“It felt like a secret world, with music from another planet” - The Pretty in Pink soundtrack at 40
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What is the significance of the Pretty in Pink soundtrack on its 40th anniversary?
Okay, another music legend now. Musician and broadcaster Tom Dunn, good afternoon.
Oh, Brendan, to be in the same breath as Elvis Costello. This is probably one of my life highlights. Thank you very much for that.
Okay, okay. So, but we go from the sublime to the sublime enough in its own way. So the classic John Hughes teen film Pretty in Pink is 40 years old this year. But an interesting thing has happened around the anniversary, which is that the conversation has been more about the soundtrack than the film, really. And now they've re-released it on vinyl. There seems to be this kind of general agreement that the soundtrack has maybe held up better than the film as a kind of a classic 80s mixtape. Just set the scene first on the film for the kids. So Pretty in Pink, probably along with The Breakfast Club,
It was a big cultural moment for a generation, wasn't it? Yeah, totally.
How did John Hughes influence the teen movie genre?
And it was the third of three kind of teen movies that he did. He did Sixteen Candles and then The Breakfast Club, which is kind of where he meets Raleigh... This is John Hughes. John Hughes, yeah. Sorry, the director's John Hughes. It's kind of where he meets Raleigh, Molly Ringwald and becomes a bit fascinated by her. And I think she kind of becomes his muse. And he writes... He writes the next one, I think, very much for her. But I have to say, coming into this, I hadn't realised how central John Hughes has been to films that I've enjoyed. It was only when I sat down to read this, I thought, hang on a second, this is the man who did Ferris Bueller's Day Off, that I love. Planes, Trains and Automobiles, which I don't know if you've seen.
A classic.
A classic, which has a song in it from... the brilliant Irish band, is now Stars of Heaven. And when it was launched in Dublin, Stars of Heaven played in the cinema before it came out.
What are the central themes of Pretty in Pink's plot?
So it's that. Then Uncle Book. And then the film we watch every year, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. For me. What a run. The Christmas. And then Home Alone. Can't mention Home Alone as well. But in the middle of all that, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink were the three big ones. And music was central to them. And I think in Sixteen Candles, you had people like The Vapors and The Specials and people like that, really cool people. In The Breakfast Club, it was Don't You Forget About Me, which really was in ways the making of Simple Minds. But then for Pretty in Pink, which he wrote for Molly Ringwald, he thought she was sensational. And what's interesting there is that it is a man writing for a female perspective, which is very rare in films.
And a lot of people think he did it brilliantly. And that was key to it. So she's central to it. It comes out. She is the main love interest in it. She plays a character called Andy. Andy fancies this guy called Blaine, who's played by Andrew McCarthy. He's very, very wealthy. She's poor. That's the kind of central dynamic in that. There's another guy hanging around her ducky that is, you know, best friend kind of dynamic. How can she ever possibly see? He's mad about her. But how could it ever possibly work out? And then James Spader is in it again. And then very interestingly, James Dean Stanton or Harry Dean Stanton, sorry, is in it as the dad.
How did the ending of Pretty in Pink change after test screenings?
And basically every woman identifies with Andy, but fancies all of the cast, probably Harry Dean Stanton more than all of them now, to call a spade a spade. The plot couldn't be simpler. She wants to go to the prom, as usual in all American films. The person she wants to go to the prom with is Blaine. The guy who really wants to bring her to the prom is Ducky. Blaine does ask her to the prom but then in front of his friends he gets embarrassed because she's on the wrong side of the tracks takes back the invitation not something I think you can ever really do and then she goes to it and at it she gets off with him again now this is where it gets controversial because it ends the initial film ends with Ducky the friend being the person who you know they get together and that got such a bad reaction on the test screening that they redid the ending
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the significance of the Pretty in Pink soundtrack on its 40th anniversary?
0:00–0:49
2
How did John Hughes influence the teen movie genre?
0:49–1:40
3
What are the central themes of Pretty in Pink's plot?
1:40–3:00
4
How did the ending of Pretty in Pink change after test screenings?
3:00–6:15
5
What role does music play in enhancing the Pretty in Pink film experience?
6:15–8:14
6
Which artists contributed to the iconic soundtrack of Pretty in Pink?
8:14–11:14