John Hughes Changed my Life

He did.

I was fifteen. I was sitting in the movie theatre at College Square Mall with some friends--I don't remember who--waiting for a movie to start. And then this quote came up on a black screen:

.....and these children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds are immune to your consultation. They’re quite aware what they’re going through.”- David Bowie.

And I thought, "Yes. Yes, we are." And then The Breakfast Club started. I remember every single thing about it. I still do. I can quote it. I can repeat the lines as the movie is playing. I fell in love with John Bender (Judd Nelson). I wanted to be a mix of both Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy. And at the end of the film my life was different.



It's not that I had an big revelations. I wasn't exposed to new ideas or concepts. Why was my life changed? Because finally, finally, someone understood what I, no, what we were going through. The Breakfast Club was a spot on depiction of my high school. And I hated my high school.

The stupidness. The drama. The bullshit. It wasn't a movie of good girl gone bad or bad girl gone good. The Breakfast Club portrayed high school perfectly: "Each one of us is a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal..." We were. Yet it felt like no one was willing to recognize that. Now, I know... most teenagers feel this way, but no one until John Hughes was able to accurately portray that on film.

But, even more--and better--The Breakfast Club showed these kids, the brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess, and the criminal, becoming almost-friends. That wasn't what made it so great. What made it an honest and real portrayal of high school was the acknowledgment of what would happen on Monday when they all went back to school: nothing. Would they be friends on Monday? No. Do I think Claire and John would have made it as a couple? No. They would all go back to their cliques, because that's the way it was. We all knew that. And John Hughes got it.

No one, and I mean no one, of my generation can ever hear the name Claire without saying, "Claire? That's a fat girl's name." (Claire: "I'm not fat." Bender: "Not now ... but I can see you really pushing maximum density...")

Then there were the other John Hughes movies that defined my teens: 16 Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Pretty in Pink... And the quotes:

"Cameron's so tight, if you stuck a piece of coal up his ass, in two weeks you'd have a diamond" (Ferris)

"When Cameron was in Egypt's Land.... Let my Cameron go..." (Ferris)

"You wear too much eye makeup. My sister wears too much. People think she's a whore. " (Ferris, more here)

"I really love Rudy. He is totally enamored of me. I mean, I've had other men love me before, but not for six months in a row. " (16 Candles)

"Oooooh Seeeexy giiiirlfriend" (16 Candles, more here)

And the characters: Farmer Ted, Long Duk Dong, Sam's Grandparents, Scoliosis Girl (Sweet Pickles and I bonded over our love of Scoliosis Girl).... and Ducky.

The debate of Ducky vs Blaine can still bring Gen Xers to their feet in a screaming match. (Ducky, dammit. DUCKY.)

So, today, I mourn John Hughes. And my teen years.

RIP, John. You influenced an entire generation.

Sweet Pickles and Oxford Film Freak have excellent tributes, too.