Book digs up lots of Brat Pack dish.

Bailey Massey

15 February 2010

This isn't just a book about John Hughes' flicks ; they are the center of this exam, but other films are explored, and for excellent reasons. Neither is it merely a book about the Brat Pack, though the tragic aftermath of the Manhattan glossy article that coined that phrase are researched totally. And it's clearly not an insignificant puff piece or patchwork of old People articles. Hughes, a product of the north suburbs, not only interpreted his piece of the North American teenager experience to his films, he shot the 1st landmark films there. "You do it in Chicago because this is where John works best," recalls producer Bruce Berman. "The Breakfast Club" ( a k a "The Small Chill" ), for example, was shot in an empty Des Plaines school ( Maine North ) ; the now-iconic library set's shelves were stocked with books discarded from the Chicago Public Library. In the flick, the highschool is named Shermer High, which was an homage : Hughes got raised in Northbrook, the first name of which was Shermerville. The late Hughes is the central personality here, for certain. He did not invent the teen flick, but he did perfect it. Much is made from "Hughes' intriguing familiarity with the teen soul," and Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert is quoted describing him as "the thinker of adolescence." His films treated teen life with grace and respect, and that is the reason why his first outings were such a success. The book's special features include removed scenes, too outlines of them, anyhow. It may pain fans to understand that, in "Sixteen Candles," Long Duk Dong grabbed a mike at a fitness center pep rally and led the whole college in a rap song. Also : "Among the lost scenes [from 'The Breakfast Club'] was one Ally Sheedy had invented, in which her personality sings a upsetting song by the late folks frontman Phil Ochs to herself in a soundproof room in the library " Finally , Hughes told her, "The studio believed it was too unusual to put in." There are tasty near-misses, too. Not only was Downey this / close to playing Duckie, but John Cusack was terribly just about cast as John Bender ( Nelson's breakout role ) in "The Breakfast Club," and his sister, Joan, was the 1st actor cast as Allison ( Sheedy's role ) in that flick. Gora rhapsodizes occasionally and includes her share of overstatement ( "[Judd] Nelson was the Bogart of his era." ), but in the final analysis she smartly ties together her thesis and, in doing so, lifts the elite of an overgeneralized crop of teenager films up for completely adult and objective appreciation. Both results, accept it or not, are worth examining.