Last night my roommate and I went to see the free sneak of Adventureland at Ackerman. The movie is about a recent college student who wants to go on a trip to Europe but his parents tell him they are unable to afford it, he then has to get a summer job and the only place that would hire him is Adventureland a local amusement park. I really enjoyed the movie but afterwards I started to think back to our essay topic of myths, morals, and values and how this movie could be able to fit in this category. It does not necessarily have any good morals or values; it is completely the opposite of that. Throughout the movie there is people drinking, smoking weed, and having sex with a married person. Yet even though the movie does not have any good morals or values it is still showing the audience that people can do all this things and still succeed and find happiness just like the main characters did in the end. Then I started to think of other movies that could be put in this category along with Adventureland and I realized that there is many movies that send out very similar messages. They showed underage people drinking, people cheating on their partners, people doing illegal drugs, and people driving under the influence. And even though these are negative messages are negative towards the audience they still continued to be portrayed in many movies especially those targeted towards a younger audience. Recently they have been so many new movies that fit into this category such as Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Superbad, and Sex Drive. However this is not a new thing, showing minors drinking and doing drugs in films has been happening for a while now, as can be seen in movies like Dazed and Confused (1993) and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). Thus myths, morals, and values are not the only recurring themes in American films. Underage drinking, drugs, and sex are a big part of American films also.
