Boys To Men
If you learn anything from 20th Century Foxs latest DVD box set, The Frat Boy Collection, its that the 80s were a good time for young men. It was all about getting laid, getting drunk and hanging out with your buddies; think of it as the horny trinity. In the land of easy women and perpetual immaturity, juvenile behavior and hijinks were met with a boys will be boys attitude, instead of sexual harassment lawsuits or sensitivity seminars.
In Porkys (1982), high school yearning leads boys to measure their erections and stakeout girls shower stalls. Its not really much different from the teen sex comedies of today, except back then the focus was more on the adolescents longings instead of their conquests. Next up, is the end of the road for mans sexual adventures, Bachelor Party (1984), where Tom Hanks (goofy, post-Bosom Buddies Hanks, not serious, post-Big Hanks) is given a farewell bash by his group of sexually charged archetypal pals. The women are still objectified, but they are now in on the act.
And, in search of a college movie to round out their heterotic trilogy, they unearth PCU (1994). Really? PCU? While I guess its a good attempt at representing the in-his-sexual-prime college years, PCU brings the bawdy sex romp that its movie co-horts so easily establish to a slow crawl. Who wants protest rallies and feminist gender challenges when youre expecting co-ed keggers and panty raids? And in all their crudeness and lewdness, at least Porkys and Bachelor Party were actually dealing with sexuality, gender and race relations in a more frank and open mannereven if it could be offensive to some. And while PCU is actually poking fun at our current sweep everything under the rug culture, it actually makes us stop and wonder where it all went wrong, rather than just sit back and enjoy the gratuitous content that we all really want to see.
The one thing that is consistent through all three movies is retaliation, which apparently, is the one other thing that men like to fantasize about. It doesnt matter if its black hearted adults, scorned women or mindless bureaucracies, it seems that, menfrom their first time, to their last debaucherous soireelike to stick it to the man, just as much as they like to stick it to women.