1.

"Young people support the movie business and it is only fair that their stories be told".(1) John Hughes 1986

This is an exploration of the teenage films created by John Hughes, a man admired by many young people and hailed, by some, as a folk hero for his attempts to illustrate the stress and trouble of teen angst in the latter part of the twentieth century. As a filmmaker, Hughes is successful in generating revenue but does that make him less worthy of study or is the teen film a genre to be dismissed as being void of critical interest? During the passage of time, a new breed of filmmakers who grew up on the eighties teen movies have started to emerge and they will emulate and have as their point of reference the films which they watched as children and young adults and so has John Hughes influenced a generation of movie makers? The resurgence has already started with directors such as Kevin Smith paying tribute to Hughes in his films Dogma and the film Not Another Teen Movie, which imitate many aspects of the Hughes' universe. The relevance of John Hughes and his movies to people and especially teenagers over recent years will be examined as will the possibility that he was an auteur of the 80s.

Hughes is a film writer, producer and director but sometimes he prefers to do all three. He has worked on over 35 films, 30 of which he has written, 6 of which he has written, directed and produced and 14 which he has written and produced, proving that he has managed to successfully manipulate the Hollywood system into allowing him the power of autonomy over his films where he wishes. Reference will be made to five Hughes' films of the teen genre, which were produced over a period of three years. Out of the five films which will be discussed in this dissertation, Hughes wrote and directed all of them except for Pretty in Pink (directed by Howard Deutch) which he wrote and produced but it is included here because, as a John Hughes film, it is one of the most typical. The focus will be on Hughes' ideas of teenagers and the notion of growing up in the Reagan era. The five films which are the point of reference are Sixteen Candles (1984), Weird Science (1985), The Breakfast Club (1985), Pretty in Pink (1986) and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). These films are generally thought of as Hughes' teen movie cycle before he progressed to more adult films such as Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Uncle Buck and then switched to writing and producing children's films with the phenomenal successful Home Alone which grossed 534 million dollars ensuring that he never had to work again. Although now preferring to write and produce after his last directorial role in the film Curly Sue, was highly criticised, Hughes continues to write children's films such as Flubber, Dennis the Menace, Miracle on 34th Street, Beethoven and 101 Dalmatians.

Hughes' comedic touch when writing movies stems from his early days as a writer for "National Lampoon" magazine. Leonard Maltin says that he is possibly "the most facile chronicler of the baby boom zeitgeist"(2) and has, with considerable thought and reason, portrayed middle-class suburban life and sensibilities with a passion. He earned his place in Hollywood by writing Mr. Mom which gave him the chance to direct his first feature, which was Sixteen Candles. This film shot him into the limelight and made him hot property, not only with the studio executives but also with the teen-age audience who warmed to this new sensitive portrayal of adolescent life. After this Hughes made his most mature film called The Breakfast Club in which he again successfully depicted young adults with equal amounts of comedy and tragedy. This film required the audience to identify with the teenager's feelings of self-doubt and was branded the epitome of the Brat pack movies. After this serious effort, Hughes indulged in a zany latter day Frankenstein movie named Weird Science, which, according to some, destroyed his penchant for films with a serious message into out and out teen exploitation. However, it could be argued that he used this science fiction theme to deal with deeper views of teen confidence and the desire to fit in. Pretty in Pink brought Hughes back on track with issues of class and the daddy's girl syndrome. It is Ferris Bueller's Day Off that followed which is often regarded as his best work and probably the most famous. This film lovingly depicts a truant teenager who is almost superhuman in his scamming ways and who regards every adult he encounters as a sucker with the result that every adolescent wants to aspire to his efforts and identify with him. In his films, Hughes has worked with some of the most interesting actors over the years including Chevy Chase, John Candy, Steve Martin, Harry Dean Stanton, JohnCusak and Dan Ackroyd , often choosing to work with the same actors over again because he has developed a rapport and friendship with them.

John Hughes, as a filmmaker of retro movies has not been the subject of extensive film criticism even though he is one of the most famous teen movie writers/directors of recent years. Rick Altman's book,"Film/Genre", dedicates a mere half page to the subject of the teen movie even going so far as to discuss the burlesque comedy and baseball genre ignoring the teen movie(3), reinforcing the view that this is not a significant area of academia. Many of Hughes' films are humorous, light-hearted images of teen life, not only making light of teenage troubles but also encouraging the audience to laugh at the process of being an adolescent throughout the world in a positive way. Perhaps the biggest question is that why, when the biggest spectator group regularly going to the movies is made up of young people, does authors and critics alike still choose to ignore their lifestyle as a valid area of interest and study.

2.

"My Generation had to be taken seriously because we were stopping things and burning things. We were able to initiate change, because we had such vast numbers. We were part of the baby boom, and when we moved, everything moved with us. But now, there are fewer teens, and they aren't taken as seriously as we were. You make a teenage movie, and critics say, "How dare you?" There's just a general lack of respect for young people now."(4) John Hughes 1986

To be able to discuss if Hughes is an auteur of the teen genre, it is necessary to explore the history of teen movies to ascertain why they originated and how it is that this is one of the most neglected areas of film genre study. Teen movies are one of the newer genres in films owing their origins to the 1950's but it is only in the last 20 years that there has been a resurgence in this area and Hollywood has begun to sit up and take notice. There are three main reasons why this may have occurred; the first is that the audience of today will be the future audience of tomorrow and therefore, as parents, they will be the consumers in that society. The second is that both filmmakers and the audience enjoy wallowing in the nostalgic recollection of their own youth. Thirdly, young people have disposable incomes which are frequently spent on entertainment to escape from the difficult times in which they live. What is more of an issue today than in the past is the amount of products aimed at the youth market in order to encourage an army of consumers who will continue their consumption even as they age.

It is easy to identify with teen movies because every one goes through this point in their lives so making these films of relevance to everyone. Some of the themes in these stories of daily life include falling in love, becoming accepted by your peers, having sex and generally learning about the world. These are matters everyone encounters as adolescents for the first time so making them important stages in every person's development, often determining how one lives the rest of one's life. This fact, coupled with the idea that films intrinsically show conflict makes for essential viewing.

At the beginning of the twentieth century children would rarely continue at school after 14 and would most likely be married and having children by 18. This made the whole idea of a youth culture non-existent. Even so, people were still worried about exposing children and young adults to adult films and corrupting them, so, rather than making films aimed at a younger market, the movie industry indulged the majority in the films it made. The Hays' code, formulated by the 1920's, regulated and revised an already strict industry continuing the trend that there were few films aimed at the youth of America, apart from a few exceptions such as, Pollyanna (1920) and Broken Blossoms (1919). The 1930's signified a time when youth was portrayed on film as young adults who had already gone through the teen years or as pre-puberty children, refusing to show the development years and so films consequently did not deal with the pressing issues dealt with in later films, such as teen sex, romance, alcohol and family problems. After the Depression, movies began to be more positive and often contained tales of optimism and positivety, but again these films were aimed at adults or for parents to watch with their children. It was not until the end of World War II that the teenager really emerged. The period in between childhood and adulthood was more extended and became a cause for acknowledgement. The perceived time spent as a teenager increased as more people stayed in school and then, because of the post war boom, more people attended college in America than ever before.

The 1950's were significant as, for the first time in American history, the teenager as a separate identity began to exist. With the new youth culture came a tremendous surge in young adult orientated movies. Independence for youth eventually materialised when cars came down in price and the 50s teenager became independently mobile. The prospering economy allowed teenagers the chance to find jobs and earn a wage while still at school or college, making entertainment one of the main outlets for the newfound wealth of youth. Rock and Roll became popular with this age group as a source of expression and another outlet for their money. This new generation seemed to be saying that life was too short and consequently they seized it and expressed themselves while they were could. Another aspect of the emergence of this new generation was that television and the start of the suburbunisation of America kept older people at home while the teenagers were free to go to the cinema. Two main changes in the legal situation in America also fostered this teen genre. The first was the "Paramount Case" in 1948, which made the large studio relinquish their grasp of near domination of the movie theatres allowing smaller, more independent companies to make films for other groups within society such as the teenager. Then came "The Miracle Decision" in 1952, which gave a certain amount of freedom of speech to films by allowing them first amendment rights. Production companies were able to make more grown up material and deal with riskier themes that had previously been considered immoral. This drew more people to the cinema as television continued to be tame by comparison.

Instead of this new breed in society being accepted, teenagers became outcasts and America began to fear them so the first group of teen movies were films about the fear of teenagers or ephebiphobia as it was called. This started a train of films about teen angst in which teenagers were not often portrayed in a positive light. Pictures such as Rock Pretty Baby (1956), West Side Story (1961), The Restless Years (1958) and All Fall Down (1962) emerged playing on people's paranoia of teenagers. It was also the time of the archetypal teen rebellion film. The Wild One (1953) starring Marlon Brando appeared, initiating the young rebel image and two years later James Dean starred in Rebel Without A Cause (1955) in which he portrayed the definitive archetypal problem teen. These films although not immediately beneficial to the portrayal of teen-age struggle portrayed the hardships teenagers had to undergo. Rebel With Out A Cause showed the audience such issues as addiction to alcohol, crime, family problems, fitting in and, in a concealed way, homosexuality, all topics that are now almost a prerequisite of the teen movie. Films continued in this vein portraying problems and issues that teens have to deal with making audiences realise that being young is not easy but, as with all things in Hollywood, a movement came about which began to trivialise this. Teen films began to be split into two distinct factions, on the one side films that rejoiced in the essence of youth showing frivolity and good times with a distinct lack of understanding and knowledge, on the other, teenagers being bad, getting in to trouble and being general nuisances; an almost exploitative teen sub genre. Instead of portraying teenagers in a realistic way and asking people to identify, be educated and learn the movement took a retrograde step and, almost 50 years on, there is still a distinct divide between good guy teen pics and bad dude films.

The 60's and 70's were the decades when a number of youth orientated films were made but these centred on young adults rather than teenagers. The reasons for this can be attributed to a number of factors such as the start of a proper film classification system, the gaining of the vote in 1971 by 18 year olds and the draft of many young men to Vietnam. This was the age of Easy Rider (1969) and Wild In The Streets (1968); a time for people to rebel against the system once more and celebrate the differences between adults and youth.

The final turning point in movie history was towards the end of the 70s when a new meeting point for teens was born, the shopping mall. These malls were more than just places where young people could congregate; they were areas where young people could exercise their buying power, go to watch similar young people, view movies and generally get away from their parents. Out of the malls came the convenience of having everything under one roof and it seemed natural to build cinemas there so the multiplex was born. With the multiplex came a greater number of screens, widening the choice of genres for everybody and, as one of the main groups that frequented the malls were teenagers, Hollywood, never wanting to miss an opportunity, capitalised on this. During the 50's the young audience had a fairly small choice in films on offer and were accordingly forced to watch Hollywood portrayals of youth which did not necessarily have anything to do with them or what they thought. The multiplex changed that by offering greater variety. Profits showed what the youth market preferred in terms of their own portrayal and, by the end of the century, films about teenagers were widespread. At no other point in time have teenagers been more frequently portrayed in the media giving them images to aspire to, to live their lives by and to learn from. This may explain why teenagers are now perceived as being less naive than teenagers of yesteryear.

The late 70's and early eighties produced four films which were set to define what teen films became and what they are today; Halloween (1978), Animal House (1978), Meatballs (1979) and Porky's (1981). The last three were zany comedies that portrayed teens as hormonal, pleasure-seeking individuals, whilst Halloween (1978) punished fun-loving teenagers by way of brutal murders. These opposing ends of the spectrum were the starting point from which all other teen sub-genres sprang. As had been the case in the 50s, films were divided into those portraying teenagers in a positive light and those which depicted teens as people to be feared. Films continued to be exploitative on both sides; on the one hand films that showed teens as being non-thinking and carefree, utilising narratives about sex and depicting nudity wherever possible and on the other, teenagers were punished for similar indiscretions.

In 1982 Fast Times at Ridgemont High emerged which was the first successful combination of a teen sex comedy in a high school setting, paving the way for the combination of genres. Within the teen genre are subdivisions which can be identified as the horror film, the juvenile delinquent drama, the school picture, the science film, the sex comedy and the romantic melodrama. Out of all theses sub genres, the teen horror film made the most money but was often guilty of a negative portrayal of teenagers by showing them being punished for their sexual exploits. However negative this image was, it was probably the most widely viewed by a non-youth audience and for a short time in the early 80s it was the main portrayal of youth in American cinema.

The juvenile delinquent drama fed on adult paranoia about teenagers being overly aggressive both physically and verbally, which is a natural expression of this age group. Again it contained versions from the opposite ends of the spectrum where some films were innocent portrayals of teens playing hooky e.g. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) to movies like Kids (1995) dealing with drugs, under age sex and AIDS amongst young people. The school sub genre offered the basis for most youth films in which the setting allowed the film to explore aspects of youth culture rife with different stereotypical characters who can be identified from the way they look on screen. The youth science film is an important sub genre but Hollywood ceased its interest in this area after the Cold War came to an end. A worrying aspect of this neglect is that as computers and other technological innovations become ever more important to children and young adults for their survival in the twenty first century, Hollywood seems to be dumbing down the issue of youth and science. The romantic melodrama and sex comedy go hand in hand both following the notion that there is no substitute for personal experience when it comes to sexual awareness and love. As all films are based on conflict, all of these films have issues that the characters have to overcome and contain subjects such as class divisions and race. This sub genre matured as time passed and moved away from the more exploitative pictures to the mid 80s when the teen romance came to be treated in a more serious and sensible fashion.

The teen film employs these sub genres to the present day and they continue to serve as an outline for the films of the future. Towards the latter half of the 80s and until the mid 90s youth films became less popular. The mid 90s saw a revitalisation of teen movies when Hollywood tried to win back the young audience who had forsaken cinema for cable, satellite television and computers. The teen revival began with films such as Clueless (1995), Scream (1996) that is itself a homage to the teen slasher flicks of the early 80s and Dangerous Minds (1995). The teen culture which had this sudden boost was not limited to the cinema as it crossed over to the small screen and became a marketable commodity once more i.e. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson's Creek and Sweet Valley High.

All teen films reflect the social climate and attitudes of the era in which they were made but contain common threads which are relevant to teenagers of different periods in time namely, the realisation and acclamation of each one's individual identity. However, a big issue about the teen genre is that people under 30 very rarely make the films although this has begun to vary in more recent times. John Hughes himself was 33-36 when he made his teen films, begging the question how authentic can they be?

3.

"People ask me "Were you the geek?" No I wasn't "So which one were you?" I don't get it. Who was Alfred Hitchcock in his movies? Janet Leigh? Did anyone even ask him? But I get asked, so I make up an answer."(5) John Hughes 1988

In the 1957 article "La Politique des auteurs", Andre Bazin describes auteurism as "choosing in the artistic creation the personal factor as a criterion of reference, and then postulating its permanence and even its progress from one work to the next." The idea that someone can place their own signature or stamp on a film or films rather than it being a collaborative effort did not meet with wide acclaim, for, almost as soon as this comment was made, a backlash began asking how could a film reveal a personal view when hundreds of people had collaborated to create something unique. When the idea was proposed in the fifties, film was still struggling for artistic recognition and it was the French critiques, by discussing film theory in their magazine, Cahiers du Cinema, who helped to establish film as a legitimate form of study from both the perspective of the French cinema and Hollywood cinema. Their work argued the validity of film as an art form.

Can artistic legitimisation be applied to John Hughes films in the same way that the French critics of the 1950's argued that the then current day American directors such as Hitchcock, Welles and Hawks were worthy of study and displayed a discerning style and personality in their films? Hughes has been relatively overlooked, perhaps because he is seen as a modern commercial filmmaker who has used the same themes a number of times. The critic Kael pointed out that repetition and similarities in films are a sign that the director is not trying anything new and lacks originality. Bazin, in 1957, wrote an article in which he said that critics should be careful who they proclaim as auteurs because the "cult of personality" might turn popular directors into demi-gods of the screen but despite this, can we argue that Hughes is himself an auteur?

Because of the many arguments surrounding auteurism, there are not easily identifiable characteristics which would proclaim who is or is not an auteur. For decades the critics have argued what exactly constitutes the making of an auteur, whether it is through technological, historical or sociological factors such as Bazin argues or through technical competence, distinguishable personality and hidden meaning such as Sarris suggests. There are no strict guidelines but the director's signature on the film must be apparent. To be able to designate John Hughes as a true auteur, his work must contain a definitive mark with his personality shining through. The whole concept of mise en scene is where we will look to find evidence of style, structure and form. With this in mind we must examine Hughes' films to ascertain whether the name John Hughes has a value as a trademark conjuring up notions of profit making and repetitive story themes or is he an auteur who uses style and themes which are visible in all his films.

It is true to say that there are identifiable, similar themes in all films made by John Hughes but especially those in his teen movie cycle. The most obvious similarity between all five of these films is that they are about adolescents or teenagers. On the surface he seems to be demonstrating a sense of compassion and caring about teenagers. Some may argue that this is exploitative. As he is not a teen, how would he be able to write with validity and honesty about teenagers? Beneath the stereotypical characters their complex identities are individual unlike the labels, which are attached to them. The geek who is seen in many of Hughes films is ridiculed similar to the fool character in Shakespeare's plays, but is also shown as someone who has feelings so that the audience can empathise with his lot. The underlying sadness of the geek is allowed to constantly come through in Hughes' films.

There is a recurrent common theme of teenagers who are indulging in romance rather than sex. Hughes frequently shows encounters which culminate in a kiss rather than any sexual act. Hughes himself said, "Most of my characters are romantic rather than sexual. I think that's an essential difference in my pictures. I think they are more accurate in portraying young people as romantic; as wanting a relationship, and understanding with a member of the opposite sex more than just physical sex".(6) This idea of romantic love echoes themes in films from earlier periods of the cinema and is in contrast with other movies of the time.

Hughes appreciates the honesty and transparency of teenagers He says, "I can walk up to a seventeen year old and say, "How do you get along with your friends?" and he'll say, "Okay." You ask a thirty five year old the same question, and he'll say, "What do you want to know? What's wrong? Get away from me." All those walls built up."(7) He utilises this openness to bring the audience closer to identifying with the characters allowing for a more sympathetic approach towards teenagers. He recognises that using stereotypes means that the audience already has a certain understanding of the characters and will use this to its advantage but he surprises the viewer when the characters break their mould, as they inevitably do. For example in The Breakfast Club you have five definitive stereotypes; a brain, an athlete, a princess, a weirdo and a rebel who all undergo a metamorphosis in the course of the movie revealing the message that one should not judge a book by its cover and as the characters shed their layers and remove items of clothing we realise that we have similar problems but are all are the same underneath.

His innocent portrayal of life harks back to a forgotten era such as the 50s where everything seemed so much simpler and less complex. Hughes seems to be doing this so that the film is easier to understand but is also possibly paying tribute to the teen films which started this particular genre. This far less complex portrait of life makes theses stories with the exception of Weird Science seem possible for anyone to experience making them appealing to the audience and allowing them to be more involved in with the film which is grounded in realism. Sixteen Candles is a story of a girl whose birthday is forgotten, Pretty in Pink concerns a teenager who falls in love with someone who seems unattainable, The Breakfast Club is a day in detention with five teens from different backgrounds and Ferris Bueller's Day Off is about the adventures a boy has whilst playing truant from school.

All characters in Hughes films undergo transformation in some way whether it is mentally, physically or sociologically. They are stories about discovering oneself and exploring exactly who one is and in order to find one's role in society and life. This is a struggle which every teenager faces and is looking to resolve and within Hughes films the answers can be found. In Weird Science the characters of Wyatt and Gary create a woman for themselves and she helps them to overcome their social inadequacies, making them the most popular people in school.

Hughes is the most prominent filmmaker from Chicago and, although he does not deal exclusively with the city, there are constant references to it throughout his films. He once called Ferris Bueller's Day Off his "love letter to the city"(8) because of its almost fantasy adventure quality which Ferris and his friends explore in the movie. His air of expertise mainly lies in suburban life with most of his characters living in redbrick houses with white, picket fences. This idealistic picture of middle class America is more of a vessel to allow his message to come across rather than a realistic portrayal of America and its youth as a whole, dealing with an area that he feels at home and comfortable with.