People always have the “who’s your favorite director” discussion! Someone in the group ALWAYS states Scorsese, Speilberg or Soderbergh. While those directors all have done fabulous work, they are definitely not my style. Yet, I have never come across one person that has matched my response. Am I the only one who bows to the greatness of John Hughes????

I stumbled across an article, in the LA Times, that got me thinking…where in the world is John Hughes? This director that I idolize disappeared far too long ago, and only left us with his legacy of milestone films. “Ferris Bueller,” “Pretty in Pink,” “Breakfast Club,” “Sixteen Candles” – the list could go on and on!

Mr. Hughes made films that screamed through simplicity. He made films that we can all relate to because of timeless tales due to tormented high school years. He made films that finally made the geeks cool! He made films that I will forever be in awe of!

But, again, where in the world is John Hughes? Does he even care about his audience that he left behind? Does he really want the “Home Alone” series to be the closing of his legacy? He has somewhat become the Willy Wonka of our time. Leaving the world for, possibly, a secluded, simple life like the ones he so perfectly captured in his films. Maybe he’ll emerge from his ‘factory’ someday with his own golden ticket contest. We could only be so lucky!

Yet, like golden ticket nightmare of a winner Veruca Salt, we are a greedy audience. We always want more! (hence, the invention of the sequel.) But, do we really need more? Or can we just not let go of those simple, adolescent inspirations that Mr. Hughes created – like being able to ditch school, and have the time of your life all packed into one day, like Ferris did. Or being a hopeless nerd who actually stands a chance of getting the most popular girl in school, like “the geek” always played by Anthony Michael Hall.

I, for one, can obviously not let go! So, Mr. Hughes, I am making it my life-long quest to finally meet you someday and thank you:

Thank you for immortalizing those universal, childhood memories that we can still watch on DVD. (Yes, I own them all and they are taking up way too much space in my closet. But, there is no way I will sell even one of them to some used DVD store! I admit, they are somewhat my security blankets!)

Thank you for creating scenes that I vividly see in my mind every time I hear lyrics like,”don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t…don’t you forget about me.” It’s almost as if you were trying to prophecy about the years that we were about to let slip us by.

Mr. Hughes, thank you for reminding me why I feel in love with movies to begin with. I’m looking forward to thanking you in person someday when I hand over that golden ticket!