sixteen candles, pretty in pink, some kind of wonderful,weird science, planes, trains and automobiles. these films are the cinematic equivilant of a big mac and fries, but they were kind of appealing. ok they were basically standard teenage romcoms, but the differnce was that hughes didn't assume that teenagers were a homogenous bunch, but that there were a large group of sub-cultures in theage group. he got a fair bit of praise for this, and his view of teenagers has informed teenage cinema since (see 10 things i hate about you, for instance)
nontheless they're not bad films and ok for a mindless 90 minutes
the two films he will be best remembered for (at least according to the media) were ferris buellers day off and the breakfast club.. both of them screened on tv last year. ferris bueller held up pretty well, but i was surprised how much the breakfast club irritated me.
when i first saw it in the mid eighties, i actually liked it a lot as an attempt to take young people seriously. i did notice that hughes seemed to be indulging in SIGNIFICANT WRITING, but the performances managed to overcome this and actually make a quiet and effecting film.
however, when i saw it last year, the characters all seemed to be a bunch of selfish whining brats and i couldn't help muttering "wait till you get out into the real world, you little snots"
i guess its a movie you should see when you're fifteen and then never see again.
if hughes was one of the giants of eighties cinema, then we must remember the duff films. john hughes, you are accused of making:
uncle buck
home alone
home alone 2
101 and 102 dalmations
(most of these have the same plot)
he hadn't make a film in some years, but his films (and their soundtracks) still strike a chord in the teemagers of the eighties
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Agree with you about not revisiting these films. Let them remain resonant with your 15 year old self. I saw Breakfast Club again about 8 years ago when I was staying in Bangkok. Whining yes and constructed like a boy band - there is sympathetic character for each sub culture to identify with. What I was struck by is unlike Roald Dahl books which have evil adults but always at least one cool grown up, there seemed to be no one for the over 20 to identify with. A movie to feed the generation gap?
ReplyDeleteHave a soft spot for Ferris Beuller. Bought it a while back to watch with the kids. I wonder how it will go down?