File next to Natalie Imbruglia’s ‘Torn’ cover, which also came out in ’97. It was a fixture on the soundtracks of both American Pie and the 2012 sequel American Reunion. New Zealand artist Bic Runga enjoyed her first international hit in 1997, with the delicate 90s soft-rock of ‘Sway’. 13 guitar-heavy tracks by bands such as Blink-182, Goldfinger and Barenaked Ladies formed the official soundtrack album, while the likes of Hole, Everclear and, just for curveball’s sake, Marvin Gaye all had their songs featured in the film. The familiarity of seeing Jim dancing, recalling the oft-quoted (in secondary school playgrounds, anyway) “Band Camp” lines or being confronted by the, ahem, Shermanator will be brought into even sharper focus by hearing cuts from American Pie‘s bright and optimistic soundtrack, curated during the days when pop-punk and alt-rock ruled the airwaves.
The film’s guilty pleasure status persists, though, and American Pie‘s 20th anniversary this week will still have plenty of people digging out their well-worn VHS copy for a sneaky viewing. Indeed, Seann William Scott’s nomination for ‘Choice Sleazebag’ at the 2000 Teen Choice Awards for his take on Stifler appropriately sums up the very different age in which American Pie existed. Sex-obsessed, male-dominated and somehow more cringeworthy than a Levenstein father-son chat about a homemade apple pie, the bawdy premise of American Pie is totally at odds with Hollywood’s embrace of the #MeToo era, and would now surely be chucked in the bin by any major movie studio at the first pitch meeting. Exactly two (!) decades on from the release of the Weitz brothers’ teen movie (which made a staggering £188 million at the box office back in 1999) it now trades almost exclusively on its nostalgic value despite the fact that it hasn’t aged particularly gracefully.
ƑIn the latest development in exactly how old you’ve become recently, American Pie turns 20 years old this week.
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