Annotated Catalogue
Item 1
Film: The Breakfast Club (Universal Studios, February 1985,
John Hughes)
This is the focus film of my work; I chose this film because
it is one of Hughes’ best and most famous, as well as containing and exploring
all 4 key elements that I have chosen: Representation of Teenagers, Use of
Music, Stereotypes and Representation of Authority; so I will have more to
write about this film than any of the others and it has a lot of evidence
within the films to help with my points. I have also seen this film more times
than any other Hughes’ film and I know it better than any other, so it seems
ideal as my focus film.
Item 2
Film: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (Paramount Pictures, June
1986, John Hughes)
This is one of the supporting films for my research project;
I chose this because it does use most of the elements that I will be exploring,
but not all of them. The only element that it doesn’t focus on is the
representation of teenagers or their place in society; however it does focus
mostly on the other three, but not all four so so it doesn’t seem best suited
as my focus film, but there is still plenty within it that would be useful. It
is also one of Hughes’ most well-known films and so there is a lot of research
information at disposal for this film.
Item 3
Film: Pretty in Pink (Paramount Pictures, February 1986,
Howard Deutch)
The third film that I will be using and the second
supporting film, I chose this as my third and final film because while it does
still follow the themes I will be focusing on, it is also very different from
the first two; firstly, it’s the only one not directed by John Hughes, only
written, so there is a lot to be discussed on what differences are there, what
elements of a Hughes’ film comes from his writing and what comes from his
directing. Also, while Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller try to explore all 4
elements, this one focuses heavily on stereotypes, so there is a lot to talk
about on that subject with this film more so than the other two.
Item 4
Book: John Hughes and 80’s Cinema - Thomas A. Christie
While this book only helped me with research on two of the
films, it still gave me plenty to think of on those two. Even though the book
discusses the majority of Hughes’ films, there was nothing in Ferris Bueller
that connects to my four key elements. However, it did give me plenty for The
Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink; for Breakfast Club, it talks about how the
rigid social system within High School and for Pretty in Pink it discusses a
lot on social class and even makes a comparison of the teen life to politics.
So there are a lot of interesting ideas and theories discussed in this book
that could be helpful.
Item 5
Book: Don’t You Forget About Me – Multiple Writers
This book heavily focuses on how Hughes’ films represented
teenagers, as it was written by multiple writers who saw the films when they
were teenagers and their reactions towards each of the films. While this item
is very helpful for that aspect, as for the other three elements I’m focusing
on, maybe representation as authority could be talks about as that is in
contrast to representation of teenagers, so while they don’t focus on that, I
could discuss the implications made. Also the use of stereotypes used in
Hughes’ films and which ones were accurately represented or are even relevant
to teenagers still.
Item 6
Book: You Couldn’t Ignore Me if You Tried - Susannah Gora
This book focuses on the “brat pack” the group of actors,
who famously collaborated together often, especially with John Hughes films,
and while this book includes all three of my chosen films, it doesn’t focus
that much on Hughes. However, it still helps me with one of the key elements,
the representation of teenagers, by focusing on the actors playing them and
what they went through to make sure that they were accurate in their
portrayals. However it has been the most helpful so far for Pretty in Pink, as
it has a lot more relevant things to say about that than it does Ferris Bueller
or Breakfast Club. Such as the casting of certain characters goes against the
stereotype they were hoping for, and what restrictions of authority Hughes had
to face in real life trying to make this film.
Item 7
This is a list of the top 50 80’s films of all time, with
two of my selected films appearing on the list, The Breakfast Club at #17 and
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off at #5, another Hughes film that was on the list but
was not selected by me was Sixteen Candles at #31. This shows just how popular
Hughes films are with three of them written/directed by him to be considered
some of the best of a decade out of hundreds of films. They also write about
each film and why they are in there, and they do relate back to what I am
discussing about the films. In the description of The Breakfast Club they
mention how the stereotypes and representation of the characters are still
relevant today nearly 30 years later. While for Ferris Bueller it brings up an
interesting point of the film not being a representation of teenagers, but a
representation of what every teenager wants to be; this is a very good point of
could be interesting to discuss.
Item 8
This is a review of The Breakfast Club, and is very positive
on the film yet is still able to discuss both the positive elements of it and
the areas that need improving, so it goes into a lot of detail which is
helpful. The reason why I have chosen this is because the review heavily
focuses on the use of stereotypes and the representation of the characters, not
just the teens but the teacher as well; and how this film has been able to get
right what many films get wrong and it understands its audience and how to
properly write teenage characters. There is a lot here that would be perfect
for me to talk about while before I saw the representation of authority as how
the antagonists are represented, I never thought about them being as complex as
the protagonists, which is what this article brings up with the principle being
more than he appears to be.
Item 9
This is a video on YouTube called “Top 10 Movie Theme Songs”
and Simple Minds’ “Don’t You Forget about Me” from The Breakfast Club places #5
on the list. The reason why I have used this is because it is very helpful in
terms of the use of music, as it discusses the effect the song had on the band’s
career and how originally they weren’t even going to record the song and it
ended up becoming their biggest hit.
Item 10
This is a review of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, it is brief
yet talks positively of the film and the reason why I am using this is because
a focus of the review is the defiance of authority and whether or not this film
is a bad influence on kids. This is interesting for my “representation of
authority” point, especially considering that Ferris Bueller has different
representations of the authority in Ferris’ life; they’re either bad people or
stupid.
Item 11
This is an article by famous film critic Roger Ebert writing
about the (at the time) recently deceased John Hughes, and discusses what an
impact he has made for both the industry and on teenagers. The reason why I am
using this is because it doesn’t just discuss how one of his films represents
teenagers, but how they all do, and how they compare to other teen films at the
time.
De-Selected Items
This is a review of The Breakfast Club from Empire, the
reason why this is a de-selected item is because while the review is positive
on the film, it is very short and doesn’t go into very much detail on the film,
nor does it help me with any of the four key elements that I am focusing on. So
although the topic is related to my research project, there is nothing in
detail that could aid me in my project, so I deselected it.
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