Sixteen Candles (1983)
In the early 1980s, the teen movie was not a respected genre.
It seemed that for every respectable effort like My Bodyguard,
there were five crass crowd-pleasers like Porky's to
outnumber it. Thus, people weren't inclined to think of teen
movies as anything more than a source of crude laughs.
This all changed in 1983 when John Hughes made one of the
all-time teen movie classics, Sixteen Candles. This comedy
based its humour on observation instead of cheap gags, and in the
process firmly established John Hughes as the new king of teen
movies.
Sixteen Candles focuses on Samantha Davis, a smart,
likable teen who finds herself dealing with one crisis after
another on her sixteenth birthday. To start with, her family has
forgotten her birthday in the rush created by her sister Ginny's
impending wedding. But that's not her only problem: she also
happens to be head over heels in love with the school's resident
dreamboat, Jake Ryan.
However, Jake is already spoken for by the school's hottest
senior femme, Caroline. To make matters worse, Samantha is also
being pursued by the school's king geek, Ted, and also by Long Duk
Dong, a hormonal exchange student who is staying with her
grandparents.
Things only get crazier as the night approaches, since it
happens to be the night of the big school dance. Samantha finds
herself getting closer and closer to Jake, who might actually be
interested in Sam. Meanwhile, Ted steps up his plans to win
Samantha over, and Long Duk Dong discovers the wonders of partying
American-style.
The events of the evening lead to a wild party at Jake's house,
with interesting consequences for everyone involved by the night's
end.
Sixteen Candles was much more than your average teen
comedy. It sounded and felt very real, thanks to John Hughes'
ability to create believable teen talk and behaviour patterns.
When Samantha and Ted discuss his status as the king of the geeks,
the movie manages to be funny and poignant all at once.
Hughes was equally at home recreating the often dysfunctional
rhythms of family life (the insult-fights between Sam and her
brother, a memorably uncomfortable dinner between Sam's parents
and their future in-laws, etc.). In all these scenes, Hughes
showed a special ability to get the maximum humour out of his
scenes without ever letting it become mean-spirited or too
outrageous for its own good.
These witty and well-observed scenes come to life thanks to
memorable performances from a combination of old pros and gifted
newcomers. Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall won long-lived
teen stardom thanks to their witty but heartfelt turns as Sam and
Ted, and Gedde Watanabe managed to steal every scene he was in as
the irrepressible Long Duk Dong.
The film's bit parts were also full of soon-to-be-familiar
faces: John Cusack, Jami Gertz and Joan Cusack among them.
Sixteen Candles did fairly well at the box office but
found its biggest audience on cable and home video. It quickly
became a small-screen favourite, thanks to its durable combination
of fall-down-funny gags and endlessly quotable dialogue.
Its success also led Hughes to write, produce and/or direct a
string of unforgettable teen movies like The Breakfast Club,
Pretty In Pink and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. And
even today, Sixteen Candles holds up as one of the most
perceptive teen movies in film history because of its unique
combination of wit and heart
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