JOHN HUGHES THE KING OF 80s TEEN MOVIES - Looking Back at the creator of the modern teen flim - Pt 1

John Hughes had a reputation for discovering and bring out the best in young actors. This video follows the writer, director, producer throughout his 1st part of his career till Ferris Bueller's day off.

Follow me on instagram: @dneyts

His biggest writing and producing success was for the movie “Home Alone” which was released in 1990 and turned the simple tale of a young boy being forgotten by his family while leaving for a vacation into a mega blockbuster $285 million domestic box office hit, spawning two sequels as a result of that success.

Most of his work is set in the Chicago metropolitan area and features coming of age teen comedy films which often combined magic realism with honest depictions of suburban teenage life. Although I must admit all these movies have families living in enormous houses that I could never have imagined living in, except if I came from a really wealthy family. Taking that detail aside, his movies were enormously popular and some of the biggest box office success of 80s and 90s. So, who is he exactly.

Well, John Wilden Hughes Jr. was born on February 18, 1950 in Lansing, Michigan He was the only boy, and had three sisters. Growing up he was in a neighborhood that was mostly girls and old people, therefore he spent a lot of his time by himself, imagining thing. At the age of 13, Hughe’s family moved to Northbrook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Hughes attended Grove Middle School, later going on to Glenbrook North High School, which game him inspiration for the films that eventually made his reputation. This is also where he met Nancy Ludwig, a cheerleader and his future wife. As a young kid John Hughes found escapre within movies and was an avid music fan including the Beatles and Bob Dylan fan. This love of music definitely shows in many of his movies as they are packed full with 80s iconic music.

After dropping out of the University of Arizona, Hughes began selling jokes to well established performers such as Rodney Dangerfield and Joan Rivers. These jokes eventually led him to working for National Lampoon magazine for which he became a regular contributor. And one of his first stories written for them called “Vacation ‘58” which was inspired by his family trips as a child became the basis for the film “National Lampoon’s Vacation” which tells the of Clark Griswold and his wife, accompanied by their three children as they are driving from Illinois to a California amusement park. As Clark increasingly fixates on a beautiful woman driving a sports car, the Griswold family deal with car problems and the death of a family member. They do eventually reach Los Angeles, but more craziness ensues when Clark thinks that the vacation is being derailed again.

His first directing gig was for the 1984 movie “Sixteen Candles” which he also wrote. The movie was very successful but if criticized nowadays for the stereotypical portrayal of an Asian foreign student and also the very questionable way that Jake and Ted talk about a drunk girl who passed out at a party. While looking at these movies we cannot forget that they are from another period in time, maybe even much more naïve than nowadays and it’s important to take these stories with a grain of salt and enjoy them for what they were at the time and not as if written nowadays.

In 1985 Hughes’ directed and written movie “The Breakfast Club” came out. The main theme that is explored in this film is of the constant struggle of the American teenager to be understood, by adults and by themselves. It explores the pressure put on teenagers to fit into their own realms of high school social constructs, as well as the lofty expectations of their parents, teachers, and other authority figures. Once the obvious stereotypes are broken down, the characters "empathize with each other's struggles, dismiss some of the inaccuracies of their first impressions, and discover that they are more similar than different

“Weird Science” has a very interesting concept but is hardly in the same league as his previous two films, and can come out as goofy at times, although it is still worth watching, as there as some laughs to be had via its ridiculous premise and enjoyable performances. This movie was successful enough to have a television series made on it which ran from 1994 to 1998, even though Hughes didn’t have any attachment to it.
In 1986 Jonhn Hughes released another teen comedy entitled “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. Hughes wrote the screenplay in less than a week, and filming began in Setpember 1985 and finished in November.

The movie made 70.1 million at the box office and probably is the film that captures best the almost noxious, yet somehow loveable quality of real life John Hughes.

#johnhughes #sixteencandles #breakfastclub

[marcusmajartshow]

Wow... an incredible guy who left our world too soon 😢
You showed a lot of movies there that I never saw and I really want to watch it. Like "The Breakfast Club" for example, I heard indeed that it was an awesome movie.
And I also have to mention that Home Alone is one of my favorite movies! Like a lot of people, it's our Christmas tradition to watch it each year 😉