You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation

by Susannah Gora

You can quote lines from Sixteen Candles (“Last night at the dancemy little brother paid a buck to see your underwear”), your iPod playlist includes more than one song by the Psychedelic Furs and Simple Minds, you watch The Breakfast Club every time it comes on cable, and you still wish that Andie had ended up with Duckie in Pretty in Pink. You’re a bonafide Brat Pack devotee—and you’re not alone.The films of the Brat Pack—from Sixteen Candles to Say Anything—are some of the most watched, bestselling DVDs of all time. The landscape that the Brat Packmemorialized—where outcasts and prom queens fall in love, preppies and burn-outs become buds, and frosted lip gloss, skinny ties, and exuberant optimism made us feel invincible—is rich with cultural themes and significance, and has influenced an entire generation who still believe that life always turns out the way it is supposed to.You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried takes us back to that era, interviewing key players, such as Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Andrew McCarthy, and John Cusack, and mines all the material from the movies to the music to the way the films were made to show how they helped shape our visions for romance, friendship, society, and success.From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Nonfiction, Pop Culture, Film, Media Tie In, Biography, History, Audiobook

Kindle Edition

First published February 4, 2010

Reviews

[Marjorie Ingall · Rating 3 out of 5]

To say the writing is workmanlike is an insult to workmen. But those of us who loved John Hughes movies will enjoy this repetitive, gossipy tome ((with bonus random Say Anything chapter! Why is it here? NO CLUE! But I loved Say Anything too!). You don't get any sense of Hughes as a human -- why did he keep repeating his pattern of getting super-close to people (Anthony Michael Hall, Molly Ringwald and others), then dumping them cold? Why'd he do all his best work in the 80s, then churn out crap for so long? Why'd he chuck everything to move back to the Midwest? What were his parents like and how did they fuel his work? I was also hoping this book would talk a bit more about how Hughes's teen movies fit in with the culture of Ronald Reagan-era America -- why did they resonate with this particular generation? And I wish the book had talked about a couple of the movies the writer barely mentions -- Weird Science and Mr Mom. Between them and She's Having a Baby, I think there's a lot to say about Hughes's ambivalent attitudes about grown women, as opposed to teenage girls.

That said, there's lots of fun dirt here: Molly Ringwald had a crush on Andrew McCarthy and wanted her character to end up with him (Jon Cryer's interviews are great, btw). Howard Deutch, director of Pretty in Pink, really wanted the soundtrack to be more California rock instead of New Wave and finally there had to be a come-to-Jesus meeting to be all, DUDE: there will be no Jackson Brown or Eagles in this movie, LET IT GO. Judd Nelson was all Method during Breakfast Club -- he thought he WAS Bender instead of a nice Jewish boy from Maine who went to prep school. After Ferris Bueller, Alan Ruck (Cameron) couldn't get another job and wound up working on an assembly line. (Ruck's a great interview too. Ditto Ally Sheedy.)

I think the book would have worked better as an oral history, like the recent ones about SNL and The Simpsons. The author's weaknesses (interpretation, writing style -- STOP SAYING YOUTHQUAKE, LADY!, inability to make cultural connections) would have been outweighed by her strengths (interviewing, collecting awesome quotations, getting backstory behind the music used).

[Meagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a member of the generation that was profoundly affected by the films of John Hughes and the Brat Pack. In fact, the John Hughes movies meant so much to me, and still mean so much to me, that his death brought me to tears. It's almost as if, while he was still living, there was the possibility for more of the movies that so inspired me and defined my youth. When he died, that possibility died too.

It's quite possible that my attachment to John Hughes and the Brat Pack movies influenced my appreciation of this book, and that someone who isn't familiar with or, gasp, doesn't enjoy those films wouldn't enjoy the book. (And shame on you on both counts!) But for those of us who remember with extreme nostalgia the moment that Samantha kisses Jake Ryan, or the five members of the Breakfast Club opening up to each other in the library, or Duckie Dale being so completely there for a completely unappreciative Andie at the prom, this book is for you.

In addition to learning all the off-screen gossip, like the fact that Mia Sara had a monstrous crush on Matthew Broderick or that Molly Ringwald wasn't crazy about Jon Cryer (how could you, Molly??!!??), I also gained some insight into the incredibly complicated John Hughes. He may have been the man to create the characters that so influenced me as I was growing up, but he could also be stubborn, overly sensitive, and could hold a grudge like no one else in the world. In fact, some of the descriptions in the book made me wonder if he suffered from Bipolar Disorder. Anyway, I really enjoyed the book, and recommend it to the other Hughesians out there. Now I have to go watch The Breakfast Club. Or maybe Sixteen Candles. Say Anything, perhaps....

[Jevron McCrory · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a book this much!

This was an exceptional read! Susannah Gora obviously has mad affection for these movies and my God, it shows!

I'm thirty something and remember with startling clarity seeing The Breakfast Club for the first time. I was drawn in slowly, recognising and cringing over the awkwardness of the high school setting (I was living it, albeit in London England), yet waiting for the focus of the film to shift. It didn't. It stayed with the kids and over the course of the movie (one day on narrative terms), it made me laugh, recoil, shrivel, cry and cheer. It truly is a cult classic worthy of shameful adoration.

I'm a devotee of eighties movies, tried and true. It was a time when studios took chances on new writers and directors and backed CONCEPTS and STORIES, not merely chased the sequel buck or played safe. At least, that's the way it seemed. John Hughes loomed large in that arena and not without good reason. A master storyteller, capable of writing contemporary tales so utterly relatable, the international world could believe in it's characters; 'we all knew someone like THAT' and so compelling, they seemed to stay with you forever.

In the eighties, a clutch of movies rose above the cream and came to symbolise a yearning, if not a meaning, a soulful purpose if not a clear intent. A clever journalist throw-a-way term, 'Brat Pack' was swiftly applied to the handful of actors involved in these big box office hits and it stuck, solidifying a genre and time while hindering the careers of all involved. It's a time many look back on now with nostalgia but for the actors, it has taken time to come to terms with. Nowadays, we all know the media love their labels, splicing couples' names together in garish monikers, and we accept it, but things were different in the eighties.

Susannah Gora's book scores HUGE not only because it is drenched in nostalgic love for these films, it is painstakingly researched, astonishingly insightful and shamefully indulgent. Each sentimental movie gains it's own chapter (a structure I found most pleasing!) and boasts a plethora of behind the scenes trivia that truly tickled me throughout! I love behind the scenes info on how movies are made and this book fed me to gluttony!

If you're not a fan of these movies, I'd be reluctant to recommend this book.

You may wonder what all the fuss is about, but if you have never wondered what the naked blonde with a poodle under one arm and a two ton salami under the other said to the bartender, this wasn't for you anyway.

I will be reading this again!

(Not to mention anything of that GORGEOUS artwork on front and back! That's how you publish a book!)

[Thom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book on a decade of films and their impact on my generation (among others). One chapter is a little dated, and you'll have to look up the pictures online, but overall a really good read.

Chapters (with clever titles) and mostly about individual films, the majority from John Hughes. Other chapters delve into the music and the impact of a certain article and label, which was more bad than good. Perhaps the most impactful were lines from the many interviews the author had with so many actors, writers and producers from that era.

Middling reviews I have read were mostly concerned about why Say Anything fits this category, but I think I see what Gora was doing. These movies bookend a decade, and while Hughes had moved on to other films, Say Anything has a close connection (and some cast) with the earlier films. This comes back to argue her point about the impact, and the following chapter goes into how these type of teen films changed in the 90s and beyond.

When going into Hughes later career, the chapter continues with how the stars lives have faired. As this book was published in 2010, this feels like a very dated "where are they now". The final chapter is much stronger in this regard, and a few paragraphs about each star doesn't fit as well. A minor quibble about this overall very enjoyable book.

[Sean Carlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three-and-a-half stars rounded down to three.

Equal parts history of and love letter to the Brat Pack movies of the 1980s -- specifically, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo's Fire, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Some Kind of Wonderful, and Say Anything... -- and therein lies the rub: Author Susannah Gora's meticulous research and excellent reporting (including extensive and substantive interviews with key creative personnel from those films) is somewhat undermined by her fangirl devotion to her subject.

Gora describes her book as a work of cine-sociology, which she defines as "the concrete sociological impact that movies can have on our lives." That might be a bit of an ambitious overstatement. Mostly, the book functions as fairly uncritical paean to all-things Brat Pack, as well as a de facto hagiography of the late John Hughes, with dubious justifications for the works from that conjoined cinematic movement the author has chosen to omit:

[W]ith its laid-back 1970s feel, Fast Times at Ridgemont High seems more like an important predecessor to the later eighties teen movies than a true part of that canon. 1985's Weird Science, though written and directed by John Hughes and starring Anthony Michael Hall, doesn't get much attention herein because, though it's still a late-night cable TV fixture, it has virtually no cultural resonance.

I might be willing to concede her point about Fast Times, but her assertion that Weird Science has "no cultural resonance" (or somehow less than other films from the same cinematic catalogue) is demonstrably wrong. It was, in fact, well-reviewed and commercially successful, spawned a popular cable-TV sitcom in the mid-'90s (unlike Fast Times and Ferris Bueller, whose short-lived TV spinoffs summarily tanked), and resonated with the generation of boys at whom it was targeted -- including yours truly.

And that's the problem: Weird Science didn't resonate with Gora, so she summarily dismisses it from the "canon" (however that's defined). By contrast, she gushes over Some Kind of Wonderful, which was largely (and accurately) dismissed at the time of its release as a Pretty in Pink retread, performed poorly at the box office (it was Hughes' first bomb, in point of fact), and is only at best fuzzily remembered by Gen X audiences who saw it on VHS as teens but don't really quote readily from it or cite it as a formative favorite the way they do The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It was kind of, let's face it, an also-ran.

Furthermore, Say Anything..., wonderful though it is, is neither a Brat Pack nor a John Hughes movie, so its inclusion here is questionable. It's featured in the book strictly because Gora loves it, not because it really belongs. Meanwhile, plenty of other "official" Brat Pack movies -- Heaven Help Us, The Pick-up Artist, Less Than Zero, Mannequin, Johnny Be Good, Fresh Horses, Betsy's Wedding -- are either barely mentioned or altogether ignored. That said, her coverage of the creative development of Say Anything... is admirably insightful, with fascinating firsthand insights from Cameron Crowe, John Cusack, and John Mahoney.

As for the John Hughes juggernaut Home Alone, she writes, "that was the one that made the most money, but its impact was comparatively ephemeral."

Was it? Home Alone is a perennial holiday classic that's spawned no fewer than five remake-cum-sequels across thirty-plus years! "Ephemeral" is not the word I would use to describe its cultural impact. All Gora had to stipulate was that You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried is a history of Brat Pack movies, and Home Alone, while a massive Hughes-written and -produced success, postdates that era and is therefore disqualified from this particular cine-sociological study.

So, this is a very selective case study -- perhaps a more diplomatic adjective would be curated -- and a mostly uncritical one, at that. Gora grudgingly acknowledges Long Duk Dong is a culturally insensitive caricature (but who hasn't at this point); that perhaps the filmmakers of Pretty in Pink never quite nailed the coda (owed to zero sexual chemistry between Molly Ringwald and Jon Cryer); and that, sure, Some Kind of Wonderful is essentially just a gender-swapped Pretty in Pink (and marked the final time Hughes would write about teenagers, having seemingly exhausted his passion for youth-driven stories by that point), but that's about as critical as she's willing to be.

For example: Gora treats The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire with the same degree of piety... but those prototypal Brat Pack films are decidedly not equal. While St. Elmo's may have been a creatively well-intentioned project -- a story about how just because you've graduated from college into the working world doesn't necessarily mean you're mature, and how so many of the challenges we face in young adulthood are self-created problems -- the movie itself is a fairly abject failure of screenwriting. In trying to create a movie about emotional immaturity, director Joel Schumacher and screenwriter Carl Kurlander in fact created an emotionally immature movie. It's a bad film that would probably be utterly forgotten, same as other movies of the era including My Science Project, Playing for Keeps, and Morgan Stewart's Coming Home, were it not for its standing as one of the two main pillars of the Brat Pack movement.

As a work of so-called "cine-sociology," You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried is superficial at best. There's a compelling attempt made early in the book to contextualize the Brat Pack films in relation to the audience for which they were produced:

Because Hughes had his finger on the pulse of young America, it's only fitting that the cross-section of personalities inhabiting the library in The Breakfast Club represented what was happening in the lives of many real-life teenagers across the country in the 1980s. Claire was a child of impending divorce; 1980s teens' parents were getting divorced at an unprecedented rate. Allison was a lonely youth ignored by her parents; this was the era of latchkey kids, adolescents who came home to an empty house and often were their own primary caregivers. Brian was a teen considering suicide; 1980s teens killed themselves at a rate triple that of their 1950s counterparts. Because of national cultural shifts occurring throughout their adolescence, eighties teens were an often overlooked, undervalued, and misunderstood group -- something that Hughes was sensitive enough to appreciate.

Gen X teens often had it hard from the beginning of their lives. Americans born in the late 1960s and '70s were the younger siblings and offspring of the demographic colossus that was the Baby Boom. And the Boomers were, to put it mildly, a tough act to follow. As Geoffrey T. Holtz wrote in his book Welcome to the Jungle: The Why Behind Generation X, "Born just after the magnificent baby boom, we are forever cast in the shadow of that pig-in-the-python that has dominated our nation's attention, from its members' sheer numbers as infants in the fifties, their vociferous social and political exploits in the sixties, their epic quests for self-fulfillment in the seventies, and their drive toward materialistic gain in the eighties. In the wake of this group, we have often had to fight to be noticed at all, let alone be judged by fair standards or to be understood."

As many great advances as the Boomers made, they also kind of sucked all the air out of the room, leaving Gen Xers feeling like an irrelevant group in comparison. The 1960s and '70s teenagers changed the world -- and all the 1980s teens had to do was live in it.

The script of The Breakfast Club spoke so well to this forgotten generation because it featured characters, says cultural historian Neal Gabler, "whose problems aren't with the direction of the country. Their problems aren't poverty. Their problems aren't Vietnam. Their problems are the eternal adolescent struggle, of who am I?" Remembered Ned Tanen, "There were no more campus revolutions, it was not even a return to normalcy but rather to absolute lethargy. And here was this huge population of young people who had no place to put their energy."

Hughes seemed to relate much more to these 1980s teens than he did even to members of his own Boomer generation. "Hughes simply took our side, the side of the Boomers' children, against his own," wrote the Canadian newspaper the National Post. "He saw that we had been thrust into a world like none before, wherein the existence of the family had been suddenly declared held hostage to whim." (But creating smart entertainment for young people wasn't just the sensitive thing to do; it also made great business sense, because teenagers had indeed become an increasingly powerful demographic around this time. Spurred on by the rise of two-income families and the fact that many kids held after-school jobs, teen spending skyrocketed between 1975 and 1985, even though the teen population shrank in those years.)

"When those kids are being dropped off that day at detention in The Breakfast Club," said Ned Tanen, "you get right to what this movie was about, and what this generation was about: middle-class suburban kids trying to keep it together." Hughes knew from experience that there is a very real pain to be found in the hearts of the teenagers walking the high-school hallways across America. He knew it was there because he had felt it himself as a teen. "Hughes knew what he wanted to say to you," says Breakfast's first assistant director R. P. Cohen. "And in his own way, he was saying it to himself. Because there is an agony that the white kids of suburbia carry around with them that is very much their own."

Exactly. Those films overwhelmingly reflected a white suburban experience. And unfortunately, the films Gora spotlights here aren't really examined through that sociocultural lens. Ronald Reagan, the grandfather of '80s consumerism (by way of neoliberalism and deregulation) and income inequality ("trickle-down economics," anyone?), is only mentioned twice in the book, despite the long shadow he cast over the decade and, by extension, the formative experiences of the Xers. John Cusack explains how that shaped his characterization of Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything..., released only three months after Reagan left office:

Explains Cusack, "I grew up in Reagan-era America... Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan took over, and she was in that white dress, and he was talking about Armageddon and nuclear war, and it was a dark, nihilistic time. Everyone has made it this sort of revisionist kind of thing about 'morning in America,' but it was a nasty time. It was depressing, and there was doom in the air. So I didn't want to do some character that was completely unaware of that state." Lloyd's optimism, says Cusack, is something that "people understand to be a heroic choice. It's not someone who doesn't understand darkness or depression or the nihilism of America in the eighties. It's precisely because he sees all that and then chooses to do what he does anyway that I think makes him an interesting character. That was a collaboration between Cameron and me on the character."

Cusack and Crowe -- and, by extension, Lloyd -- may have been fully aware of the Me-generation nihilism underscoring the era, but it seems Gora would mostly prefer to stick to the revisionist script, positioning '80s adolescence as having existed in an apolitical, even timeless, hermetic bubble, eschewing tougher questions about the mores these movies reflect in favor of generic observations about why they've resonated:

Maybe the reason today's teens relate so deeply to these films is because the movies helped create the very notion of the teenage experience as we know it. Literary scholar Harold Bloom suggests in his book Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human that the Bard, through the self-aware characters he created, may have helped humans become the self-aware beings we are. Maybe these culturally absorbed eighties youth movies created a template for the modern American high-school experience; a blueprint for the emotional makeup of the brains, beauties, jocks, rebels, and recluses of any new era; a model for how they can interact with one another. Wrote the New York Observer, "Hughes essentially introduced the modern teenage hero: wise beyond his years, artistically inclined, hyper-articulate, romantic, and hopelessly misunderstood." If Shakespeare invented the human, John Hughes reinvented the American teenager.

Do today's teens relate deeply -- or at all -- to Brat Pack cinema? Not as far as I can tell. The feral, analog-age upbringing of Generation X is as foreign to their Digital Age experience as the hunter-gatherer lifestyle of preindustrial society. The notion that we lived without smartphones or, hell, parental oversight is inconceivable to them. Contemporary teenagers who can manage to sit through as much as fifteen minutes of a movie from the '80s view it with the same historical distance as sepia-toned photography from the 19th century. "You couldn't ignore me if you tried"? In my experience, Generations Z and Alpha have little trouble ignoring Gen X -- and the dated pop culture of our youth. (Home Alone notwithstanding. That they actually seem to love, despite its "ephemeral impact." Go figure.)

The sociocultural, -political, and -economic conditions that informed the Gen X adolescent experience -- namely, neoliberalism -- still very much impact the world today (rather adversely, in my view), but Gora mostly glosses over those factors in favor of mythologizing the cherished pop culture of her youth, same as Xer Ernest Cline did in Ready Player One and the Millennials do for Buffy. Grander sociopolitical context -- that's what gets ignored in You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried. (Quentin Tarantino committed the same sin in Cinema Speculation, his those-were-the-days ode to '70s exploitation flicks, reviewed here.)

It's a pity, because a critical reevaluation of the teen-culture movies of the '80s might have made for a topical cine-sociological study, especially at this moment when Gen X finds itself in the position of being the sandwich generation, but You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried is mostly content to be merely a sentimental ovation to an ancient era, one whose pop culture has been permitted to squat possessively on the cultural stage well past its expiration date, and whose neoliberal politics have metastasized into authoritarian populism.

Make no mistake: Our culture of backward-gazing nostalgia was synthesizing exactly at that moment. We're given a tantalizing glimpse at that in the Cusack quote -- the nuanced chronicle You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried might have been -- but Gora wasn't interested in compiling a cultural history, merely a personal yearbook. It succeeds as the latter but would have been so much richer if it had aspired to the former.

[J.S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah, it's pure fluff, but it's pretty fun fluff to read.

A very interesting look at the movies made or written by (or merely influenced by) John Hughes and the so-called "Brat Pack" actors. The specific films that are heavily profiled are: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo's Fire, Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Some Kind of Wonderful, and Say Anything. It also talks about the article where the "Brat Pack" label came from and the music in the films.

I actually don't remember seeing many of these movies in theaters, although I think I've seen most of them on video. But there's no denying their outsize influence. The book is perhaps a bit longer than it needed to be (and is occasionally repetitive), but it goes into a lot of depth philosophically as well as historically. And while Gora seems to be in love with her subject, it's still well-written and avoids being gushy. Basically, a really fun read that makes me want to re-watch all those movies again.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This week’s headline? Some self-created drama

Why this book? Nineties (VCR) nostalgia

Which book format? Hardback with caricatures

Primary reading environment? Summer dog days

Any preconceived notions? Hated Say Anything

Identify most with? Who’s Dawn Steel?

Three little words? “…your heart dies”

Goes well with? Cap’n Crunch sandwich

Alan Ruck says he and Matthew Broderick, buddies in real life, were encouraged to improvise during the filming of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

“He wanted that layered quality that you get when you work on it on more than one level,” Ruck says of the late John Hughes.

That’s what this book is lacking. Not improvisation, but another layer.

It needed one more read-through by an editor with fresh eyes, and I can’t help wondering if publication was somewhat rushed after the death of John Hughes.

The book is meticulously researched and beautifully structured, and I have no doubt it was written out of love for the movies. It just needed an extra coat of polish.

The same might be said about Hughes’s movies: they’re real and honest and truly significant contributions to popular culture, perhaps even transcending the film genre… but by purely cinematic standards, they are not great films.

The films in this book are revered because they heralded original vision, the start of something new and exciting. Flaws in the final products were often overlooked and even added to the charm.

Working on several levels meant bringing more people into the creative process, and the film the audience finally saw was often a living, breathing, organic creation.

A film began with Hughes, then emanated out into the universe, collecting actor input, director interpretation, musical choices, and audience reaction in waves that are still reverberating today.

A book that has co-opted the experience of watching those films, however, reverses the process. It reduces the story, film-makers, and audience down to simple words on a page, and needs that final layer of shine before it reaches the public.

John Hughes could crank out a script in two days… but he had the entire film-making process as a revision tool.

Other cultural accompaniments: Dogma (1999), Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom, Win Ben Stein’s Money.

Grade: A-/B+

I leave you with this: “John understood that at that time of your life, you feel things more deeply than you probably will ever feel them. And most adults don’t want to remember that. They want to belittle that instead of celebrating that this is a unique time, a special time, a magic time.” –Lea Thompson

[LibraryCin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book looks at ‘80s teen movies, including many John Hughes’ movies. The book takes the reader behind the scenes in the movies and we learn about the actors, as well as John Hughes and the other directors. There are chapters on “Sixteen Candles”, “The Breakfast Club”, “St. Elmo’s Fire”, “Pretty in Pink”, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, “Some Kind of Wonderful”, and “Say Anything”.

What a fun book for someone who was a teenager in the 80s (me)! I’ve seen all but two of the movies (and now feel like I should see those two!). Many of the actors were part of what became labelled the “Brat Pack”, based on an article written that was originally meant to be about Emilio Estevez, but became about a group of them who were out together one night. To be honest, I’d not even realized the phrase was meant (at the time) to be derogatory; I never read the article, nor had I realized that’s even where the term originated. So, I did learn plenty about the actors and the movies. I also want to go back and re-watch some of the movies I’ve already seen. My favourites were “Pretty in Pink” (I love Duckie!) and “Some Kind of Wonderful”.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read. Gora clearly did her research, but relied a little to heavily on direct quotes in her writing.

I'm a little young for this era (I was 10 when Say Anything, the last of the movies discussed, came out), so I had no idea that the phrase "Brat Pack" originally came from an article that portrayed Emilio Estevez and Judd Nelson in a pretty negative light. I thought it was solely a play on "Rat Pack".

I especially enjoyed the info about casting and the discussion of how the music was incorporated, since I had the Some Kind of Wonderful and Pretty in Pink soundtracks on cassette (ha!) and listened to them a LOT in high school. I also watched Sixteen Candles on my birthday every year from age 16 until well into college.

[Jenni Paulsen Buchanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a lighthearted but very informative romp through the movies and movie-makers of the John Hughes era. We all know of these movies—by reputation, if not by personal experience. Some of us know them by heart! This book delved into the lives and histories of the actors and creators involved in the movies. Journalist Susannah Gora fills the pages with criticism, history, insights and trivia. Rarely do I find nonfiction books to be page-turners, but this one was. I couldn’t put it down! (Knowledge of all the movies is NOT a prerequisite to enjoy this book, but knowledge of one or two is helpful.)

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest, the writing in this one was nothing to write home about (and ha-you’d probably do a better job,) but it was packed with info about your favorite young actors and directors from the eighties, albeit presented in a bit repetitive fashion. The structure was strange with this one….

But it was good stuff!! E.g., the curious muse-y power relationships between Molly Ringwald/Anthony Michael Hall and John Hughes-who literally dropped both like cold potatoes after they made him zillion$; the ubercool making of Cameron Crowe’s directorial debut, Say Anything with John Cusack’s key contributions; and the overall argument of how being labeled as a ‘brat pack’ severely limited the potential of this group of talented actors and how each struggled to overcome it. Plus all that stuff you forgot about Demi Moore! And Ferris Bueller! And as a TBR builder, what was up with Hughes-that’s the book I want to read next.

Worth mentioning too is that it’s also dated at this point. Released in 2010 I think. No fault of the author of course, but there’s no inclusion yet of Rob Lowe’s continued resurrection in shows like Parks and Rec (you may remember that he was cancelled for a while) or Alan Ruck’s offbeat and marvelous role in Succession . Not that there’s much deep analysis here—just stuff you’d have to read a mountainous stack of Enquirers and Rolling Stones to recall. So Gora does the work for you!

But heck, sure, I’d recommend it if you’re a Boomer pop culture buff like myself. It would never win a Booker Prize but it’s a really fun audiobook to listen to on a long summer road trip.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Calling all Brat Packers! What a fun read. I smiled throughout the whole book. Brings back such good memories and the feelings of being a teen.

[A Home Library - Book Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

“You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation” by Susannah Gora (2010)

Categories — Nonfiction, Film, Pop Culture, 1980s, Actors, Biography, Celebrities, Media

Pub Info — Feb. 2010, audiobook 2022. Has a 3.85 average & almost 2000 ratings on Goodreads. Three Rivers Press.

The Author — Gora was a former entertainment editor and writer about movies, media, etc. Had appeared on MTV, VH1, and other networks as a media commentator

Who’s It Good For? — 1980s nostalgia seekers, people who like John Hughes and similar 80s media/movies, readers who like pop culture & film studies, people who liked “Brat Pack” by Andrew McCarthy (2021) or any of the actors in said Brat Pack

Some of the Media Covered — Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Say Anything, Some Kind of Wonderful Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Some People Interviewed (Not Exhaustive) — Molly Ringwald, Anthony Micheal Hall, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Rob Lowe, John Cusack, various directors and producers of films, Eric Stolz and many more

More Info ⤵️

🎥 This is a very engagingly written book about the popular 80s films emerging from the John Hughes era. It’s about the “brat pack,” the movies, and the impact had on film & those watching. How they reflected or influenced 80s US culture.

🍿 It does cover drama & gossip, a broad overview of the famous “brat pack” and media journalism, Hughes & crew. First hand interviews with key figures are the highlight of this book’s value.

🎬 It’s not necessarily an oral history, but I like how it weaves interviews, facts, and impressions. “Cine-sociology” is the undercurrent theme: what impact can media have on culture & socialization. Particularly, 1980s teenagers in this instance.

🎥 The author connects the films to 80s IRL, such as divorce rates & impact on teens, love and relationships, pressure to succeed, vices, cliques & fitting in, teen emotions and relationships to parents & authority figures. Having all that reflected on the big screen, which is a credit to the success of this genre.

🍿 Very interesting. I suggest it to fans foremost!

[Carmen Liffengren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came of age during the reign of John Hughes. Movies like Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller's Day Off are seared in my consciousness forever. Those films defined a generation. I even revisited a few of Hughes's films like The Breakfast Club and Some Kind of Wonderful while reading this. John Hughes was a genius at giving honest voices to teenagers in a way that hadn't been done before. I read about 110 pages of this book and honestly, I am pretty sure I got what I needed out of this book. This book gets bogged down by with way too much detail. Better editing would have compelled me to continue, but it is unnecessarily long. There's no doubt that John Hughes changed teen culture while creating a few classics in the process.

[Don Jose · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about the back stories of the various movies, but the book was repetitive and the writing was . . . not the best. The discussion of the generational impact of the actors and movies was way too syrupy and fawning, plus it was repetitive. Repeatedly referring to the negative fallout from the David Blum "Brat Pack" article seems at odds with the fact that everyone appears to have had very successful careers. Did I mention that there was a lot of repetition?

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a must-read for anyone who loved the great teen movies from the 1980's like The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Say Anything, St. Elmo's Fire. I never knew anything about the casting and filming process for these movies, so that was fascinating. There are a few parts that get a little slow and repetitive, but overall it's a captivating book.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting details from behind the scenes of these movies, but I felt like the book was still missing something that I can't quite put my finger on.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried
Author: Susannah Gora
Publisher: Crown Publishers
Published In: New York City, NY
Date: 2010
Pgs: 367

REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
The cultural touchstones of a generation of American teenagers, the Brat Pack movies and actors changed the fabric of understanding for many who thought they were on their own and that it was only happening to them. John Hughes wrote the soul of the American teenager and put it onscreen for the world to see. Outcasts, prom queens, preppies, burnouts, frosted lip gloss, skinny ties, and a feeling of invincibility. Was it the last time a generation believed in happily ever after?

Genre:
Behind the Scenes
Culture
Film
History
Movies
Non-fiction
Philosophy
Society
Teen
Young Adult

Why this book:
I’m a child of the era. We all wanted to be Jake Ryan. I wanted to be John Bender.
______________________________________________________________________________

Favorite Character:
As much as I wanted to say my favorite character here was John Hughes or Molly Ringwald, I can’t. They’re both shown as people here. More real than Hollywood usually likes people to be shown. Same can be said about all of the eponymous pack.

The Feel:
As I read this book, instead of thinking of the actors, movies, and plots, or even the timeframe, culture, and society, my brain is replaying the theme songs from these movies through my mind’s...ear. John Parr’s St. Elmo’s Fire(Man in Motion) has been running on a loop in my head for way too long.

Favorite Scene:
Gedde Watanabe’s audition to play Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles where he showed up in character and stayed in character until the casters thought that he really had problems with the English language, making them believe that he was actually from Korea and that English was barely a second language to him. And at the end, he reveals to them that he is from Utah.

Molly Ringwald on John Hughes - “He was inspired by me, and I was, in turn, inspired by him. And it was great. I felt a bit that it was like Woody Allen and Diane Keaton. I don’t think that I’ve worked with someone before or since, who I felt understood my strengths as well as John. I just don’t know if I am ever going to find the same thing with anyone else.”

This is one of the saddest statements I’ve ever read in light of John’s having passed on in 2009.

Mia Sara admitting that she threw herself at Matthew Broderick during the filming of Ferris shows on the screen. You can see her real life crush there. Real emotion trumps acting. But good acting is awesome too. Reportedly, Broderick rebuffed her...repeatedly. And that you can’t see in the acting.

The pained awareness behind Ferris’s monologues when he talks about the future.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
Fast Times at Ridgemont High is given short to no shrift in this film. Same with Valley Girl. And a couple others besides. I get that the amount of focus went to the Hughes films plus St. Elmo’s Fire, but the Brat Pack movies felt like more than just these 7 films. Though Fast Times is largely shafted here, mentioned in passing, Say Anything, also penned by Cameron Crowe, does get some love in the final chapters of the book.

Hmm Moments:
John Hughes clacking along on a typewriter with a picture of 14-year-old Molly Ringwald over his writing desk. True, the script turned out to be Sixteen Candles. But...isn’t that a bit creepy? Hughes was very in touch with his female teenager side. He touched the teenage spirit in a way that movies hadn’t previously. But still. Never knew that she inspired the actual character to that degree. Interesting.

Hughes channeled his inner teenage girl better than any director in living memory.

So connected was Hughes to his young cast and his young characters that it seemed at times as if he were going for a do-over of his own teenhood. Of Hughes, mused Time’s Richard Corliss, “ Who wouldn’t grab the chance to remake one’s adolescence?”

Maybe that’s what Hughes was aiming for. And maybe there are some who would think that. I’d say “F that.” The broody son of a bitch that I am today would hate the broody son of a bitch that I was back then.

Never realized that it was during the filming of St. Elmo’s Fire that “that” name got hung on them. Judd Nelson’s feeling that that was a death knell of some kind is telling. The moniker did seem to cheapen the massive talents involved.

Love the casting stories that are included here.

Being in the Brat Pack is like a venereal disease. If someone made a movie with two of the people previously labelled as members, you became a member.

David Blum’s article in the New York Magazine that labelled them the Brat Pack was sarcastic and mean spirited. Joel Schumacher, the director of St. Elmo’s Fire, saw Blum when he came to interview him as coming across like the guy who never got invited to the party and had finally found his lever and fulcrum to move the world. Invited out for a night with the friends, he was shown a bunch of guys who may have been showing out trying to be more impressive and he took it all to heart and inflated it and, then, conflated it with his personal dislikes. So an article that was ostensibly about Emilio Estevez’s budding career as an actor, writer, and director at 23-years old...and being Martin Sheen’s son blew up into something else entirely.

Pretty in Pink has always been my least favorite of the so-called Brat Pack movies. And now I know why. The ending always struck me as out-of-character based on how the plot up to that point. The original ending was supposed to be Cryer’s and Ringwald’s character dancing at prom as friends, but a test audience booed that ending. And thus, the rewritten and filmed ending rehabilitating McCarthy’s caddish character. Always rang false to me. And now, I know why.

The similarities in plot between Pink and Wonderful may be because of the changed ending. Hughes was trying to have the story that he actually wanted get to the screen rather than the focus group screened “hero gets the girl, geek gets left out” ending that Pink ended up with. Some Kind of Wonderful felt derivative in another way too. It re-rung the bell at the museum from Buehler. The author tries to make the argument, unsuccessfully, I believe, that the two movies while sharing thematic elements are sufficiently different. The success of these movies lead to a derivative tidal wave of formulaic, lesser movies. Many borrowing plot elements and, even, stars from other Brat Pack movies.

Ringwald’s manager, her mother, at that time, as the Brat Pack movies reached their nadir, passed on reading for Pretty Woman and Blue Velvet because they didn’t meet Molly’s image. This was the era when Julie Andrews had just appeared topless in SOB. C’mon. Molly’s mismanaged career in this era lead reporters to characterize her as an actress who dithered over scripts, dithered over interviews, and came across as spoiled when she’d tell reporters that the press wouldn't let her grow up naturally.

John Hughes comes across as almost Peter Pan-ish. He was Ferris. He was the characters played by Anthony Michael Hall, Jon Cryer, Andrew McCarthy, and Matthew Broderick, et al. He channeled his friends and their experiences along with his own. He was in touch with his inner 16-year old girl. Hence, his understanding of Molly Ringwald, Mia Sara, and his friendship with Sloane Tannen, his producer’s teenage daughter, who he had extensive conversations with during the production of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. She was the namesake of Bueller’s girlfriend Sloane Peterson, making her one part Sloane Tannen and one part Hughes high school buddy Jackson Peterson...at least in name. In today’s post Neverland Ranch, post Long Island Lolita world, we’d make it into something unclean and tawdry. His calling his producer’s house to talk to Sloane instead of her dad would set off the squick alarm at high volume today. Same with his relationship with Molly Ringwald during the filming of Candles, Club, and Pretty. Looking at his results, he was telling the stories of young souls coming to maturity as the real world impugned itself on the fairy tale of High School and its princes and princesses, its trolls and fairies, its blurs and spiders, all its little monsters, all straining toward a better tomorrow that they don’t understand.

It’s a shame that John didn't live long enough to make the high school reunion movies that would have brought some of these characters back to the screen later in life. He made 4 Vacations and 3 Beethovens, and 4 Home Alones...and we still loved his movies. Okay...okay...the Vacations were good stuff.

Ferris represented the first time that Hughes didn’t really connect with his actors on the same level as on the previous movies. This was the beginning of the end of Hughes pack movies even though he still had a few to go. This was Hughes second graduation from High School.

The behind the scenes stuff on Some Kind of Wonderful sounds like a colossal cluster.

Hughes is portrayed here as having the classic “you’re dead to me” attitude toward directors and actors who refused him. Hughes along with some others tried to pressure Anthony Michael Hall to be Ferris thinking that his mother was pressuring him. A 4 hour pressure meeting that after surviving it and still passing on the movie lead AMH to say of John Hughes in this book, “He was my best friend.”

Despite the label Brat Pack and its connotations, when you line up all the work that these actors have been involved in since the 80s, it’s an impressive filmography. Some got typecast into oblivion almost. But some of them have taken part in a touchstone or three outside of the teen, youth, high school genre. The book came out too far back to give credit to them, but Spader’s turn on The Blacklist as Raymond Reddington and Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark/Iron Man are both awesome. The coda hasn’t been written on these actors’ careers. Some of them will fade away but some will continue to pop up and flash their talent before us. And I look forward to it.

Not Another Teen Movie, SuperBad, and a host of fellow travellers are the generational children of John Hughes, Joel Schumacher, and the Brat Pack movies.
______________________________________________________________________________

Last Page Sound:
Sad and good and depressing.

Author Assessment:
Loved that Gora chose to reach back to the some of the cultural touchstones of the movies of my youth. It’s a little bit of knowing how the sausage is made though. I love that the document was written. And I enjoyed reading it. But I do think differently about some of it now. I would definitely read other stuff from Susannah Gora.

Knee Jerk Reaction:
glad I read it

Disposition of Book:
Wichita Falls Public Library
600 11th St
Wichita Falls, TX 76301

Dewey Decimal System:
791.4302
GOR
c.01

Would recommend to:
genre fans
______________________________________________________________________________

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried was a collection of anecdotes, behind-the-scenes notes, and analysis of John Hughes movies from the 80’s, as well as a few other important movies from that generation that changed the way films about teenagers were written, filmed and viewed. I absolutely loved this touching collection of eighties cinematic memories. Even more, I loved how Samantha Gora provided a wealth of information about everything from the 80’s movies to music, to actors to producers. She didn’t leave any stone unturned. Although a lengthy biography, I thoroughly enjoyed reliving the movies & learning about all the details of how each of the movies and its characters (both those cast and those cut) were portrayed before, during, and after being created.

Being a huge 80’s fan, this one a novel that was on my must read list. If you are a fan of the eighties culture, have watched and are inspired by all things John Hughes, Brat Pack, music, movies, actors…this is one that you do not want to pass up. (Audio)

[Tihare · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an interesting book. I love all these movies, though I've not seen St. Elmer's Fire yet lol. I love the Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles!

Susannah Gora offers a nostalgic deep-dive into the cultural phenomenon of 1980s teen cinema. Through meticulous research and engaging storytelling, Gora chronicles how John Hughes and the Brat Pack revolutionized Hollywood's portrayal of adolescence.

The book skillfully weaves together behind-the-scenes anecdotes, cultural analysis, and personal interviews to examine films like The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. While occasionally indulgent in its reverence, Gora successfully demonstrates how these movies transcended entertainment to become generational touchstones. A compelling read for anyone interested in film history, pop culture, or the enduring power of coming-of-age stories.

These movies will continue to be watched by many because not only do they still connect with modern feelings, they are also good to see that there isn't much difference with all Generations.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

My rating is a bit misleading as while the content merits 5 stars, the actual writing is closer to 2. The average is obviously 3.5 but I rounded up out of Covid numbness.

As mentioned the content is a 5. Anyone who was in high school in the 80's knew all these movies: Pretty in Pink, 16 Candles, Ferris Bueller.....etc and this book takes you back to those days with an in depth telling of how/why/what and where they were made. As nostalgia goes, it's terrific and reveals a great deal more about the various casts and John Hughes then most of us would know. As long as the author is dealing with that (and fortunately 80% of the book is about the movies themselves), it is fun to read. The other 20% however is poorly edited and flips back and forth in a seemingly mindless manner. There are random quotes (from fans) and needless quotes (I know she has a famous father but Dylan Lauren's contribution is utterly pointless and is there only to name drop).

Be warned too - it's a fun read but not without it's pathos with the changing of John Hughes's personality the more successful he became as well as the fallout and lost friendships from the infamous Brat Pack article.

[Augusto Rojas · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a solid read with some great insights from those individuals who made these classics, both in front of and behind the camera. The book paints a not so flattering picture for some of these actors/crew which is sad for a fan like myself.

The book is already 15 years old, it would be great if it could be updated by the author.

I will say the author style is a bit repetitive.

Is it worth reading? If you are a fan or a child of this time period then absolutely. If you are a cinephile then perhaps it’s worth reading. Otherwise you can pass.

[Jbussen · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. For me the nostalgia wore off quite quickly and I started skipping paragraphs, then pages, and chapters. Maybe I remember the zeitgeist all too well. Yes the movies were very good for many reasons, this book just wasn't for many reasons. This is just a straight up memory lane piece. I give the author credit for the effort, but for me there wasn't anything special in this book beyond what you'd expect to find. I did get what I wanted and so 2.5 stars for me.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend loading up on these movies before you read this because you will want to watch them all over again. This was like reading my childhood! If you grew up in this era, read this book. If you have seen any of these movies, read this book. All of the behind the scenes and quotes from our favorite Brat Pack will bring you back! ❤️

[Carole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was the writing fantastic? No, but Gora is passionate about the movies that defined my teen and young adult years. The Brat Pack...the behind the scenes gossip. Very fun to learn who had a crush on whom, what happened to the careers and family lives of these young stars, and what John Hughes meant to everyone. Definitely worth reading if you're a child of the 80s!

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like-love-grew up on Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Say Anything, Some Kind of Wonderful or St. Elmo's Fire you should read this book. It's such a nice trip down memory lane, and I am looking forward to rewatching these films again and again.

[Carol Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2 🌟 a beautiful stroll down memory lane. I was a teen in high school during this time and to this day I will stop what I’m doing and sit and watch when one of these movies comes on. A great behind the scenes look at a favorite time in my life.

[Corrie Matheny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this book because it went in depth about the making of all the movies I loved as a teenager. It was nostalgic and made me want to rewatch these movies, some of which I did. The 3 star review comes because the chapters that were not about a specific movie were too long, boring, and often repetitive. Also, even though I enjoyed the book overall, I don’t think anyone not from my generation would appreciate it.

[Maggie Nevala · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a sucker for how this book talks about every movie in it like it was the most important and beautiful movie ever, I can’t help but believe it and will be rewatching/watching all of them immediately

[Olivia Schroeder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did really like this book! I love 80 s movies it was really fun to read interviews from some of my favorite actors. if I had to be nit picky ( and this could just be the book I have) but the pages of the book were so white which made it hard to focus on the book.