13 Brat Packers.
I recently watched the Hulu documentary BRATS, Andrew McCarthy's reflection on what it was like to be considered a member of that 1980s phenomenon, The Brat Pack. My favorite part of the movie was when it was established that no one really has a definitive answer to who was in The Brat Pack.
The term was coined by David Blum in a 1985 article about Emilio Estevez and how Estevez and his twenty-something friends/co-stars enjoyed their fame and popularity. Then it expanded to include the cast members of the hit ensemble youth movies St. Elmo's Fire and The Breakfast Club. Sometimes actors who appeared in the movies Pretty in Pink and Taps are included.
Here's the thing: The Brat Pack never actually existed, so there's no real right/wrong answer to who was in it. The following 13 just seems to be -- to borrow from another movie -- the usual suspects.
1. Emilio Estevez (generally acknowledged to be the Head Brat)
2. Judd Nelson
3. Rob Lowe
4. Andrew McCarthy
5. Demi Moore
6. Ally Sheedy
7. Anthony Michael Hall
8. Jon Cryer (who denies being a member)
9. James Spader
10. Mare Winningham
11. Sean Penn
and his fellow Oscar winners
12. Tim Hutton
and
13. Robert Downey Jr.
Tom Cruise is undeniably the most commercially successful actor of that generation yet he's seldom mentioned as a Brat Packer. I don't know why, since he was in Taps. I guess it's because most of his movies were starring vehicles and not ensemble pieces.
Oh well, BRATS is a fun watch if you were a movie goer in the 1980s.
Please join us for THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.
