ABSTRACT
Like all youth movies, American Pie is characterised by a particular construction of young people and youth culture. ‘Coming-of-age’ and the transition to adulthood are experiences invariably central to youth films, and American Pie is significant for the way it marked a shift in the treatment of these themes. The film is more sexually explicit than its predecessors, and it also places much greater stress on the role of personal relationships and the acquisition of emotional empathy in the move from youth to adulthood. American Pie is also characterised by a particular configuration of youth in terms of class, ethnicity and gender. The film’s representations of class and ethnicity are relatively conservative, but its construction of gender – especially masculinity – is more progressive and articulates models of masculine identity characterised by new, more pronounced dimensions of sensitivity and vulnerability. These elements are framed within an overarching mood of nostalgia that points to the transience and ephemeral nature of youth.
