John Hughes was often referred to, and not incorrectly, as the voice of a generation. But he never looked much like the teenagers in his movies. In fact, he looked more like their fathers, or perhaps the people they would grow up to be. That’s because he was their voice, too. John Hughes spoke not just for the brains, athletes, basket cases, princesses and criminals that roamed the nation’s high schools but for the entire world they came from. While suburbia never experienced the drug and violence problems that plagued America’s urban centers in the 1980s, they certainly had their own demons to deal with. Hughes portrayed these with total honesty, never being either whiny or condescending. That’s why, even though the clothes and hairstyles are dated, his films still ring true to the legions of people who reside in the vast, prefabricated lands that surround the nation’s cities. Below, his ten greatest hits.
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