50 Best High School Movies

Entertainment Weekly recently released a list of the 50 best high school movies which led me to think of what I thought the 50 best high school films were. Now their list was not bad, while I agree that the top ten films are very good I question: what qualifies as a high school film? Is it something that had high school age characters in it? Does it have to take place, at least in part in a school? I could not find any continuity it the Entertainment Weekly list. So I thought I would make up my own. The rules, at least part of the film has to be in high school and it should have high school age characters in it though they don’t have to be the central focus of the story. Thus, while American Graffiti is a great film it doesn’t make the list since it happens all in one night for mostly characters who have graduated from high school. I was surprised to see Academy Award winners The Prime of Miss Jean Brody and Goodbye, Mr. Chips weren’t on the Entertainment Weekly list but perhaps their memories don’t go back that far. More recently noticeable are the exclusion of great films like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Footloose, Some Kind of Wonderful, and La Bamba.

These films span the gamut including dramas, comedies, horror (which for the most part didn’t count since though they include high school students they don’t happen at school), and musicals. The oldest film is the 1939 film Goodbye, Mr. Chips and the newest is 2004’s Napoleon Dynamite. Slightly more than half of the films were from the 80’s, the heyday of the high school movie, though the Brat Pack accounts for only three of the 26 80s films. The final list:
1. The Breakfast Club (1985)
- Unarguably the best of the Brat Pack films and the best of the mass of high school films from the 80s. The whole film occurs at school during a Saturday detention as a cross-section of high school deal with heavy issues from peer-pressure to suicide. It is a mature and painfully honest look at all facets of the high school experience.
2. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
- Though the title character never makes it to school much of the film is set there with his friends, family, and teachers. Everyone dreamed of being as smart, lucky, confident, and just plain cool as Ferris Bueller. Ferris took on high school and its arbitrary administration, succeeded, and had a day of mythic proportions.
3. Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)
- The film rings true even if you weren’t in high school in Southern California in the early 80s. High school boys are still fixated on sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Plus it featured a cast destined for greater things including Sean Penn, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, and Jennifer Jason Leigh and a story by Cameron Crowe.
4. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
- The first of the disgruntled youth films, this film made stars out of James Dean and Natalie Wood. Jim Backus did a great job as well as Dean’s kindly father who can’t seem to understand the anger and frustration of the new generation.
5. Sixteen Candles (1984)
-It’s hard to figure out what the best part of this fun film is: exchange student Long Duk Dong passed out on the lawn, the king of the geeks, or the prom queen getting her hair chopped off. This is probably one of the funniest of the high school films but it still has significant insight into the clique structure of high school and the thoughts and aspirations of teens.
6. Heathers (1989)
- A dark and hilarious high school fantasy about knocking off the popular kids. The film had a wicked sense of humor and inspiring performances from Christian Slater and Winona Ryder. Cruel but amusing it is what Mean Girls aspired to be in a more PG way.
7. Dazed and Confused (1993)
- Set on the last day of school Dazed and Confused studies what high school students want in their lives. The film has a cast of small time actors who have since made it big and a surprisingly insightful script.
8. Say Anything (1989)
- Every girl wanted a guy as kind and sensitive as Lloyd Dobbler. This film is to blame for In Your Eyes still being overplayed on the radio. Far more intelligent than any teen movie has any right to be.
9. Clueless (1995)
- The first of the modern day teen adaptations, here Jane Austin’s Emma gets a makeover Beverly Hills style following Alicia Silverstone’s Cher through the ups and downs of high school dating.
10. Election (1999)
- The film that introduced Reese Witherspoon to an adoring audience as Tracy Flick the perky but ruthless senior class president candidate. Matthew Broderick, and everyone else for that matter, couldn’t keep up with this politico.
11. Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
- A heartfelt drama set in a boys boarding school that follows Mr. Chips through his career from stumbling teacher to school institution. Robert Donat won the best actor Oscar in 1939 for his portrayal of the teacher.
12. Footloose (1984)
- I can’t believe that EW would leave this off of their list. Footloose is a classic musical in the modern sense with a great Kenny Loggins theme and a well done story. Kevin Bacon is the big city outsider who moves to a small town where music and dancing are banned. Surprisingly, I have been to Texas and there are a few places where this is the case. Who knew?
13. Hoosiers (1986)
- The best of the high school sports dramas. This one didn’t focus on the students it focused on Gene Hackman’s coach but it still portrayed the small town fervor of high school athletics, the athletes who play them, and the towns who revile or revere them.
14. Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)
- Another of the class war view of high school this one takes a bit more serious view of the actions and future prospect of its characters than does the similar Pretty in Pink. Here Eric Stoltz is the boy from the wrong side of the tracks who likes a girl, who isn’t so rich herself. She is part of the in crowd because she is pretty and eager to please her rich jerk boyfriend. The conclusions these characters draw about image and wealth and independence are great as is the cast which also includes Lea Thomson and Mary Stuart Masterson.
15. Lucas(1986)
- Lucas is a memorable movie starring Corey Haim as a bright but socially awkward kid in high school who falls for a girl a few years older than he and completely out of his league. The film also features a young Charlie Sheen as a jock with more personality than your average movie high school athlete.
16. Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
- A difficult one to categorize as Kathleen Turner doesn’t look like a teenager and in fact is playing a woman who is transported back to her high school days. The film is sentimental and runs a bit long but it is a nostalgic look back at the good old days that maybe weren’t as good as they were made out to be.
17. To Sir, With Love (1967)
- Sidney Poitier’s second foray into the classroom, after Blackboard Jungle. This time he is seeing things from the teaching side of the desk as he tries to motivate a group of impoverished kids whose lives are filled with narrow-mindedness and hatred both within and outside of the classroom.
18. Pretty In Pink (1986)
- Another classic Molly Ringwald high school movie. She is the poor but creative girl, Andrew McCarthy is the rich but surprisingly sensitive guy, Jon Cryer is the devoted sidekick Duckie, and James Spader is the bad guy in to cool white suit.
19. La Bamba (1987)
- Though not primarily about high school this film is the biopic of high school student Richie Valens who had a string of hit songs before dying in a plane crash at the age of 17. The film has a great soundtrack and Lou Diamond Philips plays a great Valens.
20. Rushmore (1998)
- Instead of a rich boy and a poor boy vying for the attentions of a girl this inventive film has a geeky high school student and a wealthy middle-aged man vying for the attention of a 20 something teacher. The rivalry between Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray is funny because they seem like matched equals when they really shouldn’t be.
21. All the Right Moves (1983)
- Another great sports film this one starring Tom Cruise and Lea Thompson. Cruise looks to get out of the Pennsylvania coal town he lives in by playing high school football and getting an athletic scholarship so he can become an architect. But his plans are thwarted and his future nearly wrecked by a coach who refuses to accept his independent thinking and throws him off of the team.
22. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
- What can be said but: excellent! Two high school slackers are given a time machine to help them finish a high school history assignment so they can graduate and go on to bring peace to humanity.
23. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
- Maggie Smith won a best actress Oscar as the teacher of the title who tries to instruct her students in the art and beauty of what turn out to be a violent and treacherous world.
24. Cruel Intentions(1999)
- Another magnificent update of much older material. Here the French novel Dangerous Liaisons is transported to the world of wealthy and spoiled boarding school students. Sarah Michelle Geller and Ryan Phillippe square off against each other manipulating others for their own amusement.
25. Better Off Dead (1985)
-Savage Steve Holland’s take on high school romances gone awry. John Cusack plays the jilted Lane Meyer whose contemplations on suicide, family, and school are both hilarious and disturbing.
26. Boyz N the Hood (1991)
27. Grease (1978)
28. The Blackboard Jungle (1955)
29. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
30. The Last Picture Show (1971)
31. Rock