John Hughes 1950-2009

No, it wasn't Kennedy dying, the Challenger explosion or 9-11, but I remember precisely where I was when I heard that John Hughes died. We were up in Northern Wisconsin on vacation and Carla's Blackberry chirped. Cell service is spotty up there so texts come in spurts and this one seemed ordinary, until Carla read it to me: "John Hughes died", was all she said.  "No!" was my first thought. He's so young, it's a hoax, like Jeff Goldblum after Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died within hours of each other. After a few corroborating phone calls, I confirmed that it was true.  The auteur of my adolescence was dead.

Hollywood is such a fickle place, so to have carved out an indelible niche in film history is a remarkable feat. You can hope to make just one or two films that resonate with audiences but to have a body of work like John Hughes is truly unique. That is why I was so appalled by media coverage of his death.  As soon as we heard, we turned on CNN's Hollywood Tonight, ostensibly a show about the entertainment industry and were subjected to TEN MINUTES of coverage of Brad Pitt's proclivity for having sex with Angelina in a grotto on their property.  Then as they went to commercial, they flashed a Chyron onscreen that John Hughes had died. The man's films grossed over $1 Billion worldwide and he was the bumper before the third break.

John Hughes tapped into the zeitgeist of an entire generation of teenagers and I was right in his wheelhouse. Where films like Porky's had their audiences (myself included) Hughes was uncanny in his portrayal of how we spoke, dressed and acted. He nailed it. And not only did he capture the look, feel and dialogue of teens in the 80s, he shaped what we were listening to.  In his soundtracks was music we were already privy to but he also introduced us to stuff we hadn't heard yet. We knew Dream Academy but not their (instrumental) take on "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want", and we knew of Simple Minds but definitely not "Don't You (Forget About Me)".  He canonized a certain tier of artists, the Echos, New Orders and Smiths of the day while still pumping up his love of the Beatles.  He straddled generations.

A list of songs John Hughes used in his films illustrates how far his reach was: "If You Were Here", "Rotating Head", "Shell Shock", "Twist and Shout", "Beat City", "Danke Schoen" "Ring Me Up", "Young Americans", "Don't You (Forget About Me)", "Try A Little Tenderness", "This Woman's Work".  It was the best of the 60s and the 80s.  He taught us about the music of his youth and introduced us to new music about our youth.

About seven years ago, I heard that John Hughes was going to be a guest on Sound Opinions, a show that aired right before my overnight show Tuesday nights on XRT.  I showed up early that night, hoping I'd get to meet the guy who had shaped what I listened to in the 80s.  When I got there, John was already there, sitting in the lobby and I introduced myself.  I got him some coffee and we embarked on a musical conversation that would last an hour.  We talked about the music of his youth and the music of my youth and how he shaped what I listened to and how--in a small way--he was inspired by what I did.  He said I had the best job in the world, which I countered and said, working with the actors he worked with, writing the screenplays of a generation was truly the best job in the world. He was humble, to say the least.  There are so few auteurs of the last thirty years, so I consider what Mr. Hughes did to be of the highest order. Just try to name a better writer/director of the last thirty years who captured the zeitgeist like Hughes did.

We may never see someone who captured an era like Mr. Hughes did and I will be forever grateful that I was able to express what his work meant to me and my generation.  Viva John Hughes.

Comments

[brent]

You nailed it Ken.

When I heard of Hughe's death, the first thing I thought of The Special's "Little Bitch" playing during the high school dance in "Sixteen Candles" and the three-year oddessy I embarked on, trying to figure out what that song was. That search led me to so many cool bands... all the great stuff I listened to in the eighties.

Not only that, but he was a decent, decent, decent person, from what I have heard. One of the reasons we haven't heard much from him in the past few years is because he thought Hollywood was a shallow place. The fact that he died while in Manhattan visiting his family says volumes about where his priorities were.

I always thought we were lucky to have Lucas/Spielberg when we were kids and John Hughes when we were teenagers. He will be missed.

[jean b.]

fantastic post, Ken.

[freakgirl]

Great post, Ken. Thank you.

[julie]

yeah, that was a great post and comment. you speak for us all! rest in peace...

[Jeff]

Great post - and I agree that he captured who we were and how we felt at the time.

My only issue with this, though, is that when I've tried to watch the films again, I'm kinda struck by how vacuous the characters seem to me now. Were we really so shallow and easy to capture on film?

[Andy]

Yes. Yes we were. That's the great thing about being 16 -- you think that because you're just discovering the basics of the human condition, no one else has ever come across them either.

(Great post, Ken.)

[ken]

I think Hughes painted in broad strokes because he HAD to. He was working within the Hollywood system, so he could nary afford to get too bogged down in character development. These were well-budgeted studio films expected to turn a profit, not moody indies.

If he keeps it up, Greg Mottola has a shot at approaching a Hughes-like body of work, his Adventureland was the best thing I've seen this year. The soundtrack features Husker Du and The Replacements and it has very well-developed characters. And Kimberly Stewart.

[Jeff]

I'm not sure that it's right to say his films are 'Hollywood' so they cannot be subject to critique. My point, not very well made, was that I think we had a lot of things going on which weren't at all captured by his films, yet he, very successfully, led us to believe that he had us figured out.

Anyway, I'll shut up and watch Adventureland ;-)

[ken]

I didn't mean they were immune to criticism just that he had a framework to work within and a studio to placate and earn money for.

And we were a bit more simple then, so we were easier to 'nail'. We just thought we had it figured out.

DO see Adventureland.

[Andy]

Check out Molly Ringwald's remembrance of John Hughes in today's NY Times (!) She talks about what he meant to her as a sixteen-year-old actress, and after:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/opinion/12ringwald.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[ken]

I saw the NYT piece. Nice. It didn't gloss over the fact the two of them weren't exactly on the best of terms lately but how she still respected him. Thanks Andy.

[Jeff]

Yeah interesting. I think that Molly calling AMH after Hughes's death as something that you muse would happen, but that really wouldn't occur in real life. I was oddly glad she shared.

[ferris]

You don't have a line on where a fella (or fellette) could find that XRT interview with Hughes, do ya?

Thanks!