It’s a sad day for American Cinema. Legendary filmmaker and writer John Hughes has died at the age of 59! He had a heart attack while jogging.
Here are some of his films:
“Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club,” “Pretty in Pink,”
”Ferris Bueller's Day Off,”
”Planes, Trains, and Automobiles,”
”Uncle Buck,”
”Home Alone.”
If you’re like me, you have very fond memories of these and they take you back to a time and place when things were a lot brighter. We laughed more and people had time to spend together.
Indeed, some of my identity is directly from the side-splitting humor of “Planes, Trains and Autos.” In fact, I watch that with friends and family at least every other Christmas.
All of these movies are imperfect and some have pretty rough edges (PTA has a scene with one of the most concentrated barrage of F-Bombs I have ever seen. We usually fast forward that part).
But, the heart and (mostly) sweet spirit with which these films were created has not been equaled by anyone I can think of in such a great volume.
I think of today’s “hits.” Much of the fun seems gone.
Instead of one fast forward-able scene, many of today’s films take you through a gross-fest of disgusting sexual humor throughout, and it seems to be getting worse (thank you Judd Apatow and Sasha Cohen).
It’s not totally their fault, though.
It’s ours. As long as we go to see films that have such darkness in them (“Bruno,” “Knocked Up,” “40-Year Old Virgin”), they will not change the formula.
To me, it doesn’t matter that they give a lovely platitude at the end if they drag me through the mud to get me there (ie. "American Beauty").
John, I hope I see you in paradise. You will be missed.
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