Sad news appeared on my laptop this morning. John Hughes, the man who gave us The Breakfast Club, Some Kind of Wonderful, Pretty in Pink and so many more classics, died. I haven’t heard much about him lately, but when I think of those must-see films from my high school years, they were films he wrote. And we can’t forget the Home Alone series. My DS does a remarkable impression of Macaulay Culkin’s famous aftershave scream from the first film (doesn’t every eight-year-old?).
As a young writer, I dreamed of how I would have my big break. I would write THE NOVEL that would put me on Oprah and the Today Show. Then I would be asked to star in the movie adaptation. The Academy would notice… Ah, memories.
Anyway, I had another dream. One of my roommates from college actually encouraged me with this one. I was going to write the sequel to Sixteen Candles and it was going to be awesome! Crazy, I know. I wanted it to show what those characters we loved, the ones we wanted to be, did with their lives. Did Sam (Molly Ringwald) marry Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling), or did she dump him for Farmer Ted (Anthony Michael Hall)? Did Geek Girl #1 (Joan Cusack) ever get that neck brace off so she could drink water from a fountain without getting wet? And what about poor Long Duk Dong? (I would have loved to have been in the room when they told Gedde Watanabe his character’s name…)
But rather than lamenting the sequel that will never happen, I would like to share one of my all-time favorite scenes from a John Hughes movie. Oh, how I wanted hair like Lea Thompson! And you have to love her best line at the end of the movie:
Remember how I said I’d rather be with someone for the wrong reasons than be alone for the right ones. I’d rather be right. It’s gonna feel good to stand on my own.
The girl never gave up the guy before. It was always a contest that she had to win. She never realized that she could be alone and still be OK. A generation of girls followed Amanda’s lead and felt good about it. Thanks, Mr. Hughes.
John Hughes, Director of 80′s Teen Classics, Dies
Shared via AddThis
My Mister has a long harbored crush on Lea Thompson. I guess that hair had an affect on more than you!