Back from a week of fun and binge eating in Chicago. Fun fact: Chicago produced the world’s first window envelope. Strangely, and sadly, while in Chicago, John Hughes passed away. As a tribute to the king of the north suburban comedies, I present some strange musings on some of my favorite Hughes films.
Mr. Mom (1983)
I actually didn’t know Hughes wrote this. What I do know is when I was little this was one of three things I had taped on VHS (along with Tiger Town and Fraggle Rock), so I watched it quite a bit. It’s strange to think how many strides male housewives have made over the last 16 years, while the city the movie takes place in (Detroit) remains a shit hole.
Sixteen Candles (1984)
The movie serves as a sobering warning that the things we find most pleasurable and funny today, will one day be embarrassingly racist.
The Breakfast Club (1985)
My favorite scene in this movie is the lunch scene when they’re comparing what everyone packed for lunch, but here’s the thing I keep wondering–how disgusting must that sushi Molly Ringwald’s character ate have been? I mean, we’re talking mid-80s, north Chicago suburban sushi (I don’t think Asians were allowed in the north suburbs until 1989), packed in a backpack and then stored at room temperature for 4-5 hours before eating. Come on.
Weird Science (1985)
The blueprint for the billion dollar internet porn industry. In retrospect, of course, it’s all so obvious.
Pretty in Pink (1986)
For some reason, as a kid, I thought this movie would have lots of sex in it. It didn’t.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
Probably my favorite Hughes flick, but more than being one of the most rewatchable comedies, the film stands as proof that Hughes was, in fact, a technological visionary. 
Younger readers may not be aware that, before the internet, computers were essentially really fancy typewriters that you could play video games on. Beyond printing out custom greeting cards (yes, this was really popular for a while), the PC didn’t really do much.
Yet, somehow, in 1986, long before Al Gore claimed to invent the internet, here is Ferris Bueller, hacking into the school’s computer system to change his grade. How? How could his shitty, 2MB RAM computer connect to the high school computer’s database? How could Hughes have even imagined this possibility if he was not (conspiratorial drum roll here) the actual mastermind behind the information superhighway?
Uncle Buck (1989)
Another film that led me to believe school parties would be a lot more fun than they turned out to be. Re-watch the high school party scene and you’ll know what I mean.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
The promo for this movie was “Yule Crack Up!” proving that there is no product so cheesy that advertising can’t make it worse.
Home Alone (1990)
Hughes only acted as producer on this, but his fingerprints are all over it. I offer this: the entire premise of this movie has been completely negated by the prevalence of the cell phone. I’m not saying the concept was believable to begin with, but give everyone in the film cell phones and not a single scene would make any logical sense.
Tags: john hughes, Low Art
I met that guy in Sixteen Candles–he is not interested in recounting his experience in the movie, let me tell you. Also, what about Planes, Trains, & Automobiles? That’s probably his best…
Oh, I forgot about Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. That’s definitely a classic.
Meanwhile, here’s an article on another strange/dark point about 16 Candles I was thinking of writing about–the date rape jokes. Because nothing’s funnier than date rape? Gulp.
http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/08/11/16_candles/
And the wild teen girl in Uncle Buck goes on to be a completely boring sububran mom on the completely stereotypical family sitcomYes, Dear. John Hughes really was a closet Republican. But after having done some perusing on Facebook and seeing what the “crazy” dumb girls from my high school are doing now, I would say he was also an astute documentarian of middle class self-destruction, in a fun way.
P.S. Look at us using html tags and everything!
Yes Dear was a critical piece in the early 2000s CBS TV marketing strategy in which all their sitcoms paired increasingly chubby, blue-collar, unattractive men, with improbably attractive wives. It started with Raymond, moved to Yes Dear and King of Queens, and then hit rock bottom with Still Standing.
There was a bottom even rocker than King of Queens? Dear unholy God.
The weirdest thing about The Breakfast Club is how, once you’re over 35 and have taught teenagers, the principal becomes this tragically sympathetic character. It was also because of that film that I conceived my whole “scribe” theory in relation to ensemble drama, viz. to wit.: every successful ensemble drama has one character who is a stand-in for the writer, and this person will (in voiceover, usually) somehow record or document the events for the others (because they are jocks/prom queens/rebels/basketcases, and in any event they couldn’t write their way out of a damp paper bag filled with warm sashimi).
You nailed it, but I don’t think you have to wait until turning 35 to realize the Principal is the tragic hero–you just have to teach. My other Breakfast Club thought is I sure hope the smart kid was focused on science or math or something, because for the designated, nerdy straight-A student, he wrote a pretty shitty essay.