Like many others who have commented previously on Where the Boys Are (WTBA), I was initially rather shocked at the film's frank discussion of sex. Once I thought about it more deeply, however, it was the open talk of marriage that was really fresh to my ears. I was born 11 years after this film was released and watching movies like this gives me a unique insight into history that goes well beyond the broad brushes of most sixties reviews and textbooks. Clearly both boys and girls of the time were struggling with the implications of sexuality in relationships - not a whole lot different than today.
What is different about WTBA than the films for young people of today or of my youth (e.g., The Breakfast Club) is the explicit discussion of marriage. In WTBA both the girls and the boys use different levers to try to achieve their ends. The girls use the potential for sex to get the one thing they want - marriage - and the boys use the potential for marriage to get what they are after - sex. I was amazed to hear that all the girls (even the one with an IQ of 138!) were so focussed on catching a husband at 19. None of the movies for youth that I have seen recently even touch the subject of marriage except maybe to joke about it.
While many would argue that no one gets married at 19 anymore, that ultimate end of any relationship still looms out there for young people like a giant prize (or punishment) at the end of dating. The only help I got in seeing young people get together and eventually get married was in The Princess Bride, which could easily be dismissed as fairy tale. I recall in my late teens having to turn to more adult movies like When Harry Met Sally or even Enchanted April to find some guidance for seeing a relationship through to its logical end. Maybe today's youth are skipping over She's All That and going to movies like High Fidelity for similar answers. One would hope so.
So instead of a breezy beach movie I got a social history lesson on the mating rituals of my parents' generation. I hope there's a movie that prompts this kind of discussion for my own kids someday.
