Schoolyard Terror: 11 Landmarks

ZÉRO DE CONDUITE
(1933)

Jean Vigo's lyrical account of student rebellion is booed at its premiere, then banned in France until after World War II.

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
(1955)

James Dean was already dead when this afflu-teen alienation flick made him an icon. Significantly, the fatal gun belongs not to a hood but to Sal Mineo's confused sissy.

I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF
(1957)

The title, conceived before the script, says it all.

IF . . .
(1968)

Zéro de Conduite transposed to British boarding school won the Palme d'Or at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival, the first movie so garlanded since militants shut down the '68 edition.

MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH
(1976)

New kid exterminates bullies in this drive-in allegory, pitched somewhere between Animal Farmand High Plains Drifter.

CARRIE
(1976)

Brian De Palma moves the locus of outsider vengeance to the senior prom.

HEATHERS
(1989)

A ruling clique is overthrown: "My teenage angst bullshit has a body count," the heroine wails.

KIDS
(1995)

I Was a Teenage Werewolf in the Age of AIDS.

O
(2001)

Tim Blake Nelson's high school Othello was shelved in 1999 by Miramax, post-Columbine.

BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE
(2002)

Michael Moore's exposé of American violence gets a special jury prize at Cannes.

ELEPHANT
(2003)

Gus Van Sant's evocation of Columbine wins the Palme d'Or.