Pretty in Pink
The ultimate Brat Pack movie, less deep but more entertaining than say, Breakfast Club.
/note/ Really, I'm not so interested in arguing the relative merits of the Brat Pack movies, so can we just leave it at that? /note/
So this evening I sat here taking care of paperwork and watching this movie, and two things came to mind. Okay, more than two:
1. Of all the main characters, James Spader is probably the one who is still most visible (although Jon Cryer is pretty busy too, looking at IMDB). Spader has made a name for himself on Boston Legal (in which he really is good) but looking at him now, I feel really, really old. Maybe because I am getting old, okay. But movies like this, released in 1986 when I was 30, really drive the point home. So you see, James Spader, then and now. He was 26 when this movie was released.
2. Duck-Man. Duckie, as seen here with Andie. Absolutely the all time best Geek, ever. What in the hell was Andie thinking, passing up Duckie for Andrew McCarthy? Duckie had style. Duckie could dance. Really, this movie had two major flaws: Andie should have ended up with Duckie; and:
3. That prom dress. You see only part of it in this shot, but that's enough to make my point. This is the dress they made such a big deal about, that Andie designed herself and made out of two other (supposedly lesser) dresses. Andie, who stands out in the blah 1986 high school crowd for her quirkiness and fashion sense, constructs the fuuugliest prom dress ever, and all the males in the movie fall all over themselves admiring it. Where was Annie Potts when Andie really needed her? Annie would have told her the truth about that gotawful dress. I post it here for purposes of general ridicule.
So I've had a productive day and now I've had a rant (and it is, coincidentally, Smart Bitches Day). So I'm going to bed.
I recently re-watched PRETTY IN PINK with my older (25-year-old!) daughter. We sat up in bed with lots of pillows and cups of hot chocolate (this was before the recent heatwave), and the two of us practically rolled off onto the floor with the reveal of that prom dress. Is it possible it was meant to be that bad?
Spader does seem SO much older now. He was once a pretty boy, a little girlie. Now he looks like a middle-aged woman.
Okay, I'm probably going to regret posting such unkindnesses -- but here goes ...
Karen -- oh, good. I was starting to think there was something wrong with me, that everybody in the whole world adores that dress.
I wonder if the costume designer for the movie has any regrets.
I just watched Pretty in Pink this weekend after far too many Duckie free years. I forgot how much I used to love that part where he sang Try a Little Tenderness. Odd the things that make an impression eh?
Absolutly awful dress! It makes me cringe. Worse than wearing something made out of the material covering your grandma's sofa.
Ha. I too have recently re-watched that movie. And was disgusted and annoyed that she inevitably chose Blaine.
I also noted that I LOVED the Annie Potts dress in its original form. (So 50's! So cute!) And then it became indeed one of the fugliest, most unflattering creations ever made. In retrospect, all of her clothes were pretty darn awful. Egads.
I'm kind of glad that Spader hasn't stayed the same. Makes him more realistic. Certainly suits his character more, to me. Although you don't get the surprise of the pretty-boy with radical views any more.
I'm noticing though that Spader still has that fly-away hair thing going. Even if it is short.
I don't have an opinion on the dress. However, I do remember being disappointed in it. But not much else.
I had a crush on Andrew McCarthy at the time I saw the movie, so I LOVED that she ended up with him. In my teenage mind, it was perfect in that way.
I just feel like the whole dress thing is a little Skarlet O'hara-ish. Just like Rhett never noticed the tassle, the whole world could tell that this dress of Molly's was not a Gunnie Sack or what ever was a great prom dress of the time.
It's funny, because I was just thinking about this movie recently. I actually think it ended the only way it could have. Duckie is great, sure, but that doesn't mean she is attracted to him. Maybe attraction could develop over time, but at this point in her life it just isn't there. So Blaine is the guy of choice for prom night, although everyone knows he won't last. With any luck, Andie will eventually find her soul mate, that magical Duckie/Blaine combo of a real friend who also excites and challenges her. Someone who makes her step out of her comfort zone but is there to hold her hand while she does it.
Like Lloyd Dobler...now there's a perfect anti-hero.