Sometimes you just have to say

I heard the news about director John Hughes sudden death yesterday- and I was suddenly transpoted back to watching a spate of movies that defined my micro-generation. I say micro-generation, because as generational theory goes, we are the first wave of the Gen X crowd, but being at the front part of that, we were still heavily under the boomer shadow, and at a loss for our identity. And cue John Hughes. As my cohort reached high school, he began to make films that represented our crew. Instead of watching the Big Chill crowd relive their glory years, we were finally given our own titles- the Breakfast Club, the Neo maxi zoom dweebs, the Duckies, the Brat Pack.

I won't go as far as to call John Hughes some incredible filmaker- some academy award winning postmodern genius- but he was true to life. And while reflecting what was going on in everyday American teenagers lives, or their high schools, or in their fantasies, he was also wickedly funny- both in a over the top Long-Duc-Dong way, and in a subtle, school secretary sniffing white-out kind of way. He also had a knack for exposing the increasing stratification and fracturalization that was going on in high schools everywhere. Whether he pointed out the injustices, like in Weird Science, or celebrated the things that could bridge those cliqueish chasms, like in Breakfast Club- he was acutely aware of how that social catergorization dynamic was the one thing all teenagers were experiencing. Unlike previous generations, where the football captain could also be the valedictorian, and think about a career in the military, while he rebuilds his mustang in the garage- Hughes understood the demands that were being placed on teens to declare an allegiance to one category and how everyone was labeled according to their group. You didn't cross the lines, however invisible and undefined they were. You were either a computer geek, a weirdo, a motorhead, a popular kid, a brain, a sporto, or a blood. (see Eddy McClurgs description to how popular Ferris is to Ed Rooney). And yet, he also gave us hope that we weren't bound forever in those roles.
Thus, he cast Molly Ringwald as the upperclass princess (Breakfast Club), the middle class suburban invisible kid (Sixteen candles) and the blue collar urban punk kid (Pretty in Pink). Anthony Michael Hall was a brainy geek (Breakfast club) a science geek (Weird Science) and an ultimately sucessful king of geeks (Sixteen Candles)- okay, so he's always a geek- oh well. But, he creates situations and scenes where the underlying teenage angst trumps the classifications, and as Suzanne Vega sings in one of the signature tracks on Pretty in Pink "I think that somehow, somewhere inside of us, we must be similar, if not the same". Which brings me to my last eulogy for Hughes- his understanding that music can also speak louder than dialogue. Also, that he would take relative unknown artists and use them to produce a soundtrack that was as reflective and evocative as the film itself.
Just remember if you don't stop and look around sometimes, life will pass you by. Thanks John.