CINDERELLA STORY: PRETTY IN PINK'S TEEN HEARTACHE

John Hughes is a huge reason the "teen" genre exists. Sure, before Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club (both 1984), the 1960's had Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello beach party flicks complete with Dick Dale surf tunes and bouts of jealousy scored up through dance contests in the sand. The '70s revived '50s culture via the Fonz and American Graffiti and it's safe to say that the musical Grease became a teenie bopper fav. The throw back was obvious in music, too:  Joey Ramone was super influenced by '50s girl groups and glam Gary Glitter lived for the standard 1950's rock'n'roll formula. Mimicking rebels in leather jackets from 20 years prior was abundant in TV and film; otherwise teen characters in the '70s were in bad kid B-movies (Switchblade Sisters) or horror flicks (Carrie). Regardless there were more films about teens targeted towards teens which was awesome in a lot of ways, but it wasn't until the '80s that the idea of "teen movie" became an abundant reality.


The '80s teen movie existed in a less sordid or campy format than the '70s and '60s teen movies before them. With rad duality of comedic and dramatic, the cool thing about John Hughes and his Brat Pack was that counterculture wasn't dumbed down to the fetitude of weird kiddo cults, it was just another part of teen life. The average teen's urges to dress punk, get drunk and make-out was incorporated with wanting kinship and cute kicks while actually paying attention to the characters' inner dialogue about their suburban dilemmas. As defined by Wikipedia:

"Teen films is a film genre targeted at teenagers and young adults in which the plot is based upon the special interests of teenagers, such as coming of age, first love, rebellion, conflict with parents, teen angst or alienation. Often these normally serious subject matters are presented in a glossy, stereotyped or trivialized way. Sexual themes are also common, as are crude forms of humor. Codes and conventions of teen films vary depending on the cultural context of the film, but they can include proms, alcohol, illegal substances, high school, parties and all-night raves, losing one's virginity, relationships, social groups and cliques, and American pop-culture. The classic codes and conventions of teen film come from American films where one of the most widely used conventions are the stereotypes and social groups. The initial stereotypes for Teen Film were established by the film The Breakfast Club in the 1980s and proved to be an effective short cut to character introduction with the audience who identified and recognized them as stereotypes. The Jock, Cheerleader and social outcast become a familiar and pleasurable feature for the audience."

The recession was a big subject matter in the '80s and the rift between the poor (getting more poor) and the rich (getting more rich) was made into an example with teen drama Pretty in Pink (a film written & co-produced but not directed by Hughes). As the creative chick from the wrong side of the tracks (read: social outcast), main character Andie (Molly Ringwald) finds herself caught between her crush Blane (a rich boy from her high school) and her crusher Duckie Dale (who could easily pass as her faggy BFF). Class struggle was the major romantic crisis, an exception to the Fast Times at Ridgemont Highs and Last American Virgins of its day. Social acceptance and stylistic differences reigned Pretty in Pink above anything else. It fully aimed to represent the universal struggle of "us vs. them" within the confinements of the teen movie.


There are two people who play the biggest role in cock-blocking the Andie-Blane love connection. Bully Steff (played by a perfectly snotty James Spader) had already long been harassing Andie ingraining a shitty overlying idea about well-to-do high school hotties and their treatment of women. His shittiness only further confuses Andie when she takes interest in his "richie" best friend Blane (Andrew McCarthy). When Duckie Dale (Jon Cryer) sees the love of his life falling for this preppie BMW driving dude, he also assumes that Blane looks at women, especially lower-middle class women, as an easy fuck just through association with Steff.


Both "sides" have judgments about each other though idealistic dreamer Andie attempts to keep an open mind ("hating them because they have money is just as bad as them hating us because we don't"). Essentially Pretty in Pink is a tale exploring the "you are who you walk with" idea in a time of Reaganomics with the classic Romeo and Juliet crux of love attempting to rise above social expectations. EXCEPT it's a party of one, the Juliet gets ditched when the Romeo is convinced to leave her behind via the influence of Steff:  "Why are you doing this? Why don't you just nail her and get it over with? Why get involved? Listen, I'm getting really bored with this conversation, Blane. If you want your little piece of low-grade ass, fine, take it. But if you do, you're not gonna have a friend." And so Blane sulks away, abandoning Andie.

It seems dumb that the dramatic climax is Blane breaking off his PROM plans with Andie. OH GOD. Prom. But really, think about being a senior in high school and how hard you fall for people when you're young and then suddenly that person disappears even though you see them EVERY DAY. Prom would show that their connection wasn't a private affair, that he was into her enough to show his affection for her in public, regardless of how much their friends hated their relationship. Once that is taken away, just like that, and Andie realizes she is not as important as the social implication of where she "belongs" in society, limited by how much her single (and depressed) father makes, even if as a person determined to succeed regardless and do it with snazz and uphold morale even though the world tries to beat her down. You'd be fucking bummed if you were Andie.


Andie's older confidant and employer, Iona (Annie Potts), urges Andie to go to prom anyway. FUCK IT... "just go". Don't let this dude bring you down. Don't let anyone bring you down. And so Andie puts all her effort into her (very strange) dress and the moment Blane wants her back she goes with him. Just like that. We never even really know WHY Andie likes Blane. It almost seems that she just desires to be accepted by a person that lives in one of the huge houses she stares at on the way home. And so is this liberation? A great article, "Class, Post-Feminism and the Molly Ringwald-John Hughes films", explores this idea:

"The film does two crucial things with Iona’s character. First of all, she, like Andie, is marked by the symbols of feminism: she’s a strong and sassy business owner, who speaks out against what she notices are personal and social injustices, and who changes her appearance—and pushes against the codes of acceptable femininity—in every sequence. What’s more, she certainly provides a role model for Andie’s eclectic “volcanic ensemble[s],” as Duckie describes Andie’s outfits. Secondly, the relationship between the two women is a rare case of female bonding in these films that more commonly demand that individual women be kept in competition with or hostile toward one another across class lines. For example, Iona gives Andie comfort when Blane jilts her, offers advice on dealing with the lovelorn Duckie, and provides her 1960s prom dress, which becomes Andie’s creation in the final sequences of the film. But despite the fact that feminism is taken “into account” with Iona, she, like Andie, is caught up in a narrative in which class “progress”—or at least the trappings of luxury—becomes an important goal."

"This might be one explanation for why what happens to Iona is also what happens to Allison in The Breakfast Club: she’s moved into a higher socioeconomic class with a simple makeover. To prepare for a date with square pet-shop owner Terry, she goes through a complete physical transformation, shedding her wigs and decade-specific outfits and makeup to wear a conservative blazer and blouse. She herself seems confused by this change; as she says, she has either become a “mom” or a “yuppie.” Her relationship with Terry makes certain sense, along class lines: Iona has made herself over to look and act more like the class of business owners of which she’s a part. She’s also made herself over to be with someone she won’t have to support financially. However, her makeover broadcasts the message that, at heart, what women want—even strong women like Iona—is to conform to traditional modes of class and gender."

"The disconnect between her words and her eventual actions, typified by her transformation along class lines, is what makes Iona in Pretty in Pink a postfeminist figure. Similarly, Andie’s postfeminism is defined by her desire to overcome class barriers and her individual efforts at acquiring a wealthy partner figure, in that, like Sam in Sixteen Candles, she is rewarded for her individual efforts, scoring a wealthy partner. But the film adds an interesting element to its class message: by and large, the upper classes are made to seem simply unappreciative of their own wealth and what it can bring them.63 It’s hinted that, when Andie and Blane come together as a couple, she will present a corrective to this way of thinking and will appreciate the trappings of her newly inherited class status. This sentiment is made explicit when Andie says of Steff’s house (before she attends a party there), “I bet the people that live there don’t think it’s half as pretty as I do.” Wealth and consumer goods for Andie haven’t come so easily, the film’s logic goes, so she should appreciate the wealth that dating someone from the upper classes would bring. In fact, she’s set up here as morally better than the “richies” since she would be thankful for her new class position.64"

63 This is also Caroline’s mindset in Sixteen Candles.

64 The fabled original ending of the film had Andie and Duckie united in dignity at the prom. If this conclusion had remained (test audiences apparently didn’t like its pessimism), it would have provided a logical ending to this theme of the moral righteousness of the poor.

This film has a cult following but most everyone regards the ending as a huge disappointment:  it was changed last minute that Andie leaves prom with Blane (who was ignoring her up until her arrival). And so in the end, Andie goes with Blane even though I feel like Blane doesn't deserve her (he who is unimpressive and boring even if he tries to prove himself different from his snotty friends he inevitably ends up ditching Andie because of their influence at least until he finds out the Andie has the guts to go to the prom even though he didn't want to go with her). He never tries to make an effort to win her back. He just tells her that he has always believed in her and then they are out the door. Duckie gets a consolation prize of an unscripted Kristy Swanson.

Yes, it's rad that Duckie accepts that she doesn't want to be with him in the long run but so much of the audience wanted her to somehow randomly fall in love with her best friend instead, he who has loved her and been there for her for forever. The truth is she never has and probably never will fall in love with Duckie. DING!, perhaps that's the lesson to be learned. As Andie's dad (Harry Dean Stanton) says: "You can love Andie, but that doesn't mean she'll love you back." Even though Andie and Duckie seem "meant to be" and so many people (including myself!) are disappointed that Andie ended up with basic rich boy Blane, she never wanted to be with Duckie in the first place. So why do WE want her to love Duckie?


Maybe it's because Duckie Dale MAKES this movie whether or not he's the main character. He's a smart ass wise guy goofball fairly unamused with the state of the society he lives in. Comic relief surely. But amidst his goofball antics and harebrained philosophical banter, there is one thing that is insanely important to him:  he is in love with his best friend. He does whatever he can to be near to her, convinced that if he keeps in view and always is there for her she will fall in love with him. He is the one trying to fight Steff, not Blane. Blane doesn't "deserve" her love, time, effort. Andie spends most of the film heartbroken knowing that Blane has real feelings for her, but that he's a coward swayed by doubts and shitty judgmental friends. And Duckie very clearly doesn't see what all the fuss is about from the beginning, why such a boring guy would appeal to her, who doesn't respect her or know how truly beautiful she really is. So a huge chunk of the movie focuses on the pain Duckie feels but as "The Patron Saint of the Friend Zone" put perfectly by Dr. Nerdlove there are some severe lessons to be learned from Duckie's passionate plight:

"Duckie seems to take the attitude that many love-struck nerds do: that the best way to win a woman’s favor is to insinuate yourself into her life as much as humanly possible; that way she’ll realize that she couldn’t possibly see a life without you and that she’s really been in love with you all along. Unfortunately, while in rom-coms this can seem quirky and appealing, in the real world… well, it comes off as clingy and needy at best."

"Duckie does himself no favors here. By insisting on hanging around Andie at every possible opportunity, he’s only making himself look like an annoying little brother who thinks it’s funny to bother her at work by repeatedly setting off the alarm in order to get her attention, calling and leaving messages on her answering machine 20 times in a row (with less than a minute between calls), using studying with Andie as a way to try to force her into spending more time with him.
Later on, he graduates to increasingly unsettling, even creepy behavior, riding his bike back and forth in front of her house for hours – hundreds of times by his own estimation – then following her all the way to Chinatown just to stand out on the street-corner and stare up at the window of Iona’s apartment. What he intends to accomplish by doing this is hard to say; call her to the window via telepathy where she will see him, realize just how hurt he is and be swept up in waves of sympathy that lead to sloppy makeouts in the back of her car?"

"The film wants us to feel sorry for Duckie, who, in the narrative of the film, is losing both his best friend and the woman he’s been in love with for most of his life. In the real world, this is the sort of behavior that ends with a judge telling you that you now have to keep at least 500 yards away from someone or they get to call the cops."

Fast forward into the future and would have Andie really been happy with Blane? Who knows. Though she makes her own decision, the real audience at large (not the test audience) feels to this day that it is best to choose Duckie. Why does she have to choose? Neither boy was the right answer in my eyes. Only OMD kind of saved that scene, but something about it just felt amiss. It would have been a more powerful statement if she just didn't pick either of them but then what kind of cinematic ending is that??

Andie does swim through a lot of bullshit throughout this movie. Where a lot of teen films look at female characters as conquests (typically sexual), Andie is the central character having to ward off the learing sleaziness of Steff, the confusing hot-and-cold back-and-forth with Blane and Duckie's overbearing obsessiveness with her. Another obvious song since it's named after the movie is The Psychedelic Furs "Pretty in Pink" with overlooked lyrics that are heart-wrenching. Richard Butler's interpretation tells the story of an "easy" girl everyone pines after but no one seems to really love in the long run. The idea of "pretty in pink" is more of being in the flesh rather than in the heart, not worthy of "notes and the flowers that they never sent", while she dreams to be loved caught in "the side of our lives where nothing is ever put straight".





The soundtrack for the most part is pretty awesome and songs like The Smiths' "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" and New Order's "Shellshock" are perfect compliments to the teen heartache experienced in this film, which I think made this movie even more iconic. Oh yeah, and this: