A Montage of Hughes

On August 6, 2009, the world lost legendary director, writer, and producer John Hughes at the too-young age of 59. 2009, it seems, is not a good year to be famous. Hughes' best movies spanned the ‘80s and part of the ‘90s, and he was especially relevant for those of us who grew up in those decades. His films are the archetypal model of teen angst, combining popular music of the era with the all-too familiar and awesome last minute romantic save in which the guy runs after the girl and makes his speech, or vice versa, but ultimately they finally get together in the end. He had a handle on heartwarming family comedies as well, and at some point the comedies either got too light, or we got too cynical, or perhaps a combination of both.

I considered dedicating a ”My Fives” post to Mr. Hughes, but in perusing his body of work I realized it would be impossible to narrow the list down to five. Though Home Alone is the sole John Hughes film that I saw in theaters, I've enjoyed the bulk of his best films through television, videos, and in recent years DVDs. The following scenes stand out for a variety of reasons, whether it's clever dialogue read well by the performers, relevant thematically to this sad time, or simply has a song I like. In some cases I might only be able to find a trailer online. Some of these may inspire you to rent your favorites again, and if there are a few you've missed, hopefully these will inspire you to check them out:

From Mr. Mom:


From Sixteen Candles:


From The Breakfast Club:
Impressions
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From Weird Science:


From Pretty in Pink:


From Ferris Bueller's Day Off:


From Some Kind of Wonderful:


From Planes, Trains & Automobiles:


From Home alone: