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Posted: |
Jun 19, 2009 - 1:17 PM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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This 1984 classic is another standard of the decade that I had to revisit. Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, John Hughes...the ingredients are all there.
I love how the characters seem to be two-dimensional on the surface, yet you're continually surprised by their depth and their...how shall I put it, unpredictability. Molly herself, her father, Jake, the geek - they are all introduced as shallow people, yet enjoy one or two scenes "of glory" that really add to their persona. I love that, and it's certainly not a recurrent quality of 80's teen comedies.
The music actually plays a pivotal role in the comic delivery, for example by various comic "stingers" (the huge gong sound for the Long Duck Dong character, the el guitar wail for sexy boobs or butts) or by juxtaposing famous film and TV themes with various situations - TWILIGHT ZONE for when Molly discovers that her grandparents have moved into her room, PETER GUNN for the pan across the boys at the dance, the GODFATHER theme for the meeting of the parents-in-law and so on.
Otherwise, Ira Newborn's score is BLAST! Superb stuff that ranges from funky electroboogie or acid-jazz-type music a la Yellowjackets to his trademark blues riffs.
The songs are awesome too, everything from AC/DC to Spandau Ballet to David Bowie. And yes, Oingo Boingo, of course! This time it's "Wild Sex (in the Working Class)" from NOTHING TO FEAR that is played at...what else....the school dance, accompanying Anthony Michael Hall's failed attempt to woo Molly on the dance floor.
Great fun, and a soundtrack worth owning if you're an 80's junkie!
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My favorite joke is watching Joan Cusack trying to get a drink of water from a fountain with that terrible contraption on her head. A comedy classic.
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A true classic from the 80's!
I love the grandma fixing breakfast with manicured nails and a cigarette hanging out her mouth.
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Posted: |
Jun 19, 2009 - 2:27 PM
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By: |
ahem
(Member)
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I can't remember the car music, I just remember the opening of Young Guns by Wham! when Father Ted starts driving Caroline off (could Jake and him get arrested for that)??
Maybe you could probably just about stretch a suite out of the score material, but it doesn't seem much of a "score" to me. The songs do all the dramatic work, in my opinion. It's probably one of the top example of a dramatic score being completely inappropriate. This is interesting given that for Hughe's follow up, Breakfast Club, he hired pop producer Keith Forsey to do songs and a dramatic score, both of which were perfectly in synch with each other.
The other great thing about Sixteen Candles is that, being made in the early 80s as oppose to later on in the decade, much of the fashion and colour has aged really well. It's not gratuitously 80s, but just fun enough to be nostalgiac. The clothes everyone wears in the film for example is actually pretty tasteful and relevant today, regardles sof the nostagiac 80s comeback. How many jocks do we see every day dressed like Jake in 2009? Most of them. i think something like Pretty In Pink is an eyesore by comparison.
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"Sixteen Candles" was one of my best loved films for many years. I recently rewatched it in HD -- and some parts seem truly stupid and archaic -- for example the portrayal of Long Duk Dong which struck me as dumb this time around -- an obviously easy source of humor for Mr. Hughs as he cranked out screenplay after screenplay. Paul Dooley was as fine as ever -- and every time I see the film my admiration for Anthony Michael Hall grows greater -- and his morning after scene with the blond bimbo is strangely affecting. It is a shame that Michael Schoeffling gave up acting so soon during the 6 years following this film (he's pretty good in "Vision Quest" too) -- although the last interview I read years ago reported he was extremely happy being a "lay" person and building furniture at his country home.
Thor, I'm beginning to think that your favorite all-time composer is the entity known as "Various" !
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The Kajagoogoo song is great. It somehow reminds me of Thomas Newman, circa The Man With One Red Shoe, 1985.
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Never was a CD release.
I think Rhino might have pursued it IF their expanded VALLEY GIRL soundtrack albums sold better.
I'd also love a full CD of songs and score from FERRIS BUELLER
Agreed! And, while we're dreaming, I'd love to see a score release for "Some Kind of Wonderful." There was, of course, a soundtrack release, but -- as is typical of the 1980s soundtrack scene -- it includes absolutely NONE of the score by Stephen Hague and John Musser. A nice breakdown is available here:
http://www.somekindofwonderful.org/soundtrack.html
Hey, finally another fan of the Hague/Musser score! I seem to remember that the score isn't much more than those two cues referred to on the site, which I of course have transferred to CD. Too bad those two cues weren't compiled into a track on the album though. A pity Hague never did another score, he is a terrific music producer/writer, and he of course worked on New Order's song True Faith the same year as SKOW, 1987. I wonder who John Musser was, though.
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