Pretty in Pink
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Pretty in Pink is a 1986 film about teenage love and social cliques in 1980s American high school. It is notable for belonging to the genre of 1980s, teenage, John Hughes movies starring Molly Ringwald and may be said to be one of the Brat Pack movies.
The film was directed by Howard Deutch, produced by Lauren Shuler, and written by John Hughes.
Tagline: Blane's a pretty cool guy. Andie's pretty in pink. And Ducky's pretty crazy.
Main cast
- Molly Ringwald - Andie Walsh
- Jon Cryer - Phil "Duckie" Dale
- Andrew McCarthy - Blane McDonnagh
- Harry Dean Stanton - Jack Walsh
- Annie Potts - Iona
- James Spader - Steff
- Kate Vernon - Benny Hanson
- Andrew Dice Clay - Bouncer at CATS (as Andrew 'Dice' Clay)
Plot summary
Molly Ringwald stars as Andie Walsh, a poor, but fashion-conscious New Wave girl who has a crush on one of the rich boys in her school, Blane McDonnagh, played by Andrew McCarthy. When Andie and Blane try to get together, the pair encounter resistance from their respective social circles.Andie is ashamed of her unemployed, drunken father and her home on the "wrong side of the tracks." She gets some bad treatment from Blane's circle of friends, especially Steff, played by James Spader. Likewise, Blane gets some shabby treatment from Andie's friends when he tries to cross to the other side of town.
Andie's friends are Duckie, played by Jon Cryer, a strange boy who is in love with her, and Iona, played by Annie Potts. Iona is an eccentric older friend, mentor, and something of a fairy godmother to Andie. She owns a record shop and wears vintage clothes.
The film ending has Andie and Blane overcoming their social obstacles in a sort of Cinderella ending (poor girl gets magical transformation), when Andie creates herself a pink dress for the high school senior prom.
Trivia
- Despite being said to be rather poor Andie Walsh drives a vintage sports car, a pink Volkswagen Karmann Ghia[link].
- Pretty in Pink features a breakout role for James Spader, as a smarmy yuppie-type that becomes one of his best known onscreen personas.
- Anthony Michael Hall turned down the role of Duckie. Hall starred in several other John Hughes films, including Sixteen Candles and Weird Science.
- In Hughes' original script, Andie and Duckie end up together, but due to pressure, Hughes had to change the ending so that Andie and Blane ended up together.
- Andrew McCarthy is wearing a wig in the final prom scene because the actors were all called back to reshoot the ending. Andrew had already shaved his head and lost weight for his next role.
- Hughes penned film Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) follows the same premise as Pretty in Pink but with the gender roles reversed and the alternative ending.
- Dweezil Zappa and Gina Gershon have small roles in the movie. Molly Ringwald and Dweezil Zappa were dating during filming.
- The girl who Duckie dances with at the end of the movie, named "Duckette", is Kristy Swanson.
- The bouncer outside the Cats nightclub was played by Andrew Dice Clay.
- Pretty in Pink was filmed at Hancock Park High School in Los Angeles. It was also shot at Marshall High School, where Grease was filmed in 1978.
- There is a double dedication at the end of the film to Alexa Kenin who played Andie's friend Jena, and to Bruce Weintraub. Alexa and Bruce both died shortly after filming.
Music
- The title of the movie "Pretty in Pink" was a pre-existing Psychedelic Furs song that was rerecorded for the successful Pretty In Pink soundtrack.
- Pretty In Pink is one of several Hughes film to be named after pre-existing songs. Others include Sixteen Candles by The Crests, Some Kind of Wonderful by Grand Funk Railroad, and She's Having A Baby by Dave Wakeling.
- The movie soundtrack drew heavily from New Order with three New Order songs featuring in the film: Shellshock, Elegia and Thieves Like Us. Due to being instrumental versions, Elegia and Thieves Like Us were omitted from the soundtrack CD.
- The video for New Order's Shellshock featured scenes from the movie in its video.
- If You Leave, written for the movie and featured in the pivotal Prom scene, was OMD's biggest US hit single, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
References in popular culture
- In 2006, the TV show Veronica Mars paid homage to Pretty in Pink in the episode Ruskie Business, in which the characters Meg and Duncan go to an 80s dance dressed up as Andie and Ducky, respectively.
- The band Fall Out Boy have a song titled 'Pretty In Punk', an obvious reference to the movie.
External links
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