John Hughes - a Teenager's Favorite Film Director

If you are over the age of 30 and are ever asked to name a few of your favorite "teen" movies, you are likely to mention such films as "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club," and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." Each is a good film in its own right and probably deserves to be on such a list. What do these films have in common besides having teenagers in the lead roles? The answer is John Hughes.

Hughes is widely regarded as the king of teen movies and it's a title well deserved. Beginning in 1984 and lasting for seven years, Hughes wrote and directed eight movies with all but one featuring young adults or younger in the lead roles. Teenagers latched onto his films because he knew how to speak for them without looking down on them. He was the pulse for American teenagers and spoke their language fluently.

Hughes' films were unflinchingly upbeat with lead characters who had a tough edge on the outside but were softies on the inside. Teenagers appreciated the fact that almost every adult character in a Hughes movie was a buffoon who was easily outsmarted by youth. It was their fantasies come true.

Hughes was also a master of using music in his movies. He often used new wave music of the era and had huge singles come from his films including Don't You Forget About Me and If You Leave.

Hughes' movies spoke to an entire generation and studios attempted repeatedly to duplicate his films with little or no success. In fact, in the last fifteen years only "American Pie," "Clueless," and "Mean Girls" have measured to up to the Hughes standard.

Then as quickly as he came onto the scene, John Hughes went away. He hasn't directed a movie in 16 years and hasn't been credited with an original screenplay in 6 years. He last screen credit was 5 years ago.

What happened?