John Hughes in book form.

I know I'm not the only John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, etc.) fan out there because I waited for Susannah Gora's new book You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation on hold from the library for a LONG time.

The book is quite simple; Gora describes each of the "Brat Pack" films of John Hughes in separate chapters (she doesn't bother with his later blockbusters like Home Alone), and also throws in bonus chapters about the magazine article that first named the Pack, what that label did to the actors' careers, and on related films that John Hughes didn't direct, like St. Elmo's Fire and Say Anything.

I didn't actually mean to blow through this one as fast as I did, but I've always been a big John Hughes fan and I must confess it was a lot of fun reliving his movies through this text. I also enjoyed getting the inside scoop on the relationships between the young actors on whom Hughes relied, and other film trivia tidbits. It was also interesting learning a bit more about the youth and personality of Hughes himself--turns out he was a bit mercurial, which, for whatever reason, I wouldn't have pictured. In the end, though, I'm still willing to cut the man who gave us Ferris Bueller's Day Off a bit of slack. Sure, he may have been difficult. But he could sure show joy on film.

If you've ever watched and enjoyed a Hughes film I'd recommend this one. If nothing else it's easy to read the chapters just about your favorite movies and leave the rest (I'll admit I skimmed some of the chapters that focused on the Brat Pack actors).

Comments

[Venta]

omg! i wanted to tell our media studies librarian about this book, and we already own it!! and it's not (yet) checked out. wouldn't this be a great example of a book that college kids wouldn't have to read only in a scholarly way?

[Citizen Reader]

Venta!
This is totally one of those scholarly type books that doesn't read like one. I wish it had been around lo those many years ago when I was a film major for a couple of semesters. Instead I spent all my time writing long moony papers about James Dean and Montgomery Clift.

Do college kids today even know who John Hughes is, or have they seen his movies? Man, I have no idea what the Millennials have for pop culture.

[Venta]

I wondered the same thing about whether the young kids know about John Hughes, but the media librarian is pretty up on what the millenials are up to (she is way closer in age to them than I am). I wonder if some of the film classes are showing his work. To watch Ferris Bueller for a credit - oh, yeah!

I can't see you writing about James Dean and Montgomery Clift. They aren't British!

I might be the last person in her 40s who has finally watched the film, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff?" I'm not sure why it took so long, but I can't stop thinking about it. I'm glad I'm not invited to anything!