John Hughes, Legendary 80s director

With the sad passing of legendary 80's movie director John Hughes this week I find myself for the second time in a couple of months reflecting on my childhood, I grew up watching John Hughes movies as I did listening to Michael Jackson music.

John Hughes was a director and writer who was tapped directly into the teenage angst of the 1980/90, like almost no other writer of the time, he demonstrated on screen and in words exactly what the teens at the time were thinking and trying to tell their parents.

It doesn't matter if it was Ferris Bueller's rebelling against the school and deciding to have a day off in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, or 5 kids stuck in detention for the crime of simply growing up in The Breakfast Club, the anguish a young person can go through when the object of their affection fancies someone else in Some Kind of Wonderful or Pretty In Pink, these movies spoke to us and often spoke for us.

My personal favourite film of his is The Breakfast Club, as with all his films it has what is now considered a typical movies 80s soundtrack, but the moment you see Judd Nelson punch the air and hear Simple Minds chant "hey hey hey" you know it's an iconic figure that will last.

Weird Science and Ferris Buellers Day Off are further examples of classic teen movies much loved by the kids of the generation directed and written by Hughes himself, but it's the films he attached his name to as producer or writer which further show proof of his genuine understanding of the teen psyche.

Although it's been nearly 20 years since his name was really in the spotlight with a big movie his legendary status has survived and he will be sorely missed.