Without John Hughes, teen movies would not be anything like they are today. He had a huge impact on how modern teen films are made. Hughes changed the genre by writing about the problems teens face. Hughes took their troubles seriously and presented them as such. Susannah Gora points out that in the film Pretty in Pink, Molly Ringwald's character had to help her dad keep food on the table. In The Breakfast Club, all of the main characters had something they were insecure about or struggled with. John Hughes never belittled teenagers by acting like their problems did not matter, instead he made sure people saw that the issues teenagers deal with are very real. According to Susannah Gora, “His films taught Hollywood that well-made, smart, funny, poignant, dramatic entertainment that doesn't condescend to young people is worth making, for both artistic and commercial reasons.”
John Hughes's films are still referenced in today's teen movies, showing how big of a mark they left in the movie industry. References to John Hughes's films are incredibly common to see in today's teen films. These movies being powerful enough to still be relevant today is just another example of how truly influential John Hughes was to teen films. Popular movies Easy A and Pitch Perfect are both very blatant in their connections to John Hughes's films. The two main characters of Pitch Perfect, Beca (Anna Kendrick) and Jesse (Skylar Astin), discuss The Breakfast Club multiple times and Beca's a Capella group even sings “Don't You Forget About Me” in their final performance. In the beginning of Easy A, Emma Stone's character says her life was not a John Hughes films, and then continues to have many parallels to Ferris Bueller's Day Off (See Christine's post to learn more about that). Then there is the Nickelodeon show Victorious, which had an entire episode based on The Breakfast Club. Teen pop culture today is filled with references to John Hughes and his films, showing that they are true classics that are going to fade away anytime soon. Sometimes the reference is more subtle, like when Brad Garrett's character says, “You mess with the bull, you get the horns,” in The Pacifier. This phrase was coined by Mr. Vernon, the principal in The Breakfast Club, as Hannah Taylor points out.
Some people would say that John Hughes actually wasn't that great and gets too much credit. They say he can't write well rounded adult characters. In the opinion of people like Raymond Keith Woods, the adult characters are all either idiots or villains. While this is true, you have to remember that Hughes's films are centered around teenagers and is from their point of view. Most teenager do view the authority figures in their lives as evil and stupid. Hughes writing them this way only makes the movie appear more true to a teen's thinking. Woods also feels that Hughes's characters are over-dramatic. Well, yeah, they're teenagers. Teenagers are overly-dramatic people! I mean, I would freak out if my mom told me to go to the store by myself and invent some huge story as to why that was a terrible idea and that I could get kidnapped. Teenagers love to be dramatic and embellish, it's just who we are. John Hughes accepted that and worked with it. People have plenty of bad things to say about John Hughes, but just because you don't like him or his movies, doesn't mean what he did for the industry as a whole wasn't great.
John Hughes made a huge impact on teen films. He made sure teens were taken seriously and showed that their problems were real. He has had such a lasting impact on the teen movie industry because his stories were timeless and his characters dealt with problems that a lot of teens still deal with today. As Molly Ringwald told The Atlantic, “That's why John Hughes's movies have prevailed. There hasn't been anything to replace them...John was doing something very different. He wasn't creating slapstick. His pictures were from a teenager's point of view.”
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