valley girl was poor because he considered it 'already dated by the time of it's release.' I remember reading that and thinking, 'but that's it's charm.' but I guess like you said, by the time 85 rolled around, it lost some relevance. Thank god for the Internet!
Posted by Valley (Member # 1322) on :
Look I don't really debate or dissect very well .. in high school I was more of the rumble and then slam dunk on you type. Did I just say rumble like this is "The Outsiders"? Okay.. it was more like ramble and then reverse layup.. as you can read.. I'm still the same. ha
But I'll totally take that bet about 95% of the Rewinders with over 500 posting now that were here in 2003 had never heard of or seen "Valley Girl" at that time. If you said 95% outside of the US .. I might agree.
We were both here and the list to meet your criteria is fairly short.. but here are a few that loved "Valley Girl" in 2003 if I remember correctly..
Ronnie, Cindy, Sam, Riptide, Jessie, Isis, TresFoxy, RiverPhoenix4Life, mamamiasweetpeaches (maybe?), Muffy (were you old enough to qualify then?) and maybe a few more.
Now if they made it a fav in the 80's or 90's is the real question to be asked..
Oh and there is this caged animal poster called The Devo that just might have some love for "Better Off Dead" and "Sixteen Candles"..
So ' No Way Jose' on your Sixteen Candles thoughts!
btw, it is hard to tell in a my posting sometimes.. but I do understand and respect your thoughts on the subject.
Posted by Secret Admirer (Member # 3574) on :
I either saw it on tv in the late 80s or rented it in the 90s as a teen. I was only 4 when it came out so I get a pass.
Due to my age, I was late to see a lot of 80s movies. I hadn't even heard of 'Secret Admirer' until it was released on dvd.
Posted by Veronica Sawyer (Member # 2221) on :
I was a baby when VG came out, but FWIW, I did see it for the first time when I was about 10, which was quite a few years before the internet boom. My best friends's parents owned the VHS, and I saw the box and thought it looked good so we watched it. Have loved it ever since...
Posted by logan5 (Member # 1467) on :
Woo-hoo! CIVIL WAR!!!
quote:Look I don't really debate or dissect very well ..
Me neither!
quote:in high school I was more of the rumble and then slam dunk on you type.
Riff? Biff?
quote:Okay.. it was more like ramble and then reverse layup.. as you can read.. I'm still the same. ha
Brian!
quote:But I'll totally take that bet about 95% of the Rewinders with over 500 posting now that were here in 2003 had never heard of or seen "Valley Girl" at that time. If you said 95% outside of the US .. I might agree.
Hold up... let me clarify... the rules are:
95% (I'm not sure if we have enough people to make that a viable stat, but let's run with it) International (incl US) I am excluded
Seen (I said probably not heard of prior to the net, but that's something very hard to quantify - some people were online in '97, some '99, and we'd be going on memories for the 'when' people heard of it, sooooo.... I still think there's 'truth' to what I said, but not enough to prove it one way or another).
Date: 2004/2005 is too optimistic, I'm gonna moderate that to 'when they registered on The Rewind' (providing it was after 2000) - cool?
These:
"I either saw it on tv in the late 80s or rented it in the 90s as a teen. I was only 4 when it came out so I get a pass. Due to my age, I was late to see a lot of 80s movies. I hadn't even heard of 'Secret Admirer' until it was released on dvd." "I was a baby when VG came out, but FWIW, I did see it for the first time when I was about 10, which was quite a few years before the internet boom. My best friends's parents owned the VHS, and I saw the box and thought it looked good so we watched it. Have loved it ever since..."
... are vagaries. We would need to know exact age, age you went online, and fairly accurate age you first saw the movie (I know people for whom '10' and '16' could've been the same month - I don't trust peoples memories at all). BUT; it's irrelevant, because for the sake of fairness, I think anyone who wasn't at least, say, 10, when the decade ended – shouldn’t be considered as they would've been too young to have 'prior knowledge’ and therefore had to discover movies retrospectively.
LET'S GET IT ON!! (Non sexually! I just wanna say... I don't really mind if I win or lose... I'm like Monty when it comes to these things; "You captured all the bridges but the last and most essential one? I call that 90% successful!")
quote:We were both here and the list to meet your criteria is fairly short.. but here are a few that loved "Valley Girl" in 2003 if I remember correctly.. Ronnie, Cindy, Sam, Riptide, Jessie, Isis, TresFoxy, RiverPhoenix4Life, mamamiasweetpeaches (maybe?), Muffy (were you old enough to qualify then?) and maybe a few more.
We need to check out their posts. Is there any way of making this easy?
quote:Now if they made it a fav in the 80's or 90's is the real question to be asked..
Come on... if it was 80's there wouldn’t even be a contest!
quote:oh and there is this caged animal poster called The Devo that just might have some love for "Better Off Dead" and "Sixteen Candles"..
quote:So ' No Way Jose' on your Sixteen Candles thoughts!
Wait! Before you let Devo out of his box I just want to be clear. My opinion is this: 'Valley Girl' / 'Better off Dead#' / 'Sixteen Candles' are the three 80's movies that have gained the most traction since the 80's ended, not because nobody had seen them / people weren't aware of them, but because at the time they may not have reached quite as wide an audience; 'Cusak' wasn't well-known when BoD came out, 'Hughes' wasn't well-known when SC came out (no hit single from the movie either), and Nick Cage wasn't well-known when VG came out. In some ways, they could only gain their fanbase after-the-fact. However, I want to make clear that Sixteen Candles was fairly well-known through the 80's because Hughes had a 'name' within only a couple of years, plus 'Molly' was the star, and for a couple of years after she was an 'it' girl. *However*, I still think it has gained a lot of traction, but there is a reaaaaaly big drop off point between each of the preceding movies, so I’m not even trying to compare it to Valley Girl in that respect.
Now call Devo off! He's doing that thing where he looks at your leg like it's a hambone and just kinda stares!
quote: Logan, I used to have this Leonard maltin movie guide book, and his review of valley girl was poor because he considered it 'already dated by the time of it's release.' I remember reading that and thinking, 'but that's it's charm.' but I guess like you said, by the time 85 rolled around, it lost some relevance. Thank god for the Internet!
That became its charm. There are a lot of people out there who are 'into' the 80’s that have little or no memory of the decade. It's all just 'retro' and therefore 'great'. When you live through a fashion which changes, it reminds you of how much of yourself gets defined by 'other' things decided by 'other' people. Some people reaaaally don’t like that. That's why, when the 90’s were in full swing, the general consensus of the general populace was that the 80’s were a decade that taste forgot, and we should all look back on it and cringe. For those that were too young to really remember the 80’s, that has no power, they just see it as a period with different fashion and music that they didn’t get to be a part of. For people like myself (and presumably Valley, and lots of other people on this kind of site), my reaction would’ve been; "Are you kidding? Something just died man! Since when did green and brown become acceptable colours to replace all the colours of the spectrum?" Oddly, my feelings about the 80’s were crystallised and entrenched because of this schizophrenia people suddenly displayed. I used to say to my friends that the 80’s would come back into fashion, and the cultural artefacts would be revised and perceived not simply as "bad" but often "good". "No way" was the usual response. I remember being referred to as the "Guy who likes the 80’s" more than once. Oh, how I laugh. People really couldn’t see that by pushing a pendulum back in a disproportionate way, it would always swing the other way. I think the internet has maybe stopped the to-ing and fro-ing that used to happen in cultural fashions. I hope so.
quote:btw, it is hard to tell in a my posting sometimes.. but I do understand and respect your thoughts on the subject.
Me too! (Your thoughts, I mean). If I didn’t have a habit of magic huge sweeping generalisations I’m willing to bet you’d totally agree with me. Like this; "Valley Girl was one of those little-known 80’s gems that the internet has helped people rediscover." True?
But what would be the fun in that?!! Woo-hoo!
Posted by Nostalgic for the '80's (Member # 37454) on :
Yes, Valley Girl was a great, iconic '80's film with an amazing new wave soundtrack. It's interesting that I only caught about 5-10 minutes of this on TV back in the '80's.
I didn't see the film in it's entirety until I saw the DVD around 2004/2005-ish. It's great that we are able to revisit (sometimes for the first time) films on DVD/Blu-ray/streaming that I only caught a glimpse of back in the day.
Posted by Pyro (Member # 7658) on :
I've been crucified by several rewinders on here due to the fact that I just really DO NOT enjoy this movie at all. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's by far not the worst 80's movie I know of. But let's just say it'd be lucky to make it in my top 20. The one thing I will agree with everyone on though is the soundtrack. It is quite fantastic. But everything else is just..."eh" to me in this movie. Now being that I was just a kiddie at 3 1/2 years old when this came out, it goes without saying I didn't get around to watching it until quite a few years later. But yes, I did get around to seeing it before the internet boom, around '89 or '90 if I remember right. And it just irritated and bored me all at the same time. But I'm pretty sure I know why. See I actually grew up in Southern CA. And I had 2 older sisters who both had a few valley friends like these ones in the film coming over all the time. And they just irritated the f*#k out of me. So I guess my reasoning for disliking this film is more on a personal level. Even if the movie does feature one of my very first celebrity crushes (E.G. Daily), that wasn't enough to get me to like this movie.
So anyway, I actually have watched this movie again a few times in recent years, and I don't hate it as much as I did back then. I guess because I no longer have to deal with my sister's annoying friends on a daily basis anymore..lol. So if anything, this movie serves as a nostalgic timepiece to remind me of those sometimes fun (mostly not) times when I was tortured by my sisters and their friends as a wee sprout.
[ 17. October 2016, 16:08: Message edited by: Pyro ]
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You kidder!