The Dreamer's Disease

      I just watched John Hughes “Sixteen candles” again the other day. Despite being a person who’s reputed to be just into serious, dramatic films, I’ve always had a soft spot for the 80’s teen comedies too. Who wouldn’t like the fairy tale notion that just by completely loving a person, probably who seems unattainable, they will love you right back? So what if in reality John Hughes movies probably offer a blue print for disaster. The fantasies still fun...

 

    Here’s a lightening quick plot run down for those that haven’t seen it.  Really cute, though not “hot”, girl next door type Samantha turns 16 and is in love with the most popular guy in school Jake. Despite all his friends being douche bags and Jake dating the hottest and most popular girl in school he secretly is a nice guy. The story unravels with lots of great politically incorrect humour (for those that have seen it, who doesn’t love Long Duck Dong? )  and of course, spoiler alert, Samantha’s prayers are answered. Jake loves her too... despite only realizing she existed that day after inadvertently seeing a note saying she wanted to lose her virginity to him.

  

   Okay, so time to just think about it all a bit. Why a blue print for disaster? Well this for starters. The western world is a marketplace for all commodities and what bigger commodity than love? Relationships, especially the bad ones, often are a bit like commodity exchanges. People promote themselves, play up their best attributes then try to sell to the highest bidder.  Sadly people can, and do..., abuse the purity of unhindered, naive love rather than celebrate it. Really, it’s not uncommon that a person who has just been broken up with might use someone who is absolutely doting on them to get their swagger back. It’s like emotional vampireism - drink up another person’s confidence and apply it towards what one “really” wants. This often works in a chain. Suck the confidence of someone below you to apply it to someone above you. While the person above does the same thing and there you have a cycle of people looking higher then looking lower, and repeating... If you go into that "game" unprepared, or John Hughes' deluded, you could end up pretty jaded. 

   There is irony at play when you think of the stars of John Hughes' films and even Hughes himself. Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy... they all got branded as the “brat pack” then type cast and their careers all died unfair deaths. The same happened to John Hughes himself. After SO much 80’s success his style didn’t translate to the glibber 90’s and he became a recluse. In a way Hughes had to face reality and not the fantasies he had got rich selling. Still though, such great laughs and heart warming conclusions. Maybe some people got tarnished a little by the dreams he tried to sell, me included..., but they were fun dreams. And personally, I’ll never fault a dreamer.