John Hughes wrote the manifesto for my generation on film

It’s weird how someone’s passing that you don’t even know can leave you thinking about that person for quite sometime, a real impact, if you will. This is how I felt hearing the news of John Hughes‘ sudden passing. I know he was not making movies now, but that does not take away the indelible mark he has left on my life. John Hughes wrote the manifesto for my generation and arguably many others.

We grew up on him. I was the perfect adolescent age to really take in his brand of cinema. And if you want to break it down, like a film student paper, he not only found some of this generations greatest actors, he created catch phrases by the dozens. He never forgot that his movies were an ideal vehicle to espouse some good old American values. The real ones, not the ones some political party creates for propaganda. My young kids even get his movies, proof that his writing and the movies themselves hold up over time as classics. Just today they asked to see Home Alone, really, before I even heard of what happened to John Hughes! Every time they laugh at Christmas Vacation, I have John Hughes to thank.

He got us, the middle class. He covered nearly every middle class issue with humor and heart. I know nothing really about the man and by all accounts online he led a quiet life after his phenomenal success. To me his passing is more profound than Michael Jackson for sure. His material had heart delivered in an intelligent, witty manner. He was one of the few grownups in Hollywood who knew how I felt as a teenager. Sure he had over the top stereotypes, but it was like a joke that you and he were in on. Sometimes I wondered if he was at one of my high school parties? Really, the jocks at the keg, the popular crowd, my friends, he had it all. In Sixteen Candles he made geeks cool, He let you believe that you could get that crazy crush you had (and I did) and, yes, John Hughes, not only did I wear the exact same Maid-of Honor wedding getup complete with the halo of fake flowers and long streaming ribbons, but I too had my 16th birthday forgotten by my parents. When I saw the movie not long after all of that (in fact a month after my sister’s wedding), needless to say, I thought he tore a page from my very own diary!

Which brings up an important point in that particular movie, he wrote young female lead roles. He let Molly Ringwald carry movies on her own and she delivered. All that and a feminist supporter too? We are all very lucky that John Hughes could be a voice of our times, he was the guy in Student Council that spoke for the whole school. I mean just listen to the final letter in the Breakfast Club? How could anyone address both how kids felt about the difficulties of being a teenager with parents trying to screw you up and remind all of us that even though we all had those labels put upon us, that didn’t mean that we didn’t have unity. Who does this anymore? Frankly, most movies belittle parents and kids alike with a lack of character development. Where is the middle class suburban voice in cinema these days? Oh yeah, there is no middle anymore.

On top of that, he wasn’t afraid to let his inner goofball shine through. My kids get the moronic comedy of the Vacation movies. And living in Arizona I feel the exact same way about lookng at the Grand Canyon, “Okay, kids, let’s get back in the car.”

All those stupid. silly lines of the screenplay are forever embedded in my brain. I had this great moment in Mexico in college down near Rocky Point. We were all at the beach and we decided to all go out in the water with the waves crashing over us. We eventually formed a circle of about 12 boys and girls and got to talking (while drinking Coronas) and somehow that led to famous movie quotes. It was like a who could do one better. It was full of laughs and full of John Hughes lines. If you can have a life that ripples out like a rock in a pond and it hits an entire generation and more to come, well then, we call that a great life.

Thanks for the memories John, thanks for the laughs, and all the memories and laughs that keep coming. You truly have achieved immortality. And now I say, it’s time for a John Hughes film viewing with friends in honor of his passing!

Related articles by Zemanta

• ArtsBeat: John Hughes, Director of ’80s Comedies, Dies at 59 (artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com)
• John Hughes Dead: Director Dies Suddenly At 59 (huffingtonpost.com)
• With humour and angst, Hughes’ films defined ’80s (ctv.ca)