John Hughes documentary celebrates memory of enduring '80s teen filmmaker
Published Sunday November 1st, 2009
TORONTO - When Matt Austin Sadowski started shopping around his documentary about John Hughes, film buyers didn't think audiences would be interested in a movie about the famed teen director.
But things changed considerably when the reclusive Hughes - who shunned the spotlight in recent years - died of a sudden heart attack last summer.
"Really important people around the world ... were pouring out their heart about this man," said Sadowski. "(That) created more interest in this documentary."
Three months after the '80s filmmaker passed away, "Don't You Forget About Me" comes out on DVD amid a renewed interest in Hughes' work.
The director's death adds an eerie poignancy to much of the film, in which Sadowski and his crew try to find out why Hughes virtually disappeared from the public eye.
"I miss you very much, I'm tired of talking to you in my mind, I'd like to talk to you in person," Judd Nelson, immortalized as the bad-boy John Bender in "The Breakfast Club," says to the camera in an address to an absent Hughes towards the end of the film.
"There's a void that you left, whether you like it or not," former teen actor Justin Henry, the little brother from "Sixteen Candles," adds in an oddly prescient address.
Sadowski and his crew gathered the interviews in the three years before Hughes died, with Hughes proteges like Ally Sheedy, Andrew McCarthy, Mia Sara, Alan Ruck and Gedde Watanabe musing on the lasting impact of his films.
Sadowski says he and his crew began the project to celebrate Hughes' films but also to examine how they have endured today, and to find out why the director stopped making movies.
"We didn't want to change the film after John Hughes passed away because we made this film about his life, not his death," says Sadowski. "We didn't want to go out and grab all these other interviews now and ask how his death affected them because we made it about his life."
"These are (films) that have resulted in conversations and really have not only (put) a mark on pop culture but really have (put) a mark on people's adolescence. That's really important, that's when you discover who you are."
The documentary is framed as a road trip, with Sadowski and his 30-something cohorts piling into a van in Toronto and heading to Chicago in a bid to land an on-camera interview with Hughes. Throughout their journey, clips from Hughes' biggest films, including "Weird Science," "The Breakfast Club," "Sixteen Candles," and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" are mixed with interviews with the actors who starred in them, teen fans and famous admirers like "Clerks" director Kevin Smith and "Juno" director Jason Reitman.
Early in the film, producer Kari Hollend says, "You don't usually get a tribute like this until you're dead."
"We discussed whether we were going to take that line out or not," said Sadowski, whose colleagues include producer Michael Facciolo and co-creator Lenny Panzer.
"But we decided to keep all that stuff in to really show that we were pretty dedicated to this man's films before the whole world woke up and was like, 'Oh right, John Hughes."'
The interviews yield some amusing behind-the-scenes tidbits, such as the revelation from the Ogden, Utah-born Watanabe that while shooting 1984's "Sixteen Candles," he remained in character as foreign exchange student Long Duk Dong for days and that Hughes initially didn't realize he spoke English.
Kelly LeBrock of 1985's "Weird Science" says she approached her role as a sexy robot as "Mary Poppins with breasts."
Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr says the Scottish band initially refused to sing on the soundtrack of "The Breakfast Club," but gave in at the behest of their record company. When presented with what would arguably become their biggest hit, "Don't You Forget About Me," Kerr insisted on changing the lyrics. The film's producers held firm on the chorus and Kerr says tinkering on the song resulted in a great crescendo and "nothing to say but la, la la la la."
"It was the song that was never meant to be," Kerr says in the film.
Still, Sadowski admits there are notable absences in the film - notably Hughes' biggest stars, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall and Matthew Broderick.
"It was just a scheduling nightmare to try and get a hold of these guys," he says.
"We really did this film on an extremely thin shoestring and because of that we could only fly places at a certain time and we could only meet people at a certain time. That kind of never really meshed with Matthew Broderick and Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall just chose not to participate."
Sadowski notes that the full impact of Hughes' legacy is only starting to be felt now.
"(Hughes') movies were really big to so many people."
"Don't You Forget About Me: A Tribute to John Hughes" is released on DVD on Tuesday. (Nov. 3)
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On the Net:
www.dontyouforgetaboutmethedocumentary.blogspot.com
www.dontyouforgetaboutmethemovie.com
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