Thursday, August 6, 2009 So Yeah, John Hughes Is Dead...

And it's pretty much all anyone my age can talk about. Despite what you kids today think about films like Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club today, they really struck a chord with a generation of insecure suburban youth back then.

Me, I liked Pretty in Pink for being one of the few Hollywood movies to show New Wave culture in a positive light. Never got much into Molly Ringwald, though, as she always looked like she was about to start complaining about something. Hughes also wrote the screenplay to Nate and Hayes, which could have been a great swashbuckler if it wasn't so damn determined to play it aloof and cynical (and what's up with killing all the cool supporting characters in the first five minutes, anyway?). Check it out sometime - it's sort of a spiritual ancestor to the Pirates of the Caribbean blockbusters.

And Hughes had some pretty good taste in music, at least as far as selecting soundtrack material goes. The Psychedelic Furs, the Smiths, the Specials, the English Beat, Love & Rockets, Altered Images, Killing Joke, Big Audio Dynamite, Echo & the Bunnymen - I'll bet his films introduced Middle America to a lot of these bands.

Hughes' obituaries tell of him abandoning Hollywood to run a farm in northern Illinois. I remember Jim Belushi appearing on the Steve and Garry show years back, complaining about Hughes' behavior during the filming of Curly Sue. According to Belushi, Hughes would call action, then start making phone calls while the actors performed. If true, the story might be indicative of Hughes' increasing dissatisfaction with Hollywood. On the other hand, I doubt if I could have roused much interest in directing Curly Sue, either.

Anyway, the man is dead now, so we can forgive him his Curly Sues and Home Alones, and focus on stuff like Weird Science, National Lampoon's Vacation, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Uncle Buck, and Planes, Trains & Automobiles. All told, that's a pretty fine body of work.