A perfect tribute with a perfect ending, that’s how easy it is to describe this clip since like it or not, John Hughes deserved this as a director since he created some of the most iconic movies in his time that are still popular today and are still relevant in many ways despite the fact that much of their content is very dated. From The Breakfast Club to Home Alone to Pretty in Pink and the Vacation series, Hughes had a vision that brought a level of humor to the audience that was endearing and insanely funny, making people laugh so hard their jaws ached even if some of the content is now considered to be fringe or just not right at all. A person definitely needed a sense of humor to watch some of Hughes’ movies to be certain, but if they had one then it was easy to just sit and laugh at what he created since it was nothing less than a laugh riot followed up by a lot of human feeling that always tended to make into the movie at some point. If his movies had been strictly comedies then they might not have been quite as memorable, but given that he followed up the laughs with a lot of drama it definitely left the feeling of each movie being very grounded and easy for people to relate to.
For instance, in The Breakfast Club it’s established that there’s a brain, a princess, a jock, a basketcase, and a criminal, and of course there’s the hard-nosed principal and the friendly janitor. These are stereotypes that exist in real life and are easy for people to look at and relate to in a big way. But the manner in which Hughes presented them and the actors portrayed them makes it that much better since it lends some reality to the movie in a way that speaks to the viewers on a very personal level. High school movies tend to go from being realistic and even dark at times to being light, funny, and altogether out of control with situations that would rarely, if ever, happen. Compare the library setting in The Breakfast Club with just about any setting in any modern-day teenage movie and chances are a lot of people would say that TBC is a lot more realistic. Of course there are moments when it doesn’t feel as though something should be missed by any of the characters, but the overall impact of the movie is that it pulls together some of the most alienated teenagers in the school and forces them to take a look at each other and themselves in a way they hadn’t bothered to do before. Each movie that Hughes did brought a very humanizing effect to the screen in a way that was easy to watch, easy to listen to, and very easy to walk away from with a smile once it was all said and done.
Lately it’s been very common to hear many people saying that some of Hughes’ movies couldn’t be made in this day and age, and while that’s a load of bunk there are a lot of moments in the movies that are situational and are problematic in some ways as of today but were perfectly acceptable back when they were being filmed. Plus, whether people want to think they were or weren’t acceptable, the fact remains that they’re SATIRE. People tend to find just about anything to chew on these days when it comes to finding controversy in the meat of any subject, but in effect they find the moments and scenes that bother them the most and take them out of context or simply focus on those scenes and forget the rest of the movie. It’s true that taken on their own, some scenes are rather difficult to defend, but taken as a bigger part of the movie, as another part of the comedy, and as something that’s meant to be funny and not at all depressing or wrong, they turn into comedic moments once again that are enjoyed by a wide number of people. The fact that some of the actors from that era have revealed that they didn’t approve of everything within the movies either then or after a while is an eye-opener, but at the same time they were watched closely so that nothing untoward happened and people have made many of Hughes’ movies cult classics that are still treasured today.
This parade of actors performing some of their most classic lines is one of the best ways that Hughes’ work could have been represented and celebrated as it reminds people just how great the movies were and how talented the man was when it came to making people laugh. And of course, as I already said, the ending was perfect.
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