Director John Hughes dies

[Hardbopjazz]

80s teen flick director John Hughes dies in NYC

FILE - This 1984 file photo shows director John Hughes. Hughes is the man who AP – FILE - This 1984 file photo shows director John Hughes. Hughes is the man who wrote 'National Lampoon's …

By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer Hillel Italie, Ap National Writer – 1 min ago

NEW YORK – Writer-director John Hughes, Hollywood's youth impresario of the 1980s and '90s who captured and cornered the teen and pre-teen market with such favorites as "Home Alone," "The Breakfast Club" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," died Thursday, a spokeswoman said. He was 59.

Hughes died of a heart attack during a morning walk in Manhattan, Michelle Bega said. He was in New York to visit family.

Article.

[Alexander]

But...but, now who will make heartwarming and yet vaguely snarky coming-of-age teen comedies? Chris Columbus is only one man!

In all seriousness, I grew up on this guy's movies. "Ferris Bueller" and "The Breakfast Club" remain favorite films of that era.

RIP.

[BruceH]

I think it's sad and rather shocking that the guy died so young, and my sympathy goes out to his family and friends, but honestly, I never cared for his movies.

[ghost of miles]

Don't forget "National Lampoon's Summer Vacation," which remains a wickedly funny satire of a middle-class, middle-American family's trip gone amok.

Sorry to hear this news. As a teenager in the early 1980s I was deeply p*&^ed off by all of the stupid, stupid movies out there depicting teens as sex-crazed fodder for either comedy or Jason-the-13th's ultraviolent homicides. There were movies before Hughes' Sixteen Candles that portrayed that phase of life with more sensitivity--the flicks based on S.E. Hinton's books, Gregory's Girl, even Fast Times at Ridgemont High--but Sixteen and The Breakfast Club (yes, overwrought even in 1985, but hell, "overwrought" goes with the territory in adolescence) signified some sort of mainstream achievement for the idea that you could make a decent, still-entertaining film about what it was like to be in the middle of growing up. (Lagging a good 10-20 years behind the young-adult fiction industry, though, which went through a golden age in the 1970s.)

Hughes had tasteless moments in his films, and (as many have pointed out) he always tacked on sentimental, credulous happy endings that undermined some of the darker humor in his work. But I still remember the gratitude I felt for how he put characters up on the screen that seemed at least somewhat close to my friends and me, particularly at a time when youth culture in America was at a rather low ebb.

[Jazzmoose]

I thought The Breakfast Club was pretty good, and I'm sure if I'd been ten years younger, it would have been my favorite movie. But 59? Jeez, that makes me nervous...

[Dan Gould]

Its sad that he died so young, but I am with Bruce, his movies did little or nothing for me (and I am pretty sure I was much closer to the target age when they came out). Breakfast Club is particularly appalling, IMHO.

[catesta]

How could you not like some of his movies?

His career did drop off after Home Alone, which was a great movie because of Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci, but he wrote some real gems.

I never cared for The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink or Sixteen Candles, but...

Uncle Buck

Vacation

Christmas Vacation (which is the best of all of them)

Weird Science

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

RIP man, thanks for the laughs.

[ghost of miles]

Nice quote from somebody on YouTube:

John Hughes - thanks for letting me know it was OK, and even possibly cool, to be a geek. RIP.

[ghost of miles]

I didn't realize that Hughes had become such a recluse in the past 15 years:

2008 L.A. Times article

Another memory: 1986's Pretty in Pink was disappointing and a sign that the freshness of his teen flicks was wearing off (though Hughes would score big one last time in that regard with Ferris Bueller), but I remember being so psyched that somebody had used a Smiths song in a Hollywood movie. And not surprised that it was Hughes (though I hated the new version of the title song from the Psychedelic Furs...the original was so much better).

[Patrick]

tape loop going through my brain:

...I said a....Don't you, forget about me...

[AndrewHill]

How could you not like some of his movies?

His career did drop off after Home Alone, which was a great movie because of Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci, but he wrote some real gems.

I never cared for The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink or Sixteen Candles, but...

Uncle Buck

Vacation

Christmas Vacation (which is the best of all of them)

Weird Science

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

RIP man, thanks for the laughs.

And along with your great list, I'll add Dutch. He didn't direct it, but he did write it. Ed O'Niell was absolutely hysterical!

RIP Mr. Hughes.

[Quincy]

tape loop going through my brain:

...I said a....Don't you, forget about me...

Ack!, that'll be in my head all day now. Another to pee in the punchbowl. I loathed the Breakfast Club cast that helped spawn St. Elmo's Fire (even though he had nothing to do with the film) and hated Molly Ringworm (sorry, "wald," and time has now rendered her harmless). Egads, and the number of times I had to hear some Chicago suburbanite yack about how Judd Nelson sat at the same desk in detention...Judd Nelson? I'd sooner hear Frank Stallone stories if you're going to bore me with inconsequential actors.

I hadn't realized he was behind Vacation. That was alright.

[BruceH]

Sure, if I had been born 5, or more likely 10, years later I might have liked some of his stuff more. But as it was, born in '61, I was a little outside the demo. I always found more to carp about than like in his films. But I can dig where ghost is coming from.

[ghost of miles]

Very nice write-up on Hughes from A.O. Scott in the NY Times.

[Chuck Nessa]

Sure, if I had been born 5, or more likely 10, years later I might have liked some of his stuff more. But as it was, born in '61, I was a little outside the demo. I always found more to carp about than like in his films. But I can dig where ghost is coming from.

I was born way outside the demo but our kids were in his sweet spot. Watched all the films with them and had a bunch of cringe/laughs. Not bad middle brow entertainment. Not a lot of folks can do this.

[ghost of miles]

Good article about Hughes that includes interviews with his two sons in the new Vanity Fair.