Here are some useful historical texts to consider, and to use with our previous historical analyses of Cohen's work on Folk Devils, mods & rockers in 1960's britain, and more moral panics such as the ecstasy panic of the 1990's.
West Side Story (1961 George Chakris)
A (at the time) contemporary retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. Two rival street gangs fight on the streets of New York.
If... (1968 Lindsay Anderson)
An at times surreal nightmarish vision of teenage rebellion and the British public school system. Malcolm McDowell plays a boarding school student who, having had enough from his sadistic and cruel teachers and fellow pupils, takes matters into his own hands in an explosive finale...
A Clockwork Orange (1971 Stanley Kubrick)
Kubrick's classic tale of nihilistic teen Alex and his gang, fuelled with drug laced hallucinogens, embarking on a violent spree of rape and murder and "ultraviolence" in a nightmarish future world.
Try comparing this to Harry Brown, or Eden Lake.
Carrie (1976 Brian De Palma)
Horror revenge classic film, about a bullied teenage outcast, taking revenge upon her tormentors in climactic fashion.
Retelling of the classic UK teen rebellion 'Mods & Rockers' conflict of the 1960's, with an iconic soundtrack.
Teenage rebel Ferris Bueller, bunks off school in a bid to have the greatest day of freedom in his and his friends lives.
Try comparing this with the episode of The Inbetweeners where the students bunk off from school and get drunk at Neil's dad's house.
In order to get out of the snobby clique that is destroying her good-girl reputation, an intelligent teen teams up with a dark sociopath in a plot to kill the cool kids.
This is what passed for a teenage TV series when I was growing up.
Try comparing this to; any modern teen TV show, AT ALL.
A cult classic US TV high school series.
Drama about a group of friends, trying to survive in the roughest estates in Paris, as the city tears itself apart in violence and rioting after a Policeman puts a youth into a coma.
A harrowing powerful and upsetting film about a group of teenagers in New York whose nihilistic lives drift around sex, drugs, skateboarding and violence.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997 - 2003 US TV Joss Whedon)
A cult classic teen TV series about a girl with magical powers killing vampires. Could probably make a very interesting comparison with the eminently more modern (and British) Misfits.
A violent precursor to The Hunger Games, a fable where in response to a crisis and lack of discipline school children are forced to kill eachother on a deserted island
Mean Girls (2004 Mark Waters)
Classic high school comedy about the perils of cliques and youth subculture.
A group of out of control youths terrorize a young couple on holiday.
After his friend is murdered by teenage gangs, an ex soldier decides to take justice into his own hands.
The story of an expelled 15 year old girl, whose life is changed when her Mother brings home a new boyfriend.
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