Program Notes

John Hughes died Thursday in Manhattan, apparently of a heart attack while visiting family. Hughes started his career as an writer in advertising and ended it as a farmer in Illinois. In between, during the 80's and 90's, he wrote and directed some of the seminal popcorn movies of those decades, the most successful being "Home Alone," which was directed by Chris Columbus. But Hughes is probably more familiar for his so-called "Brat Pack" movies ("Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club," "Weird Science," and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off") as well as "Uncle Buck," and "Planes, Trains & Automobiles ." His last film as a director was "Curly Sue" in 1991. Retired from the Holywood scene, he still continued to write screenplays under the psuedonum Edmond Dantes, probably as his name became so familiar with the sub-genre of comedies known as "John Hughes" movies.

Hughes started out as a writer for National Lampoon, and his films as both director and writer are known for their anarchic spirit, breaking rules of physicality and presentation to absurdist proportions. One got the impression, watching Hughes' movies, that the audience was a participant in the films with characters acting out for the benefit of the audience, addressing them directly, and making them privy to their innermost thoughts (and reaction shots much like Macaulay Culkin's Munch-like emblematic scream to the camera in "Home Alone"). Music was important to Hughes, particularly the music of the day although his soundtracks would be a hodge-podge of sources and styles, such as "Ferris Bueller's" range from "Oh, Yeah" by Yello to the theme from "I Dream of Jeannie."

Hughes tip-toed (with accompanying piano tickles) from live-action sensibilities to the cartoonish, as well as emotions from the harsh to the sentimental. He had a silent director's mastery of the slow burn, and the comic pause. Hughes' movies had bite to them, and if his movies ended on a comforting note, it usually required a path through thorns for the audience. His films lacked complacency.

I don't know that I'd call Hughes' films works of art, but the Looney-Toonish "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (with Matthew Broderick as Bugs Bunny), and "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" (with two stand-out performances by Steve Martin and John Candy) are high on my list for an evening's entertainment.

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Speaking of cartoons, here's a brilliant idea from the TruTV Channel: "Man Vs. Cartoon." In a bit of a knock-off of the "MythBusters" series, this team of experts attempts to recreate the various traps employed in the "Roadrunner" cartoons, created by Michael Maltese and Chuck Jones.

Now, that, I'd like to see. Here's a taste.

Program Note

Yojimbo the 5th here. Just a note to let those who are getting this feed through Facebook or your local Widget* know that you'll notice something strange in these parts tomorrow. Oh, LNTAM will be here per normal, and the by-now-customary "Don't Make a Scene" will be present.

But, due to the nature of the "Scene" we're making that day, specifically the language of the scene, the blog will be headed by an "R" rating designation, and it is that which will appear as the graphic of the feeds and the widgets—I'm assuming that, of course, what is usually designated as the graphic header is the first one that appears—first come first served.

Now, why have I done this? Well, I'm not sensitive to coarse language but I am sensitive to readers' sensibilities.** I shouldn't be, I guess, as the audience I'm targeting should have no problem with the language or "R" or even PG-13 films. Still, I felt that the "pervasive language" would be a factor in pushing people's buttons. I'm not adverse to the occasional "F"-bomb, as long as it's well used. Gratuitous use (as in tomorrow's scene) can either be comedic or eye-rolling (case in point: the recent "The Taking of Pelham 123")—and the pervasiveness is even brought up in the context of the scene (that should give you a hint as to what it is).

Now, I suppose I could have put up the "age-restriction" feature of Blogger, but 1) it's cheesy and would give the impression that it was worse than it was, 2) it would restrict perusal of content for the rest of the blog and 3) it's unnecessary, frankly, and offensively censorial.

So, I did the next best thing. I put an "R" rating graphic at the top of the post to warn the sensitive (the lily-livers!) away. And I'm quite sanguine with that being the illustrative graphic for the one-offers approaching this site (readership has been down—it's Summer—it might even, contrarily, be an inducement for more people to visit).

What's coming up this next week? Well, we have a couple of posts of a timely nature, one marking a historical event. We'll have two—maybe three—Summer premieres represented, two foreign films—one initially X-rated, the other the winner of the Best Foreign Film of its year, a documentary with local interest, and possibly an Olde Review (unless it gets booted out of its slot by late-breaking news, and that seems more and more likely as the week rolls on).

I have material through the first week of August, but I'm still behind writing a couple of reviews for movies tough to crack—then there are the things that have been on the shelf for months. Some day, they will all see the light of day.

You can help. I'll be putting up a poll today asking which movie you'd like to see a scene of next Sunday. Please vote, and vote early! The poll will close Friday night.

* And, really, shouldn't you have LNTAM on your blog as a widget? It's quick, it's easy, it's painless, and it's free!!

** Case in point, the original title of "Saving Stanley Kubrick" was "Cutting the #!@% out of "Eyes Wide Shut." Too "on-the-nose" for me.