Oh my, another legend lost… at least to me. And I know I’m not alone in my grief here.
The 80′s were my middle-and-high school years, which are tough for nearly everyone on some level. John Hughes was a master at capturing the angst we all felt, on film. His characters were legendary. And the dialogue… I’ve been quoting his well-scripted lines for years and years, and will never be able to shake key phrases from my everyday vernacular for as long as I live. That’s what happens when you watch favorite movies scores of times, and I am being completely literal. We shrieked, “Oh, sexy giiiirlfrieeeeend” all the freaking time. Thanks to Mr. Hughes, we learned why never to give your panties to a geek (“Relax, would you? We have seventy dollars and a pair of girls underpants. We’re safe as kittens.”), or to marry an oily bohunk (“Yeah. Married!”)
At nearly every sleep-over birthday party I attended in middle-and-early high school, along with The Complete Duran Duran, the other obligatory film to watch was Sixteen Candles. In those days, I cared nothing of who the writer or director was of such favorites. I only cared about the characters… especially the dreamy boyfriend in the film (in this case, Michael Schoeffling as Jake Ryan – we all swooned, as he was perfect in every way, and we wanted him so much!) We all identified with Molly Ringwald’s character Samantha Baker. We rooted for her, though we wanted Jake all to ourselves. That kiss over the flaming birthday cake at the end of that movie, with If You Were Here by the then-irrepressible Thompson Twins playing in the background sent all us girls hurling ourselves backwards onto our beds, sighing. It was the stuff the best-ever love dreams were made of.
“This information cannot leave this room. Ok? It would devastate my reputation as a dude.” – The Geek
It was also the first time we saw the likes of John Cusack and his sister Jane – this pair of siblings went on to be awesome film draws in their own right, in films all over the place after that. I heart them both very much.
Hughes also wrote and/or directed other films-for-the-whole-family to enjoy, such as the Home Alone series (of which I really only liked the first), the wonderful Planes, Trains and Automobiles, with awesome talents Steve Martin, Eugene Levy, and the late John Candy, and Mr. Mom, which was a smash hit. There were others that I found less delightful, like Curly Sue and Uncle Buck (another John Candy film – sometimes I liked him, but other times, not so much) and the Beethoven series about a dog… but these were just not nearly as cool as many of his other movies that were targeted towards a kid my age back then.
“You make me get out of bed, you make me come over here. You make me make a phony phone call to Edward Rooney? The man could squash my nuts into oblivion.” – Cameron Frye
I’m talking about Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which had the goofy grin of one of the cutest boys I’d seen since Michael J. Fox on the poster – Matthew Broderick was brilliantly cast in this role. My sister, our best friend Jen, and I watched that movie in the theater every day for eight days straight the summer of 1986 when it was released. I was fourteen years old. I remember that being one of the most fun summers ever… and that’s largely because of what the movie meant to us. We loved Ferris. SAVE FERRIS! We loved his worried, near-hypochondriac friend Cameron Frye. We tried not to be jealous of his girlfriend Sloane Peterson. Even his bitchy sister played by Jennifer Grey, and his scheming principal, Ed Rooney, his nutty secretary, and Ben Stein’s economics teacher with his monotone ways made us giddy in this story. “Frye? Frye?… Something D-O-O-economics. Voodoo Economics…” Hilarious. And that perfect candy-apple red Ferrari’s sad demise near the end made us collectively hold our breath, as we watched passive Cameron lose his shit. It was a wonderful film. My sister and I still blink and utter “Uhhh, what country do you think this is?” when the moment allows. We say this more often than one might think.
“Okay, fine, but I didn’t dump my purse out on the couch and invite everyone into my problems.” – Andrew
I’m talking about The Breakfast Club, which was in many ways darker than some of his other teen-angst stories. I wished I could be in detention hall on a Saturday with the likes of a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess and a criminal… just once. I longed for that kind of connection. Watching Anthony Michael Hall’s character Brian break down and sob about his failures in shop class makes me cry a little every time. For the first time, I saw the sexy appeal of the “bad boy”, though I never had a thing for Judd Nelson’s looks, really. I wished my name was Claire, and that I had cool clothes and a cool haircut, and knee-high brown leather boots… and the tormenting attention of the “bad boy.” I loved Ali Sheedy’s makeover, though she looked beautiful before. I felt bad for the jock, seeing how things can quickly get out of hand in a gang-up situation. I wanted to be with them when they smoked their pot in the library, and danced to the coolest tunes, and did all their… confessing. I wanted to give away a diamond earring to my new-found love. Sigh. Don’t you forget about me, Simple Minds sang… how could we ever forget?
“I just want them to know that they didn’t break me.” – Andie
I’m talking about Pretty In Pink, which again made me identify with being on the outside looking in… watching everyone around you seem to get their every hearts desire, all while you’re just trying to survive your life, and find a nice boy to love for ever and ever. We all knew a bastard like Steff, played by James Spader (and he was good at being the asshole in many, many films). I wanted a mentor like the very fantastic Annie Pott’s character Iona. She was so freaking rad to me… and the music was rad too. From the lip-synched-in-the-record-store Try a Little Tenderness, to the title song by The Psychedelic Furs, the soundtrack to this film was completely bombastic to me. The Smiths, of course. Echo & the Bunnymen too. Great tunes by these great masters will forever be linked to this great piece of eye-candy for me. Indeed, great cinema. If you leave, don’t look back… oh, sniff.
Well, I like art, I work in a gas station, my best friend is a tomboy. These things don’t fly too well in the American high school.” – Keith
I’m talking about Some Kind of Wonderful, with Eric Stoltz, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Lea Thompson. What a story. A love triangle of she sorta-secretly loves him, he loves someone beyond his reach, and she loves a total douchebag. That pretty much sums up my entire high school career right there. Oh, the angst! Rich kids and not-so-rich kids, mean girls, skater boys, parties, excesses, triumphs and failures. And a cool drummer girl with fringes on her fingerless leather gloves. And a hot redhead dude who’s smart and funny and sweet. And the ending is perfect for every girl who ever found herself in a situation even remotely like this one – she gets him, AND she gets the diamond earrings. Absolutely perfect. And yet another rockin’ soundtrack – I Go Crazy by Flesh for Lulu. A perfectly gritty Miss Amanda Jones by March Violets. A very sweet rendition of Can’t Help Falling in Love by Lick the Tins keys up in time for the credits. Ah… another wonderful John Hughes film.
Though I’m no longer a teenager (clearly), his films marked a very special time in my life, as teenage years have to be. So much growth during this time. So much learning. So many relationships cultured, and fractured. This emotionally fraught time awaken our senses to possibilities of life, and of love… of wishes. I love these characters. I will forever love their faces and their dress, and their words most of all. Sometimes they made me cry. Sometimes they made me envious. Sometimes they made me laugh until I thought I would wet myself.
Thank you John Hughes. Your stories helped my navigate the tricky, perilous waters of my own private Teenage Wasteland. You will be missed, but your movies will never, ever be forgotten. Your films saved me. For reals.
Enjoy the montage – try not to cry (but it’s okay if you do.)
G.G.
