I just read yesterday that John Hughes is dead. Or, to quote his school nurse in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, "has just passed". I want that big hug to her matronly bosom that she then gave Mia Sara!
They say -- quite rightly -- that John Hughes scripted and directed the American teenage experience in his movies. The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty In Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, all seemed to capture perfectly how American teenagers felt and thought in the 80's. Which was weird, because I certainly never met anyone like his characters in real life, never experienced the kinds of rich/poor class divides he posited in many of his storylines, and can't imagine any of that stuff actually happening. But they became such a mythology unto themselves that i think we all vaguely pay them lip service, even if high school was never like that! (And dear god, judging from the number of posts from British readers on the Guardian and the BBC, apparently they were big there too -- and they probably think that's EXACTLY what American high schools are like!)
Elaine
The rich/poor, soc/preppy/jock/hesher/goth/skater/science nerd/loner divide was very much a part of my junior high & high school life, so in some way his teen-oriented films had some element of reality to it, but I remember watching The Breakfast Club for the first time and thinking how phony, dumb, and stilted the dialogue was. And when they got around to revealing what landed them in detention, I was like, "What? That's it??" Big letdown for me after all those years of ppl saying how great it was.
I will say, however, that Sixteen Candles was one of my favorite films growing up. What girl didn't want to be picked up by the rich, handsome jock in a Porsche on her 16th birthday? I liked Pretty in Pink and loved Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
Uriel
I went to high school with farm kids and army/navy brats, so there weren't really any rich kids, I guess.
I never noticed the dialogue in The Breakfast Club, but one movie where it really DID strike me the way you say was Heathers. Not a John Hughes movie, of course, but I remember wondering if that slang had been specifically scripted for that movie as a clever ploy to use something recognizable as teenage slang without being so specific that it would become dated, or if there was somewhere where people really DID go around talking like that!
I have fond memories of all of Hughes' 80's flicks, but one that I particularly liked that no one ever remembers was Some Kind of Wonderful. Which was sort of Pretty In Pink with all the sex roles in the little love triangle reversed. Mary Stuart Masterson so OWNED that movie -- and yet she really didn't go on to make much more of herself. Too bad, really.
The World According to Watts:
* "It's better to swallow pride than blood."
* "It must be a drag to be a slave to the male sex drive."
* "Don't go mistaking paradise for a pair of long legs."
* "You break his heart, I break your face."
* "You're losing it. And when it's lost, all you are is a loser."
Patrix
Elaine wrote:
The rich/poor, soc/preppy/jock/hesher/goth/skater/science nerd/loner divide was very much a part of my junior high & high school life
Why are science kids called nerds? In my country, maths kids are heroes. Maths boys are admired and loved by girls. Doing well in maths is about being smart.
Elaine
Patrix wrote:
Elaine wrote:
The rich/poor, soc/preppy/jock/hesher/goth/skater/science nerd/loner divide was very much a part of my junior high & high school life
Why are science kids called nerds? In my country, maths kids are heroes. Maths boys are admired and loved by girls. Doing well in maths is about being smart.
You ask an age old question that has always confounded me. In the U.S. (or at least in Southern Calif culture), the jocks and cheerleaders are usually the popular kids in school, while the science and math wizards are usually mocked for lacking social skills and lacking sexual appeal. Yes, it's very shallow and superficial to judge a person's worth by their looks and physical prowess, but that is the way of things. I was speaking to my high school aged niece the other day about any potential suitors in school and she mentioned this one guy liking her, but she wasn't interested in him b/c he was a "science geek". I told her that the science and math geeks/nerds are the ones she should go after b/c they're going to have good jobs that pay well and would be able to provide her with the material things that she desires.
It's good that your countrymen have their priorities straight. I think ultimately that will determine who will be the world leaders in the near future. American youths, on the other hand, seem to be preoccupied idolizing brainless wonders like Paris Hilton, Heidi Montag, or whichever blonde pop tart is the flavor of the moment.
