Blu-ray Review: John Hughes’ “Sixteen Candles” Brings Back Fond Memories From That Era

A girl’s “sweet” sixteenth birthday becomes anything but special, as she suffers from every embarrassment possible.

I grew up in the ’70s and the ’80s and saw a lot of movies during those decades. Some I remember fondly, others, not so much. But when it comes to John Hughes, I distinctly remember his first three films and I will never forget them. “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club,” and “Weird Science” not only had a big impact on American audiences back in the mid-’80s but halfway around the world in my hometown of Dublin too. I grew up knowing that eventually, I would move to the US but watching John Hughes’ movies about teen love and angst as well as any film that dealt with high school or college, was something that became part of my teen years, it helped define who I was, to a degree, because that way of life was so far removed from my Irish existence which I considered to be very boring. In America in school, you could wear whatever you wanted, in Ireland, you had to wear a bland, miserable, dull-looking grey uniform. American teenagers could go out after school to the local diner, we didn’t have diners, and so much of what I saw in these movies as a teenager, made me want to move to America sooner rather than later so that I could engage in all these wonderful experiences while I was still young enough to do so.

Now that I am an adult, and have been living in America for over a quarter of a century, I can safely say that there are elements of the American culture that have endured since the 1980s and I have experienced many of them. I went back to college in 2015 to attain my journalism degree and while it was nothing like the exaggerated way of life I witnessed in so many movies growing up, I can now add American college to my own life as well as going to the mall, going to diners, going to a football game and when I look back at films like “Sixteen Candles,” it feels good to know that I’ve experienced much of what transpires throughout, something that at the time when I was living back home, I never thought I would get to do.

“Sixteen Candles” tells the story of Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald), a teenager who wakes up on the morning of her sixteenth birthday only to have her entire family forget as they are planning the wedding of her older, spoiled sister Ginny (Blanche Baker) for the next day. Over the next 24 hours, Samantha will be hit upon by geeky freshman Ted (Anthony Michael Hall), will discover that her high school crush, senior Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling), whom she always figured never even knew she existed, will most definitely notice her, and she will have to put up with both sets of her grandparents staying the night along with a Chinese foreign exchange student named Long Duk Dong (Gedde Watanabe). John Hughes always thrived on causing chaos for his characters and Samantha will have to navigate her family, friends, school and love life if she plans on making it to her seventeenth birthday.

While “Sixteen candles,” as a whole, still entertains and has managed to stay afloat after 36 years, there are some aspects that just feel so out of place today. If the PC police actually sat down to watch this, the film would probably end up in PC jail for all eternity but the PC police can kiss my big, white Irish ass. There is such a thing as being politically correct but at the same time, to completely condemn and disparage a movie that was made in a completely different time and era, is to be totally ignorant and uneducated. This movie was a big hit with audiences back in 1984 and while the same film would not be made today, it must be remembered that back then, the humor throughout was funny at that time, just like humor today is relevant for contemporary audiences but 10, or 20 years from now, the people of that time may find it insulting or even embarrassing. This was also the movie that launched the careers of stars Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, and John Cusack. Director John Hughes was always likened to a teenager in an adult’s body and that is prevalent in all of his films, especially the ones that deal with teenagers and their everyday struggles with love, angst, and life in general.

I know many people who grew up here in the US back in the ’80s that have told me they can relate to a lot of what happens in the movie so obviously John Hughes had his finger on the pulse of the teen youth of that time. Molly Ringwald’s Samantha is naive, unsuspecting, but also a big romantic at heart who just wants to meet her Prince Charming and live happily ever after, a concept that seems antiquated in today’s society as a lot of modernized women reject the idea of needing a man in order to achieve their dreams and goals. And that’s fine but back in the ’80s, it was completely different. Samantha’s crush, senior Jake Ryan, is not the typical jock, instead of wanting to party all the time like his rich girlfriend, he just wants to find his one true love and be with her. Even the nerdy Ted, played so annoyingly by Anthony Michael Hall, who brags about having slept with many women, has never even kissed one and he turns out to be a decent guy who actually has morals. The beautiful sophomore, the hunky jock, and the school nerd were all stereotypical characters at that time but John Hughes did an about-face and completely altered their characteristics so that audiences would be expecting more of the same, only to be blindsided by their true motives and unique character arcs by the end of the film.

Arrow presents the film with a brand-new restoration from a 4K scan of the original camera negative. The release also includes both the theatrical and extended versions of the film and a collection of new and archived bonus features. For those, like me, who grew up in the ’70s and the ’80s, this is well worth the watch as it will bring back all sorts of memories. For those unfamiliar with it, I would recommend watching it also, just so you can get a glimpse of what life was like back then, even if parts of it are somewhat exaggerated.

Now available on a Special Edition Blu-ray from Arrow Video