One of the biggest similarities in all Hughes films is that they are set in the mythical town of Shermer, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. This town recalls the youth of Hughes as it represents the town in which he grew up which was also a suburb of Chicago, previously named Shermerville. Hughes says, "When I first stated making movies, I thought I would just invent a town where everything happened. Everybody in all my movies is from Shermer, Illinois. Del Griffiths from Planes, Trains and Automobiles lives two doors down from Samantha Baker. Ferris Bueller knew Samantha Baker from Sixteen Candles. For fifteen years I've written my Shermer stories in prose, collecting its history."(9) The teens in all five of his teen cycle films go to Shermer High, the exact location being the Glenbrook North High School, the school which John Hughes actually went to when his parents moved to Northbrook, making the films more personal and almost a commentary on his school life. It is used as a setting in which Hughes can convey messages and meaning.

The school bus another component in the journey to adulthood is mentioned twice in these five films because Hughes hated it so much when he was young and so it is portrayed as a haven for nerds and idiots in both Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller's Day Off where the Principal, at the end of the film, has to suffer the humiliation of riding the bus home while reading graffiti that is mocking him.

Hughes' penchant for making almost hidden cameos is hard to decipher but he appears to like leaving little clues in his films that link all of them together; he is Bryan the geek's father in The Breakfast Club who picks him up at the end and he also appears as a man running between cabs in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. This implies that he enjoys his little in jokes rewarding people for paying attention and taking note. It could also be seen as a passing reference to the great director, Hitchcock, who made a cameo appearance in films he made.

Hughes' films proclaim the message that the family is all-important and, although depicting adults/parents as being foolish or stupid, it is clear that he wants teenagers to know that parents do care and that family values are what matter. In both Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink, Molly Ringwald's characters have a special bond with their fathers, even going so far as to confide in them rather than their mothers. This strong paternal link reveals Hughes' belief that fathers should take an active role in the upbringing of their offspring. Matthew Broderick's character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off has incredibly strong ties with both his parents to the extent that he has them believing that he is an angel while his sister, Jeannie, knows better. Throughout the course of this film, Jeannie struggles to expose Ferris for the fraud he is but it is only at the climax when a character from outside the family attempts to accost Ferris that his sister realises that the family is all important and saves him so demonstrating that, although sibling rivalry is common in every family, blood is still thicker than water.

The negative portrayal of parents is used as a device by which Hughes hopes to win over his teenage audience by showing them what they believe to be true. Stupid, forgetful, unaware, uncaring and oblivious are all traits that adults and parents display in Hughes' films from the over-bearing mother in The Breakfast Club, to the unemployed, drunken but kind-hearted father played by Harry Dean Stanton in Pretty in Pink. All siblings in every one of these films are annoying, as are uncles and grandparents, according to Hughes. This echoes the experience of most teenagers e.g. in Sixteen Candles, Samantha's younger brother declares, "She only eats carrots to increase the size of her breasts." Bill Paxton's character in Weird Science also causes enormous problems for the two main protagonists, at one point extorting Wyatt's new VCR in return for not telling their parents that they were out late.

The ignored child is another theme contained within Hughes films, which constantly recurs echoing what many teenagers perceive to be their situation. In Sixteen Candles everyone forgets Samantha's birthday, and in The Breakfast Club Alison is constantly ignored by her parents, as a result of which she wants to run away. In Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ferris seems much more the favoured child while his sister struggles for attention and Cameron claims that his father loves his Ferrari more than him. In Weird Science the boys are excluded from the cool groups and in Pretty in Pink Samantha is ignored by the rich kids because of her low status at school

Many of Hughes films deal with class issues; in Pretty in Pink the character played by Molly Ringwald who does actually live on the wrong side of the tracks falls in love with Anthony McCarthy's character who is from an upper class background and while McCarthy's friends ridicule him for being involved with a girl of questionable class, he eventually ends up with her, sending the message that love bridges the class divide. In The Breakfast Club there is the biggest difference of social divisions with three of the five characters coming from privileged backgrounds and two from the lower classes. Again love crosses the class divide when two couples are formed from disparate social backgrounds.

Realism is effectively used in Hughes films to make school life seem as truthful as possible by populating the background with real teenagers and children at school. During filming of The Breakfast Club Hughes insisted on the principal cast eating their meals in the school canteen and making the actors mingle with the students to create an air of authenticity. Hughes enjoys using real relatives, again for added realism to imbue his films with a natural feel as at the beginning of The Breakfast Club when Anthony Michael Hall is actually dropped off and reprimanded by his real mother and sister. Molly and Beth Ringwald both appear in Sixteen Candles, as do John and Joan Cusak. Hughes almost seems to be trying to create his own cinematic family off screen as well as on by using the same core of actors and their families over again. While filming The Breakfast Club, Hughes chose to film in chronological order to try to encompass and capture a true sense of emotion on screen. Studio bosses questioned this at the time but the sense of tragedy during the final moments of confession and the intense sadness on finishing this film is visible on all the actors' faces.

Hughes attention to detail is extremely important to him. He decorated Ferris Bueller's room to mimic his own when he was a teenager, putting up a huge poster of Simple Minds (a nod to The breakfast club) and he also painted an entire copse green because it was not the seasonal colour it was supposed to be in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The set dressing is key to reveal individual traits and personality of the characters. In the beginning scenes of The Breakfast Club we are shown a tableau with props and images that are linked to the characters we are about to see e.g. we see why Brian is in detention by being shown his burnt out locker with ash and soot covering the floor as the flare gun he tried to kill himself with went off in his locker. This particular image is shown when the word "a brain" is heard and it is not until the end of the film that the reason he is in detention is explained. In Weird Science Lisa, the girl Wyatt and Gary create, conjures up some uninvited guests to force the teens to be brave in front of their peers. John Hughes went so far as to get Vernon Wells who plays Wez, the lord general of the biker gang in Mad Max 2, to play the same character in this film and even obtained the same bike he had used. The underlying message of this particular act is that, because the protagonists created Lisa by feeding media information into the computer, she is able to call on this knowledge of pop culture to intimidate Wyatt and Gary.

Names are also a topic of conversation as most people in Hughes films have strange sounding names, perhaps a subconscious ploy to make teenagers feel more secure about their own or to make the characters more memorable; names such as Bryce and Weese in Sixteen Candles, Duckie and Blaine in Pretty in Pink, Wyatt and Chet in Weird Science, Ferris, Cameron and Sloane in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Bender in The Breakfast Club.

Parties which are part of the ritual and a rite of passage of being young are predictably shown as being a bit wild and crazy, e.g. the pizza on the record player and the Japanese man in the tree in Sixteen Candles and in Weird Science the missile erupts from the floor when trying to create another woman, the biker gang turn up, Wyatt's grandparents are frozen in a closet and a whole room and people turn blue.

Hughes' heroes appear in his films with frequency. Hughes said, "My Heroes were, Dylan, John Lennon and Picasso, because they each moved their particular medium forward, when they got to the point that they were comfortable, they always moved on."(10) Picasso appears in Ferris Bueller's Day Off when their journey takes them to Chicago's Museum of Art, allowing many American teenagers for the first time see true art and actually appreciate that you can be young and cool and go to art galleries. Anthony Michael Hall sings "Birthday"(11) and "Hey Jude"(12) to Samantha as he tries to woe her in a scene from Pretty In Pink. During The Breakfast Club Hall's character who is very similar to the geek in Pretty In Pink talks to himself and says "I am the Walrus" a reference to the Beatles "The Magical Mystery Tour"(13) album. Also during this film, Carl the janitor claims that when he was young he wanted to be John Lennon. Ferris Bueller's Day Off contains references to John Lennon when, towards the climax of the film, Ferris mimes "Twist and Shout"(14) in the German day parade in Chicago to thousands of people and in the beginning he proclaims to camera "I quote John Lennon "I don't believe in Beatles…I just believe in me" A good point there, after all he was the walrus. I could be the Walrus. I'd still have to bum rides off people."

In this cycle of films there also seems to be a tendency to see France as somewhere exotic and interesting, a place where the characters in Hughes' films aspire to be or talk about. Samantha in Sixteen Candles expresses a desire to marry a man from France and when the same actress appeared in Breakfast Club she exclaims that she wishes she were on a plane to France. During Pretty In Pink, Duckie mispronounces the word "touché" and also in Ferris Bueller's Day Off both characters Cameron and Ferris say, "pardon my French" before swearing and eat at an expensive French restaurant named Chez Quis. Finally, the McAllisters go to France for Christmas in Home Alone for a family holiday leaving Kevin behind. This reference to France seems to be there to promote the link between France and romanticism since all of Hughes' films deal with romantic rather than sexual relationships. This reinforces the stereotypical idea that French is the language of love and fits with Hughes' use of stereotypes for ease of understanding.

Many of Hughes' films have special endings even though only Ferris Bueller's Day Off out of the teen cycle has a special post credits scene. At the end of Plane, Trains and Automobiles, after the credits, the advertising executive who was studying ideas for a new range of consumer products at the beginning of the film is still there perusing the designs while eating his Thanksgiving dinner. Hughes use of these extra jokes on the end appear to be his attempt to have a literal last laugh at the audience. After The Great Outdoors credits' two racoons sit discussing the intricacies of rubbish, a continuing joke that runs the course of the film and in Ferris Bueller's Day Off Matthew comes out after the credits and tells every one to go home as the movie is over. Perhaps, in someway, Hughes was encouraging people to stay to the end of his films hoping that they will see the credits and observe how many people it takes to make a film or maybe he is trying to be different and rebel, a common feature in his movies. This rebellious feature is seen in the people in Hughes' films who have a tendency to rebel but within the confines of conformity and who eventually to aspire to become part of society. Ferris demonstrates this by rebelling and escaping school for the day but instead frittering the time away and going to the beach, he and his friends visit an art gallery and the stock exchange finally culminating in the German American parade, something I am sure all modern teenagers would loathe.

Having Ferris talk to the camera is one of Hughes' many Brechtian techniques; trying to distance the audience to make them actually aware that what they are watching is a film. This idea could be seen as risky as most teenagers go to a film to escape reality not have emphasised that what they are watching is a work of fiction. At the beginning of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ferris talks to the audience, which could be quite off putting, but then what he is saying begins to be written on screen next to him. This is a list of rules of what to do when you want to feign illness. The Geek looks at the camera and smiles when he looks like he is about to get lucky in Sixteen Candles while Ferris continues to do so throughout the whole film. So the audience can see that Ferris is supposed to be special, as he knows he is in a movie. This is also a devise to be used to get the audience to see things from Ferris's perspective from the outset of the film. The fourth wall is also broken down by Duckie at the end of Pretty in pink when an attractive girl beckons him over he looks at the audience establishing communication. A quote appears on screen at the beginning of The Breakfast Club of David Bowie's song "Changes"(15) and, as we finish reading this, it smashes into thousands of pieces suggesting the theme of rebellion and anarchy once again. As the children of the sixties rebelled in their own way, it is time for a new wave to rebel in their way. In Weird Science the boys both glance at the camera almost asking for confirmation of what they are about to do while in Planes Trains and Automobiles there are the most distancing techniques of all when Neil Page imagines Del Griffith sitting in the airport lounge with a taxi door in front of him and Del looks surprised as Neil tries to remember where he has seen him from before. This film also contains a moment when Neil looks at Del in the middle of a car accident and he turns into the devil laughing and jeering at him, followed by the both of them turning into frightened skeletons. These techniques point to a desire to be different from the traditional escapist film, possibly treating the audience to a certain level of respect, assuming that they will understand the meaning behind the obscure imagery.

One of Hughes' most recognisable features visible throughout his films is that every time a car belongs to a main character their number plate is personalised to either their name, a John Hughes film, an opinion, a place they work, or a feeling. In The Breakfast Club Brian the nerd's father's car has the plate EMC2 because of the association with genius. In Weird Science all three characters Lisa, Gary and Wyatt have their names on their car licence plates. Cameron's father's Ferrari has the title of NRVOUS in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and in Sixteen Candles the father of the love interest has NYSE on his Rolls Royce representing his place of business and the love interest himself has 21850, Hughes's birthday on his Porsche. It is interesting to note the irony that is the fact that Hughes places much emphasis on vehicles in his films as a symbol of independence and that cars were one of major catalyst in the emergence of teenagers in the first place.

Hughes is synonymous with the "Brat Pack", the group of young actors who appeared in the mid-eighties and disappeared soon after. While not working with all the Brat pack during this time, he is affiliated with them closely. This small community of players dominated the screen and were somehow given the negative name of Brat Pack by a Hollywood reporter. This may explain the bad press they often received which, apart from the exception of Rob Lowe, is unjustified. The Breakfast Club is the epitome of the Brat Pack movie because all the actors except for Anthony Michael Hall were members i.e. Molly Ringwald, (so called women auxiliary brat packer) Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Emilio Estevez. Hughes liked to work with people who he liked and had worked with so that he made three films with both Anthony Michael Hall and Molly Ringwald. The latter did not do any more with him because of a falling out between the two. Hughes loved to work with John Candy as well and made seven movies with him until his death.

Music is said by some to be the most recognisable aspect of Hughes' films constantly sending obscure songs into the best sellers' list. He has a distinct penchant for Anglo electric sounds and his ability to pick complementing music for his films has helped them become more memorable. The Simple Minds track "Don't you forget about me"(16) probably being the most famous from the beginning and end of The Breakfast Club. He has also worked closely with a band called Oingo Biongo which was the famous Danny Elfman's band before he shot to fame with music for Tim Burton films. Hughes wrote the film Pretty In Pink after the Psychedelic Furs' song that Molly Ringwald told him about.(17) He was both influenced by music and used music to influence the mood of his films.

4.

"When the causes of the decline of western civilisation are finally writ, Hollywood will surely have to answer why it turned one of man's most significant art forms over to the self gratification of high schoolers."(18) Review of the Breakfast Club, Variety, Feb 13, 1985.

There are many arguments against proclaiming John Hughes as an auteur; the biggest being that he is a commercial genre filmmaker and seems to jump on whatever bandwagon can offer the most lucrative profits. He embraced the teen movie genre, changing it slightly and invented the sub-genre of the teen romance comedy drama. Some maintain that he basically incorporated all aspects of the original genre and then tapped it until no money was left before moving on to make adult films and then movies for children which were the biggest moneymaker of them all. His seemingly exploitative nature of teenagers has earned him a bad reputation over the years with some people who have branded him a purveyor of "horny teen sex comedies"(19) and a filmmaker whose ideas are contrived and suffer from the fetish of material objects. This aside, there are other points that need to be considered rather than his approach to teenagers; his portrayal of other races and his avoidance of more pressing issues in a time that was politically unstable with the continuation of the Cold War in the Reagan/Thatcher era. Some might say that the only politics he was promoting was that of capitalism.

Hughes' narratives throughout the cycle of his films are fairly simplistic when seen from afar. He has not tried anything drastic or revolutionary. In essence they are no more than rehashes of old stories most notably Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and the age old story of conflict between different groups and the love that prevails in spite of this. Pretty In Pink is the classic example of this with two people falling in love even though class division separates them. In The Breakfast Club there are similar problems when both Estevez and Ringwald take pity on and fall in love with the poor teens, Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy.

Holding any world record is a great achievement but holding the record for the fastest time for writing the script of a full-length feature film can indicate a variety of things. Hughes penned the script for Weird Science in just two days. That was an improvement on The Breakfast Club which took him three days which bettered his National Lampoon's Vacation script of four days. Writing a script in two days is some feat especially when it took him eight hours to complete the last forty pages of Home Alone. Either he saw the market for these types of stories and seized the opportunity, settling on whatever came to his mind or he is a literary genius.

Some critics have accused Hughes that the characters in his films are of questionable political correctness. Weird Science has losers Gary and Wyatt creating a woman for themselves. Thinking she will be a sex object they build her out of images of their own fantasy women. When Kelly Le Brock arrives, however, things are slightly different. She is a sex object, she is flirtatious and she instigates sexual scenarios but she is also a mother figure; someone who cleans, cooks and dresses for them and takes charge of their lives. The underlying notion that the perfect woman that every adolescent male lusts after is a maternal seductive female is an interesting idea and she disappears after they find girlfriends. This may be seen as a parallel to marriage, perhaps. Besides this she still appears to be a troublemaker; someone intent on changing their lives around. She does not convince the two that they are fine as they are but she makes them seek popularity, going so far as to make Gary have to threaten mutant bikers so that he can prove he is a man and so that people will like him because he has resorted to violence rather than diplomacy. As we know teenagers are unsure of themselves and these films are obviously meant to appeal to that audience so it could be said that Hughes is not assisting the teenager in being comfortable with himself. The shallow character of Clare in The Breakfast Club is seen only to want Bender because of the need for ammunition in the struggle to overpower her parents which could be seen as a message to all impressionable youths on how to hurt your mother and father. Also the questionable moral in this film is that the only truly individual character, Allison, is the one who is physically transformed. She changes from her rather modern grunge look to a boring princess which makes her apparently now visible and desirable by Andy, the jock. The implication is that it does matter what is on the outside.

The character Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles could be seen as displaying a slightly racist attitude as he is a foreign student from Japan staying at Samantha's house who knows very little English. This is a rare sight in Hughes films as he does not often devote screen time to non-white actors and the accompanying gong which resounds every time this character appears or speaks reinforces the idea of making him not fit in, a trait which Hughes normally protests about when dealing with white characters. Ferris Bueller has similar problems and the only time we see non-whites in this film are the school nurse, the car thieves and a song and dance group who appear and perform to the sound of "Twist and Shout". In Weird Science Gary, Wyatt and Lisa go to a bar where they are the only white people and the typical cliché is used where everyone turns and the music stops when they enter. Anthony Michael Hall imitates or rather believes himself to be imitating an old African American voice by the end of the evening and tries to blend in. However this scene could be John Hughes being clever mocking his old co-workers from National Lampoon, when in the film Animal house a group of white university students enter a bar while Otis Day and the Knight are playing. Also it is worth note that in both Sixteen Candles and Weird Science main characters are seen to be drinking and driving and in most teen Hughes' films there are scenes involving the disrespect for other people's cars and characters who drive without a licence. This is sending an interesting message to teenagers but is probably there as a device to pander to the notion of rebellion.

It could be said of Hughes that his films are too cliché ridden, with just far too many similarities in his films that are easy to spot, for him to be called an auteur. If the audience is made up of teenagers and young adults then their movie knowledge might not be as great as those who are older and more experienced so the question arises how would these people know a good film if they have nothing to compare with it. Also it should be noted that Hughes constantly emphasise the divide between adults and teenagers as in The Breakfast Club Allison says, "When you grow up your heart dies". This may be seen as Hughes, in his privileged position, widening the gap between the two instead of bringing them together. The teen cycle could merely be popular because of the need of teenagers to be vindicated and noticed and by pampering to their longing to be represented on screen films are being made that are going to be seen no matter what their content.

The study of director as auteur can be seen as a way of legitimising film as an art form, by considering whether films are a personal expression which reveals the director's style and individuality and over which he or she had artistic control. Distinction has been drawn between the auteur and metteur-en-scene. The former being a director who is the dominant, creative force within the film which reveals his individuality, a recognisable style and recurring themes, whereas the latter is a director who merely displays competence in directing the film.

Consideration must be given to whether the final end product, being the film, can be viewed as being under the sole authorship of its director who has used his self-expression, individual style, creativity and coherence. It has been argued that art must be distinguished from a commercial product or mass entertainment i.e. a film which has commercial success cannot be construed as art and consequently the director would not be regarded as an auteur. As Hughes films have been commercially profitable, some may argue that his intention was to produce a commodity rather than art. In contrast to this, an argument could be made that the innovation contained within his films, the level of control he had over them, his recurrent themes and styles and his individual way of seeing things and telling a story render Hughes an auteur, particularly be reference to the teen films which he made.

5.

"I think it's wrong not to allow someone the right to have a problem because of their age. People say, "Well, they're young. They have their whole lives ahead of them. What do they have to complain about?" They forget very quickly what it's like to be young."(20) John Hughes 1986.

In this cycle of films, adolescence is portrayed in a very sensitive, subtle way. It is seen as a special time, a time when opinions are formed that will shape an individual's ideals and values for the rest of their life. When you are young you long for your problems to be considered and to actually matter. It is the struggle that every teen knows and, to have the issues that are faced every day portrayed on a big screen with hundreds of people with similar thoughts and insecurities around you experiencing the same thrill, is surely extremely rewarding. This is what Hughes has done with the teen movie genre. He took a fairly ridiculous exploitative genre and strengthened it, giving it a backbone to stand up on. No more gratuitous sex, no guaranteed nudity, only serious issues and characters with lots of humour thrown in for good measure. He could be seen as being guilty of showing adults and parents as being unqualified and unfit to take the youths through these troubled times but then what teenager did not think the same about their teachers or their parents. He made his young actors appear smarter, cooler, more ingenious than they had ever been shown, giving young adults something to aspire to, to work towards. He demonstrated a world where teenagers ran the show; a Utopia, a perfect universe where world problems and politics did not matter, only love and the issues between parents and teenagers. The impression given by his films is that if these obstacles are overcome then the world will be a better place. Some filmmakers make films about things they have not experienced, Vietnam, time travel and alien invasion. Hughes makes films about being young in a suburb of Chicago, something he experienced. He kept to this recipe not to exploit because he felt comfortable expanding this mythical Shermer universe; a place he was familiar with. He may not have been a teenager in the 80s but teenagers are the same the world over. Hughes demonstrates that tastes in clothes and music are what sets the parameters for social groups in school and the real world but do not define the person. He makes the point that everyone should like themselves for what they are and come to realise that teenage life is important enough to be portrayed on screen. He has demonstrated through his utopian ideals the desire for the end of social inequality that divides American society; that everyone is the same underneath which gives his characters a common enemy to work against, namely older people. Teenagers were excited when his films appeared because they saw themselves represented on screen for the first time without being shown as stupid or ridiculous. Hughes looked at teenagers seriously and wrote for them. He created a niche that was a combination of realism, comedy, satire and music videos for a generation that was the first which was truly media savvy and used to the constant switching between styles, as well as television channels. If we look back on his films now, a present day audience, who are even more media orientated than the last, may see the films as patronising but they led the way to the intelligent teen movie; the new genre that has erupted out of the ashes of Hughes' work. Hughes himself admits that they are flawed movies. They are not perfect as he started directing with no previous experience but at the climax one can really empathise with the characters as he usually makes a real story about people he understands and knows and, in essence, they are films which teach and educate not just entertain as most other films. He may have changed his style since the mid 80s,after progressing to adult and children's films. In the latter he replaced humorous subtleties with Three Stooges slapstick because Hughes knows his audience and understands what makes them tick. He manages a balance between making films for a group of people and being successful as well as being able to introduce his own touches, so making his mark on them, although this has become less obvious as time has gone on. The most obvious similarities were with his teen movies. The 80s appears on film to be an age of innocence with many things in common with the prosperous 50s. It was a time that intelligent films mostly forgot and Hollywood solely focused on making money, trying constantly to out do the last blockbuster. The offspring of the baby boom generation were growing up. There were lots of them with money to spend and they wanted cinematic representation. They went to see the films that were made to take their pocket money and they were satisfied but the next generation were different. The new teenagers were not happy with what the previous ones consumed, as there was a distinct feeling of resentment and fear of the future with a heightened distrust for the media. They were not subdued with what was offered as they knew it was solely to make money. The audience had essentially matured and evolved and were not as simple as their previous counterparts. So the films that Hollywood created had to become smarter. The teen picture died down and there was not so large an audience of teens in the 90's. There was then resurgence when two films emerged in 1995 and proved to be talking points even though they were at opposite ends of the spectrum. First there was Larry Clark's Kids which portrayed teenagers doing everything John Hughes' teenagers did not and then Clueless in which the rich girl, previously known for being generally evil, became exceptionally nice and tried to help everyone. So a backlash occurred, taking what was previously considered a prerequisite for teen movies and inverting it. However, on the whole, the image of youth is still a positive one thanks to Hughes. Ghost World, Donnie Darko, The Virgin Suicides and Save the Last Dance are all teen movies that have emerged recently and all depict youth as intelligent but they now have more concerns than previous films knowing that the struggle they face is a lot more complex than the generations of yesterday.

As a major auteur of the 1980's, Hughes has made some of the most memorable work of that decade. Within minutes of watching a film you can definitively recognise that this is a Hughes' film. His signature is everywhere. From the tiniest detail to the way the narrative is driven, the Hughes stamp is clear. This paper is an attempt to establish whether Hughes is an auteur or not. The positive aspects of the auteur in Hughes' films significantly out weigh the negative and so the answer is clearly yes. However, the question which would seem to be more relevant is whether his films are worthy of serious study because there is a gaping hole of critical books on this subject. As time passes, the new generation of filmmakers who are paying tribute to Hughes by creating intelligent teen movies will make a difference to society and youth and, in so doing, validate the teen genre. People will ask where these films came from, what started it all off and some geek in the back row will slowly raise their hand up and resolutely say, "His name was John Hughes".

End Notes:

1) Molly Ringwald interviews John Hughes for Seventeen Magazine, Spring 1986, see www.riverblue.com/hughes/articles/molly17.html
2) From Leonard Maltin's movie encyclopedia on Hughes' biography on www.imdb.com
3) Rick Altman's book "Film/Genre" 2000, BFI Publishing, pages 51, 69 for burlesque comedy and 140, 143 for baseball genre.
4) Molly Ringwald interviews John Hughes for Seventeen Magazine, Spring 1986, see www.riverblue.com/hughes/articles/molly17.html
5) Premiere, July 1988, Terry Minski, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hughes", see www.riverblue.com/hughes/articles/drjekyll.html
6) Molly Ringwald interviews John Hughes for Seventeen Magazine, Spring 1986, see www.riverblue.com/hughes/articles/molly17.html
7) Molly Ringwald interviews John Hughes for Seventeen Magazine, Spring 1986, see www.riverblue.com/hughes/articles/molly17.html
8) A-Z of Hughes, see www.riverblue.com/hughes/c.html under Chicago.
9) A-Z of Hughes, see www.riverblue.com/hughes/s.html under Shermer.
10) A-Z of Hughes, see www.riverblue.com/hughes/t_z.html under walrus.
11) The Beatles "White Album" 1968, produced by George Martin, cd 2 track 1.
12) The Beatles "Past Masters, Volume Two", 1968, prd by George Martin, track 7.
13) The Beatles "Magical Mystery Tour", 1967, prd by George martin track 6.
14) The Beatles "Please Pleas Me", 1963, prd. George Martin, track 14.
15) David Bowie, "Hunky Dory", 1972, prd. Ken Scott, track 1.
16) Simple Minds, "The best of Simple Minds", "Don't You Forget about me", 2002, disk 1, track 1.
17) Psychedelic Furs, "Talk, Talk, Talk", "Pretty in Pink", 1981, track 2.
18) Variety, Febuary 13, 1985. see Berstein J.1997, Pretty in Pink: the Golden age of Teenage Movies, St. Martins Griffin, New York, chapter 1.
19) Molly Ringwald interviews John Hughes for Seventeen Magazine, Spring 1986, see www.riverblue.com/hughes/articles/molly17.html
20) Molly Ringwald interviews John Hughes for Seventeen Magazine, Spring 1986, see www.riverblue.com/hughes/articles/molly17.html

Bibliography:

Books

Ed. Allon Y. Ed. Cullen D. Ed. Patterson H. 2002, Contemporary North American Film Directors a Wallflower Critical Guide, 2nd ed, Wallflower Press, London. Altman R. 2000, Film/Genre, British Film Institute, London. Base R. 1990, The Movies of the Eighties, Mcdonald, London. Haslan D. Bawer B. 1992, The Screenplay's the Thing, Shoe String Press, Hamden Connecticut. Berstein J. 1997, Pretty in Pink: the Golden age of Teenage Movies, St. Martins Griffin, New York. Bordwell D. 1993, Film Art: an Introduction, McGraw-Hill, New York. Thompson K. Brake M. 1990, Comparative Youth Culture, the Sociology of Youth Cultures and Youth Subculture in America, Britain and Canada, Routledge, London. Ed. Cook P. 1999, The Cinema Book, 2nd ed, BFI, London. Ed. Bernink M. Doherty T. 1988, Teenagers and Teenpics, the Juvenilization of American Movies in the 50's, Unwin Hyman, London. Ed. Gateward F. 2002, Sugar Spice and Everything Nice, Cinemas of Girlhood, Ed. Pomerance M. Wayne State University Press, Detroit Michigan. Lewis J. 1992, The Road to Romance and Ruin, Teen Films and Youth Culture, Routledge, London. Neale S. 2000, Genre and Hollywood, Routledge, London. Ed. Nelmes. 1996, An Introduction to Film Studies, Routledge, London. Robertson P. 1994, The Guinness Book of Movie Facts and Feats, Guinness, London. Shary T. 2002, Generation Multiplex, the Image of Youth in Contemporary American Cinema, University of Texas Press, Austin Texas. Ed. Stam R. 2000, Film and Theory, Blackwell Publishers, Malden, Ed. Miller T. Massuchusetts.

Articles

Speed L. 1998, "Pastel Romances, the Teen Films of John Hughes", Metro, 113/114, p103-110.

Films

101 Dalmations, 1996, StephenHerek, Disney.
All Fall Down, 1962, John Frankenheimer, MGM.
Animal House, 1978, John Landis, Universal.
Beethoven, 1992, Brian Levant, Universal.
The Breakfast Club, 1985, John Hughes, Universal.
Broken Blossoms, 1919, D.W. Griffith, United Artists.
Clueless, 1995, Amy Heckerling, Universal.
Curly Sue, 1991, John Hughes, Warner Brothers.
Dangerous Minds, 1995, John Smith, Buena Vista.
Dennis The Menace, 1993, Nick Castle, Warner Brothers.
Dogma, 1999, Kevin Smith, STK Productions.
Donnie Darko, 2001, Richard Kelly, 20th Century Fox.
Easy Rider, 1969, Dennis Hopper, Columbia.
Fast Times at Ridgemount High, 1982, Amy Heckerling, Universal.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off, 1986, John Hughes, Paramount.
Flubber, 1997, Les Mayfield, Disney.
Ghost World, 2001, Terry Zwigoff, United Artists.
The Great Outdoors, 1988, Howard Deutch, Universal.
Halloween, 1978, John Carpenter, Falcon Films.
Home Alone, 1990, Chris Columbus, 20th Century Fox.
Kids, 1995, Larry Clark, Miramax.
Meat Balls, 1979, Ivan Reitman, Paramount.
Miracle on 34th Street, 1994, Les Mayfield, 20th Century Fox.
Mr. Mom, 1983, Stan Dragoti, MGM.
National Lampoons Vacation, 1983, Harold Ramis, Warner Brothers.
Not Another Teen Movie, 2001, Joel Gallen, Columbia.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles, 1987, John Hughes, Universal.
Pollyanna, 1920, Paul Powell, United Artists.
Porky's 1981, Bob Clark, Melvin Simon Productions.
Pretty in Pink, 1986, Howard Deutch, Paramount.
Rebel Without a Cause, 1955, Nicholas Ray, Warner Brothers.
The Restless Years, 1958, Robert Wise, Universal.
Rock Pretty Baby, 1956, Richard Barlett, Universal.
Save The Last Dance, 2001, Thomas Carter, MTV Films.
Scream, 1996, Wes Craven, Miramax.
Sixteen Candles, 1984, John Hughes, Universal.
Uncle Buck, 1989, John Hughes, Universal.
The Virgin Suicides, 1999, Sofia Coppola, American Zeotrope.
Weird Science, 1985, John Hughes, Universal.
West Side Story, 1961, Jerome Robbins, MGM.
Wild in the Streets, 1968, Barry Shear, AIP.
The Wild One, 1954, Laszlo Benedict, Columbia.

Internet

The John Hughes Files, http://www.riverblue.com

Representations of Youth, a Critical analysis of a Specific film Representation of Youth, http://members.lycos.co.uk/louisaparry/youth.txt

Save Ferris, http://www.80s.com/saveferris

Internet Movie Database, http://us.imdb.com

Sixteen Candles, Something for everyone, http://briansworld.fcac.org/16c

Chicago Sun-times, Roger Ebert Reviews, http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews