Few filmmakers have an impact on a generation like John Hughes did, you might not be familiar with the name but I assure you that if you grew up in the eighties or had older siblings that did then you are more than a little familiar with his work. Let me throw a few titles out at you: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Some Kind of Wonderful and Pretty in Pink…Do they sound familiar? This is a writer and director who had an ear for dialogue and who understood the sort of things that were important to teenagers in that time and place.

Everyone knows two kids who are lifelong friends and for whom life moved to a different beat (Weird Science), or that one really cool guy who always got away with everything, had a faithful sidekick and beautiful girlfriend to join him on his adventures (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off). Did you ever have to do detention and realize that the people in detention with you come from all walks of life and every step of the social stratum (Breakfast Club) and what about unrequited love and the search for acceptance amongst your social peers? (Some Kind of Wonderful, Pretty in Pink (which are the same movie, no really….) and Sixteen Candles) All of these things and the horror of having to deal with high school on a daily basis when you are that age in that time and place is what John Hughes was infamous for.

I had no idea until last night while I was watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off just how well I know that movie, quoting the dialogue, singing the songs and feeling as though I were sixteen all over again watching the movie in my parent’s living room instead of forty-one and in my own. These movies crept into the collective consciousness of a generation and spoke to us in a way that no other writer or director has since. Sadly John Hughes passed away a few years ago, but to me somewhere in Shermer, Illinois in a parallel universe they are holding a reunion where all these characters who occupied the same high school once upon a time are having a drink in his honor and thinking back on when we were all that young.

If you haven’t seen them in years, go back and take a look at them now. Grab your kids, your younger siblings or a couple of friends and sit down with any of the John Hughes classics Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Some Kind of Wonderful and Pretty in Pink, I’m sure you won’t regret it.

5 out of 5 stars, don’t you forget about it….

 

 

Keith Kilburn and his wife, Dawn, live in Leesburg with two cats and dog named Godzilla. He’s written for Herorealm.com before they were bought out by corporate interests and has written a novel that he’s working on publishing. It’s rumored that he’s seen more movies than Blockbuster rents in a year and knows more about comic books than Stan Lee himself!