Danke schön

August 6, 2009 2:43 PM

Writer, director, producer John Hughes has passed away. Responsible for hilarious Vacations, quirky boyfriends, Ferris' Day Off, a young boy being left Home Alone and the Shermer IL multiverse. If you liked films in the 80s, you liked John Hughes.
posted by crossoverman (234 comments total)

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posted by gmm at 2:44 PM on August 6, 2009

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while you could miss it."

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posted by The Card Cheat at 2:44 PM on August 6, 2009 [33 favorites]

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posted by dumbland at 2:45 PM on August 6, 2009

How sad.
posted by elder18 at 2:45 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by desjardins at 2:45 PM on August 6, 2009

I'm hoping Matthew Broderick sticks around for a few minutes after the funeral to make sure everyone knows it's over and they should go home.

As somebody who went through high school in the '80s suffering under the delusion that nice nerds could wind up dating pretty girls if they were just persistent and quirky enough, I think Hughes has a lot to answer for. His was the oeuvre that launched a million restraining orders; the man that told a generation of zit-speckled bespectacled losers that stalking was okay if you were really really really sincere.

Godspeed, John Hughes. You kind of ruined my adolescence, you bastard, but you made good movies.
posted by Shepherd at 2:45 PM on August 6, 2009 [40 favorites]

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posted by Mintyblonde at 2:46 PM on August 6, 2009

". . . I'm at a loss."
posted by Optimus Chyme at 2:46 PM on August 6, 2009

*lowers grotesque homemade pink prom dress to half mast*

(seriously, I love that flick)
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:46 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by Webbster at 2:47 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by elmono at 2:47 PM on August 6, 2009

Five deleted posts?

(A zombie John Hughes movie would be interesting.)
posted by rokusan at 2:47 PM on August 6, 2009

The man gave us Long Duck Dong.

He will be missed.
posted by mudpuppie at 2:47 PM on August 6, 2009 [5 favorites]

This is the one.
posted by box at 2:48 PM on August 6, 2009

Bueller?
posted by cillit bang at 2:48 PM on August 6, 2009

O God, ease our suffering in this, our moment of great dispair. Yea, admit this kind and decent woman into thy arms of thine heavenly area, up there. And Moab, he lay us upon the band of the Canaanites, and yea, though the Hindus speak of karma, I implore you: give her a break.

Or something like that. I'm not an ordained minister.
posted by eyeballkid at 2:48 PM on August 6, 2009 [5 favorites]

:(
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 2:49 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

AHHHHHH.
posted by starman at 2:50 PM on August 6, 2009

I always found this line (from "She's Having a Baby") to be insightful and vowed not to be this way: "And in the end, I realized that I took more than I gave, I was trusted more than I trusted, and I was loved more than I loved."

I doubt that Hughes could have loved more than he was loved, however.
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posted by parilous at 2:52 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Wow. The Breakfast Club is pretty much iconic for my high school career. Completely defined "the types" and worked with them to great effect. His kiddie films never did a lot for me, but the stretch of movies he did about high school (during my high school years) were culturally changing and really really great.

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posted by hippybear at 2:52 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by soft and hardcore taters at 2:53 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by jquinby at 2:53 PM on August 6, 2009

WHAT THE FUCK, DEATH?

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posted by Sys Rq at 2:53 PM on August 6, 2009 [8 favorites]

Ok, I'm going to keep pasting this and hope it sticks this time:

My hero as a filmmaker.

I once watched a documentary about boxing and somebody said something about being "the people's champion," and that "when the people take you to their bosom, nothing else matters." I went to a midnight showing of The Breakfast Club once, and that's what I felt: people love that movie so deeply, not only as comedy or entertainment, but as a part of their lives and who they are. With all due respect to Mr. Howard and his kind, you can't buy that with a thousand Oscars.

Allison Reynolds: When you grow up, your heart dies.
John Bender: So, who cares?
Allison Reynolds: I care.

Goodbye, John, and thank you.
posted by drjimmy11 at 2:54 PM on August 6, 2009 [5 favorites]

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posted by valis at 2:54 PM on August 6, 2009

It looks like his creative race was already run, but thanks for National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986).

Helluva success streak; I was a teenager through most of the 80s and these were great.
posted by @troy at 2:54 PM on August 6, 2009

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I just realized that Hughes was the same age I am now when he directed Ferris Bueller. For some reason I find this very, very depressing.
posted by Stonewall Jackson at 2:55 PM on August 6, 2009

OK, sort of off topic, but this needs to be said before it's too late: when Philip Glass dies, the shorter the FPP, the better.
posted by jeremy b at 2:55 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

I once read a bunch of old National Lampoon stuff he had written. (Including the inspiration for the Vacation movies) Dude was twisted! Wish I still had that stuff around, so I could quote it.

Oh well, here's to you, John. (I know those aren't all his movies, but they might as well be...)
posted by fungible at 2:55 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

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posted by Confess, Fletch at 2:56 PM on August 6, 2009

> With all due respect to Mr. Howard and his kind...

So....................none?
posted by you just lost the game at 2:56 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by shmegegge at 2:56 PM on August 6, 2009

Don't forget his true masterpiece, Weird Science.
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posted by Flashman at 2:57 PM on August 6, 2009 [5 favorites]

His was the oeuvre that launched a million restraining orders; the man that told a generation of zit-speckled bespectacled losers that stalking was okay if you were really really really sincere.

I dig the sentiment, but doesn't that describe, like half the romantic comedies out there?

Now that I think about it.... there should totally be a website called "Romantic Comedy Or Stalker" where people had to guess if a given paragraph was a plot summary from a romantic comedy or the description of an actual crime.
posted by Afroblanco at 2:57 PM on August 6, 2009 [8 favorites]

Some Kind of Wonderful is still my favorite movie like ever even though it now seems hopelessly idiotic and naive. Fuck. Into the night.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 2:57 PM on August 6, 2009

Oh, wow. What an icon of my formative years. Thank you for sharing your universe with us, Mr. Hughes. Godspeed.

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posted by cavalier at 2:58 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by PuppyCat at 2:58 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by limeonaire at 2:58 PM on August 6, 2009

"If you want be a party animal, you have to learn to live in the jungle."

Do you know HOW MANY times I've said this?

Godspeed, John Hughes. The Shermer High School wing of heaven awaits...
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:59 PM on August 6, 2009

Don't Don't Don't Don't forget how great The Breakfast Club and Ferris are.

"The kids think he's a righteous dude."

RIP JH. As a child of the 80s, I loved his work.
posted by porn in the woods at 2:59 PM on August 6, 2009

when Philip Glass dies, the shorter the FPP, the better

But it won't be about how short the FPP is.. It will be about the repetition and the minute changes which are made with each go-'round. Ultimately, it will be about the ability of the FPP and comment thread to engage you despite having a lot of the same content, because it will be stated differently and will continue to be engaging.
posted by hippybear at 2:59 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

OK, sort of off topic, but this needs to be said before it's too late: when Philip Glass dies, the shorter the FPP, the better.

When Philip Glass dies, it'll just be the same post, repeated over and over and over again...
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:00 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

Guess the 80's are now officially over.

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posted by Thorzdad at 3:00 PM on August 6, 2009 [7 favorites]

> Now that I think about it.... there should totally be a website called "Romantic Comedy Or Stalker"

Why choose?
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:00 PM on August 6, 2009

For American kids who hit puberty in the mid-80's, John Hughes was basically the architect of our collective unconscious.

Sorry for reposting from one of the deleted threads, but I rather liked my turn of phrase there
posted by hincandenza at 3:02 PM on August 6, 2009

He's not dead, he just can't think of anything fun to do.
posted by ColdChef at 3:02 PM on August 6, 2009 [10 favorites]

So many reasons to love this man and his films. I always the little things in his movies, like how in Some Kind of Wonderful, the names of a the main characters alluded to The Stones. (Amanda Jones, KEITH Nelson, Watts...who even played drum). And two of his movies have made this man cry... Planes, Trains and Automobile (when its revealed that John Candy's wife is deceased) and the hospital scene in She's Having a Baby when the Kate Bush song is playing. *sigh*
posted by punkfloyd at 3:02 PM on August 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

Also: "Pretty in Pink" seems like a completely different movie once you realize that Duckie was gay. (And if you DON'T think that he was totally her gal-pal, then you haven't seen the movie lately, my friend.)
posted by ColdChef at 3:03 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

This man was not just a director of some movies from the 80s - he was a director of movies that embodied the 80s, defined the 80s, and he created a whole new genre of cinema.

My childhood would have been vastly different without The Breakfast Club, or Ferris Bueller's Day Off, or The Great Outdoors. My vocabulary has been supplemented by lines from his movies to the point that nary a day passes that I don't inadvertently quote one of his characters.

I can't eat hot dogs without noting that they're made of lips and assholes. Every time I make pancakes, I want to griddle up one big enough to feed a family of 12. Any amusement park I visit is referenced as Wally World at some point in time.

And without him, there would never have been the Ferris Bueller Fight Club theory.

Farewell.

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posted by jabberjaw at 3:04 PM on August 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

Always had a love/meh feeling for his movies; Home Alone is both funny and truly awful, I never liked Molly Ringwald or found Andrew McCarthy remotely attractive, but I loved most of their co-stars, and if I never hear "In Your Eyes" again, I will be a happy gal.

Ferris Bueller is a movie that I will probably never get tired of though (especially the credits scenes), and for that, I do thank Mr. Hughes. I think it will always be the best of his movies.
posted by emjaybee at 3:04 PM on August 6, 2009

"Not that I condone fascism, or any -ism for that matter. -Ism's in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon, 'I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.' Good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus. I'd still have to bum rides off people."

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posted by Talez at 3:04 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

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posted by vibrotronica at 3:04 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by amyms at 3:06 PM on August 6, 2009

Man. I graduated in 1985 from high school--thanks for a bunch of great movies that made Friday nights at the multiplex a great time.

"...she knows all the classics, she knows every line. Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink--even St. Elmo's Fire..."
posted by maxwelton at 3:06 PM on August 6, 2009

Or, as rottytooth pointed out to me sagely this week: "Pretty in Pink" is just "Some Kind of Wonderful" with the wrong ending.
posted by ColdChef at 3:07 PM on August 6, 2009

Also: "Pretty in Pink" seems like a completely different movie once you realize that Duckie was gay. (And if you DON'T think that he was totally her gal-pal, then you haven't seen the movie lately, my friend.)

Also also: Try watching Weird Science while keeping in mind that the hot chick is totally imaginary.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:07 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

I remember standing Cameronesque and staring at the enormous Seurat hanging in the Chicago Art Museum during one of the most difficult times of my life. Thank you John Hughes, for that crystalline sense of weary comfort.
posted by mrmojoflying at 3:07 PM on August 6, 2009 [6 favorites]

In the words of the immortal Ed Rooney, John Hughes did not achieve his position in life by having some snot-nosed punk leave his cheese out in the wind.

Good for him.
posted by scody at 3:07 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Damn. Another chunk of my youth just dropped off into the abyss behind me.

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posted by MasonDixon at 3:07 PM on August 6, 2009 [4 favorites]

and if I never hear "In Your Eyes" again, I will be a happy gal.

emjaybee, that's not from a John Hughes movie, it's from a Cameron Crowe movie, "Say Anything."
posted by amyms at 3:09 PM on August 6, 2009

Home Alone is both funny and truly awful

That's because Chris Columbus directed it.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:09 PM on August 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

and if I never hear "In Your Eyes" again, I will be a happy gal.

emjaybee, that's not from a John Hughes movie, it's from a Cameron Crowe movie, "Say Anything."

I'm guessing emjaybee meant to type "Don't You Forget About Me." Which, yeah, never again would be fine.
posted by FelliniBlank at 3:11 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

The Breakfast Club is pretty much iconic for my high school career. Completely defined "the types" and worked with them to great effect.

I've always wonder how many schools there were where the types weren't defined until after Breakfast Club. Did it create cliques?
posted by smackfu at 3:11 PM on August 6, 2009

Why are we wearing bras on our heads?
posted by Artw at 3:12 PM on August 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

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posted by fixedgear at 3:14 PM on August 6, 2009

I've always wonder how many schools there were where the types weren't defined until after Breakfast Club. Did it create cliques?

They completely already existed at my high school before TBC came out. All that the movie did was cement the concept that there were actually different groups at school in the minds of a lot of kids, and help to delineate them.

When I went to my 20 year reunion, it was run by the Socs and Shop kids, and attended largely by the Jocks. Everyone else stayed away. (As I should have, in retrospect.)
posted by hippybear at 3:16 PM on August 6, 2009

Holy crap, you had Socs at your school, too?!

Man, hated those fuckers.

Years later, I found out that the 'Soc' designation actually came from a book. And I was like, "Huh? Those kids actually knew how to read? "
posted by Afroblanco at 3:18 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Yielding the floor to crossoverman's post, I'll add my too-late eulogy to Hughes' passing, FWIW:

His movies epitomized the angst of Americans suburban teens in the 80's (many of them in Shermer, Illinois or Chicago), combined with slapstick comedy, but he could also direct moments of sensitivity - Ferris Bueller and his entourage standing in front of paintings in the Metro Art Museum, some of the monologues of "The Breakfast Club". The success of his films helped spawn the creation of the infamous "Brat Pack" of the 80s: a loose association of teen actors that that included Rob Lowe and Emilio Esteves.(Previous Mefi discussions of John Hughes and his films include these posts, along with this classic).

posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 3:20 PM on August 6, 2009

*ceremonial*
posted by davidmsc at 3:20 PM on August 6, 2009

Hughes deserves a period the size of an Uncle Buck pancake.

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posted by Rhomboid at 3:22 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

He did not achieve that position in life by having some snot-nosed punk leave his cheese out in the wind.

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posted by jimmythefish at 3:22 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

well, it is short for "Socials" or "societies"... Mostly it was the kids who were "too cool" for anyone else, the ones who thought their parties were the coolest, and that their clothes were better than anyone else's.

By the time I graduated, the sort-of catch-all group I was part of had proven itself to be the BEST partiers, and the BEST at having a good time, and suddenly all the Jocks and Socs were falling all over themselves to find a way to be included in our fun. We allowed some of them in, but mostly we ignored them and let them lose themselves in hair spray and letter jackets.

20 years later, they organized all the fun and fewer than 100 out of a graduating class of 621 attended. It was somehow vindicating. I'm not sure I will be at the 25 or 30 year reunions, unless someone else is organizing. Boring!!!
posted by hippybear at 3:22 PM on August 6, 2009

Hughes was OK, but IMHO, Tim Hunter, Kevin Smith and Todd Solondz gave a far mor accurate picture of suburban adolesence that the (admittedly entertaining and funny) fantasies Hughes peddled.
posted by jonmc at 3:24 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

My personal reason for hating John Hughes, is that at the conclusion of the Breakfast Club, everyone hooks up, except the geek (me) who ends up having to write a frickin' great essay for everyone else.

Bitter? yes.

Willing to forgive? maybe.

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posted by Edward L at 3:24 PM on August 6, 2009 [6 favorites]

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posted by juv3nal at 3:25 PM on August 6, 2009

You're stewed, ButtWad!
posted by ColdChef at 3:28 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

We geeks, sportos, motorheads, dweebs, dorks, sluts, buttheads... all adore him.
We think he was a righteous dude.
posted by Webbster at 3:29 PM on August 6, 2009 [6 favorites]

although, to give credit where credit is due, this movie of his provided me with one of my favorite retorts to spoiled douchebags: "Frankly, I don't care if you live, die, or grow roses in your crack."
posted by jonmc at 3:33 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by rtha at 3:33 PM on August 6, 2009

he died on a morning walk in manhattan. why did this take to long to make the news?

and matthew broderick has become ed rooney. it makes perfect sense for him to be dating the wicked witch.
posted by krautland at 3:33 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by johnny novak at 3:36 PM on August 6, 2009

Demented and sad ... but social.

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posted by YoBananaBoy at 3:37 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

Years later, I found out that the 'Soc' designation actually came from a book.

The book was made into a movie movie two years prior to The Breakfast Club.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:37 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by bove at 3:37 PM on August 6, 2009

Also: "Pretty in Pink" seems like a completely different movie once you realize that Duckie was gay. (And if you DON'T think that he was totally her gal-pal, then you haven't seen the movie lately, my friend.)

I can respect this theory, but it is blown away by Duckie's reaction to the sudden, yet last-minute, come-ons from Buffy Summers. He even breaks the fourth wall!

I'm a fan, but when you get past the Smiths on the soundtrack, the bottom line in John Hughes movies is usually "conform".
posted by dirtdirt at 3:37 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

The craters are getting closer.
posted by chillmost at 3:39 PM on August 6, 2009

RIP, John Hughes.
posted by ooga_booga at 3:42 PM on August 6, 2009

My husband just might cry tonight.
posted by desjardins at 3:42 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

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posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 3:42 PM on August 6, 2009

"Oooohh, Mr. Tierney...."

To this day my friends and I (all almost 40) quote his movies to each other, it's become just a part of the way we talk. What an influence this man had on my youth! You will be missed!

"JAAAKE!!!!"
posted by tristeza at 3:46 PM on August 6, 2009

Naked blonde walks into a bar with a poodle under one arm and a two-foot salami under the other. The bartender says, I guess you won't be needing a drink. Naked lady says OH SHIT

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posted by permafrost at 3:47 PM on August 6, 2009 [5 favorites]

Truly bummed. Sixteen Candles, Planes Trains..., Weird Science and Ferris Bueller are movies that I can (and usually do) watch rest of anytime I stumble upon them on TV. I'm amazed at how many times his movies have popped into my thoughts over the past 25 years - whether it be an appropriate quote for situation or just a moment that seems to reflect a scene from one of his films. And there's something charming about the little un-PC moments that he slipped into his movies that teen movies today couldn't get away with.

And Card Cheat hit my favorite movie quote at the start of the comments, which seems so appropriate today.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 3:49 PM on August 6, 2009

A John Hughes 80's Montage.
posted by ericb at 3:50 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

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posted by Ironmouth at 3:51 PM on August 6, 2009

Hated his films when I was in highschool. But that has nothing to do with the man and I respect that he contributed to the lives of those who didn't find his work disappointing, more so because some of it wasn't in parts, but across a whole movie, it didn't work for me. Sort of like an SNL movie but only half as bad. Bueller being the best example of a film that had great things about it but the poop in it just stank so much it drowned the sugar and roses.

Nonetheless, I admired the effort.

Rest in Peace.
posted by juiceCake at 3:53 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

As someone who always found his movie versions of teenage life as relevant (and amusing) as Archie comics, I'd rather mourn the loss of the sick, satiric sense humor responsible for such National Lampoon pieces as "Vacation '58", "My Penis", and "My Vagina".
posted by Doktor Zed at 3:53 PM on August 6, 2009 [8 favorites]

Don't forget his true masterpiece, Weird Science.

My favorite scene . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfipl5BYBqo
posted by elmono at 3:57 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by honeybee413 at 3:58 PM on August 6, 2009

More than just a director, this feels like losing a whole genre that gave me a colossal amount of pleasure in the 9180s. This might sound absurb, but it's absolutely true - Planes, Trains and Automobiles was a huge influence on me.

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posted by WPW at 3:58 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

9180s? (Checks calendar)
posted by WPW at 3:59 PM on August 6, 2009

I'm a fan, but when you get past the Smiths on the soundtrack, the bottom line in John Hughes movies is usually "conform".

You're out of your goddamn mind if you really think that.

Last shots of The Breakfast Club is all the kids doing things against type.

* The jock is smitten with the emo girl; he even lets her tear his letterman jacket (!).
* The emo girl is finally pulling her hair back from her eyes and facing the world, with an assist from the pretty girl.
* The pretty girl is totally going to bang the bad boy.
* The nerd is polishing off a very classy "fuck you" letter to the teacher. "What do you care? You see us as you want to see us ... in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions."
* The teacher's hubristic take on these kids today is completely shot down by the janitor.
* The last shot is the bad boy raising his fist in triumph.

Pretty in Pink ... Blaine goes against his friends and dates Andie. He even comes to the prom alone.

Some Kind of Wonderful ... Keith isn't going to college. Amanda shows Hardy the back of her hand.

Ferris Bueller ... is a complete celebration of non-conformity.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:03 PM on August 6, 2009 [8 favorites]

I am truly sad about this. RIP John Hughes.
posted by Kimberly at 4:06 PM on August 6, 2009

Maybe he's not really dead. Maybe someone's just trying to get Sloane out of Ben Stein's class again.
posted by ColdChef at 4:07 PM on August 6, 2009 [9 favorites]

i'm sure she's also pretty in black...

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posted by sexyrobot at 4:09 PM on August 6, 2009

Oh man.
posted by Sailormom at 4:10 PM on August 6, 2009

He put Cameron in a Red Wings jersey. In Chicago. Thank you, Mr. Hughes. You will be missed. (But not by the Blackhawks fans, I suppose.)
posted by caution live frogs at 4:11 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

cool papa bell, back in those days, emo people hadn't been invented yet. Ally Sheedy's character was merely weird.
posted by jonmc at 4:13 PM on August 6, 2009

::sigh::

Will the last one out please pump their fist in the air? Thanks.
posted by droplet at 4:14 PM on August 6, 2009

When I was a kid, I loved -- loved -- Dennis the Menace. If you've never seen it, it features Walter Matthau as Mr. Wilson, Joan Plowright as Mrs. Wilson, Lea Thompson as Mrs. Mitchell, and Christopher Lloyd as a hobo drifter.

Something about this movie just always gave me the warm fuzzies. So thanks, Mr. Hughes, and RIP.
posted by the littlest brussels sprout at 4:15 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Bad time for a slow clap?
posted by eyeballkid at 4:21 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Growing up in Sweden in the 1980:s, the John Hughes movies - primarily "The Birthday" (16 Candles), "Celebrate with Ferris" (FBDO), The Breakfast Club, and "The Dream Girl" (Weird Science) - acted as cultural touchstones for us as well. But in our case, his movies really colored what we imagined life in all American high schools to be like. He introduced us to many new concepts (detention, prom, "sweet 16" parties, having formal "dates") that we didn't really have in the same format in our own schools. While U.S. TV shows generally depicted adults (with a few exceptions, like "Fame"), his movies showed teenagers very much like us, but in the strange and seemingly amazingly cool setting of a US high school. I tell you, despite the fact that I knew intellectually that his movies were stereotypical and stylized, my senior year in a US high school proved pretty much a complete disappointment in comparison.

So, with that. RIP John Hughes, your movies will forever remain part of us.
posted by gemmy at 4:24 PM on August 6, 2009 [6 favorites]

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posted by Nick Verstayne at 4:25 PM on August 6, 2009

Bethany Sloane: May I ask what brought you here?

Jay: Some fuck named John Hughes.

Bethany Sloane: "Sixteen Candles" John Hughes?

Jay: You know that guy, too? That fuckin' guy. He made this flick "Sixteen Candles." Not bad. There's tits in it, but no bush, but Ebert over here don't give a shit about that kind of thing 'cause he's, like, all in love with this John Hughes guy. He goes out and rents, like, every one of his movies. Fuckin' "Breakfast Club," where all these stupid kids actually show up for detention. Fuckin' "Weird Science," where this chick wants to take her gear off and get down, but oh no, she don't 'cause it's a PG movie. And then, "Pretty in Pink," which I can't even watch with this tubby bitch anymore, 'cause every time we get to the part where the redhead hooks up with her dream guy, he starts sobbin' like a little bitch with a skinned knee and shit. And there's nothing worse than watchin' a fuckin' fat man weep.
posted by bwg at 4:27 PM on August 6, 2009 [9 favorites]

The world has truly lost a giant. Godspeed John. Hopefully there are no magazine racks blocking doorways in heaven.

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posted by purephase at 4:29 PM on August 6, 2009

Hughes was OK, but IMHO, Tim Hunter, Kevin Smith and Todd Solondz gave a far mor accurate picture of suburban adolesence that the (admittedly entertaining and funny) fantasies Hughes peddled.

Kevin Smith films are no more real than John Hughes films - except for the higher incidence of swearing. He really just writes a different kind of fantasy.

That said, at least John Hughes knew how to direct a film. Smith still refuses to learn.
posted by crossoverman at 4:30 PM on August 6, 2009 [8 favorites]

Thank you for giving us Abe Froman, Sausage King of Chicago.

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posted by cazoo at 4:30 PM on August 6, 2009 [4 favorites]

Whether or not his films were "realiistic" as some have criticized above totally misses the point. His stories were fairy tales with happy endings that were often a lot more bittersweet than they appeared on the surface. It didn't take much to realize that things might not be happily ever after for the characters, and it showed. Samantha Baker might not actually stay with Jake Ryan, the kids in The Breakfast Club might not actually speak to each other come Monday morning, Ferris and company were going to graduate to the real world and presumably no more days off sooner than they wanted. But for at least a while, they had moments of happy endings, and he showed me -- and probably others who felt they didn't fit in - that they might get at least happy moments, and that was a gift.

We didn't live in Shermer/Shermerville, but knowing we weren't alone when we saw characters who were feeling the same things we were gave us hope that we might find others who we could eventually connect with, and maybe we could create a world like that of our own.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 4:30 PM on August 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

Way too young to go.

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posted by snsranch at 4:32 PM on August 6, 2009

Also

screws fall out all of the time, the world's an imperfect place...

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posted by MCMikeNamara at 4:33 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

My officemate was talking about "old movie trivia" the other day and I asked if she meant "old" as in Ferris Bueller or as in Maltese Falcon.

Her reply: "I've never heard of either of those."

So for me, her and John Hughes: .
posted by DU at 4:42 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

.

I just have to say that I've met the girl who offers Ed Rooney the gummy bear at the end of Ferris Beuller. She's nice.
posted by Brainy at 4:53 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

My favorite bit from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Steve Martin's delivery nails it -

Car Rental Agent: [cheerfully] Welcome to Marathon, may I help you?
Neal: Yes.
Car Rental Agent: How may I help you?
Neal: You can start by wiping that fucking dumb-ass smile off your rosey, fucking, cheeks! Then you can give me a fucking automobile: a fucking Datsun, a fucking Toyota, a fucking Mustang, a fucking Buick! Four fucking wheels and a seat!
Car Rental Agent: I really don't care for the way you're speaking to me.
Neal: And I really don't care for the way your company left me in the middle of fucking nowhere with fucking keys to a fucking car that isn't fucking there. And I really didn't care to fucking walk down a fucking highway and across a fucking runway to get back here to have you smile in my fucking face. I want a fucking car RIGHT FUCKING NOW!
Car Rental Agent: May I see your rental agreement?
Neal: I threw it away.
Car Rental Agent: Oh boy.
Neal: Oh boy, what?
Car Rental Agent: You're fucked!
posted by Arch_Stanton at 4:54 PM on August 6, 2009 [6 favorites]

I heard that you were feeling ill
Headaches, fever and a chill!
I came to help restore your pluck
Cause I'm the nurse that likes to *SLAM*
posted by Talez at 4:55 PM on August 6, 2009

I used to supervise foreign exchange students in the 80s. The bunch I had in '84 thought Long Duk Dong was the greatest things they'd ever seen. It's so wrong and I still laugh my ass off when I think of the line "Hey Howard, there's your Chinaman".
posted by Ber at 4:57 PM on August 6, 2009

.
posted by mustard seeds at 5:05 PM on August 6, 2009

"Gary, do you feel like a chicken?"

"If I could shoot an egg out my ass, I would."

Thanks, Mr. Hughes
posted by DieHipsterDie at 5:08 PM on August 6, 2009

"Bad time for a slow clap?"

I hate you.

I was going to slow clap, you bastard
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 5:12 PM on August 6, 2009

..he was a director of movies that embodied the 80s, defined the 80s, and he created a whole new genre of cinema.

As a black teenager in the '80s, they didn't define the decade for me and my friends, though I thought his movies were fascinating, as they gave me a peek into white culture that seemed mysterious and foreign. I remember watching The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off several times with my then best friend, who was black. While we both liked the movies , we made up little funny stories about how if any of the characters really had to deal with black people they'd freak, 'cept for Ferris of course. The nerd (and Cameron) would have stumbled over words, trying not to offend, while secretly scared, Bender would have picked fights, Claire would have had the manners not to be too impolite, the Jock may or not have been alright, depending on the racial makeup of the school and Emo girl would probably have black people scared of her. We doubted Sloane could have done anything wrong, but that was probably our hormones talking.

Still, those two movies are great classics, thoughThe Breakfast Club is aging horribly. Imagine, a school without metal detectors or cameras or security guards or strip searches and zero tolerance.

Sleep well Mr. Hughes and thanks for the good times.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:17 PM on August 6, 2009 [13 favorites]

Just wanted to mention (since it hasn't been yet in this thread) that he also wrote Mr. Mom.

"Are you crazy? You don't feed a baby chili!!!"
posted by Ike_Arumba at 5:19 PM on August 6, 2009

Maybe now we'll have some better editions of his movies on DVD.

In memory of Mr. Hughes, please--give your panties to a geek tonight.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 5:22 PM on August 6, 2009

I feel like my drugs are on fire.
posted by Meatbomb at 5:22 PM on August 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

Heart attacks terrify me, there can be so many reasons and so many totally not under your control. Damn,


.
posted by The Whelk at 5:22 PM on August 6, 2009

His stories were fairy tales with happy endings that were often a lot more bittersweet than they appeared on the surface.

Funny, just saw Ferris on tv a few days ago and for the first time I saw a real bitterness to it. Sloane's father is going to either disown him or beat the shit out of him or both, while Ferris and his girlfriend aren't really going anywhere either. They're all so woefully unprepared for what's ahead of them, and this day is the last of its kind they will ever have.
posted by Ndwright at 5:23 PM on August 6, 2009

Er, whoops, that should read "Cameron's father", Sloane's the girl.
posted by Ndwright at 5:25 PM on August 6, 2009

I cribbed this list for a freind, but directing aside, Hughes wrote the following movies (and more) in a twelve-year span:

National Lampoon's Vacation, Mr. Mom, 16 Candles, Weird Science, Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink, Ferris Beuller, Some Kind of Wonderful, Planes, Tranes & Automobiles, Great Outdoors, Uncle Buck, Home Alone

That's an astounding run.
posted by Bookhouse at 5:26 PM on August 6, 2009 [6 favorites]

You're out of your goddamn mind if you really think that.

I guess I'm out of my goddamn mind too.

Last shots of The Breakfast Club is all the kids doing things against type.

* The jock is smitten with the emo girl; he even lets her tear his letterman jacket (!).

Yes. Although they didn't have emo back then. She was a displaced person because of bad personal grooming habits, poor social skills, and she resisted conforming to traditional standards of femininity. Hello, nerd stereotype!

* The emo girl is finally pulling her hair back from her eyes and facing the world, with an assist from the pretty girl.

An ominous assist. This is conform all over: wear makeup and you'll be accepted. Be feminine. Don't think about trying to get people to like you without mascara. Although I do find the spirit of the scene touching, the message ain't all about being yourself, damn what other people think.

I enjoy good storytelling and characters as much as the next gal, but I think you're overselling the "Hughes was all about the rebellion" thing. The Breakfast Club was about conforming but having a rebellious understanding with a few people. Sort of subversive I guess but still nicely contained and safe.

Anyways. Hughes was a part of the 80s, and he died so young.

.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 5:27 PM on August 6, 2009 [4 favorites]

.
posted by lunit at 5:28 PM on August 6, 2009

Oh, and now looking at his imdb page, it looks like he was using a pseudonym for the hack writing he did at the end of his life. He must have loved writing, 'cause he sure as hell didn't need the dough from withing Beethoven fuckin' 5.
posted by Bookhouse at 5:28 PM on August 6, 2009

Where'd all the haters from the Long Duk Dong thread go?
posted by incessant at 5:31 PM on August 6, 2009

An ominous assist. This is conform all over: wear makeup and you'll be accepted.

Or, have some self-esteem, and go out and get what you really want. Don't go to detention because you think there's nothing better to do.

You can draw a straight line from Allison Reynolds to Violet Parr.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 5:34 PM on August 6, 2009

while Ferris and his girlfriend aren't really going anywhere either.

If sloane is my girlfriend, I don't have to go anywhere. Bitter? Hardly.
posted by Dennis Murphy at 5:37 PM on August 6, 2009

hincandenza: "For American kids who hit puberty in the mid-80's, John Hughes was basically the architect of our collective unconscious."

I came of age in the 90's and don't think those movies had lost any of their potency ten years later. Was Hughes so spot on that his themes are timeless, or were they just such a foundation of the 80's that we shaped our later teen experiences around them? Probably a little of both.
posted by Roman Graves at 5:44 PM on August 6, 2009

RE: Breakfast Club conundrums, I'll quote myself from the previously mentioned Long Duk Dong thread...

As for the elements of The Breakfast Club that make [some] squirm, that's actually the point. See, the kids are so fucked up that the only thing that makes them bond is the weed, and the only way the jock will date the freak is if she isn't a freak. He isn't saying that the stereotypes can be broken down and that high school cliques can be conquered -- he's saying that they're eternal and everlasting, and even in a closed situation like this, where they have every last chance to become friends, only weed or physical transformation will allow it to happen. When Brian points out to Claire that she won't talk to any of them come Monday, she denies it, but that's a lie. He's right; she won't even nod in Bender's direction. And Bender will surely beat up Brian. And Allison will try to hang out with Andy, but he and his friends will laugh at her. In this place, they can change, but outside of it, back in the real world, they're exactly the same and always will be.
posted by incessant at 5:46 PM on August 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

*puts lipstick between breasts, applies without hands*

.
posted by tzikeh at 5:49 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

stupid eighties i hate them

all dying

[really deep unreachable teenage sulk]

stupid eighties
posted by humannaire at 6:02 PM on August 6, 2009

.


And another one, for good measure.


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posted by Atreides at 6:03 PM on August 6, 2009

I want my two dollars!

Oh wait, wrong guy.

.
posted by not_on_display at 6:03 PM on August 6, 2009

In addition to the great lines, the characters, the high school pathos, the thing that John Hughes films gave me was a tantalizing glimpse at a style I wanted very much to emulate: in Pretty in Pink, Annie Potts' fantastic Chinatown apartment, the club Andie goes to with Iona and Simon (Dweezil Zappa!), the record shop, Andie's room; in Some Kind of Wonderful, the underground club where Watts tells Keith, "The only things I care about in this goddamn life are me and my drums, and you", Keith's artsy-fartsy room, Watt's Mini...I wanted to emulate them all, and they've stuck with me as much as the highly quotable one-liners.
posted by cacahuete at 6:05 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Thank you, John. All the movies I ever loved were your movies.

.
posted by SkylitDrawl at 6:06 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

..he was a director of movies that embodied the 80s, defined the 80s

Not the 80s I lived in. Some young bloke working at a Subway looked at a friend of mine (now in his late 30s) and said, "You're from the 80s! It was so cool then."

We laughed as we found this extremely amusing that someone could be from the 80s, and wondered what the hell was so cool about the 80s but then I don't know what's so cool about a lot of things.
posted by juiceCake at 6:21 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

I bet he regretted giving Andrew Dice Clay his big break in Pretty in Pink.
posted by digsrus at 6:30 PM on August 6, 2009

I came in late to his movies, having been introduced to Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink by my soon-to-be wife, who adored these films. And it wasn't until the MeFi Ferris Bueller Fight Club pehonomenon a few months ago that I finally got round to watching Ferris Beuller. I was surprised by just how great all these films were. Not at all what I had expected and completely contrary to the reasons why I had avoided them in the first place (I thought they were chick flicks... with the exception of FBDO, which I hadn't watched simply because I never got round to it).

He was a talent, no doubt about it. This is a greater tragedy than Michael Jackson's passing, but it won't generate even a 1/10th of the media frenzy that that death sparked. The world of movies and movie-making is poorer for his loss.
posted by Effigy2000 at 6:33 PM on August 6, 2009

I bet he regretted not giving John Cusack a bigger role in "Sixteen Candles."
posted by ColdChef at 6:34 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Please, now can we have a special edition of Planes and Trains
posted by A189Nut at 6:38 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'm reminded of that scene in Kevin Smith's Dogma, where Jay and Silent Bob end up in Illinois because Silent Bob, a huge John Hughes fan, wanted to go visit Hughes' town. But the ugly truth, according to Jay, was "There is no Shermer in Illinois. Movies are fuckin' bullshit."

Considering both directors created their own little suburban universe, I'd say that was a pretty nice tribute.





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posted by Spatch at 6:42 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by TrialByMedia at 6:44 PM on August 6, 2009

So is this probably the wrong place to say that I've only ever seen The Breakfast Club and hated it? I had had enough of pretty self-absorbed rich kids in actual high-school to want to watch them in a movie.
posted by octothorpe at 6:48 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by edmcbride at 6:50 PM on August 6, 2009

Wow. Thinking about it just now, Mr. Hughes' movies had a profound impact on my life. Thank you for that, Mr. Hughes.
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:53 PM on August 6, 2009

Oh, and now looking at his imdb page, it looks like he was using a pseudonym for the hack writing he did at the end of his life. He must have loved writing, 'cause he sure as hell didn't need the dough from withing Beethoven fuckin' 5.

He didn't write Beethoven 5 or Beethoven 4 or Beethoven 3 or Beethoven 2. He wrote Beethoven and received credit in the sequels for the characters he created.

And Kevin Smith still sucks.
posted by item at 6:55 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by rahnefan at 6:55 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by Tesseractive at 6:59 PM on August 6, 2009

.

And of course,

Metafilter: Demented and sad ... but social.
posted by aclevername at 7:01 PM on August 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

I knew this thread would be here and I came to plant my

.

though really there's more to say. I saw so many of his movies (most of them more than once) during formative years. It's impossible to say what kind of effect they may have had on me but at the least I can say I really enjoyed them, and I enjoy them still. Thanks, Mr. Hughes.
posted by Songdog at 7:20 PM on August 6, 2009

Also I recommend this John Hughes post that Linda Holmes wrote on her NPR blog (apologies if I overlooked it above). I think Holmes is getting at some underlying truths about what made Hughes' movies so affecting.
posted by Songdog at 7:24 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by awfurby at 7:32 PM on August 6, 2009

Sad as all heck.
Essentially my entire personality was derived from his films, and that's no exaggeration.
posted by nightchrome at 7:32 PM on August 6, 2009

Cosmically good timing: NYT fires Ben Stein.
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:40 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

neo maxi zoom dweebie.

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posted by exlotuseater at 7:50 PM on August 6, 2009

He didn't write Beethoven 5 or Beethoven 4 or Beethoven 3 or Beethoven 2. He wrote Beethoven and received credit in the sequels for the characters he created.

My bad. Thank fucking god.
posted by Bookhouse at 8:02 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by brandz at 8:04 PM on August 6, 2009

For me it was Bueller. Ferris Bueller was my superhero.
I grew up in conservative evangelical school, weened on textbooks that taught us through a lens of a very narrow world view. One day in 7th grade, I suggested to a teacher after her "godless commies" rant that there was possibly more to the Soviet Union than goose-stepping caricatures of evil, and that instead of dreaming every waking moment about destroying America, they might prefer spending time with their families in their beautiful country. I was laughed out of the classroom for that. My yearbook was signed several times that year with "You're smart and sweet...for a Communist." While I find that amusing now, at the time, it seemed breathtakingly meanspirited. Then I saw this guy on screen who'd soap up his hair in a mohawk, dance to the theme song of "I Dream of Jeannie" I realized that being different is not an entirely bad thing.

So the idea that this incredibly smart kid named Ferris, could subvert and game the system lit me up. But what was his superpower? Taking risks, turning it on, and going bold when . All he did was say "yes" to the experience. Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago? Hell yes. The meek get pinched; only the the strong survive.
posted by Dr. Zira at 8:17 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

I had always hoped he would come back and make one more film that would show all these snot nosed punks today how to actually be teenagers.

Oh well...

Between grief and nothing, I'll take grief.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:20 PM on August 6, 2009

Metafilter, I have to ask you a favor. Can I borrow your underpants for 10 minutes?

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posted by Bonzai at 8:28 PM on August 6, 2009

"He wrote Beethoven and received credit in the sequels for the characters he created."

Okay, but he still wrote Beethoven.
He was a hollywood poo machine.
posted by 2sheets at 8:30 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by Schlimmbesserung at 8:34 PM on August 6, 2009

In Pretty in Pink, and, to an extent, in Some Kind of Wonderful, he showed a real appreciation for offbeat, oddball women that matched his unfeigned affection for weirdo boys. He was one of the first to really celebrate teen eccentrics, and I don't think he could help it, as demonstrated by the fact the Duckie is so much more sympathetic, well-defined, and interesting a character than Blane, and that Watts is likewise more interesting and sympathetic than Amanda Jones.

That's not something you see in films much anymore.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:39 PM on August 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

wondered what the hell was so cool about the 80s

The early 80s saw the Apple II and the Commodore 64 develop into reasonably capable home entertainment systems, the Space Shuttle (well, until Challenger), MTV pushing pop music into a new direction, game centers with $5,000+ video games like Outrun (1986), Afterburner (1987), and Hard Drivin' (1989), the first PC system that didn't suck, Neuromancer, Japan rising to become a frontrunner in tech like compact discs & Nintendos, skateboarding going street, motorcycles going all racer-replica, cars like the Supra hitting their stride.

I was a child of the 1970s and a teen of the 80s (turning 13 in 1980). The 70s were kinda a downer with stuff like The Parallax View, The Towering Inferno, Day of the Condor being the zeitgeist, not to mention Stagflation, the fall of Saigon, a couple of energy crises. The 80s were therefore kinda crappy at the start but finished well!

Even the militarists among us got to cheer when we liberated Grenada in '83, bombed Qaddafi's children in '86, and took out Noriega and his regime in '89.

. . . . . . shit, the 00s are almost over now. Haard to believe.
posted by @troy at 8:43 PM on August 6, 2009

.
posted by SuzySmith at 8:43 PM on August 6, 2009

...
posted by Lynsey at 8:44 PM on August 6, 2009

I had had enough of pretty self-absorbed rich kids in actual high-school to want to watch them in a movie.

1) Clearly you saw a different movie called "The Breakfast Club".

2) I have a hard time agreeing that they are all pretty.

3) They were all rich? No.

4) Aren't all teenagers self-absorbed? Obviously to varying degrees and in different ways, but I think that's the point of this film - all five kids think only they are outcasts and their lives suck, only to discover they aren't alone: other kids are outcasts whose lives suck, too.

5) I imagine none of them really talked to each other on the Monday morning, but that's me just bringing my own high school experiences to the film. YMMV.
posted by crossoverman at 8:48 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

I was in high school for majority of the Hughes oeuvre, but it was actually the screening of one of his movies that was probably the most memorable for me. A friend of mine won tickets to the Montreal premiere of Some Kind of Wonderful. As part of the proceedings, the organizers had a contest for the best female drummer. I forget how many there were, but at the end, the audience was to determine the winner by dint of the amount of applause (and other cheering). I turned to my friend and said that I was going to get this one girl selected (she wasn't the best drummer, but I was enchanted by her good looks). So when the time came for the crowd to indicate their level of approval for her, my friend and I turned up the dial. The rest of the audience had been applauding tepidly, but they picked up the energy that we were delivering and also cranked it up, notwithstanding that there was a clear paucity of talent. The girl who had been the best drummer looked dejected (and it was, in retrospect, a dick move on my part to deprive her of her due) as this other girl got awarded whatever the prize was.

So for all the potential of non-conformist messaging in his film(s), what I took away from that evening is the prevalence of sheeple.

Still, he made many movies that I enjoyed.

.
posted by birdsquared at 8:51 PM on August 6, 2009

I started off as Brian, almost became Gary and Wyatt, turned into Bender towards the end of high school and ended up as Carl with bit of Clark thrown in as an adult. I was shooting for Ferris, but I'll take what I got. (And if I'm honest, every once in a while bit of the worst parts of Buck shows up when I least expect it...)

Thank you John for making these names mean something important to me.

.
posted by quin at 9:03 PM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

Not adding any substance here. Just

.
posted by Gilbert at 9:04 PM on August 6, 2009

Don't miss this sweet story: he had a penpal.
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:11 PM on August 6, 2009 [37 favorites]

(sorry if that was already posted, I didn't see it)
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:11 PM on August 6, 2009

.
posted by Feisty at 9:12 PM on August 6, 2009

.

It is a mystery to me why I can't not watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off every time I run across it on TV. Even with the commercials and censorship.... I have the capability of avoiding all that. I own a copy of the film. I have a TIVO-like DVR system. I guess that is another of the many reasons I always come to see what is going on here in part because Metafilter appreciates Bueller.

.
posted by maggieb at 9:14 PM on August 6, 2009

.

Sixteen Candles is a guilty pleasure of mine.
posted by Xere at 9:18 PM on August 6, 2009

.

As a high school debater, going to Glendale Illinois (Hughes' birthplace and the model for Shermer, which was its founder's name) was a sort of pilgrimage. Many of the movies were shot there, both interiors and exteriors. I remember standing outside the arts hallway at New Trier, where Ferris picks up Sloan dressed up as her father. It was remarkable to me how much longer the distance between the door and the driveway seemed in the movie.

.

My favorite joke in any of the movies is also from Ferris. When Ferris asks the matire'd "Is there a problem?" and the matire'd responds either "You're a problem" or "You're Abe Froman?" I was never able to tell which because of his accent, and to me that was both intentional and the funniest thing in the world.

.

The Breakfast Club made me want to write movies as a kid. I had read somewhere that Hughes wrote it in a weekend, and I was amazed that somebody could pull something like that off.

.

Just tonight, before hearing this, I was explaining to my girlfriend that Ben Stein's teacher character in Ferris is talking about the Laffer curve and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff act, because those are probably the two funniest-sounding names in economics. I think the movies lended themselves so well to re-watching not only because of the quotes but because there was so much trivia lodged in them.

.

*Clears throat* "Dong, where is my auto-mo-bile?"
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 9:20 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by killy willy at 9:39 PM on August 6, 2009

Aw, SUNTV (whatever channel that is) just started playing Sixteen Candles. Clearly someone in the programming area is on the up and up. Or it's an amazing coincidence.
posted by aclevername at 9:41 PM on August 6, 2009

If Twitter is good at nothing else, sharing John Hughes quotes... I'm particularly fond of:

"I french kiss" - "So? Everybody does that" - "Yeah, but daddy says I'm the best at it" #johnhughesquotes
posted by crossoverman at 9:58 PM on August 6, 2009

BBC World on NPR reported this story. I'm paraphrasing a tiny bit, but read this in a terse British accent: "American Filmmaker John Hughes died today at the age of 59. He was best known for his films Pretty in Pink and Fergus Booler's..."
posted by desjardins at 10:11 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 10:31 PM on August 6, 2009

*Clears throat* "Dong, where is my auto-mo-bile?"
Lake! Biiiiiig Laaaaaake

Oh dear. First DFW now John Hughes. My 90's and 80's indulgences in the same summer.

RIP Mr. Hughes
posted by MarvinTheCat at 10:35 PM on August 6, 2009

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posted by EatTheWeak at 10:48 PM on August 6, 2009

Don't miss this sweet story: he had a penpal.

Holy crap. What a nice guy.
posted by Jess the Mess at 11:41 PM on August 6, 2009

Well, this is a hell of a thing to wake up to on a Friday morning. John Hughes is largely responsible for sticking the controls of my libido in a position where it reacts to big poofy hair, legwarmers, and neon colors.

That and I finally had a name for my inner self. I aspired to Ferris, but I'm pretty sure I only ever reached Farmer Ted.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 12:11 AM on August 7, 2009

Sincerely, John Hughes "I was babysitting for my mom's friend Kathleen's daughter the night I wrote that first fan letter to John Hughes."

A missle! A MISSLE! A MISSLE IN MY HOUSE GARY!
.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:04 AM on August 7, 2009

CunningLinguist: "Don't miss this sweet story: he had a penpal."

That is unreal. What a genuinely caring human being he must have been, not just for keeping up with that girl but for the bits about his kids and John Candy too.
posted by Roman Graves at 1:15 AM on August 7, 2009

Don't miss this sweet story: he had a penpal.

That has to be the John Hughes tribute to end all tributes.
posted by rory at 1:34 AM on August 7, 2009

Just how many news sources today are reporting that he directed (rather than wrote) Pretty in Pink and Home Alone? It isn't that hard to look him up on IMDB, guys.
posted by rory at 1:37 AM on August 7, 2009

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posted by SageLeVoid at 1:39 AM on August 7, 2009

Just how many news sources today are reporting that he directed (rather than wrote) Pretty in Pink and Home Alone? It isn't that hard to look him up on IMDB, guys.

More insultingly, they keep linking him to Vacation movies after the first one.
posted by crossoverman at 1:44 AM on August 7, 2009

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posted by genehack at 3:35 AM on August 7, 2009

So sudden, so young, so sad. Thank you Mr. Hughes.

.

oh, and "those aren't pillows"
posted by dabug at 4:41 AM on August 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

.

I'm headed to my 25th HS reunion this weekend. Bummer.
posted by phrits at 6:09 AM on August 7, 2009

Well, this is a hell of a thing to wake up to on a Friday morning. John Hughes is largely responsible for sticking the controls of my libido in a position where it reacts to big poofy hair, legwarmers, and neon colors.

Amen. Also Kelly LeBrock in Weird Science: Now drop and give me twenty.
posted by Ber at 6:11 AM on August 7, 2009

The scene in Planes, Trains and Automobiles where they are driving the wrong way down the interstate is still one of the biggest laughs I've had while watching a movie for the first time. Not to mention "Those aren't pillows!"
posted by zzazazz at 7:04 AM on August 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'm surprised at how this news affected me. Mourning my own youth, I guess. Goodbye John and thanks.
posted by D_I at 7:29 AM on August 7, 2009

The scene in Planes, Trains and Automobiles where they are driving the wrong way down the interstate is still one of the biggest laughs I've had while watching a movie for the first time.

Me too.
"You're going the wrong way!"
"Don't be ridiculous, how could they know where we're going?".

And . So young to die like that.
posted by biscotti at 7:32 AM on August 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

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posted by MythMaker at 7:48 AM on August 7, 2009

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posted by ahdeeda at 9:25 AM on August 7, 2009

If you liked films in the 80s, you liked John Hughes.

Yeah right.
posted by dydecker at 9:39 AM on August 7, 2009

l__l
..l...i

(my attempt at a goalpost and a fist)
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posted by Big_B at 10:19 AM on August 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

.

:(

Thanks for posting the penpal link, ColdChef. What a sweet, incredibly nice person he must have been.

The WSJ interviewed Ms. Fields about her post.
posted by zarq at 10:29 AM on August 7, 2009

"Please, now can we have a special edition of Planes and Trains"

How's October work for you?
posted by Servo5678 at 10:30 AM on August 7, 2009

I was, for some reason, shocked and upset to an amazing degree when I heard this news yesterday. There are a lot of iconic moments in my movie world that came from this man.

And I'm always a little saddened by the numbers of people who have to come into an obit thread just to say "Meh, your favorite dead person sucks." Seriously, people, it's okay not to post something if you really don't give a shit.
posted by OolooKitty at 10:37 AM on August 7, 2009

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posted by Halloween Jack at 11:06 AM on August 7, 2009

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posted by jlbartosa at 11:56 AM on August 7, 2009

Don't miss this sweet story: he had a penpal.

That blog post made me have to leave my desk at work and duck into the bathroom to dry my eyes. Wow.
posted by freecellwizard at 12:05 PM on August 7, 2009

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Read an interesting eulogy by a girl who claimed to have been his penpal during the late eighties. Not sure if it's real or not, but it was certainly touching.
posted by scrutiny at 1:23 PM on August 7, 2009

bah, I had searched for the wrong things. sorry for the double link.
posted by scrutiny at 1:24 PM on August 7, 2009

WHAT THE FUCK, DEATH?

DON'T BLAME ME, I JUST WORK HERE.
posted by Evilspork at 1:34 PM on August 7, 2009

Not sure if it's real or not, but it was certainly touching.

She's a friend of a friend, and works at DDB Seattle. Yup, it's real. Pretty cool.
posted by jeanmari at 2:48 PM on August 7, 2009

Damn, that penpal story was lovely. What a nice guy.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 3:28 PM on August 7, 2009

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posted by Mitheral at 4:37 PM on August 7, 2009

Correction: On review, Sloane was not in Ben Stein's class. She was actually in her English class which was taught by none other than Del Close, the Lee Strasberg of Improv.
posted by ColdChef at 5:28 PM on August 7, 2009

The Breakfast Club was about conforming but having a rebellious understanding with a few people.

That's funny--I thought it was about letting down your guard and allowing yourself to be a real person, even if only for a moment, and how powerful that can be. I had no doubt, even when I first saw TBC at age 15, that the characters would not magically be new people, or that they would somehow overcome the cliques and shallow identities that are so much a part of high school.

What was heartening and inspiring was to see them overcome those obstacles (which, when you're a teenager, look like Everest) even if just for an afternoon, to make genuine, non-judgmental human connections. It taught me that things will change, eventually--many people do move on from the narrow social roles and judgments of high school, and life is much longer and more bright than it may seem as an angst-filled teenager. That was a significant thing for this then-15 year old to learn.

And Ferris Bueller was my role model, that movie made me laugh and laugh and taught me, in part, to be my own guiding light. Which was significant because that movie came out right as I was entering high school.

Thank you, thank you, Mr. Hughes. Your art made the world a more interesting, meaningful place.

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posted by LooseFilter at 1:38 PM on August 8, 2009

Another post from his penpal.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:41 AM on August 9, 2009

The Neverland Club
posted by Manjusri at 2:58 PM on August 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

The inspiration for Ferris grew up to be a Bush I speechwriter and a Bush II lawyer.

My world is shattered.
posted by CunningLinguist at 3:01 PM on August 12, 2009

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posted by mwark at 5:49 PM on August 12, 2009