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Full disclosure: I was in "The Breakfast Club."
That is to say, I was in my high school yearbook's posed-picture version of "The Breakfast Club."
The yearbook committee rep approached me, all scrunchies and highlights and stirrup pants and oversized neon-checkered sweater, and told me confidingly that they were hoping I'd be in "this cool idea for a picture, where we all re-enact the roles from the movie! And you'd be Allison Reynolds!"
It took me a minute. It was the first time this girl had ever spoken to me. I'd seen the movie, but wasn't a fan. In fact, I had snarked on it so hard that the guy who took me to see it never asked me out again.
Oh. The basket case. My face grew hot as that sank in.
"And could you wear something, you know, like, really, really, YOU? Like, you know, so ... original?"
I was having a meta John Hughes moment.
As an unwealthy, dweeby-rebellious teenager growing up in Orange County in the '80s, I should have loved John Hughes movies more than I did. But for a long time, I was unmoved. Hughes' teen girl characters were too moody and wishy-washy and status-conscious for my taste. They SEWED shit. I liked the Annie Potts character in "Pretty in Pink" OK, but didn't get Molly Ringwald's sulky appeal. But I was more or less alone in my opinion.
Melissa of Women and Hollywood shared her take on Hughes last year in "The Difference Between John Hughes and Judd Apatow," saying:
In the mid 1980s, John Hughes did something that is lacking from today’s comedies — he made movies that spoke to both boys and girls. ... Hughes characters shaped the values Gen X’s both boys and girls. He wrote young women characters with respect in a way not seen in mainstream Hollywood comedies today.
Molly Ringwald with all her angst and despair was my teenage hero. I even got a ghastly red dye job. Hughes' influence can be seen in recent characters like those in Mean Girls, and The Princess Diaries. Thank you John Hughes, I think the young men making movies today could use your advice.
Still, I was really sad to hear that Hughes died of a heart attack today at 59. I may have skipped the red-dye phase, but the phrase "John Hughes movie" definitely means something to me, and his films play in my head at the most random moments.
Like at BlogHer '09 in Chicago last month, that Sunday, craning my head to get the Ferris Bueller skyline. Or when my husband was in the hospital with a very serious work injury -- his hand surgeon looked just like Blane in "Pretty in Pink," which was an excellent reason to text something ungory to my girlfriends for a change.
I even had a Duckie in high school. Who told me he wanted to be my Jake Ryan. (And then came out the next year, but you knew that was coming.)
Spielster reminisces,
For those who know me well, there really isn’t another director/writer who has entertained me for as many hours as John Hughes. He had a rare ability to write stories about REAL KIDS and actual families. He made movies where you could learn a lesson and bust your gut from laughing so hard at the same time. When I think of the 80’s, the imagery he created is what pops into my head. He found a love for the quirky kids, be them the class dorks or the rulers of the school, and he made sure that his characters felt real. He brought an authenticity to his productions, a real feeling of misunderstood youth and equally confused adulthood, which reflected the American suburb I grew up in so well. His soundtracks were perfection and they showcased indie bands like The Smiths, OMD and The Rave-Ups and they were the central reason I listened to Otis Redding as a teenager.
See, I didn't realize when I was young that that what came before Hughes was more along the lines of "Porky's" and "Little Darlings," that not every teen comedy came with a kick-ass soundtrack, that you couldn't judge the dweeb and awkward-adolescent characters on terms of relative merit because they didn't exist onscreen before Hughes Weird Scienced them into existence.
Audrey of Born for Geekdom adds,
He had an innocent way of portraying the world and life through his films that was completely grounded. It wasn't a phony greeting card
