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Much Ado About...Something
“O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention”
Quick, name the most important filmmaker of the past 25 years. Scorsese? Spielberg?Lucas? How about Tarantino? Soderbergh? The Coen Bros? Spike Lee? Ang Lee?Not a bad bunch of guys. Some fine work, sure. But wrong. Let me cut to the chase, anddispel all the lies and falsehood. The most important filmmaker of the past twenty-fiveyears? The Frank Capra of the X, Next and Star Wars Generations? Drum roll please…John Hughes.You heard me. John Hughes. For those of you under the age of 25, you may be thinking,“who the hell is John Hughes?” For those of you over 25, the response may be, “did he just say John Hughes?” Well yes, I just did. John Hughes. The most important filmmakerof the past 25 years. How do ya like them apples?You may be aware of some of his work. You may even be square enough to know thatMr. Hughes is responsible for
Curly Sue
. But the full scope of his work? His immensesuccess during the period of 1983 to 1990? The power and majesty of his cinematicworld? I doubt it. So let me drop some science:
John Hughes as Writer:
Home Alone (1990)Christmas Vacation (1989)Uncle Buck (1989)The Great Outdoors (1988)She's Having a Baby (1988)Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)Pretty in Pink (1986)Weird Science (1985) European Vacation (1985)The Breakfast Club (1985)Sixteen Candles (1984) Nate and Hayes (1983)Vacation (1983) Mr. Mom (1983)Citizen Kane (1941)
John Hughes as Director:
Uncle Buck (1989)She's Having a Baby (1988)Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)Weird Science (1985)The Breakfast Club (1985)Sixteen Candles (1984)
John Hughes as Producer:
Home Alone (1990)Christmas Vacation (1989)Uncle Buck (1989)The Great Outdoors (1988)She's Having a Baby (1988)Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)Pretty in Pink (1986)The Breakfast Club (1985)
Impressive, isn’t it? Even without the writing credits for
Citizen Kane
, which I fabricatedto cover up for
Nate and Hayes
(which even I have never heard of). Sixteen writingcredits in seven years ain’t too shabby, especially when about eleven of those are moderncinematic classics. Not only did Hughes write seminal works like
Uncle Buck
,
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
and
The Breakfast Club
, he also directed and produced them. All in aseven-year span. That is an amazing amount of work in such a short period of time,especially when we are talking about works of such quality.I was going to watch every one of these movies over again, for research purposes. Ithought it might provide me with a clearer understanding of Hughes’ excellence, and thatconsequently I could present a better case. But I have come to the conclusion that this isunnecessary. The legacy of Hughes is permanently imprinted on my brain, in the samemanner of a medieval peasant with
The Holy Bible
or a lonely housewife with
Cagneyand Lacey
. It is a part of me. I cannot escape it, no matter how hard I don’t try. And mypoint, really, is that this also applies to you. The work of John Hughes has so permeatedour popular culture that we take it for granted. We accept his influence without evenknowing where it came from. No other filmmaker of the past 25 years has so stronglyshaped the zeitgeist. Do I sound crazy? Do I sound mad? Allow me to explain.First off, Hughes created a veritable pantheon of Hollywood stars. In this age of celebrity,where the cult of personality reigns supreme, Hughes has launched more acting careersthan Peyton Manning has touchdowns. Scorsese launched Deniro, and Lucas launchedFord, but Hughes launched many, many more, including a group of actors who have
come to define a generation. He launched Michael Keaton with
Mr. Mom
, a man whosecareer was so meteoric he was cast, of all things, as Batman (the irony being that thiskilled his career, forcing him into starring in a movie with television static). There wasalso Macaulay Culkin, who became the richest and most famous child actor in the worldthanks to
Uncle Buck
and the
Home Alone
franchise. How about Matthew Broderick, anobody until he starred in a little piece of magic known as
Ferris Beuller’s Day Off
?Hughes also did wonders for three comedy veterans: Chevy Chase, Steve Martin andJohn Candy. Each of their careers were revitalized and rejuvenated by the Master. Andwhat about the Brat Pack, whom Hughes William-H.-Bonneyed with the titanic movie
The Breakfast Club
? Anthony Michael Hall. Judd Nelson. Ally Sheedy. Emilio Estevez.The divine Molly Ringwald. Throw in Andrew McCarthy, Jon Cryer, Robert Downey Jr.,James Spader, Kevin Bacon, Lea Thompson, Eric Stoltz, Mary Stuart Masterston and thepreviously mentioned Broderick, and you have a who’s-who list of the teen actors of the1980’s. All of these actors worked with Hughes. For many, it was the work that definedtheir careers.Hughes’ second success was in his ability to create for the 80’s crowd, the "Me"generation, a positive conception of mid-western suburbia. Anyone who knows Hughes’work knows that almost all of his movies are set in the Chicago area. In fact, many of thestories occur in Shermer, Illinois, a fictional town based on Hughes’ own hometown of Northbrook. It is through this constant viewing of Shermer, with its wide streets, bigbrick houses, and all white neighborhoods (except for that adorable exchange student,Long Duk Dong), that we have come to understand the middle-class American and hishumble home. It is a view that is overwhelmingly positive. Hughes creates a world for hischaracters that is stable and certain: a nice nuclear family, complete with a big house, anice car, and a fantastic set of Cosby sweaters. Nothing ever really goes wrong inHughes’ suburbia, and nothing ever will. Even in
Home Alone
, when poor KevinMcCallister is left to fight off those horrible space invaders, the audience is never askedto doubt that family and community will do anything other than protect him. Thecinematic world of Hughes is a giant womb of honesty, integrity, and hard work. And thebeauty is, a whole generation of audiences have grown up longing for the world Hughesportrayed. If you think I am exaggerating, drive out to one of the trillion new exurbs thatare popping up on the outskirts of every major North American centre. We may pretendotherwise, but Terwilliger Towne is the deep dark
summum bonum
of the modern soul.Hughes’ third contribution to the zeitgeist runs contrary to the second. Teen Angstdoesn’t seem to fit into the idyllic picture I just painted. What is important here, however,is how one qualifies the notion of Teen Angst. Because the T&A of John Hughes isn’t theT&A of
Romeo & Juliet
, or even the T&A of James Dean. No one poisons themselves orgouges out their eyes after sleeping with mom. The Teen Angst of John Hughes is oneborn right out of the Platonic form of middle-class life seen in Shermer, Illinois. It isangst spawned by boredom and privilege. Don’t get me wrong, the kids of
The Breakfast Club
aren’t silver-spooned yuppies whining about going to prep school and being unableto locate their dealer. This isn’t a Bret Easton Ellis novel. But they don’t exactly lead
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