Pretty in Pink

is it the 80s nostalgia fixed to our hearts? is it the wonderful soundtrack with songs by the smiths, new order, echo and the bunnymen and of course, the psychedelic furs? is it marvellous performances by jon cryer (the one and only duckie), the lovely annie potts, harry dean stanton, james spader (the truly standout of the film), andrew mccarthy and molly ringwald (actually andrew and molly didn't move me, ssshhhh)? is it that john hughes teen flick virus he seems to spread without mercy? don't know what's the answer, but this is truly a great movie. but i'm not here to put it in a pedestal. i want to bury it and cast a horrible voodoo spell on it... just for one reason...

ANDIE... YOU SHOULD HAVE PICKED DUCKIE, YOU STUPID HUMAN BEING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i'm sorry. he was there. he was always there in front of her. he took piles of poop for her. he suffered and suffered and nothing. it's just not fair.

in john hughes' original story, duckie and andie ended up together, like it should have been. but the audience didn't like the ending. she had to stay with the "cute" guy... with the "cool" one, with the "obvious"one. so, after he had finished shooting the whole movie, he called everyone back and filmed the last scene where duckie tells her to go with blane (andrew's character). you see? you see, andie, what duckie did for you? did you care? no, you just went with the preppie boy and thought "oh, duckie is so nice, now i can be happy". well no. i've seen pretty in pink 2 in my mind, and you're not happy. anyway...

so john hughes goes back and pleases everyone and that's how we ended up with that so pathetic ending. but hey... john hughes wasn't really happy with the new ending either, that's why the next year, he decided to do another movie, SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL.

here we have the same story. poor little boy (eric stoltz, as opposed to molly) falls in love with rich girl (lea thompson, as opposed to andrew), but has a very close friend who is secretly in love with him (the gorgeous mary stewart masteron.. short hair, anyone? anyone? anyone?)... of course, we have our rich bad kid (craig sheffer, our james spader). the same story, with the gender roles inverted, of course. but john hughes said... "f u to everyone, i'm gonna have MY ending". and YES, eric and mary stewart end up together, like IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN.

what else? some kind of wonderful is full of rolling stones trivia. eric is keith (richards, hello?), mary stewart is watts (charlie watts, OMG :o), and lea thompson is amanda jones (miss amanda jones, beautiful rocking song from 1967). what can go wrong? NOTHING.

so, pretty in pink? yes, it's cool. duckie is lovely. it was a box office hit. some kind of wonderful? it's superior, it has a great ending, but it isn't as known and beloved as its previous year counterpart. but, what can we learn from here? what's THE lesson to be learned?

well, i can actually think of two things. one, when it's right in front of your stupid eyes and you just can't see it... well, that goes to show how little you know. let's not be blind. it's sad but it's true... the things that are closer to us, are the ones we don't see. and TWO... hell, if we f%$*ed up our first "movie" and we realize there's no turning back... what's done is done... then, hey... let's make a new movie ;) and pretend the first one never happened :D

like i said to a friend earlier today "i love like i've never been hurt... that's how stupid i am".

good night and thank you.