Sixteen Candles | |
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Directed by | John Hughes |
Written by | John Hughes |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Bobby Byrne |
Edited by | Edward Warschillka |
Music by | Ira Newborn |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 93 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $6.5 million [2] |
Box office | $23.6 million [3] |
Sixteen Candles is a 1984 American coming-of-age teen comedy film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling, and Anthony Michael Hall. Written and directed by John Hughes in his directorial debut, it was the first in a string of films Hughes would direct, centering on teenage life. The film follows newly 16-year-old Samantha Baker (Ringwald), who deals with a seemingly unrequited crush on high school senior Jake Ryan (Schoeffling) while also being pursued by freshman Farmer Ted (Hall).
Hughes began development on Sixteen Candles in 1982, and after signing a three-picture deal with Universal Pictures, he chose the cast of the film and began filming in July 1983. Initially receiving an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Hughes successfully lobbied for the film to be released with a PG rating.
Sixteen Candles was theatrically released by Universal in the United States on May 4, 1984. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who particularly praised Ringwald's performance, and was a box office success, earning $23.6 million against a $6.5 million budget.
Retrospectively considered to be one of Hughes's best films, Sixteen Candles helped launch the careers of Ringwald, Schoeffling, and Hall. A television series from Peacock based on the film entered development in 2022.
In suburban Chicago, high school sophomore Samantha "Sam" Baker is hopeful her 16th birthday is the beginning of a great new year, but is shocked when her family forgets the occasion because her older, beautiful, self-absorbed sister Ginny is getting married the next day.
At school, Sam fills out a friend's sex quiz where she reveals her crush on senior classmate Jake Ryan. Meanwhile, Jake, having noticed how Sam looks at him, asks his friend Rock about her. Rock dismisses her as immature and reminds him he is already in a relationship with another popular girl at school, Caroline, but Jake says he is frustrated by Caroline's constant partying. On the bus ride home, Sam fends off repeated flirtations from geeky freshman Ted.
At home, Sam's day gets worse when she discovers she must sleep on the sofa because her grandparents and a foreign exchange student named Long Duk Dong are all staying at the house for the wedding. She is further upset when her grandparents also do not remember her birthday and have Dong go with her to a dance at school that night.
At the dance, Sam pines for Jake while Dong has attracted the powerful and strong jock, Marlene. Ted, trying to impress his friends Bryce and Wease, dances with Sam, who runs off in tears. In an effort to salvage his reputation with all the geeks, Ted bets Bryce and Wease a dozen floppy disks that he will get physical with Sam before the dance ends. As proof, Bryce and Wease demand Sam's underwear. Jake asks Ted about Sam, having seen them dancing.
Ted apologizes to Sam, who opens up about her family forgetting her birthday and her crush on Jake. Ted tells her that Jake asked about her and Sam is shocked and asks what Ted thinks she should do. Despite his genuine interest in Sam, Ted encourages her to talk to Jake, and she agrees. Before she leaves, he gets her underwear to win his bet and he, Bryce, and Wease charge the other freshmen boys a dollar to see it. Meanwhile, Sam tries to approach Jake, but loses her nerve and runs off. Jake and Caroline leave the dance, leaving Sam thinking Jake does not like her, and vice-versa.
At Jake's house, Caroline and her friends have started a wild party. Jake, angry with Caroline, retreats to his bedroom and tries calling Sam, but her grandparents answer the phone, and (after they yell at him for waking them up) they tell him that Sam isn't interested. After the party, Jake is furious at the damage left behind. He finds Ted trapped under a glass coffee table after having knocked over the beer can pyramid the night before. Ted tells Jake Sam is interested in him and Jake confesses that he has lost interest in Caroline. He takes Sam's underwear from Ted and, in exchange, lets Ted take a drunken Caroline home in his father's Rolls-Royce Corniche. To further impress the geeks, Ted stops at Bryce and Wease's house to get Wease to take a picture of him with Caroline in the expensive car, but the finished picture only reveals the top of Ted's head.
Sam's father apologizes for forgetting her birthday, and tells her that if Jake does not see what a wonderful person she is, then he is not worth Sam's time. She lies on the couch thinking of Jake, not knowing that he is also thinking of her. The next morning, Sam's mother also apologizes to her and everyone heads to the church for the wedding. Jake arrives at Sam's house, where a hungover Dong miscommunicates that Sam is at church getting married. Jake finds Caroline and Ted making out in the back of his dad's banged-up car, and then Jake and Caroline break up. Jake then surprises Sam at the church after the wedding and invites her back to his house. That night, Jake gives Sam her underwear back, and a birthday cake with sixteen candles on it. He tells her to make a wish and she tells him her wish already came true. They kiss as the film fades to black.
John Hughes originally wrote Sixteen Candles in 1982 as a low-budget production which A&M Films agreed to finance for $1 million. The film went into turnaround, but Hughes attracted more interest in his screenplays after writing the successful film National Lampoon's Vacation (1983). After Hughes was fired from his next film Mr. Mom (1983), he decided to resume pre-production on Sixteen Candles as his directorial debut as he felt it had more commercial appeal to his teenage target audience than his other planned film The Breakfast Club (1985). After Hughes was rehired on Mr. Mom, Ned Tanen greenlit both films at Universal Pictures under a three-year $30 million contract on the condition that Hughes release Sixteen Candles first. [4] [5]
John Hughes had asked his agent for headshots of young actresses, and among those he received were those of Robin Wright, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy. Sheedy had auditioned for the role of Sam, but was dropped because Hughes thought Ringwald was more fitting for the role. He called her a year later to give her a role in The Breakfast Club. Inspired by Ringwald's appearance, he put the photo up over his desk and wrote the film just over a weekend with her in mind for the lead role. [6] [7] [8]
For the male lead in the film, it had come down to Schoeffling and Viggo Mortensen. [9] Ringwald pursued Mortensen to get the role. [10] Emilio Estevez also auditioned for Jake. [11] For the part of Ted, Hughes saw a number of actors for the role including Jim Carrey, Jon Cryer, Keith Coogan and Ralph Macchio. [12] [13] [14] [15] "Every single kid who came in to read for the part... did the whole, stereotyped high school nerd thing. You know—thick glasses, ball point pens in the pocket, white socks. But when Michael came in he played it straight, like a real human being. I knew right at that moment that I'd found my geek." [16] Paul Dooley initially turned down the role of Sam's father as he was in it initially for two or three minutes and the last two or three minutes, then finally Hughes called him told he wrote the scene in the middle of the film so that he will be in the film and he accepted it. [17]
Principal photography began on July 11, 1983. [4] Sixteen Candles was filmed primarily in and around the Chicago North Shore suburban communities of Evanston, Skokie, and Highland Park, Illinois during the summer of 1983, when leads Ringwald and Hall were 15 years old. [18] Most of the exterior scenes and some of the interior scenes were filmed at Niles East High School, [19] close to downtown Skokie, the setting for Hall's driving the Rolls-Royce. [20] A cafeteria scene and a gym scene were filmed at Niles North High School. The auto shop scene was filmed at Niles East High School in the auto shop. The Baker house is located at 3022 Payne Street in Evanston. The church (Glencoe Union Church at 263 Park Avenue) and parking lot where the final scenes take place are in Glencoe. [21] The Motion Picture Association of America initially rated the film R, but Hughes won an appeal for it to be released as PG. [4]
Sixteen Candles | |
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Soundtrack album by various artists | |
Released | 1984 |
Genre | |
Length | 17:28 |
Label | MCA |
Producer |
No. | Title | Performed By | Length |
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1. | "16 Candles" | Stray Cats | 2:52 |
2. | "Hang Up the Phone" | Annie Golden | 2:59 |
3. | "Geek Boogie" | Ira Newborn & the Geeks | 2:48 |
No. | Title | Performed By | Length |
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1. | "Gloria" | Patti Smith | 5:54 |
2. | "If You Were Here" | Thompson Twins | 2:55 |
The original soundtrack was released as a specially priced mini album containing only 5 songs. However, the movie actually featured an extensive selection of over 30 songs. Songs from the movie that were not included on the soundtrack EP are as follows:
Pre-2003 releases of the film featured a re-scored soundtrack due to rights issues. This wasn't until 2003 when the film was released on DVD with the original theatrical soundtrack intact albeit remixed in 5.1. [22] In 2008, the film was again released on DVD as a "Flashback Edition" with a new featurette titled "Celebrating Sixteen Candles". [23]
In 2012, the film was released on Blu-ray for the first time as part of Universal's 100th Anniversary with the 2008 featurette carried over, along with two new features highlighting the impact of Universal Studios: "The 80s" and "Unforgettable Characters". [24]
In 2019, Universal re-released the film on Blu-ray in a digipak highlighting its 35th anniversary. [25] The disc was the same 2012 release with nothing new added. In that same year, Arrow Video announced their release with a new 4K restoration. [26]
In its opening weekend the film grossed $4,461,520 in 1,240 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking second. By the end of its run, Sixteen Candles grossed $23,686,027 against a budget of $6.5 million. [3]
Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 81% of critics gave it a positive rating, based on 43 reviews with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Significantly more mature than the teen raunch comedies that defined the era, Sixteen Candles is shot with compassion and clear respect for its characters and their hang-ups". [27] Metacritic gave the film a score of 61 based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [28] Ringwald's performance was especially praised; Variety called her "engaging and credible" [29] while Roger Ebert wrote that she "provides a perfect center for the story" in "a sweet and funny movie". [30]
Janet Maslin of The New York Times called the film "a cuter and better-natured teen comedy than most, with the kinds of occasional lapses in taste that probably can't hurt it in the circles for which it is intended. The middle of the film wastes time on a bit more house-wrecking and car-crashing than is absolutely necessary, and there are some notably unfunny ethnic jokes. But most of the movie is cheerful and light, showcasing Mr. Hughes's knack for remembering all those aspects of middle-class American adolescent behavior that anyone else might want to forget." [31]
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "the best teenage comedy since last year's Risky Business ", saying it was "certain to draw a lot of laughs, but the guess here is that it also will offer comfort to young girls and boys who feel awkward. And comfort and moments of recognition are in short supply in teenage movies, which often portray a world of violence and sexual mastery that is a lie." [32]
Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker , "It doesn't amount to much, and it's certainly not to be confused with a work of art or a work of any depth, but the young writer-director John Hughes has a knack for making you like the high-school age characters better each time you hear them talk." [33] Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times stated that " Vacation worked, for all its raunchiness. Sixteen Candles' mixture of the sympathetic and the synthetic, the raucous and the racist, doesn't. At least not for me ... it flails about, substituting chaos and raunchy language for any semblance of wit." [34]
Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote, "Hughes isn't vigilant or deft enough to prevent the dramatic focus of attention from shifting at about the halfway point; he can't quite finesse the letdown that sets in when the engaging teen-age heroine, Samantha, delightfully embodied by Molly Ringwald, is allowed to become almost a subsidiary character in the second half of the story. Nevertheless, Sixteen Candles blends an idiosyncratic screwball imagination with a flair for updated domestic comedy and scenes of intimate, quirkily affectionate character interplay." [35]
Sixteen Candles is retrospectively considered to be one of Hughes' best films. [36] [37]
A 1984 review in The New York Times criticized the character of Long Duk Dong for being "unfunny" and a "potentially offensive stereotype" of Asian people. [31] In 2008, Alison MacAdam of NPR wrote, "To some viewers, he represents one of the most offensive Asian stereotypes Hollywood ever gave America." [38] Asian Americans have complained that they were taunted with quotes of his stilted-English lines. [39] At the time of the film's release, Gedde Watanabe defended the character of Dong as being distinct from "submissive, smart" stereotypes of Asians at the time. Hughes argued that he was parodying foreign exchange students and their American host families in general rather than foreigners or Asians specifically. [4]
In an article published in Salon , Amy Benfer considers whether the film directly condones date rape even though no sexual activity is established, consensual or otherwise. [40] After the party scene, Jake tells Ted that his girlfriend Caroline is "in the bedroom right now, passed out cold. I could violate her ten different ways if I wanted to." He encourages Ted to drive her home saying, "She's so blitzed she won't know the difference." When Caroline and Ted wake up next to each other in the car, Caroline says she's fairly certain they had sex though neither of them remember it. Benfer writes, "The scene only works because people were stupid about date rape at the time. Even in a randy teen comedy, you would never see two sympathetic male characters conspiring to take advantage of a drunk chick these days." [40]
Author Anthony C. Bleach has argued that one possibility for Caroline's emotional and physical ruin in the film "might be that she is unappreciative of (or unreflective about) her class position", adding that, "What happens to Caroline in the narrative, whether her sloppy drunkenness, her scalping, or the potential for sexual coercion, seems to be both a projection of Samantha's desire to acquire Jake and become his girlfriend and a project of the film's desire to somehow harm the upper class." [41] [42]
In December 1984, Ringwald and Hall both won Young Artist Awards as "Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture" and "Best Young Actor in a Motion Picture" for their roles in the film, respectively becoming the first and only juvenile performers in the history of the Young Artist Awards to win the Best Leading Actress and Best Leading Actor awards for the same film (a distinction the film still retains as of 2014). [43] The movie is ranked number 8 on Entertainment Weekly 's list of "The 50 Best High School Movies". [44]
In 2003, USA Network was reportedly developing a sequel to the film produced by Buffy Shutt and Kathy Jones. [45] In 2005, Ringwald was said to be producing a sequel after having turned down previous offers. "I couldn't see how it would work. Now, it seems right." [46] [47]
By 2008, Ringwald was campaigning for the sequel, but said she was uncomfortable doing the film without the involvement of Hughes who, at that point, was not interested. Hughes died in 2009. [48] [49] In 2022, a project inspired by Sixteen Candles titled 15 Candles entered development for Peacock. It is executive produced by Selena Gomez along with writers/executive producers Tanya Saracho and Gabriela Revilla Lugo. [50]
The Breakfast Club is a 1985 American indie teen coming-of-age comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by John Hughes. It stars Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy. The film tells the story of five teenagers from different high school cliques who serve a Saturday detention overseen by their authoritarian vice principal.
Molly Kathleen Ringwald is an American actress, writer, and translator. She began her career as a child actress on the sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life before being nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in the drama film Tempest (1982). Ringwald became a teen idol following her appearances in filmmaker John Hughes' teen films Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), and Pretty in Pink (1986). These films led to the media referring to her as a member of the "Brat Pack." Her final teen roles were in For Keeps and Fresh Horses.
John Wilden Hughes Jr. was an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. He began his career in 1970 as an author of humorous essays and stories for the National Lampoon magazine. He went on in Hollywood to write, produce and direct some of the most successful live-action-comedy films of the 1980s and 1990s. He directed such films as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, She's Having a Baby, and Uncle Buck; and wrote the films National Lampoon's Vacation, Mr. Mom, Pretty in Pink, The Great Outdoors, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, Dutch, and Beethoven.
Anthony Michael Hall is an American actor, producer and comedian. He is best known for starring in the teen-centered John Hughes films Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Weird Science.
The Brat Pack is a nickname given to a group of young actors who frequently appeared together in teen-oriented coming-of-age films in the 1980s. The term "Brat Pack", a play on the Rat Pack from the 1950s and 1960s, was first popularized in a 1985 New York magazine cover story, which described a group of highly successful film stars in their early twenties. David Blum wrote the article after witnessing several young actors being mobbed by groupies at Los Angeles' Hard Rock Cafe. The group has been characterized by the partying of members such as Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, and Judd Nelson.
Pretty in Pink is a 1986 American teen romantic comedy-drama film about love and social cliques in American high schools in the 1980s. A cult classic, it is commonly identified as a "Brat Pack" film.
Edward Bryan Andrews Jr. was an American stage, film and television actor. Andrews was one of the most recognizable character actors on television and in films from the 1950s through the 1980s. His stark white hair, imposing build and horn-rimmed glasses influenced the roles he received, as he was often cast as an ornery boss, a cagey businessman or other officious types.
Michael Earl Schoeffling is an American former actor and model. He is known for playing the role of Jake Ryan in Sixteen Candles, Al Carver in Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, Kuch in Vision Quest, and Joe in Mermaids.
Some Kind of Wonderful is a 1987 American teen romantic drama film directed by Howard Deutch and starring Eric Stoltz, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Lea Thompson. It is one of several successful teen dramas written by John Hughes in the 1980s. Blue-collar teen Keith goes out with the popular Amanda, a girl he's always dreamed of dating. Her ex-boyfriend plots revenge on him, while Keith's tomboy best friend Watts realizes she has feelings for Keith. The film had its premiere in Hollywood on February 23, 1987, and widely released theatrically in the United States on February 27.
Long Duk Dong is a fictional character who appears in Sixteen Candles, a 1984 American coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by John Hughes. Played by Japanese American actor Gedde Watanabe, the character is a Chinese foreign exchange student and a supporting character in the film set at a US suburban high school. Critics have described the character as an offensive stereotype of Asian people, but Roger Ebert argued Watanabe's performance rose above stereotypes. Watanabe later expressed some regret at the role, and turned down other performances when asked to use a heavy Asian accent.
Not Another Teen Movie is a 2001 American teen parody film directed by Joel Gallen and written by Mike Bender, Adam Jay Epstein, Andrew Jacobson, Phil Beauman, and Buddy Johnson. It features Chyler Leigh, Chris Evans, Jaime Pressly, Eric Christian Olsen, Eric Jungmann, Mia Kirshner, Deon Richmond, Cody McMains, Sam Huntington, Samm Levine, Cerina Vincent, Ron Lester, Randy Quaid, Lacey Chabert, Riley Smith and Samaire Armstrong.
For Keeps is a 1988 American coming of age comedy drama film directed by John G. Avildsen. Starring Molly Ringwald and Randall Batinkoff as Darcy and Stan, two high school seniors in love, complications ensue when Darcy becomes pregnant just before graduation and decides to keep her baby. This movie is noted for being Ringwald's final "teen" film, and is cited as one of her most mature performances, particularly in a scene where Darcy is suffering from postpartum depression after the birth of her child.
"A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More 'Touch Me'", is a song by American rock band Fall Out Boy and the third and last single taken from their second studio album, From Under the Cork Tree (2005). "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More 'Touch Me'" was released to radio on March 14, 2006. Though the song never reached the popularity of previous singles "Sugar, We're Goin Down" and "Dance, Dance", it received moderate playtime on both pop radio and alternative rock radio stations, peaking at No. 65 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The video also reached No. 1 on TRL on both May 5 and May 8, 2006, being the third consecutive single from the album to reach the top position.
Carlin Elizabeth Glynn was an American singer and actress. Most notable for her work as a theater performer, she is best known for her Tony Award-winning performance, as Mona Stangley, in the original 1978 production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. She is also known for her roles in John Hughes' Sixteen Candles (1984) and Peter Masterson's The Trip to Bountiful (1985), which is based on the play of the same name, by Horton Foote. Glynn was the mother of actress Mary Stuart Masterson.
"Molly " is a song by American rock band Sponge. The vocals of the original album version of the song, "Molly", were re-recorded for the single release, and retitled "Molly ". It was released in 1995 as the third single from their debut album, Rotting Piñata.
"Graveyard Girl" is a song by French electronic act M83. Written by Anthony Gonzalez with his brother Yann, it was released in April 2008 as the second single from M83's fifth studio album, Saturdays = Youth.
Shermer High School is a fictional high school, and the nexus for many of American director John Hughes' films. The Breakfast Club and Weird Science explicitly reference it by name. Hughes has stated in interviews that all of his films take place in the same fictional town of Shermer, Illinois and that the characters know and interact with each other outside of the narrative thread:
John Hughes: When I started making movies, I thought I would just invent a town where everything happened. Everybody, in all of my movies, is from Shermer, Illinois. Del Griffith from Planes, Trains and Automobiles lives two doors down from John Bender. Ferris Bueller knew Samantha Baker from Sixteen Candles. For 15 years I've written my Shermer stories in prose, collecting its history.
Except Sometimes is the debut studio album of American singer-songwriter Molly Ringwald released on April 9, 2013, through Concord Records. It is a jazz record that follows a tradition of the Ringwald family set by her father. "I grew up in a home filled with music and had an early appreciation of jazz since my dad was a jazz musician. Beginning at around age three I started singing with his band and jazz music has continued to be one of my three passions along with acting and writing. I like to say jazz music is my musical equivalent of comfort food. It's always where I go back to when I want to feel grounded," Ringwald said in a statement. The album received generally mixed to positive reviews, with many critics praising Ringwald's vocals. The closing track of the album is a cover version of Simple Minds' "Don't You " which was part of the soundtrack of the movie The Breakfast Club that starred Ringwald. Ringwald dedicated this track "to the memory of J.H." This refers to John Hughes, Ringwald's director in The Breakfast Club and many of her other films.
Eighth Grade is a 2018 American independent coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Bo Burnham in his feature-length directorial debut. It stars Elsie Fisher as Kayla, a teenager attending middle school who struggles with anxiety but strives to gain social acceptance from her peers during their final week of eighth grade. She copes by publishing vlogs as a self-styled motivational guru but spends much of her time obsessing over social media, frustrating her otherwise supportive father Mark, whom she alienates despite his wish to be present in her life as her sole parent.
You Signed Up for This is the debut studio album by British singer-songwriter Maisie Peters, released on 27 August 2021 through Ed Sheeran's Gingerbread Man Records.