The Soundtrack to a John Hughes Film That Was Never Made
Let’s deal with the elephant in the room right away — John Hughes’ movies are filled with shockingly racist characters and wildly questionable narrative decisions. That discussion can continue on another website however because here we are dealing with the iconic director’s soundtrack choices, the thing that left the deepest impression on me as a kid. There’s one particular moment of original scoring done near the end of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) that resonated with me as a kid and even more so to this day. It’s a perfect bit of optimistic build-up that just hits the perfect emotive note. Arpeggiated half-time drums speed up in perfect sync to the narrative payoff. It’s glorious and among the best filmmaking tricks Hughes employs.
So here it is. A playlist of songs that try and capture that same feeling with the same emotional payoff. Some of the tracks try and relive moments like the above while others may be better suited for zany 80s montages or when our hero finally gets the girl moments (again, problematic I know). But either way bath in the nostalgia for a moment and shuffle up the playlist because like usual, order doesn’t matter here. These aren’t the mixtapes you might have made back when.
