I have no idea if this is an American thing or not (and, quite possibly, a midwestern American thing at that), but I really miss movie maker John Hughes.  The man knew how to write, how to bring together immense talent, and how to promote good music.  After all, he brought together Steve Martin, John Cusack, Oingo Boingo, and Echo and the Bunnymen,

As we do every Thanksgiving break, the entire Birzer clan watched Home Alone.  We have every line and every crazy moment memorized.  But, we love it nonetheless.

As we finished the movie, I couldn’t help but think of some of my favorite John Hughes moments.

Who can really forget Ferris’s best line:  “It’s not that I condone fascism. . . or any ism for that matter.  Isms in my opinion are not good.  A person should not believe in an ism.  He should believe in himself.  I quote John Lennon.  ‘I don’t believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.’  A good point there.  After all, he was the walrus.”

Or, the main character of “She’s Having a Baby” fearing the death of his wife during child birth with Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work” playing over the scene?

Or, Farmer Ted  growing up a little too quickly in 16 Candles?

And, so many other scenes.

At the time (the mid 1980s), no two movies hit me as hard as The Killing Fields and The Breakfast Club.  Vastly different, of course, the former revealed the evils of totalitarianism.  The latter, though, expressed our anger at the both the Yuppies and the Hippies.  Each group had screwed up the world miserably, and we wanted to make our own way.  They’d divided us into convenient categories, and we rejected them.

And, the movie begins with a quote from David Bowie.

Hughes knew us very well.