A John Hughes Top 10

Since so many people suggested it I am going to go ahead and post my ten favorite characters from John Hughes movies. A few notes before I start. 1) This list is not going to be in any order as that would require a little more planning on my part than I am ready to do at the moment. 2) An actor or actress may only be listed once. Otherwise the list would consist solely of Anthony Michael Hall. 3) I am going to only include movies that he either wrote or directed. I don’t count producing credits because hell I have three producing credits to my name. Here we go.

1) John Candy as the security guard in National Lampoon’s Vacation: Sure, he had more touching roles in Planes, Trains and Automobiles and even Uncle Buck. But there may be no better line ever written and performed than “Sorry folks, park is closed. Moose out front should have told you.”

2) Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold in National Lampoon’s Vacation: As Rug said (and yes, I do have a friend named Rug. It is a long story) this is back in that brief snippet of time that Chevy Chase was actually funny. In fact, this was probably the last moment in time when he was even slightly humorous. But this is the best example of the bumbling, full of himself father just trying to survive a trip.

3) Michael Keaton as Mr. Mom in, well, Mr. Mom: For some reason I must have watched this movie about fifty times as a kid. The baby eating chili, the poker game with the housewives using coupons, a strikingly attractive Teri Garr; this is what HBO felt should be shown on a daily basis. Though it all Michael Keaton actually puts together one hell of a performance as a guy who is forced to be a house husband at a time when even the concept of that was out of the ordinary. Interesting in that the basis for the entire movie (working women, men staying home to look after the kids) really wouldn’t fly today.

4) Gedde Watanabe as Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles: I feel sorry for any Asian foreign exchange student in the late 80’s / early 90’s. We all wanted them to be like Long Duk Dong and if they weren’t we would take advantage of their lack of knowledge of the English language to try to turn them into him. No wonder were losing out to the Chinese now: they finally have figured out the jokes. But for a side character in a twenty five year old movie it is a pretty impressive lifespan.

5) Anthony Michael Hall as The Geek in Sixteen Candles: I’m agreeing with Rug on a lot of these I realize. But he missed the main reason for considering this as the crowning point in the career of Mr. Hall: he got his hands on Molly Ringwald’s unmentionables and won a dozen floppy disks in the process. That is a geek’s dream. Sure, making out with the chick in the sports car is nice but a dozen floppy disks kicks ass.

6) Molly Ringwald as Claire in The Breakfast Club: Ok, I know people will get on me for this one and say that she was better in Pretty in Pink. But I never liked that movie and I’m not even sure if I ever watched it the whole way through. But in my mind this is the quintessential Molly role. The total princess but completely accessible. She was the pretty girl that even the geeks thought they might have a chance with. Ok, we might have leaned more towards Ally Sheedy post makeover but Molly would certainly have our attention.

7) John Kapelos as Carl Reed in The Breakfast Club: Everyone focuses on the principal in this film but no one notices that the most important adult figure is the janitor. He is the one who knows everything that is going on and while the principal tries to force his authority on the students the janitor just is. Very zen but very powerful. He knows the truth. A very understated and underappreciated performance.

8) Bill Paxton (or possibly Bill Pullman) as Chet in Weird Science: One of the few saving graces in a film that neither Anthony Michael Hall nor a pre Celebrity Fit Club Kelly LeBrock could save. It isn’t a good teen movie unless there is just one tyrannical, possibly unstable older brother to just install fear in the characters. While I did not have this relationship with my brothers you do have to understand that while it might only be five years between a 14 year old and a 19 year old physically that is like 40. Chet epitomizes that pure disbelief that you have looking at someone who isn’t much older than you but seems to be in a different world.

9) Alan Ruck as Cameron in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: In reality, Ferris Bueller is like Gatsby: in neither work is the main character the focus of the piece. Gatsby is about Nick Carraway and this film is about Cameron. He is the one who changes. Ferris would have the same life, the same hot girlfriend whether he took the day off or not. Cameron, out of place even in his home town by wearing a Red Wings jersey, is the one who is forced to address what his life is about. He is the one staring at the Seurat, he is the one who has to confront his father, he is the one who has to change. And at the end you wonder if he really does.

10) Randy Quaid as Cousin Eddie in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation: He made a late era Chevy Chase film bearable. That deserves some sort of medal. Plus, Quaid just takes the role and runs with it and pulls it off.

Best of 120 Minutes: Can there be any other choice?



The five random CDs for the week:
1) Kathleen Edwards “Asking for Flowers”
2) Eleni Mandell “Afternoon”
3) Robert Earl Keen “What I Really Mean”
4) Freedy Johnston “Never Home”
5) Wilco “A Ghost is Born”

Don't you forget about me

So we lost John Hughes today. Talk about a dark day in the land of Generation X. I’m not sure if there was any other director who could be so tied to a generation as John Hughes. If you were a teenager in the 80’s you watched John Hughes movies. Hell, you wanted to live in a John Hughes movie. In honor of his work I will run through some highlights of his career output.

Sixteen Candles: Will be forever known as the movie that introduced us all to Molly Ringwald (or reintroduced for those of us who spent way too much time watching The Facts of Life.) Captures the high school experience perfectly with foreign exchange students, guys named Jake Ryan, prom and musical interludes. Girls wanted to be Molly, guys wanted to be Jake Ryan and somehow I ended up as Anthony Michael Hall.

The Breakfast Club: Speaking of Anthony Michael Hall has anyone ever discussed the cruel fate that his character suffers in this film. Five students are stuck in detention on a Saturday morning. Judd Nelson hooks up with Molly Ringwald. Emilio Estevez makes out with Ally Sheedy. What does that leave Anthony Michael Hall to do? Finish the damn report that they were ordered to write as a part of detention. Seriously, how sucky is that? Still this is a fascinating movie as you take the typical high school student archetypes and put them in a room and see what happens.

Weird Science: Did Hughes just hire Anthony Michael Hall for every movie he ever made? Wonderful if just for the plot of having high school students somehow create the perfect female by programming a Commodore 64. And people wonder why I consider that computer to be the greatest machine ever made. Most people could relate to the terrifying older brother of Chet. As well as having to confront rampaging mutant bikers in your kitchen. Hey, it was a tough life out in the suburbs of Chicago.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: This is the ultimate Chicago suburbs movie. Note that it is not the perfect Chicago movie. The Blues Brothers is the best example of what the city itself is like. This movie is about what it is like to be a kid from the suburbs getting to goof off in the city for a day. Wandering around the Art Institute holding hands with your girlfriend and schoolchildren while your Smiths loving friend stares into the Seurat. Catching a Cubs game, crashing a parade with the polka queen and just enjoying be a carefree teenager. And that is what the film is about: being young and knowing that you are at the only moment in your life where you truly do not have any worries and relishing in the moment. Even Cameron understood that at some point.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles: I’ll finish up with this one (and these are the first five films he directed. My God what a run.) Sometimes in your career you have to be able to prove that you can do something different. That not every film you make has to involve a high school. It is the story of simply trying to get home even when you aren’t sure where home is. It is about realizing that the way that you are living life might not be the right way. And it is about John Candy being a hell of a lot funnier than anyone ever gave him credit for.