Whither John Hughes?...

I recently read an article that commented about the "musical wasteland" of the 1980's--and I will deal with that comment another time--and it brought to mind a single image, centered around a single song. Oddly enough, when I think of something that typifies the look and sound of the 1980's, I don't go punk, I go to high school--probably because that's when I was in high school.

If I bring up the song "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds, what do you think about? I imagine, if you are over the age of, say, 35, you think about Judd Nelson raising one fist over his head in an odd act of defiance. The closing scene in the coming-of-age 1980's classic, The Breakfast Club.

The Breakfast Club was the second movie directed by John Hughes, who had more than a small share of directorial success. Along with the aforementioned film, he also directed Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, She's Having a Baby, Uncle Buck and Curly Sue. And that's it. That's his entire directorial resume. And I saw all but one of those movies, that being Curly Sue, in the theater.

That is a rather impressive list of films to have under your belt, but it's also surprising. Curly Sue, the last film that Hughes directed, came out in 1991.

Why? What happened that caused him to stop directing? It's not that he hasn't been involved at all with films; Hughes is still writing plenty of movies, including one, Drillbit Taylor, that is due out in 2008. And he has produced some others that were big hits, including the Home Alone and Beethoven series of films.

But I miss his directing style. I miss the way that he tells a story visually. And I miss the way that he blended a movie with the soundtrack. He probably wasn't the first to do so, but I always seem to link the modern music soundtrack of original songs with Hughes.

And with that, an open plea to John Hughes:

John--can I call you John?--would you please think about directing a new movie? I know that I'm not the teenager that I once was, and that you have grown some since then, too, but I think that it would be great for you to do a movie about that same generation of people today. What the teens from the 1980's are doing now. I can't think of anyone else better for the job. Thanks for listening.

In the meantime, I'll just continue to hum Simple Minds and hold a fist in the air.