Season 2 Finale: John Hughes - Shermer High & Beyond

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Hello, hello, I'm Katie, and welcome to the

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Season 2 finale of "Retro Made."

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Today, we wrap up the long journey

through the writing and directing works

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of John Hughes in the '80s and '90s

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Let's first go through

the numbers of the season.

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We covered 30 movies, eight that

John Hughes wrote and directed, and

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22 that he wrote but did not direct.

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I was lucky enough to have

25 guest co-hosts join me.

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Thank you to you all.

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Somebody had to come on and bring some

class to the show, so thank you all.

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You all know who you are.

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I cannot thank you enough

for joining me this season.

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Now, we covered John Hughes' works in the

s, so that from: 1980

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there were only three years that were

not actually represented in the season.

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1999, because his last movie that

we covered, that he wrote, and

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produced was in 1998, in the '90s.

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But also there was no movie

released in: 1995

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But he made up for that because

there were three movies released

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in a single year, and there were

three years that that happened.

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So the following years

had three movies released.

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1983, "Mr.

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Mom," "Vacation," and "Nate and

Hayes," AKA "Savage Islands."

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Also 1985 was a big one.

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That was "The Breakfast Club," "Weird

Science," and "European Vacation."

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And then 1991, "Career Opportunities,"

"Dutch," and "Curly Sue."

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There's another group of three.

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John actually had uncredited

cameos in three movies.

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Does anybody remember?

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Definitely The Breakfast

Club as Brian's dad.

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That's probably the one you all know.

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But also the National Lampoon's Class

Reunion, which none of you probably saw.

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But if you listen to the episode, you'll

remember that I had said that he played

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the girl with the paper bag on her

head that ended up being the murderer.

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And then also in Ferris Bueller's Day

Off, he is the man running between cabs.

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Now, of those 30 movies that we

covered, let's just quickly talk through

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them in the order of release date.

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The season did not go in order, obviously.

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What I did was when my guests

came on, I gave them the choice

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of what movie they wanted to

select, so it did not go in order.

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So here we are.

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In 1980, we have The Secret

Life of Nikola Tesla.

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Then in '82, Class Reunion,

National Lampoon's.

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In '83, Mr.

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Mom, Vacation, Nate and Hayes.

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1984 was Sixteen Candles.

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Then '85, The Breakfast Club,

European Vacation, and Weird Science.

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'86, there were two movies, Ferris

Bueller's Day Off and Pretty in Pink.

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Also two movies in 1987, Some

Kind of Wonderful, as well as

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Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

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Two more in '88, She's Having

a Baby and The Great Outdoors.

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Two more in '89, Uncle Buck

and Christmas Vacation.

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One in 1990 with the big

blockbuster that was Home Alone.

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'91, Career Opportunities,

Dutch, and Curly Sue.

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'92 had two movies, Beethoven!

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and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

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Dennis the Menace was in '93, and then

'94 also two movies, Baby's Day Out

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and Miracle on 34th Street, the remake.

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'96 we had the live action, remake

of 101 Dalmatians, and then two

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in '97, Flubber and Home Alone 3.

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And then lastly, the one we just covered

that was released in: 1998

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no one probably saw, Reach the Rock.

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Okay.

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I'm sure you all have favorites.

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I'm sure that I brought some…

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I hope anyway, that I brought some of

these to your attention, and if you

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haven't seen them, and they are at

least somewhat easy to find, that you

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have, opened your viewership to some

of these lesser-known Hughes movies.

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Or maybe you didn't realize that

some of these were Hu- Hughes movies.

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We'll get to that.

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So ranking-wise, it's kind of difficult.

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I think from a…

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Again, best movie versus favorites

are, are a little different.

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In this case, I think my favorite is

also the best, "The Breakfast Club."

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But then followed very closely in terms of

my favorites is "Weird Science," and then

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I would say "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"

third, and then followed closely by "Mr.

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Mom" and "Home Alone."

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So that's kind of my top five.

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Least favorites, uh, if you've been

paying attention to the season at all, you

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know that I absolutely hated "Flubber,"

so that is 100% my least favorite.

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And then, I guess a little

bit surprisingly, uh, because

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"Reach the Rock" actually had,

a fairly good, I wanna say 6.6

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if I remember correctly, IMDb rating.

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Probably based on very few, ratings.

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But while it's not the worst movie

I just feel like from an enjoyment

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perspective, I put this as my second

least favorite, because if you asked

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me to re-watch any of the 30, I

would pick, aside from "Flubber," I

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would pick that one second to last

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So I would probably rather, if I

had to, even some that I didn't

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love, I would rewatch some of

the others over Reach the Rock.

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So those are my favorites

and least favorites.

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The highest rating from an IMDb

perspective, we have two that have a 7.8

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IMDb rating, and that is of

course The Breakfast Club and

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then Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

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Uh, actually, I'm sorry, There

was three that had a 7.8,

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also Home Alone.

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Hmm, the worst, let's see.

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There's two movies that have

a tied for the, the worst

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IMDb rating, which is a 4.6,

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and that is Class Reunion, National

Lampoon's, and Home Alone 3.

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So there we go.

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That's what I thought.

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That's what IMDb thought.

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If you guys have thoughts, I'm sure

we all agree on some of them, but

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there might be surprises out there.

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Does anyone share my rankings exactly?

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Or were there any surprises for you guys?

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Any that you did not think you

were gonna like and you ended

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up enjoying, or vice versa?

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More so, as we talked through in

the episodes, I was starting to

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discover a lot of running themes, some

observations, and some connections.

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So I wanted to talk through

those with you guys today.

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Definitely the Chicago of it all.

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This is a living, breathing character.

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Hughes created this idealized

romantic mythos of this windy city.

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His lens cast a spell that made the

snow-draped suburbs, the towering skyline,

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and iconic landmarks like Wrigley Field,

the Art Institute of Chicago, obviously

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the skyline and Michigan Avenue.

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He made them feel like the ultimate,

this magical landscape of American life.

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And he spent essentially two decades

directing what was essentially the

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most beautiful, heartfelt tourism

campaign ever, and it worked.

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It is likely no coincidence that

Chicago is my favorite American city.

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Anyone else think that, uh, John

Hughes maybe had a hand in that, maybe?

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A little bit?

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Speaking of which, advertising plays a

fairly significant role in Hughes' movies.

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So Hughes pulling from his own

background in advertising, as we've

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talked about in some of the e- episodes.

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He used to be an ad man

in the '70s, I wanna say.

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And so we see this pop up in a few

different ways in Hughes' movies,

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one of which obviously is the careers

that some of the characters have.

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So Caroline in Mr.

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Mom, Neal in Planes, Trains,

and Automobiles, and Jake

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in She's Having a Baby.

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There's also pretty heavy-handed

product placement in a lot of movies.

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Just a quick example would be

Pepsi in Home Alone, and a lot

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of memorable catchphrases in

Hughes' movies, so memorable

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catchphrases, slogans, and taglines.

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There's so many famous lines of dialogue

that Hughes structured in like a

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brilliant, very sticky advertising copy.

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So it's, it's designed to

live in your head forever.

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For example, "Life moves pretty

fast," from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

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And again, this I think is another example

that I didn't realize, but perhaps he

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also planted a seed in my young brain

since this is what I do for a living now.

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I will say that, uh, this was,

this is a kind of a running

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trope in '80s movies seemingly.

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There's a lot of advertising and

marketing in movies from the '80s,

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and it is shown to be far more

glamorous than it actually is.

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So yeah wish I'd known that.

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No, I'm just kidding.

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I…

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It is what it is.

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Uh, but music is also

huge in Hughes movies.

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A little bit pulling from his ad

background in the way that he used music,

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so his- he's got a jingle mindset, it

seems, so using music in similar ways that

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you would in a jingle or in, in ads to

evoke emotion and get your point across.

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So some scenes in these movies seems

like they're treated like high-end

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commercials a little bit, pairing

these really stylized imagery with

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infectious, unforgettable audio, quote

unquote, "jingles," shall we say.

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Um, a- again, a lot of these

memorable lines, the use of music,

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the use of a single musical cue,

like "Simple Minds" in The Breakfast

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Club or "Yellow" in Ferris Bueller.

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It was used to instantly broadcast

a character's internal unspoken

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feelings to us as the audience.

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The soundtracks in Hughes movies

were definitely not something that

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he thought of in post-production.

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He, uh, apparently famously wrote scripts

with headphones on, but this totally

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makes sense because he lets music clearly

dictate the, the emotional rhythm and

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pacing and structure of his, a lot

of his scenes, like I just mentioned

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for examples, the "Simple Minds" in

The Breakfast Club or a lot in Ferris

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Bueller, just to name a few examples.

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And I would say this is, again,

more so early on in his career.

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He rejected traditional sweeping Hollywood

orchestra, orchestral scores in favor of

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more underground British New Wave or punk

rock alternative pop so he's creating

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a very distinct brand that captured

the very specific anxious heartbeat

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of 1980s youth culture, and that was,

synonymous with Hughes movies, like I

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said, more so earlier in his career.

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So music was really big.

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He was a big rock fan, and

we'll get to that in a little

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bit with another category.

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But It's not all roses.

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There's a common theme of the negative

portrayal of quote unquote "career women."

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Hughes very clearly championed a, a

highly traditional neoconservative

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family structure, portraying

women who opt out of marriage or

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motherhood as cold, emotionally

bankrupt corporate sharks who must be

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humbled and saved by a family unit.

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You've heard me talk about this.

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I will let it go now.

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But also there's a maybe not so great

is maybe a bit of racism by omission.

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It wasn't just that there were no people

of color in his movies, it was that

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the rare times that they were included

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Instead of giving them depth or like

human characteristics, he traded

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them for more structural stereotypes

like Long Duk Dong, in Sixteen

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Candles, Or it's like a caricature.

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For example, the caricature

bars of Weird Science.

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Also, he did name the male characters in

She's Having a Baby, Jefferson and Davis.

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Uh, we'll get into some more name

stuff in a little bit, but I just had

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to bring that up because, you know,

we have to take the good with the bad.

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We have to take the bad

with the good, I should say.

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But another theme that we see throughout

the vast majority of his movies, almost

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all of them incorporate classism, right?

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So he seems obsessed with this

whole idea of being from the

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wrong side of the tracks, and this

form of wealth gap in the '80s.

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In the '90s, he pivots to a more

literal version in terms of displacement

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and poverty, this disparity, more

so in the '90s movies like The

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Pigeon Lady in Home Alone 2, Curly

Sue, Dutch, we see some of that.

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So I don't think I need to say any more.

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Everybody's aware of the classism

that is so prevalent in Hughes movies.

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But let's get back to

names 'cause that's fun.

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I don't know why I find character

names in movies or just the way that

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names come about really interesting.

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Maybe it's just me, but i- a lot

of them were extremely deliberate

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character names in, in Hughes movies.

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A lot of times he would pull from

his own life, local Chicago history,

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or using them kind of, as shorthand

for the character's personality.

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One theme is, Chicago

architecture and street names.

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So I think we might have talked

about this in The Breakfast Club

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episode, but I can't quite recall.

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But Claire Standish and John Bender

are two characters in The Breakfast

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Club, and he named these after

major iconic streets in the city.

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So On LaSalle Street, there is

the historic Standish Hotel area,

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and then there's Bender Court,.

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And so this is anchoring those

characters directly to Chicago's

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geography because Chicago.

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Also, the McCallister family in "Home

Alone" comes from McCallister Avenue,

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which is a prominent street in the

North Shore Chicago suburbs near

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where Hughes lived and also filmed.

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We talked about this pretty recently in

the "Some Kind of Wonderful episode."

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There was-- He brought, again, a lot

of his, his love of rock and roll

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here, so some inspiration for the

names came from the Rolling Stones,

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so Keith, Watts, and Amanda Jones.

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This is the central love triangle,

the characters in this love triangle.

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So it's a big Easter egg

for rock fans, in the know.

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So he clearly named Keith after

Keith Richards, and Watts, who the

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character plays drums, after Charlie

Watts, the drummer of Rolling Stones.

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And also Amanda Jones is pulled

directly from the Rolling

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Stones song, "Amanda Jones."

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And I did not know that song was

a Rolling Stones song previously,

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which was a surprise to me

because I like the Rolling Stones.

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But I thought that the song

was written for the movie.

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No, no, vice versa.

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So I thought that was super fun.

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And then, as you would imagine, he's

pulling from real-life people that

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he knows, classmates, et cetera.

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So Duckie in "Pretty in Pink" was based on

a real person that he went to high school

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with at Glenbrook North High School,

where he went by the nickname Duckie.

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Also, a lot of the names like

Johnson and Baker, these kinda

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default names that aren't…

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They're just pretty generic.

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He frequently would pull from

his high school yearbooks.

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So Brian Johnson in "The Breakfast

Club," Samantha Baker, "Sixteen Candles."

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This also helped to give those

characters a very authentic,

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unglamorous Midwestern realism.

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And then we have to discuss his pseudonym.

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I think it only came up in the

"Beethoven" episode, but he uses

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it in, in some future movies, that

we don't cover on this season.

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But his pseudonym comes

from classic literature.

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So when he wanted to distance

himself from some commercial work

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that he was maybe less proud of, he

used the pseudonym Edmond Dantes.

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And this is the main character

from "The Count of Monte Cristo."

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So he used that to write scripts

like, like I said, from "Beethoven"

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and then later, uh, like "Drobit

Taylor" and "Made in Manhattan."

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So those are Edmond Dantes' works.

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And this is a bit also just to signal…

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I mean, he, again,

everything is purposeful.

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This is signaling that

he felt like a prisoner

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of

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his own Hollywood success maybe.

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Maybe?

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Maybe not.

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I don't know.

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Uh, and then there's also a very, common

running theme in more so his later

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movies, incompetent petty criminals.

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Comes up a lot.

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So this serves a few purposes, right?

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Slapstick punching bag.

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The fact that they're incompetent and

they're petty criminals, offers this low

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stakes threat, so we're not in fear that

somebody's gonna actually be harmed.

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It's a bit of a scapegoat, I guess.

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He, he usually writes them as uneducated

blue-collar outcasts, which is in

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stark contrast to the wealthy suburban

families that they try to disrupt.

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So I think there's something

to be said there as well.

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Now, we cannot forget some of

the recurring characters that

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we see casting favorites in this

universe that Hughes has built.

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So his original muses, of course, are

Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall.

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And then we also see a lot of John Candy,

and, uh, we can always take more of John

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Candy Macaulay Culkin, Edie McClurg, Ally

Sheedy, Larry Hankin, John Ashton, Paul

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Gleason, Lyman Ward, Robert Prosky, Neil

Flynn, Fred Thompson, Eddie Bracken, Joan

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Plowright, William Windom, and Ben Stein.

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I'm sure there's more, so if I'm

forgetting someone, please let me know.

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But those are the ones that I could

think of, just running through

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the movies and some commonalities.

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So clearly some favorites

that he liked to work with.

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Unfortunately, there's not

really any awards to talk about.

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No, no major award nominations unless

you count the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards.

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Uh, he was nominated in both

'93 and '97 for Dennis the

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Menace and Flubber respectively.

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But I did think perhaps we could talk

about A movie that we didn't talk about

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on the season because it didn't qualify.

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John Hughes did not write or direct

this movie, but he did produce it,

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and it has tons of, Hughes alumni.

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The movie that I'm referring

to here, it's adjacent in the

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: 00:20:22

universe, and we'll talk about why.

302

: 00:20:24

So it's called Only the Lonely from 1991.

303

: 00:20:29

It also must be out of print

because it was hard to watch.

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: 00:20:32

So I, I don't think it's currently

on streaming, but maybe some of you

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: 00:20:36

remember seeing it from back in the

day or perhaps have an old copy of a

306

: 00:20:41

VHS or, or DVD or something like that.

307

: 00:20:43

But I watched it recently for

the first time it stars John

308

: 00:20:48

Candy Who plays a Chicago cop,

including the accent, Ally Sheedy.

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: 00:20:53

Uh, and she plays the daughter

of a mortician, and she,

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: 00:20:57

at, at the mortician…

311

: 00:21:00

The funeral home.

312

: 00:21:01

I was like, "What is it called?"

313

: 00:21:02

The mortician shop.

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: 00:21:03

The funeral home, she does the makeup

of the people in their caskets.

315

: 00:21:08

Now, Jim Belushi plays Candy's

partner, and remember he was in Curly

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: 00:21:13

Sue, also from 1991, the same year.

317

: 00:21:17

And some other people from the same world

are screen legends Maureen O'Hara, and

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: 00:21:25

she's doing an Irish accent in this.

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: 00:21:28

And the reason that she's somewhat

related to the universe is that she

320

: 00:21:32

played Dory in the original Miracle

on 34th Street, and we talked about

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: 00:21:37

her a little bit in, in the remake.

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: 00:21:40

And then also screen legend Anthony Quinn

is in this, and he's doing a Greek accent.

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: 00:21:45

So we've got a lot of accents

happening in this movie.

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: 00:21:48

We also get, briefly, but we

get Macaulay and Kieran Culkin,

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: 00:21:53

they play Candy's nephews.

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: 00:21:55

And then this, you might be

wondering, who wrote this?

327

: 00:22:00

Who directed this?

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: 00:22:02

It is in fact somebody

very close to the universe.

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: 00:22:05

Anyone have any guesses?

330

: 00:22:06

Or maybe you know.

331

: 00:22:07

It's Chris Columbus.

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: 00:22:08

He wrote and directed this,

so it's very adjacent.

333

: 00:22:11

So it, it almost qualifies to be

in the season, but it doesn't.

334

: 00:22:16

I can't believe I hadn't seen it.

335

: 00:22:17

It's good.

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: 00:22:17

It's not great, it's good.

337

: 00:22:19

Now what did we not get?

338

: 00:22:21

Because he was such a prolific writer,

kind of notoriously so, but we could have

339

: 00:22:26

had some of these and we did not get.

340

: 00:22:27

Projects that he wrote but

never came to fruition.

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: 00:22:30

There are several, and I'm not

gonna talk about all of them.

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: 00:22:33

We don't have time for that.

343

: 00:22:34

But there are a few that came up in

discussions throughout the season also.

344

: 00:22:39

But here are some that I personally

thought sounded interesting, and

345

: 00:22:43

I kinda wish we would've got.

346

: 00:22:45

Or would've been interesting

to see how it came together.

347

: 00:22:49

A live-action Peanuts film.

348

: 00:22:52

So apparently Warner Brothers acquired

the film rights to make this, a

349

: 00:22:56

live-action Charlie Brown film with

Hughes set to both produce and write,

350

: 00:23:00

and that was supposed to be in 1993.

351

: 00:23:04

Then we have Tickets.

352

: 00:23:07

This is about teens who wait overnight

for free tickets to a farewell concert.

353

: 00:23:11

I can see him doing a lot with this.

354

: 00:23:13

That would've been '96.

355

: 00:23:15

And then The Grigsbys Go Broke is about

a family, a wealthy family, who loses

356

: 00:23:21

their fortune, forcing them to move

to the other side of the tracks again.

357

: 00:23:26

And because this is like s- so

John Hughes, I just thought it

358

: 00:23:30

would've been interesting to see

what he does with that as well.

359

: 00:23:33

That would've been two- 2003.

360

: 00:23:35

But I saved the best for last.

361

: 00:23:37

It would've been in '91.

362

: 00:23:40

It's called Bartholomew v.

363

: 00:23:43

Neff That's my dog yawning, sorry.

364

: 00:23:47

This would have been a vehicle that

would have starred Sylvester Stallone

365

: 00:23:54

and John Candy as feuding neighbors.

366

: 00:23:58

I am pissed that we didn't get this movie.

367

: 00:24:01

I want it.

368

: 00:24:03

I can't quite picture those

two together, uh, but love John

369

: 00:24:10

Candy, love Sylvester Stallone.

370

: 00:24:13

Put them together, feuding neighbors.

371

: 00:24:14

What is not to love?

372

: 00:24:16

Anyone else even heard

of this Bartholomew vs.

373

: 00:24:19

Neff?

374

: 00:24:19

I can't believe we didn't get it.

375

: 00:24:22

I don't know.

376

: 00:24:22

If somebody can get their hands on

it and make it come to light let's

377

: 00:24:25

resurrect this screenplay here.

378

: 00:24:27

Unfortunately, John Hughes cannot do

that because sadly, he did pass away f-

379

: 00:24:32

at a very young age from a heart attack.

380

: 00:24:35

He passed on August 6th, 2009.

381

: 00:24:38

He was only 59.

382

: 00:24:40

Ugh.

383

: 00:24:41

Last season, we had to talk about

Patrick dying so young as well.

384

: 00:24:44

These people don't even make it to 60.

385

: 00:24:47

Legends, I tell you.

386

: 00:24:49

All right, we can't let this finale go

by without talking about what I learned.

387

: 00:24:53

What did we learn through this journey?

388

: 00:24:55

A lot, I will tell you.

389

: 00:24:57

I certainly was not an

expert when I started this.

390

: 00:25:01

I didn't even really have a particularly

close attachment to John Hughes.

391

: 00:25:05

I just knew and loved several of his

teen movies that seemed synonymous

392

: 00:25:10

with, the Brat Pack era and the 1980s.

393

: 00:25:14

So I loved the idea of this

shared universe in fictional

394

: 00:25:19

Chicago suburb called Shermer.

395

: 00:25:23

I even used it in the

subtitle of the season.

396

: 00:25:26

I knew that he had some other

family-oriented movies that kind of

397

: 00:25:30

went into the '90s that I also liked,

like Home Alone, so I thought, "Perfect.

398

: 00:25:36

This is a perfect fit for the show.

399

: 00:25:38

It'll be a fun little venture."

400

: 00:25:40

Well, it turns out I was unwittingly

undertaking a much larger and more

401

: 00:25:45

surprising odyssey through his work.

402

: 00:25:48

Look, I still don't claim to be any

kind of authority on John Hughes, even

403

: 00:25:52

after covering 30 of his films, doing

a whole season that lasted a long time.

404

: 00:25:57

I've been doing this for a long time now.

405

: 00:26:00

But I will tell you in doing that, I

definitely picked up on some motifs

406

: 00:26:05

through doing the season, so let's

talk through what some of those are

407

: 00:26:09

There are some unexpected

but very clear evolutions.

408

: 00:26:15

The '80s characters in John Hughes' films

seem to be trapped by social structures.

409

: 00:26:21

While the '90s movies that he made

became much more literal by trapping

410

: 00:26:28

characters, like literally trapping

characters inside houses and toy

411

: 00:26:32

stores or city streets, et cetera.

412

: 00:26:35

So that is a clear evolution.

413

: 00:26:38

We also have, uh, the

misunderstood adult villain.

414

: 00:26:42

Now this I find really, I

don't know, interesting because

415

: 00:26:46

now I'm an adult, right?

416

: 00:26:48

So we, we, we look back on these movies

with a little bit of a different lens.

417

: 00:26:54

So we have Principal Rooney in

Ferris Bueller, Vice Principal

418

: 00:26:58

Vernon in The Breakfast Club.

419

: 00:27:00

They seem like pure

villains to kids, right?

420

: 00:27:02

Re-watching as an adult reveals something

very different, that these men seem

421

: 00:27:09

to be really tragic characters that

are burnt out on life, and it's just

422

: 00:27:16

kind of a terrifying reminder to the

teens of what happens when you let the

423

: 00:27:21

world crush your spirit, as happens.

424

: 00:27:25

A- as w- we'll talk about this

in a little bit, but this, this

425

: 00:27:27

seems to be hard to not have happen

as you, as you get older, right?

426

: 00:27:32

We're always, like, looking

back on teenagers or young

427

: 00:27:35

adults like, "Aw, how cute."

428

: 00:27:38

You know?

429

: 00:27:38

They haven't been crushed

by the world yet, right?

430

: 00:27:41

Or life.

431

: 00:27:42

Adulting is hard, you know?

432

: 00:27:44

It really is.

433

: 00:27:44

So we find these characters that as

kids we thought were the villains,

434

: 00:27:50

quote unquote, and now that we

find them much more relatable.

435

: 00:27:53

So I don't know what that says about us.

436

: 00:27:56

But I think it's sadly

at least somewhat true.

437

: 00:28:00

You know, it's too bad we

gotta get old, stallion, right?

438

: 00:28:03

And this is eloquently and simply

stated by Allison in The Breakfast Club.

439

: 00:28:13

She says, "It's unavoidable.

440

: 00:28:16

It just happens.

441

: 00:28:17

When you grow up, your heart dies,"

reflecting the group's fear of

442

: 00:28:23

becoming like their parents and

losing their unique identities.

443

: 00:28:28

Oy.

444

: 00:28:29

We'll get-- we'll talk a

little bit about that in, in a

445

: 00:28:31

second also wow, that's heavy.

446

: 00:28:34

But again, like, isn't…

447

: 00:28:36

I think, I don't know, man.

448

: 00:28:37

Yeah, a little bit.

449

: 00:28:40

Again, but that's his

earlier works, the '80s.

450

: 00:28:42

A lot of this nuance is gone,

completely evaporated, into the '90s,

451

: 00:28:48

trading this very complex, flawed

authority figure like Rooney and

452

: 00:28:55

Vernon for cartoonish, indestructible

punching bags like the Wet Bandits

453

: 00:29:03

So this leads to the next

point that became so evident

454

: 00:29:08

as I was going through this.

455

: 00:29:09

Again, this evolution from character

study to blueprint maker, and

456

: 00:29:14

it's, like I said, it hit me in

the face 'cause it's so obvious and

457

: 00:29:17

prevalent as we go through his works.

458

: 00:29:20

When he directed his own scripts in

the '80s, he focused very heavily on

459

: 00:29:24

dialogue, long pauses, facial expressions,

and those character-driven soundtracks.

460

: 00:29:32

But when he stopped directing and focused

solely on writing and producing in the

461

: 00:29:36

'90s, his scripts became blueprints

for directors to execute high-concept

462

: 00:29:41

action, losing the quiet human

moments that defined his early work.

463

: 00:29:45

And this is the tragic irony, right?

464

: 00:29:48

It seems that the very skills he learned

as a: 1970

465

: 00:29:54

package nostalgia, hook an audience,

and repeat a winning formula, are

466

: 00:29:59

exactly what swallowed his artistry

in the '90s, transforming him from

467

: 00:30:05

a director who used commercials to

sell cinema into a corporate writer

468

: 00:30:10

who used cinema to sell a product

469

: 00:30:13

John Hughes seemed to have transitioned

from a soulful director capturing

470

: 00:30:18

the authentic heartbeat of youth into

a formulaic hit factory recycling

471

: 00:30:25

his own tropes for a paycheck.

472

: 00:30:28

And isn't that the ultimate irony given

Allison's quote that we just talked

473

: 00:30:33

about in The Breakfast Club about it

being inevitable that your heart dies?

474

: 00:30:38

What do we think about this?

475

: 00:30:40

When I first kicked off this season

of "Fresh Homage," I set out in

476

: 00:30:45

search of pure, comfortable nostalgia.

477

: 00:30:47

What I actually uncovered across

John Hughes' massive '80s and '90s

478

: 00:30:50

filmography was something far more

complicated: the portrait of a

479

: 00:30:55

brilliant, deeply flawed filmmaker.

480

: 00:30:58

Hughes didn't just write movies.

481

: 00:31:00

He built an enduring cinematic universe

out of high-gloss advertising slogans,

482

: 00:31:05

infectious British New Wave beats,

and of course, a romanticized vision

483

: 00:31:11

of Chicago that permanently changed

how an entire generation viewed the

484

: 00:31:14

American Midwest, myself included.

485

: 00:31:17

He gave a profound, serious voice to

the quiet emotional architecture of

486

: 00:31:21

teen angst, proving that the small-scale

heartbreaks of high school were,

487

: 00:31:28

in fact, worthy of the big screen.

488

: 00:31:31

Yet, as I traced his career into the

: 1990

489

: 00:31:38

where his passion seemingly dissolved

into that goddamn formulaic factory that

490

: 00:31:44

I talk about all the time in the shows.

491

: 00:31:46

So he's trading raw human character

studies for indestructible,

492

: 00:31:51

cartoonish slapstick.

493

: 00:31:53

Looking at his legacy with

modern eyes also forced me to

494

: 00:31:57

confront some glaring blind spots.

495

: 00:32:00

From a blindingly white suburban universe

that practiced a quiet racism by omission

496

: 00:32:06

to a rigid conservative worldview that

routinely penalized independent women, but

497

: 00:32:12

even with those deep structural flaws, the

magic of his peak work refuses to fade.

498

: 00:32:18

Hughes understood the baseline human

desire to be seen and understood, and that

499

: 00:32:23

is exactly why these films still hold a

mirror to our lives now, decades later.

500

: 00:32:30

I do wanna give a massive heartfelt thanks

to every single one of you for joining me

501

: 00:32:36

on this wild, nostalgic ride through the

highs and some lows of Shermer, Illinois.

502

: 00:32:42

Exploring these classics together has

completely transformed the way that

503

: 00:32:45

I view cinema, how I watch movies,

how I view them, the lens a much

504

: 00:32:51

more critical eye, both good and bad.

505

: 00:32:54

And on a personal note, it permanently

cemented my own real-world love

506

: 00:32:58

affair with the city of Chicago.

507

: 00:33:00

While I am turning the page on this

chapter, "Retromade" is going to take a

508

: 00:33:05

little intermission, allowing me to step

back before deciding where our little

509

: 00:33:08

pop culture time machine might head next.

510

: 00:33:11

Please make sure to stay subscribed though

so that you will get notifications if

511

: 00:33:16

and when the new episodes drop, please.

512

: 00:33:19

Now, if you love dissecting these

films with me and wanna help

513

: 00:33:22

keep the tape rolling, please

consider supporting the show.

514

: 00:33:25

You can make a massive difference right

now by hitting that follow button if you

515

: 00:33:28

haven't already, if you're new to the

show somehow listening to this episode.

516

: 00:33:33

Also, leave me a five-star review

on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

517

: 00:33:38

You can share your favorite

episode with a movie-loving friend.

518

: 00:33:42

And if you wanna show a little extra

love and appreciation for the season, a

519

: 00:33:46

small monetary tip does go a long way.

520

: 00:33:48

You can do that through the last

link in the show notes or directly

521

: 00:33:51

at retromade.captivate.fm/support.

522

: 00:33:55

Oh, and take a page out of the

Hughes playbook and remember,

523

: 00:34:00

life moves pretty fast.

524

: 00:34:01

If you don't stop and look around

once in a while, you could miss it.

525

: 00:34:05

Thank you all for listening, and

until next time, be kind, rewind.