MovieChat Forums > Pretty in Pink (1986) Discussion > Why do people like this movie? -Spoilers...

Why do people like this movie? -Spoilers-

posted 9 years ago by LittleMissLee
12 replies | jump to latest

Just curious. I'm not trying to be a hater or anything, but I was really, really confused after watching this film, why so many people talk about it like it's one of those classics. What makes it great? It was hard for me to care for any of the main characters, and the one I felt bad for (still didn't even really LIKE, though), doesn't even get the girl in the end. It just felt like a waste of time and I kept expecting it to get better, and it just got worse.

[–] intelligentsupermodel 9 years ago

I'm with you. It's one of my least favorite 80s teen films. I've even tried re-watching it to, as you put it, see if it gets better. It never does. Personally I find it pretty depressing.

[–] daverindone 9 years ago

I'd say it's more of a nostalgia for me as my wife and I graduated in '85 and '86 and it's more of a time capsule of what it was like 30 years ago. We both knew people like Steph, Duckie, Blaine and Iona (who was "old" at 22) and the style wasn't that far off. Plus, too, the actors were all in their prime and the music was spot on. I even worked at a Records place and used to had to displays like TRAXX had.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] runnertimes 9 years ago

I first saw it when I was 14 and had just started high school, and even though my life circumstances were nothing like Andie's I still really related to her at the time and loved the "fairy tale" type of ending it had. I thought Duckie and Iona were funny and since it never occurred to me that Andie could feel anything for Duckie for friendship, I wasn't surprised or upset about the ending. So today as an adult, I still enjoy it because I remember how endearing it was to me as a teenager and it still has some lines that make me laugh, and I still love how it ended. I think someone watching it who can't relate to Andie, who is in 98% of the scenes, probably won't be as crazy about it.

[–] krautdoggg 8 years ago

I hated the movie, especially John Cryer. But I absolutely loved the soundtrack. I played that cassette until it wore out. In contrast, I thought the soundtrack to The Breakfast Club was awful. (I didn't like TBC film either - I still haven't been able to finish watching either of these two films.)

[–] Mrschef (4) 2 years ago

Honestly, I was the ugly nerd with an immigrant mother in the States and you really get treated like sh*t in high school. You always hoped someone would notice what was special about you. Duckie reminded me of a close friend in high school. Exactly the same and then kissed me and I just knew it was wrong. I bumped into him 10 years later and he’s now gay and a performing drag queen. It’s an ugly girl’s escape. Then 20 years later, you become an adult, have a great husband and you smile when you watch this and how I used to cry as it was usually a school dance night and obviously, no one ever asked you.

[–] punkrockgirl (1270) 2 years ago

I like this movie because they don't make them like this anymore. Good acting, script, simple story, great soundtrack. When I first watched it, I didn't like it very much, but I think it's because I was too young to get it. I wanted to watch it again because there was still something about it that was memorable. Watched it again today by myself (watched it with my mom before) years later and loved it much better this time. I get it now.

[–] [email protected] (2042) 3 months ago

Tbh I was never fond of many of Ringwald's 80s films, I prefer Ferris Bueller and Some Kind of Wonderful to her trilogy of films.

[–] Tam87 (1573) 3 months ago

I'm glad that Molly Ringwald had a falling out with John Hughes in the 80s, as she would've been cast in Ferris Bueller's (as Hughes intended) and it wouldn't have been as good.

She did a good job in The Breakfast Club but Pretty In Pink & Sixteen Candles were some of Hughes' weaker films. I just never thought she was a good leading actress, better in an ensemble.

[–] Annkat (382) 3 months ago

I can't imagine her in the Ferris movie. Granted I never liked that movie at all.

Maybe she was going to be the Sister character?

[–] Tam87 (1573) 3 months ago

Molly would've played Sloane Peterson, Ferris's girlfriend, the part that went to Mia Sara (a good actress who did well in the movie).

Anthony Michael Hall was supposed to play Ferris, but he, like Molly Ringwald, had a falling out with Hughes because they didn't want to be typecast as teen 'brat pack' actors and thus they refused to be in the movie when Hughes told them that he had written their characters specifically for them to play them.

It's all serendipitous because I think Matthew Broderick & Mia Sara were better suited to the movie, and I think it works better when film makers use different actors in their films instead of the same ones all the time. Ferris Bueller's Day Off would've been just a Weird Science/Breakfast Club reunion with Hall & Ringwald aboard, but it became it's own movie with a new cast.

[–] Sparky (2712) 3 months ago

It's a stylized take on the whole 'Romeo and Juliet' story, with a relationship with a girl from the other side of the railroad tracks. I find it to be entertaining personally, not a cure for cancer or anything.