John Hughes deserves a holiday
August 7, 2009 comedyIn honor of director John Hughes, let’s have a “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”
Just Michael Jackson, filmmaker John Hughes was the voice of a generation.
Hughes, who died yesterday at age 59, was best known for writing and directing the most popular ensemble comedies of the ’80s.
“Pretty in Pink.” “Sixteen Candles.” “Some Kind of Wonderful.” “The Breakfast Club.” “Weird Science.” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
Each movie chronicled the crushing pain and fleeting joy of adolescent life — the simple thrills of TV, music and video games, the social awkwardness of high school cliques, the terrifying, yet thrilling prospect of puppy love.
Hughes’ heroes, the founding members of the Brat Pack, became our best friends and first crushes.
We pined for freckled redhead Molly Ringwald and dark-eyed brunette Ally Sheedy. We dreamed of tossing the football around with Judd Nelson and Emilio Estevez, of playing hooky with Matthew Broderick or attending a Mathletes match with Anthony Michael Hall.
Whether you were a brain or a beauty, a jock or a freak, you knew those characters — Hughes’ characters — were talking to directly to you.
Hughe’s career as a writer and director took off in the early 1980s with such hits as “National Lampoon’s Vacation” and “Sixteen Candles.” The latter launched his most lasting legacy — as the chronicler and chief confessor of middle-class high schoolers everywhere.
Of course, Hughes didn’t limit himself to teen comedies. He paired Steve Martin and John Candy with hilarious results in “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” brought Candy back in “Uncle Buck” and helmed the hugely successful “Home Alone” series — the pinnacle of Macaulay Culkin’s stardom.
Hughes’ latter-day writing credits included the Jennifer Lopez vehicle “Maid in Manhattan” and “Drillbit Taylor,” which stars Owen Wilson as an inept bodyguard hired by two bullied boys.
Despite such flops as “Flubber” and “Curly Sue,” Hughes’ filmmaking legacy remains one of funny, affectionate films that never cease to delight.
That’s why I advocate celebrating Hughes with a holiday dedicated to his most popular film, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
It’d take place around the same time of year that a certain trio of teenagers (Broderick, Alan Ruck and Mia Sara) played hooky in downtown Chicago.
The only question is, exactly when is “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?”
The movie takes place in the springtime toward the end of the school year. Yet filming for “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” began Sept. 9, 1985, and ended Nov. 22, 1985.
The Von Steuben Day parade, featured in the scene in which Ferris lipsyncs to The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout,” typically takes place in Chicago in mid-September.
Maybe it’s best to link a Hughes holiday to the movie’s release date: June 11, 1986.
Either way, I think John Hughes some sort of special recognition — a holiday, a parade, a tribute concert featuring the ska punk band Save Ferris (which takes its name from one of the movie’s most famous running gags).
We, as children of the ’80s, owe him that much.
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