‘80s Cliques, Hughes and White Kids
enrico
While chatting with Amy Holmes and John Hockenberry on NPR’s The Take Away, Wesley Morris, a film critic from The Boston Globe, threw this out there: “Yeah, I mean, I think there is a kind of universality to some of this… there’s a kind of middle-American-ness to John Hughes. I grew up in a city. I grew up black. In a lot of ways for me… I didn’t know the name for this, but it was Otherness. They were other to me.” By “they” Morris means the characters in Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, and so on.
I really loved Hughes’ films, and still enjoy the quotes and the scenes. Very charming in so many ways. But I have to agree with Morris. The whiteness of those films is remarkable. When I think about them now, they do seem strangely and overly focused on white culture. Don’t they? I guess that was the suburbs, but still. You can check out the podcast here to get Morris’ phrasing and the responses from Holmes and Hockenberry. Pretty interesting. The clip starts at 38:07. Maybe it’s me, but I think the exchange between Morris, Holmes and Hockenberry has an uncomfortable air, sort of like saying “bummer” with a smile.
No Comments
|
| Posted on August 10, 2009
Comments