Did Hughes really know anything about kid/teen life in the 80s?  Or did he just make it up out of his childhood or his a*s?  Does "Pretty in Pink" really resemble the 80s life?

Did Hughes really know anything about kid/teen life in the 80s?  Or did he just make it up out of his childhood or his a*s?  Does "Pretty in Pink" really resemble the 80s life?


i know the Breakfast Club did ressemble 80's school life..for a fact !

I think he had kids who were in their teens.

His movies are primarily based on a certain group of kids in suburban Chicago. I don't feel he knew all teens quite frankly.

Tanya

I think he had kids who were in their teens.


I see. Maybe they became adults in the late 80s so that's why c. 1988-89 he turned to kid's movies.

On a side note, does anyone consider "Tremors" and eighties movie.  It was made in 1989.

I see. Maybe they became adults in the late 80s so that's why c. 1988-89 he turned to kid's movies.

On a side note, does anyone consider "Tremors" and eighties movie.  It was made in 1989.


Tremors, one of my favorite films from the 80's, is part of the last movies of 80's period, that lasted from 1989 to early mid 90.
Or at least, that's my opinon.

i think his movies could be redone today, scene for scene and it still be the same. he used familiar teenage archetypes that we all can relate too.

i think his movies could be redone today, scene for scene and it still be the same. he used familiar teenage archetypes that we all can relate too.


Pretty much.  Well definitely Breakfast Club.  The only thing he'd have to change is all the Waveheads.  :D

i think he knew a lot about teens in the 80s, at least, if in the 80s teens are anything like today.
i think though that he focused more on big-city high schools. in larger communites you get a much more sterotypical crowds. i love the movies though, he's a very talented writer.  :)

i think he knew a lot about teens in the 80s, at least, if in the 80s teens are anything like today.
i think though that he focused more on big-city high schools. in larger communites you get a much more sterotypical crowds. i love the movies though, he's a very talented writer. :)


Yeah I agree.  I was born in San Francisco but I only lived there about a year and when I moved I lived in suburban places in Northern California.  Then I lived in Great Falls in central Montana and now I live in western Oregon.  We get some of the cliques where I live though.

-FHF

Yeah he was "knowledgeable", if you mean of snotty upper-middle class white teens from Shermer, IL.
8)
Actually, I did identify emotionally with some of Hughes's characters (I was the perfect age for those movies when they hit the big screen) and now I'm like frikkin' embarrassed about it!
:-[

The one thing that always bugged me about Hughes' movies was whenever there was the inevitable scene where some kid was having a party at his parents' house. All the kids were wearing sport jackets and stuff like that, and they were alll dancing to some 80's new wave/techno music. I dunno. It seemed so phony to me. I went to my fair share of parties in the 80's, and they were nothing like how Hughes depicted them. The only movie I ever saw that realistically recreated a high school party was Dazed and Confused.

The one thing that always bugged me about Hughes' movies was whenever there was the inevitable scene where some kid was having a party at his parents' house. All the kids were wearing sport jackets and stuff like that, and they were alll dancing to some 80's new wave/techno music. I dunno. It seemed so phony to me. I went to my fair share of parties in the 80's, and they were nothing like how Hughes depicted them. The only movie I ever saw that realistically recreated a high school party was Dazed and Confused.

ROTFL!! So true, so true!
I hated how it was always the rich kid who turned out to be most righteous!

And I hated Duckie.  If he was at my school, I'd have kicked his azz!  See, they didn't show it in the movie, but in a real '80s American HS, a guy that dressed and acted like Duckie was most certainly a mean sadistic little S.O.B. who would stab you in the back first chance he got.  You see, I had to deal with more than one "Duckie" in my formative years!

ROTFL!! So true, so true!
I hated how it was always the rich kid who turned out to be most righteous!

And I hated Duckie.  If he was at my school, I'd have kicked his azz!  See, they didn't show it in the movie, but in a real '80s American HS, a guy that dressed and acted like Duckie was most certainly a mean sadistic little S.O.B. who would stab you in the back first chance he got.  You see, I had to deal with more than one "Duckie" in my formative years!


I loved Duckie!  :(
But, if you're a guy, I think it could've been different. Us girls are just obsessed with the idea of a guy being that sweet. I think it's great that he had his own sense of style. If any guy at my school nowadays dressed like that I'd be bending over backwards to make him like me.  ::)

i think he knew a lot about teens in the 80s, at least, if in the 80s teens are anything like today.
i think though that he focused more on big-city high schools. in larger communites you get a much more sterotypical crowds. i love the movies though, he's a very talented writer.  :)


He focused on suburban teens. Had he focused on big-city high schools they would have been African-American, Hispanic, Asian and other students he basically left out.

Tanya
Yeah he was "knowledgeable", if you mean of snotty upper-middle class white teens from Shermer, IL.
8)


Maybe that was a reflection of himself.

Tanya

The one thing that always bugged me about Hughes' movies was whenever there was the inevitable scene where some kid was having a party at his parents' house. All the kids were wearing sport jackets and stuff like that, and they were alll dancing to some 80's new wave/techno music. I dunno. It seemed so phony to me. I went to my fair share of parties in the 80's, and they were nothing like how Hughes depicted them. The only movie I ever saw that realistically recreated a high school party was Dazed and Confused.


no parties are like that, at least in my experiance. no matter how big they got or how much booze was drunk, the house was usual livable afterwards. i guess we respected each others houses because next time it could be yours. and the music we always listened too was metal, hair metal and dance. no one ever dared put on new wave.

no parties are like that, at least in my experiance. no matter how big they got or how much booze was drunk, the house was usual livable afterwards. i guess we respected each others houses because next time it could be yours. and the music we always listened too was metal, hair metal and dance. no one ever dared put on new wave.


Wasn't New Wave pretty underground in the 80s? After all the Cure and Depeche Mode were biggest probably around 1989 or 1990.

Wasn't New Wave pretty underground in the 80s? After all the Cure and Depeche Mode were biggest probably around 1989 or 1990.


no, it was mainstream enough. just the people i hung with were not into it. i had to hide my love for depeche mode and new wave. see, new wave bands were considered "gay" by many at that time, at least the backwoods were i lived (and still do).

BUMP

There's definitely a certain "feel" he gave all of his movies (in the 1985-89 time frame). From what I remember as a young kid seeing the (then) teens of the 80's, it seemed at least somewhat accurate. I had some babysitters that were a bit like Tia (John Candy's niece in Uncle Buck), but, as with anything, everybody is different.

I also grew up in suburbia myself, so maybe I'm biased! ;)

I do agree that he seemed to target the more 'suburban/mainstream/typical' teens -- heck, Ferris Bueller could be Lane, if the roles were reversed. Just like how a song has to have mass appeal to be a Top 40 hit, so does a movie, and that's probably what Hughes was going for - I think we can relate to most of his characters in some form or another. There's always a very "happy/positive/casual" feeling to every JH movie.

Interestingly enough, Chris Columbus -- who directed Adventures in Babysitting -- seems to have a bit of a similar style.