"At the time I came along, Hollywood's idea of teen movies meant there had to be a lot of nudity, usually involving boys in pursuit of sex, and pretty gross overall. Either that or a horror movie. And the last thing Hollywood wanted in their teen movies was teenagers!"

-John Hughes

All this summer The Spouse and I have been educating The Child as to the pop cultural significance of '80's movies, which is largely comprise of the work of the as-of-yesterday-late John Hughes.

Funny, just the other night, after we finished watching "Some Kind of Wonderful", The Spouse and I began a discussion (among ourselves...we didn't subject The Child to it) of the importance of Mr. Hughes' work in the history of cinema. The Spouse used the word "oeuvre and I quickly and snobbishly corrected him, as the word pertains to the totality of one's life work. Turns out, he was only about 18 hours short of using the word correctly.

We've watched a lot of classic (and some not so) movies this summer. Some, like "Footloose", "Dirty Dancing" and "Say Anything" were not written or directed or produced by Mr. Hughes. But most of them have been. And a few important things stand out.

John Hughes did advance a genre which had, theretofore, been comprised of beach party movies, slasher films or Porkyesque treatments of the teenage experience. Then Hughes came along and made movies about real kids dealing with the real stuff of being a teenager. Parents who didn't get it (excepting Harry Dean Stanton's role as the dad in "Pretty in Pink"...but he had other issues). Cliques. Class. Social standing. Choices. Sex. The future. Friendship. Love. Sex. And he did it wit humor and honesty and excellent soundtracks. He worked with some kids who were going to go on to do some pretty good work over the years and not all of them went off the rails in the process.

Some of Hughes' movies are terrible. Some of the films in his legacy make my throat small. But not the teen films. I love them. Love them all. I love them all for different reasons but I love them.

Hughes didn't start a revolution in teen films. The fact remains that movies about teens and marketed to teens still are largely fluff at best, insulting at worst. But Hughes did open, if not a door than at least a window that would allow someone like Diablo Cody to come along and make a film like "Juno".

Hughes was one of the first film makers to treat teenagers authentically. (Cameron Crowe did it in "Say Anything", too). His characters weren't perfect but they were real. They were mixed up, funny, sad and by the end of the film they usually managed to learn a little something along the way.

His films are replete with unforgettable images and scenes; images & scenes which have become icons of the genre. (Ferris and his friends in the Chicago Art Institute & the Breakfast Clubbers dancing in the library spring immediately to mind). His movies were good stories that 20 years later don't feel dated. They have been as captivating to The Child now as they were to us when they first came out. And that's saying something. And did I mention the excellent soundtracks?


Simple Minds "Don't You Forget About Me"

Thanks, John. Good work. Rest in peace.