The most popular film version of a Broadway musical ever produced, Grease is about the turbulent 1950s romance between two high school seniors—"bad boy" Danny, a prominent member of the T-Birds gang, and "good girl" Sandy, a preppy, "goodie-two-shoes."

An aspiring photographer moves with her husband from New York to a quiet suburb in Stepford, Connecticut. There she discovers something strange and too perfect about the other housewives in the neighborhood. The Stepford Wives is not only a creepy horror flick, but also a stinging piece of commentary on the culture of the suburbs.

A group of friends spend one fabulously entertaining night cruising "the strip" in their cars, chasing love interests, playing pranks, racing, fighting, and reminiscing about their high school days before heading off to college. Not only is this film a must see for its depiction of '60s era teenage car culture, but it's also chock full of the most popular radio hits from the period.

This creepy sci-fi thriller has been interpreted by some as an anticommunist propaganda film, with the pods representing communism; others have viewed it as a critique of McCarthyism raids, with the pod people representing far-right radicals. It's unclear whether the director Don Siegel intended to present a political allegory or simply a story of an alien invasion. Either way, Invasion is a classic horror film from the Cold War era.

James Dean and Natalie Wood star in this iconic '50s film about teen angst and rebellion in an era marked by conformity and conservatism. The three main characters are plagued by anger, disappointment, and loneliness; so, they frequently drink, act up in school, and challenge their parents, who they blame for their misery.