Let me start by saying that though I am a child of the 80’s, my early adolescence was not shaped by the films of John Hughes (after all, I was only four when The Breakfast Club first hit theaters) that are so often referenced as generation-defining films. My childhood certainly was marked with films he wrote (National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, Uncle Buck, etc.) and I have had the opportunity in more recent years to see and fall in love with many of his classic, often iconic, always quotable films.
Since his passing a little over a week ago, there have been a number of tributes posted online in various forms. I’ve decided that rather then try to write pages of memories and remembrances about where I was when I saw which film, I’d link to a few of the favorite tributes I’ve seen over the last week.
One of the best (and from what I can tell, one of the most referred to) tributes is “Sincerely, John Hughes“. I’ve seen several links and references to it on different sites over the last few days. It’s a wonderful recounting of a series of letters written between the author (while she was a teenager) and Hughes between the years 1985 and 1987.
Hughes wrote the film, National Lampoon’s Vacation, and (and this was something I didn’t even know until a couple days ago) it was based on a short story he originally wrote for the National Lampoon magazine called, “Vacation ’58”. If you’re interested in reading the original short story (and I definitely recommend that you do – it had me laughing out loud at several points), you can find it here.
Eric Hynes gives a wonderful commentary on both Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and why the proliferation of VCR’s in the 80’s made it possible for teenagers to embrace and own (both physically and metaphorically) John Hughes’ films to an even greater extent.
The Mystery Man on Film has posted a list with links to five of John Hughes screenplays including National Lampoon’s Vacation, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone.
Finally, what tribute collection would be complete without a tribute video. To that end I leave you with this: a 1991 tribute video made for Hughes when he was named Producer of the Year by the National Association of Movie Theater Owners (having just produced Home Alone).
When I was a kid, the first game I bought for my Nintendo Entertainment System was Donkey Kong. It’s the classic arcade game that put Nintendo on the map and it’s the driving force behind the recent documentary, 
.