Chiming in late to this thread, as I was on vacation last week... Joe, if you haven't read this, you should...it'll confirm what you wrote below about Hughes really trying to "get" the teenage viewer of his films:
http://wellknowwhenwegetthere.blogspot.com/2009/08/sincerely-john-hughes.htm l -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Joe Hass Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 7:54 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [TV orNotTV] Re: NotTV: John Hughes, 59, Dead From Heart Attack They missed my favorite scene from all his films: screw it, it's my favorite scene from any movie I've ever seen. It's the scene in which Michael Schoeffling (as Jake) has a conversation with Anthony Michael Hall (as Farmer Ted) after "rescuing" him from a glass case. Ted has Samantha's panties (after showing them to all the geeks for that box of floppy disks) and Jake seems to be unsure as to what to do. The objective from the plot is to get the panties from Ted to Jake. The cheap way to do it is to have Jake somehow torture them away from Ted. Just use brute force to get them. Instead, Hughes uses this opportunity to expose both characters in ways that had never been seen in a teen movie. Jake is no longer the dumb jock: he's trying to figure out what the hell to do about this girl. Ted is revealed as not being some sex-crazed manic: he sounds wiser than anyone else in the film in that scene. It's Ted who takes the lead: he's making a martini (stirred, naturally). He's talking to Jake as a peer: as someone who wants to help. I grew us as a Farmer Ted...the geek...the guy who was simply too damn smart for the room at the time, with all the awkwardness that goes with being too early to understand he's too damn smart for the room. Fortunately, I had this insane mix of personalities that caused me to become an honorary member of all the cliques in high school: no one wanted to beat me up, but I never got invited to the parties either. As it turns out, that mix works out extremely well when I became an adult. But when you're a teenager, it's brutal. I knew all this stuff, but damned if there were any Samantha's in the building who would give me the time of day. John Hughes once said: "A geek is a guy who has everything going for him, but he's just too young. By contrast, a nerd will be a nerd all his life." He was exactly right. And that's why his movies last. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
