04 March, 2012

Sixteen Candles



I love 80’s films as much as the next girl, and what not, but I have yet to find what it is that links them all together that makes them so addictive.  Is it that most of the people who list them on Facebook include all John Hughes movies?  Is it because they feature the “brat pack”?  Is it the fact that they’re grainy-looking and ohmygod, this makes them so cool?

Now, we’ve all seen this movie, right?  Sam (Molly Ringwald) turns sixteen and everybody forgets and nobody wishes her a happy birthday, and she’s disappointed that this is the biggest birthday of her lifelong career and her life is over and this geek (Anthony Michael Hall) won’t stop following her so she gives him her panties and then she gets kissed by a guy (I’m pretty sure this is the only movie he was ever in so I won’t even bother) she’s only exchanged, like, one single conversation with.

I think it’s just a curiosity factor, where everything seems so different than how it is now, and it makes me wonder how I’d be, being a high-school student in the 80’s.  There’s a scene in this movie (the “Have you ever done it?” screencap) where Molly Ringwald’s character, Sam, is filling out a “sex questionnaire”in class and she’s meant to pass it to someone else to fill out, as well.  If this were a movie set for today, Sam would most likely be mindlessly staring at her computer and then posting it on Facebook (for certain people to see, I guess, considering I’d like to imagine Sam’s got certain boundaries).  Then Sam rides the bus and goes home—and I hated myself once I caught myself thinking “Well, now what’s she gonna do?”…  as if there was nothing else to do back then, since there were no computers!  To be fair, I don’t think I can imagine Sam reading a book, she’s way too mad at the world for that.  Can’t imagine her dancing to music, either, she’d see her reflection in a mirror and hate her body or something.  Also, the fact that a TV isn’t really turned on in this movie for a long visible amount of time made me temporarily forget TVs existed.  Basically, Sam does nothing except sit in a corner and think about Jake Ryan (and this includes romantic variations for every other teenager).

This train of thought depressed* me, though.  Why couldn’t I imagine a society without phones or social networking or reality TV?  Did this mean that our own present society is a cruel cruel reminder that we, in general, suck, or that I need to get my crap together and start believing that the world is not an actual black pit that vomits worthless cases of nothing that will result in nothing because nothing?

I vote the latter.  But that’s a cool experiment.  I saw a recent presentation where a man encouraged people to try something new for 30 days, something we’ve always wanted to try.  I think it’d be interesting to attempt going a whole month without the unnecessary side of the internet (Blogger.com, you know I love you, baby, but there are other things I love more than you, I’m sorry).
And for the record, I am part of the annoying club of people that has yet to be named that has always liked the guy that just gets forgotten in the end.  Anthony Michael Hall in Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club (my God, he was wearing Ray Bans and a green sweater and worrying about Bender damaging school property, the sex appeal), Jon Cryer’s Duckie in Pretty in Pink, and Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.  Really.  All of these people, forgotten, just left alone, when I was just sitting here the entire time, admiring and loving them all from afar.

* I think it’s just all of these movies soundtracks, man, something about eighties pop and rock that just gives me heavy boots.

30 comments :

  1. You've made me want to re watch ALL OF these movies. Ferris Beuller is one of my favourites! Such a well written post, I'd never thought of it from this angle before, I always just sort of get sucked in and imagine I'm in the 80's with them and never see it from a more modern point of view.
    Although sadly I cannot be in your club, I don't see the cameron appeal, the headmaster was way sexier : /

    xx

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  2. I really like 80's music, I think it's the music in the world, but when it comes to everything else, I only like a few movies, and I certainly hate the clothes. I was a child of the 80's, and I think it was the best time of my life, but I don't think I would've liked to be a teenager back then.
    50's teenager...? That's a whole different thing <3

    Girls that glitter love the dark
    xoxo

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  3. I watched Sixteen Candles on the midnight of my 16th birthday! I absolutely adore John Hughes films! My favorite's gotta be Ferris Bueller's Day Off! Some Kind of Wonderful is brilliant yet underrated too.

    But Sixteen Candles kinda pissed me off in a way they openly make fun of Long Duck Dong. I know he's supposed to be a comic relief but it's just so....racist ): it's kind of like how some perfect good movies turn me off with racist humor like Breakfast at Tiffany's with the Japanese guy (who's played by a white guy wtf) anyways, am I being overly sensitive or what...?

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    1. You're totally not being over-sensitive, I remember reading a Cracked article about the most racistly(is this a word? racially?)-interpreted characters in movies ever and The Breakfast at Tifanny's man was listed, and then I found out it was played by a white guy, and it was really sad to find this out-- this is indeed something annoying to find out. Racist humor is so distasteful and unnecessary!

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  4. It sounds really good! :D I have to see it some day! ;)♥ xx

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  5. It should be an interesting movies, specially because I love the eighties.

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  6. Oh, that's sounds really nice! :D I love Cinnamon tea.. I think you gonna like it ;)♥ I have never tried Chamomille tea, I gonna try it! :D ♥ Hahah, thank you! :) xx

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  7. interesting thought here. it reminds me of how i asked my uncle how did procrastinate during college back in the day, without internet or TV (few) and he simply said they still found ways to do so. i suggest that you shouldn't dwell too much on the negative aspects of technology since we all too often overlook the benefits by taking everything for granted. i do think you should try something new if that makes you happy (everybody should in my opinion) :)

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  8. I loved sixteen candles and pretty in pink because the protagonist is someone we could all be. She looks realistic, is not rich and is interested in her brain. And in the end she gets the guy each time! Great post x

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  9. I should be indignant about Long Duck Dong but, god, I love everything about this movie so much! Totally with you on the forgotten sidekicks/sometimes victims of unrequited love.

    PS: great blog!

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    1. "Victims of unrequited love" I THINK I FOUND THE NAME FOR MY FAN CLUB.

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  10. Ferris Beuller's Day Off is one of my favourite movies of all time! This one day, I was wandering around a DVD store and Alan Ruck (guy who plays Cameron) just sauntered in with his posse! I got dizzy and giggled until I almost hyperventilated and I got his autograph.

    This may happen a lot in America, but I live in a city called Adelaide in Australia. We don't get celebrities here!

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    1. What?! Oh my gosh! I would have freaked out, told the nearest person that I was about to go into full panic attack mode, maybe steady myself on a now-knocked-over stack of DVD's and frantically search for something for him to sign. My GOD.

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  11. i love your look!!

    www.aroundlucia.com
    www.aroundlucia.com

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  12. one of my favorite movies, ever!

    xxx
    www.ladyalamode.com

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  13. I often talk about how my age group was really the last to get through high school without all the technology and social networking. By the time my little sister was in high school they all had myspace (LOL) and cell phones. I would imagine it definitely changes things and it makes me a little sad for kids these days to have missed out on the fun of pay phones and creative ways to talk to your friends after your parents shut down phone hours. And writing letters to your friends in class...do kids write notes anymore!?

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  14. Yes! I love Duckie! :) I feel like the ones who are forgotten are way more interesting.

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  15. Great post :) For me, the appeal of all these 80s movies is that no matter how silly they get, they still have some substance to them. Unlike some of the crap teen movies today, which are so slick, it's hard to empathise with them. I don't know, maybe I'm romanticising the past though ...

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  16. Your blog is so lovely-- a definite bookmark.
    80s movies have always been a bit like an item of curiosity for me. Like the little dusty 60yr old teddy you find in the basement and like to admire from time to time, without getting too pokeythingyjdshgfjsf. If you see what i mean ^^

    x L
    http://acidkangaroo.blogspot.com/

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  17. I've never seen this movie, really want to now!
    www.styleisalwaysfashionable.blogspot.com

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  18. I've never seen this film! I wanna watch!

    http://golddustk.blogspot.com/

    Katie x

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  19. I am going to quickly buy your website give food to to stay in feel from a updates. Thanks

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  20. OH MY GOODNESS. I read this post yesterday and I've just seen this movie and DAYUM. I loved (!!!) it! I really don't know why I've never ever seen it before.

    But that aside, I totally agree. I mean, I'd love to try 30 days without a computer, but the thing is. I need the damn thing for college, and I'd probably have a thousand similar, but less important, excuses to not try that out (blogger.com indeed).

    I would be so much less messier in my head, or so I imagine. Thanks for sharing this movie with me though, if we hadn't had blogger.. oh boy, where would we be?! ;)

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  21. I love this movie!! Thanks for sharing these images! :)

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  22. Omgawsh I love this movie. <3 SO. MUCH. -JJ... Not so Anonymous after all.

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  23. I really like this movie. Great post :)

    http://stories-of-a-student.blogspot.com/

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  24. Yes, ok, definitely official now. Hi, let's be friends. But, um, Duckie. I love Duckie. ALSO have you seen Say Anything?? Because you just might flip for Lloyd. And oh, the 80's pop! Do you like how complete my sentences are? Goodness, 80's movies...

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  25. I will suggest for you to produce content a lot more normally.

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Thank you, pal.