The 80s: The Brat Pack Edition

Who were they? What happened to them? I thought I knew the answer to those questions but after watching Andrew McCarthy’s Brats on Hulu, it turns out I didn’t know anything. All I knew was the moniker was a play on the Rat Pack and its members included Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez, and Judd Nelson. A seemingly harmless nickname given to a group of twenty-something year old actors that ruled Hollywood in the mid 80s. What I didn’t know was that it was the title of an article written by David Blum in New York magazine. His “Hollywood’s Brat Pack” piece would change the lives of these actors forever.

"We all made it mean something, but it was about the person who

wrote it trying to be clever and get their next job.” - Demi Moore

I couldn’t imagine an article had that kind of power back then but after watching the documentary I decided to do a little more research. I was able to find the original article online and right away I knew it was not meant in a positive light. Blum is supposed to be writing about Emilio Estevez and his newfound success. Estevez invites Blum out to the Hard Rock Café where he’s meeting Judd Nelson and Matthew McCarthy. Something they did often. Blum calls Estevez the leader of the pack and feels that if he was a famous Hollywood actor he wouldn’t be out having drinks and picking up girls. He would be concentrating on his craft. That’s all fine and dandy but we all need a night out with friends to relax and not be “on”. Blum should have known what his words would do.

Matthew McCarthy says that after the article came out, he felt he had lost the narrative of his career.

“Phrases endure when they have a cleverness and a sort of truth to them.” – Malcolm Gladwell

I always wondered what happened to these actors, they were everywhere in the 80s. I mean I can’t think of my childhood and not think of The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. All I remember is how I felt and knowing that what John Hughes captured was magic. There has never been or will ever be an era quite like that. And that’s perfectly fine. I’ve heard people comment how those movies wouldn’t relevant now, with our current culture. Of course not! These movies reflected a different time, things were different, people were different. John Hughes was a white guy from a middle-class family that lived in a Chicago suburb. He was writing what he knew. I’m sure that what we see today will no longer be relevant in the future. People will have the same opinion.

The Brat Pack era didn’t last long, but it left an indelible mark on many of us. I think that was solidified movies and music and music videos for me were because of the 80s. movies like The Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink, and St. Elmo’s Fire all had songs that made the movie. Or did the movie make the song. One will never know.