You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation
by Susannah Gora
You can quote lines from Sixteen Candles (“Last
night at the dancemy little brother paid a buck to see your
underwear”), your iPod playlist includes more than one song by the
Psychedelic Furs and Simple Minds, you watch The Breakfast Club every time it comes on cable, and you still wish that Andie had ended up with Duckie in Pretty in Pink. You’re a bonafide Brat Pack devotee—and you’re not alone.The films of the Brat Pack—from Sixteen Candles to Say Anything—are
some of the most watched, bestselling DVDs of all time. The landscape
that the Brat Packmemorialized—where outcasts and prom queens fall in
love, preppies and burn-outs become buds, and frosted lip gloss, skinny
ties, and exuberant optimism made us feel invincible—is rich with
cultural themes and significance, and has influenced an entire
generation who still believe that life always turns out the way it is
supposed to.You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried takes
us back to that era, interviewing key players, such as Molly Ringwald,
Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Andrew McCarthy, and
John Cusack, and mines all the material from the movies to the music to
the way the films were made to show how they helped shape our visions
for romance, friendship, society, and success.
night at the dancemy little brother paid a buck to see your
underwear”), your iPod playlist includes more than one song by the
Psychedelic Furs and Simple Minds, you watch The Breakfast Club every time it comes on cable, and you still wish that Andie had ended up with Duckie in Pretty in Pink. You’re a bonafide Brat Pack devotee—and you’re not alone.The films of the Brat Pack—from Sixteen Candles to Say Anything—are
some of the most watched, bestselling DVDs of all time. The landscape
that the Brat Packmemorialized—where outcasts and prom queens fall in
love, preppies and burn-outs become buds, and frosted lip gloss, skinny
ties, and exuberant optimism made us feel invincible—is rich with
cultural themes and significance, and has influenced an entire
generation who still believe that life always turns out the way it is
supposed to.You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried takes
us back to that era, interviewing key players, such as Molly Ringwald,
Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Andrew McCarthy, and
John Cusack, and mines all the material from the movies to the music to
the way the films were made to show how they helped shape our visions
for romance, friendship, society, and success.