Friday, August 7, 2009

Farewell, John

I love movies. I always have. So, a piece of my youth died yesterday when I learned of the death of director/producer/writer John Hughes.

The man knew how to make people laugh. Or at least me. He made me laugh. A lot. While a lot of people will remember him mostly for the "Home Alone Series" or for "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," I loved his work with John Candy SO much more. I STILL cannot watch either "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" or "Uncle Buck" without breaking into hysterical laughter, in spite of having seen both movies dozens -- if not hundreds -- of times. After all, this was the man whose work spawned the screenplay for National Lampoon's Vacation.

As to my youth, I was a few years removed from the characters that were the main focus in "The Breakfast Club," "Pretty in Pink," and "Sixteen Candles" but was still a huge fan of all three. Especially Sixteen Candles.

Two other movies I liked of his were "Mr. Mom" and "She's Having A Baby."

While Hughes had disappeared from the limelight, it's hard to imagine that his memory isn't alive and well with GenXers.

4 comments:

Jayne said...

I LOVED John Hughes' movies! "Sixteen Candles" and "The Breakfast Club" are two of my favorites, and I used to work for an attorney whose favorite movie was "Uncle Buck", so I frequently heard quotes from that movie.

Ty'sMommy said...

I am so glad I'm not the only one mourning this loss. I kept telling people all weekend, "Can you believe John Hughes died?" and they just looked at me blankly. How can you claim to be a child of the '80's and not know John Hughes. So sad....and even worse, the tiny little mention MSN gave him at the bottom of their page.

NV said...

Jayne -- Lots of good laughs in both of those. And Uncle Buck? Can't hear "Wild Thing" without seeing John Candy.

Ty'sMom -- I know! I'm stunned by the people in their early 40s (who were the target audience at the time) whom this seems to have just escaped!

Vicki said...

So, that's who he was. Ferris Bueller is my all-time favorite. Well, 80s favorite. And then all the Molly Ringwald movies come right after it. He did all of them? AND the others you mentioned? I've seen every single one of those movies. Hmm. RIP John Hughes.