Pretty in Pink on the Big Screen

I know that I am supposed to be a big, tough horror fan. I should be watching chainsaw welding maniacs, black-gloved killers, cannibal tribes, slashers, aliens, monsters. And, sure, I like that stuff.

I like Pretty in Pink, too. A lot. There's a Chick Flick fan in all of us, I reckon.

I saw Pretty in Pink at the theaters once. It was when the movie was first released, smack in the middle of the John Hughes and the teen movie heyday of the 80's. Ah, it was over just as soon as it started, it seemed. Just like any other innovative movement: the early days of rock and roll, punk, grunge, splatterpunk, goth. These things begin as revolutionary, but quickly get imitated and compromised.

I had recently seen The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. I loved the shit out of both of them. Perhaps the best of them all, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, was just around the corner. New Wave was still fairly relevant. The timing was perfect.

Pretty in Pink isn't a perfect movie...

OK, I am going to assume that you have seen the movie. If you haven't, well, you've been warned. Spoilers are ahead.

The alternative oddball chick who steals everyone's heart in Pretty in Pink clearly made the wrong romantic decision.

Of course, Molly Ringwald is the star of Pretty in Pink. She is an off-kilter teen, with an odd-but-charming fashion sense. An equally weird and unpopular boy is smitten with her. She meets a bland popular rich kid (they were known as "Preppies" back then) and begins seeing him.

Jon Cryer plays Duckie, the misfit toy who pines for Molly. He is passionate; has verve and wit. He knows exactly what he wants in life. At least in regard to his heart.

Andrew McCarthy is the pretty boy who Molly likes. He's scared of what his friends and family will think of his other side of the tracks girlfriend. He's wormy, indecisive, unsure, and more than a little smarmy.

The story goes that Moly Ringwald's character originally ended up with the colorful Duckie, but teenage test audiences didn't like it.

Either way, it's the wrong ending, but the movie is still a classic.

I was a 70's boy, and I know that I am supposed to be obsessed with Zeppelin, 'smith, Floyd, etc. Or, worse yet, Skynyrd, Hatchet, Tucker.

Give me The Psychedelic Furs, Talking Heads, OMD, over all that tired old stuff.

The music in Pretty in Pink perfects sets the story in its time and place. The styles are irresistible, the idioms used by the characters are wonderful--it is my favorite era.

And John Hughes, who wrote but didn't direct Pretty in Pink, had an ear and eye for the dialogue and mindset of the young people of the mid-late 1980's.

Pretty in Pink is a relic of the era, and the movie's fan remain fiercely loyal. Not only that, young people of later years see and love this and other John Hughes features. The reason for this is simple: The themes Hughes explores with wit and warmth are universal.

Most people who visit sites like Horror Drive-In were outcasts when they were young. They were too smart to be fully accepted by the herd. They were and are creative, funny, wonderfully weird. We were all Duckies.

Thanks to Fathom Events, Pretty in Pink will be coming to a theater near you. Just in time for Valentine's Day. Don't you think it's time to rediscover the magic? Better still, share the rad glories of Pretty in Pink with someone. A loved one, a young person, anyone. Only the hardest of hearts would remain unmoved.