Life Lessons from John Hughes
By Tim Parks | September 4, 2023
I’ve always had a voracious appetite for movies. The Star Wars trilogy fed my inner geek, while Spielberg’s cinematic sense of wonderment nourished me. But one director in particular, John Hughes, filled me up with his depictions of misunderstood teens in the ’80s comedies that he wrote and directed.
The teen angst on film was all too familiar, putting on public display what I felt on the inside, that I didn’t fit in, like an extra piece of a puzzle. (Ooh, deep.) Here are a few of my personal takeaways from his oeuvre, life lessons as it were, which apply to those long-ago teen days and some that still track these many years later.
Sixteen Candles (1984)
Life Lesson: Don’t Get Lost in the Shuffle
Plot: Poor Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald). Her family forgets her 16th birthday because of her sister Ginny’s (Blanche Baker) wedding, gives her panties to a geek (Anthony Michael Hall) and longs for dreamy Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling), sigh, who is dating the uber popular Caroline (Haviland Morris). Thrown into the mix are Long Duk Dong (Gedde Watanabe), as a foreign exchange student living with her grandparents (Edward Andrews and Billie Bird) and one of the most obnoxious little brothers ever committed to celluloid, Mike (Justin Henry).
In a nutshell, you have Hughes’s first foray into highlighting the plight of the outsider, as seen through Sam’s eyes. But it also touched on Farmer Ted’s (Hall) uniqueness—i.e., being a geek—as well as Jake wanting to go against the grain of popularity. Sixteen Candles also holds the distinction of being considered problematic in today’s world and wouldn’t be a film that could be made today.
Relatability as a Teen: Being the youngest of five boys, it was easy for me to find common ground with Sam about getting lost in the shuffle of family dynamics. I had to develop my own special brand of being a standout member of the Parks family (cue a lyric from Madonna’s “Keep It Together,” in that “to get attention, I must always be the clown.”) And who hasn’t felt like an outsider at some point in life?
Relatability as an Adult: Being a jokester played its part in helping me hide the pain I carried inside, a dead weight I’d eventually shed. Today, I consider it a steadfast companion that I’m still friendly with.
Fun Fact: Ringwald and Hall were a couple off-screen, following the filming of this movie and prior to the next one...
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Life Lesson: Don’t Let Anyone Put a Label on You
Plot: The Breakfast Club chronicles a character study of “a brain and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal,” embodied respectively by Anthony Michael Hall, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson, whose characters share a life-changing Saturday detention together, which is presided over by high school vice principal Mr. Vernon (Paul Gleason).
Despite his threats to not “mess with the bull young man, you’ll get the horns,” the quintet bronco bucks his advice. However, it’s not John Bender’s (Nelson) first time at the detention rodeo and he leads the charge for the others to rebel against the authority figure, which leads to them dropping their guard, relating on a human level, and not as their labels in the ultimate cinematic bonding session.
Relatability as a Teen: The movie was released right before my 16th birthday, and in it I saw five different fragments of cinematic examples of the person that I could be perceived as by others. Yes, even jock Andrew Clark (Estevez)! Alas, I tried out for wrestling, but had to respectfully bow out when “something suddenly came up.” Besides, I was non-plussed that the senior wrestlers didn’t offer to buy me dinner before pinning me to the mat. Rude! The pressure of being comfortable enough to come out could have easily seen me skate into Allison Reynolds (Sheedy) basket case territory, while my disdain for authority figures could have morphed into criminal behavior like Bender, I suppose. So that leaves Claire Standish (Ringwald) and Brian Johnson (Hall).
I was never one to bring sushi for lunch (like Claire did), which means that Brian was the character I related to most, with his father issues and need to fit in as normal. He could have been written as gay, but that was an arena that Hughes never entered, just skating on the periphery with Brian and a later character.
The labels used to give the bare bones of what really made these characters tick (as was detailed by Brian’s letter to Mr. Vernon before the end credits rolled), gave me food for thought of how your life can be about embodying pieces of the pie, and not having them be the main ingredient of your existence.
Relatability as an Adult: Now at my “advanced age” of 54, The Breakfast Club reminds me that sometimes people come into your life, albeit briefly, to teach you something about yourself.
Fun Fact: Hughes wrote the screenplay in just two days!
Weird Science (1985)
Life Lesson: Let Your Freak Flag Fly!
Plot: According to Weird Science’s title track by Oingo Boingo, she’s alive, courtesy of “plastic tubes and pots and pans. Bits and pieces and the magic from the hand.” But it's really thanks to nerds Gary Wallace (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt Donnelly (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) creating a real living doll in the human form of Lisa (Kelly LeBrock). The duo designs their dream woman on a computer and thanks to a freak electrical event brings her to life, which made actual nerds lament the fact they could only die from dysentery playing Oregon Trail on their Apple II.
Naturally, Lisa takes on the task of helping them climb higher up the social ladder. She picks out cooler clothes for them, conjures up Porsche’s for them to drive, (and they don’t even have a license, Lisa!) and throws the ultimate house party—sorry Kid ’n Play! Lisa helps them to stand up to bullies Ian (Robert Downey Jr.) and Max (the swoon worthy Robert Rusler) and in turn they steal the jerks’ girlfriends Deb (Suzanne Snyder) and Hilly (Judie Aronson). And she also makes Wyatt’s older brother Chet (Bill Paxton) see the error of his tormenting ways, so no more threats of “a nice greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray” would be had for anyone who was hungover.
Relatability as a Teen: Granted, I never tried to create a real-life version of my nephew’s He-Man doll on a Commodore 64, but in Gary and Wyatt I saw the struggles of fitting in, of wanting to be popular. Yes, I was a bit of a nerd and didn’t want to let on as to the degree of my affinity with geek culture to my classmates.
Relatability as an Adult: Fast forward to the present and I’ve learned to be happy with those aspects of my personality and to embrace them. Now, if you’ll pardon me, I must dig my old G.I. Joe with Kung Fu grip, along with my Commodore 64, out of storage, because science!
Fun Fact: Demi Moore and Robin Wright were among the hopefuls that auditioned for the role of Lisa.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
Life Lesson: Don’t Take Life for Granted.
Plot: Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) stages the most epic day off in movie history, ditching class with his bestie Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck) and girlfriend Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara), while his sister Jeannie (Jennifer Grey and her old nose) and school principal Mr. Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) try to expose his truancy.
Highlights from said day off include “borrowing” Cameron’s dad’s prize 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder to head into Chicago to catch a sportsball game, go to a museum—yawn—and lip sync “Twist and Shout” during the Von Steuben Day Parade.
Relatability as a Teen: For me, ditching was close to being an everyday occurrence, due to being bullied in high school. However, on my many days off, I didn’t go as far as committing grand theft auto or performing at a parade, although I would have done the latter given the chance. I saw skipping school as a refuge from torment, even if it eventually sent my GPA into the toilet. And I regret nothing!
Relatability as an Adult: Nowadays, the most famous quote from the movie, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it,” serves as a mantra about the passage of time and how fleeting it really is. I’m still shocked that I’m 54. But also, happy that I get the privilege to grow older. Ferris Bueller, you’re my hero!
Fun Fact: In 1990, NBC aired the short-lived sitcom, titled Ferris Bueller, which starred Charlie Schlatter as the titular character and Jennifer Aniston as his sister Jeannie.
Pretty in Pink (1986)
Life Lesson: Never Let Them See You Break!
Plot: Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald) lives on the literal wrong side of the tracks, ironically works at a record store called Trax that’s run by the eponymously named Iona (Annie Potts). Her best friend, Duckie Dale (Jon Cryer), longs to show her “love is real” and “real is love.” Much like Brian in The Breakfast Club, he could have very easily been written as gay with his flair for fashion, in the first of two films penned by John Hughes and directed by Howard Deutch.
Meanwhile Andie is being pursued by Blane McDonough (Andrew McCarthy), a “richie” boy and not a major appliance! Despite pleas from both of their friend groups—including Blaine’s a-hole friend Steff McKee (James Spader)—to stay in their respective social class lanes, Andie and Blaine take a stab at a relationship. This leads to them attending prom together (sort of) and Andie making the most iconic handmade prom dress this side of Carrie White’s. No, we couldn’t see her dirty pillows!
Relatability as a Teen: This movie made me want to go to the prom a year out of the closet. To quote Andie: “I just wanna let them know that they didn't break me.” And I went with a girl! Scandal! I even chose a similar tux to McCarthy’s white jacket and black pants but added my own flourish of a pink bow tie and matching cummerbund. It was to match my date’s dress. Sure, Jan!
What I remember most of my love for the movie is its soundtrack. I went through three cassettes, unable to resuscitate the patients when my surgeon’s pencil tool couldn’t save them, its plastic film spilled like guts from the casing, either broken or twisted up beyond repair from ad infinitum plays.
Relatability as an Adult: Back in the day, I gravitated more towards Andie’s plight, but as time went on its Iona that I found similarities with. Her quote “I mean, I used to have a great butt. I did, I loved my butt! I wish I had photographs of it,” rings especially true with each passing year.
Fun Fact: The original ending had Andie ending up with Duckie, but test audiences—now how do I put this delicately?— hated it! Like “Men on Film” hated it, with nary a Z formation to be had.
Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)
Life Lesson: Be Original.
Plot: Honestly, Some Kind of Wonderful chronicled the same kind of beats that Pretty in Pink did, even down to a killer soundtrack. The role reversal story of Keith Nelson (Eric Stoltz) being from the wrong side of the tracks and trying to woo rich girl Amanda Jones (Lea Thompson), while his friend Watts (Mary Stuart Masterson) secretly pines for him on the sidelines isn’t as effective the second time around. It even features a Steff-like jerk in Amanda’s ex Hardy Jenns (Craig Sheffer). So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that this was another Hughes written / Deutch directed venture.
Relatability as a Teen: I found a kinship with the film’s messaging as it pertained to my, ahem, fruitless crushes on straight guys and not to wander into uncharted territory. I also had a reverence for Keith tapping into his artistic endeavors to impress Amanda, whereas I couldn’t seem to push myself to set up a life as a writer just for my own sake.
Relatability as an Adult: Which brings us to the here and now, and the fact that I did home in on my lifelong writing dream, creating a well-received novel, as well as conducting over 300 celebrity interviews. One of which was akin to a dream come true in chatting with Hughes muse, Ringwald, and thanking her for the cinematic contributions she made in the name of misfit teens everywhere.
Fun Fact: Deutch and Thompson met on the set, eventually wed, are parents to actors Madelyn and Zoey Deutch and are still going strong 34 years later. Aww!
Tim Parks is the Lambda Literary Award-nominated author of The Scheme of Things and a freelance entertainment writer for 23 years, columnist for 18 years with his latest one, Hollywood, appearing in The Rage Monthly. In his spare time, he sells movie memorabilia on his Cult Pop Shop SD page on Etsy.