From the desk of Robert Rappaport on Friday, August 7th 2009 at 9:29

REMEMBERING JOHN HUGHES

As you've no doubt heard by now, filmmaker John Hughes died unexpectedly this week of a heart attack at the age of 59. Man, I loved his movies.

While having not seen ALL of Hughes' movies, two stand out above all the rest... Ferris Bueller's Day Off in 1986 and National Lampoon's Vacation in 1983. Thanks to cable television, I've seen each of those movies too many times to count, but lines from them are part of my daily vernacular.

Who among us hasn't at one time or another said "Bueller, Bueller, Bueller?" Sadly enough, I can even quote the "Um, he's sick..." rapid response that comes after it. Matthew Broderick will always be Ferris to me, no matter how many other movies he makes. I was not a big fan of Biloxi Blues. I kept thinking of his character as Ferris in another movie, much like Henry Winkler will always be "The Fonz" to me.

John Hughes (AP, 1984)

Sure, Hughes had those other hits, like Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles, which made him wildly popular in the 1980s, but I choose to remember him as the creator of Clark Griswold and Ferris Bueller.

They just don't make movies like that anymore, do they? Why not? Maybe it's a generational thing, but I think the teen angst movies of the 1980s were far superior to the stuff we see these days. Sure, movies today are more polished, but they don't seem to have that lasting effect of the "old days," like the John Hughes movies do. Am I wrong?

Read about Hughes' extensive career at his Wiki page.

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