4. He Steals Thunder Away From Better Teen Films
Hard to believe it but John Hughes was not the only person making teen centered films in the 80's, neither was he the best one doing it. I understand that in the entertainment world there are many cases of people who receive too much praise and those who receive none even thought the latter's work is often as good or better than the former. Its a common occurrence to be sure but never has there been such an egregious example of over-praise than with John Hughes. For many who even have a faint recollection of the 80's his name is remembered far above any other director. Even those who made much better films than his. When asked who the premiere director of the 80's is do people say Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese? No. They immediately identify John Hughes. Impressive to be sure but this kind of obsessive praise can cause people to miss the forest for the trees. Some of the better more healthy trees producing good fruit for teenagers during that time were people like Amy Heckerling, Cameron Crowe, Savage Steve Holland, Joel Schumacher, Martha Coolidge, Rob Reiner, and Francis Ford Coppola. I think the reason Hughes is so well remember above all these others is a matter of quantity over quality. He put out a lot of stuff back then and essentially over-saturated the market. The good he did helped to elevate his more mediocre material to a point where everything he produced was seen as legendary. If you wanna be real you would have to admit that Hughes was behind maybe just a couple of movies (both written and directed) that had any sort of real worth in the 80's. Film critic Marshall Fine made a great point when he stated that:
"John Hughes was a mediocre director and prolific writer who wrote more than three dozen films and directed eight. And of those, there are about three that stand the test of time: Sixteen Candles,The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Those are the three films in the Hughes' oeuvre which, early on, had me convinced for a moment that Hughes was a genuine talent"
To that list of 3 I would probably add Planes Trains and Automobiles and Weird Science but other than that I agree whole heatedly with Mr. Fine and his sentiments. I understand John Hughes probably wanted to be like Preston Sturges in that he wanted to direct so he could protect what he had written but unlike Sturges he didn't posses any real directorial talent beneath his surface deep slick visuals, hokey charm and occasional profound insights. Hughes' talent with a pen was able to take him a long way in Hollywood but one of the places he should have avoided was the director's chair.