Raechal Leone

Controversial to use the word “best,” I know. “Favorite” is probably more accurate. But these three scenes are the ones that, for me, best capture the essence of John Hughes movies and why they’re so brilliant.

1. Sixteen Candles: Samantha cries in the school hallway as Jake Ryan’s girlfriend walks by

As adults, we can laugh at how heartbroken we were over people we barely remember. We have the benefit of comparing the Facebook profiles of our adult selves, which clearly show that guy or girl actually did us a favor by shattering our world when we were 16.

But if you ever want to recapture the feeling, just watch the few minutes after Farmer Ted (Anthony Michael Hall) embarrasses Sam (Molly Ringwald) on the dance floor and sends her running out of the gym. (Unfortunately, I couldn’t find clips to embed, but I know you know you remember them. If you’ve seen these movies half as many times as I have, you could probably reenact them. I just thought about it and realized that yes, I could do a stage version at a moment’s notice.)

2. Pretty in Pink: Andie stands up to the richie girls … in class

Here’s another thing we forget after the days of high school are long behind us: going to school isn’t easy. Those same “office politics” we loathe as adults are just a tamer version of what we survived in our younger years.

On your next stressful day at work, just think about how mean those girls were to Andie, because she dressed differently and didn’t suck up to them. They mouthed nasty things to her when the teacher turned her back, and when the teacher caught on and tried to punish them, it only made things worse. (The teacher meant well, but did she really think she could fix everything with some extra homework? John Hughes knew that teen problems were just as complicated as adult problems.)

3. The Breakfast Club: Claire and co. talk about what will happen Monday

The dancing has ended and the vice principal bamboozled. Somewhere between Allison (Ally Sheedy) sprinkling Pixie Sticks on her sandwich and Andrew (Judd Nelson) staging a scene of Christmas with his family, semi-friendships have been forged. The bond falls apart, though, when Claire says she doesn’t think they’ll be friends after Saturday detention.

I love this scene, because it’s one that conveys that even the popular kids struggle in the social hierarchy of high school. John Hughes movies are some of the few I can think of that do that. (Also see Sixteen Candles, when Michael Schoeffling as Jake looks around at his destroyed house after the party. Not sure if Blane’s frustration at not being able to date Andie counts, since he was rich, but not necessarily well liked.)

Finally, if you haven’t seen it, check out Alison Byrne Fields’ post about being John Hughes’ pen pal (which I found through @moonfrye — aka Punky Brewster’s Soleil Moon Frye — on Twitter.) She wrote that she’s rarely “beautiful” and “touching,” but wow, I don’t know how else to describe her story.

Flickr photo by MacQ. (He has some other cool photos of John Hughes movies, including one I’d never seen of Molly Ringwald, John Hughes and Michael Schoeffling!)