Pretty in Pink

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Pretty in Pink

North American Movie Poster
Directed by Howard Deutch
Produced by Lauren Shuler
Written by John Hughes
Starring Molly Ringwald
Harry Dean Stanton
Jon Cryer
Annie Potts
James Spader
and Andrew McCarthy
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) February 28, 1986
Running time 96 min.
Language English
IMDb profile

Pretty in Pink is a popular 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.

Contents

[edit] Main cast

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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, slovenly 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.

[edit] Trivia

  • Pretty in Pink features a breakout role for James Spader, as a smarmy yuppie type that becomes one of his best known onscreen personas.
  • In Hughes' original script, Andie and Duckie ended up together, but due to pressure, Hughes had to change the ending so that Andie and Blane ended up together. The producers worried that the ending might come across as elitist. Ringwald, who was very sick during the shooting for the original ending and therefore didn't like how those scenes turned out, also objected to the original ending because she viewed Duckie as more of a brother than a love interest.
  • 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 as an army officer in a play to be performed in New York.
  • The 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 with whom Duckie dances at the end of the movie, named "Duckette", is Kristy Swanson.
  • 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 1977. However the film was set in Suburban Chicago (As was the case with a lot of John Hughes' films.)
  • Alexa Kenin, who played Jena (Andie's friend) died in New York soon after filming. At the time, the cast of Pretty in Pink was told that she died from asthma complications, but she was actually murdered by an ex-boyfriend. Pretty in Pink is dedicated to her.
  • The film is also dedicated to the film's set decorator Bruce Weintraub, who died three months after Alexa.
  • The book Andie hands to Blaine the second time he comes into Trax is "In His Own Write" by John Lennon.
  • Ringwald was the only leading actor of high school age at the time of filming (18); Cryer was 21, McCarthy was 23 and Spader topped them all at 26.
  • Andie uses the word "richie" when describing Blaine to her father. "Richie" was also a term Bender used in The Breakfast Club when speaking to popular Claire and Andrew.
  • Ringwald and McCarthy joined forces again in Fresh Horses, another film about a couple from opposite sides of the tracks (again, she's the poor one, he's the rich one).
  • This is Molly Ringwald's favorite among her own films.

[edit] Music

[edit] References in popular culture

  • In 2005, 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 Duckie, respectively.
  • The band Fall Out Boy has a song titled "Pretty In Punk", an obvious reference to the movie.
  • In the webcomic Wapsi Square, the Golem Girls are repeatedly shown watching the movie and complaining because Andie didn't end up with Duckie.
  • The Bowling for Soup song "1985" makes a reference to Pretty in Pink, also referring to other movies starring Molly Ringwald.
  • Jay and Silent Bob refer, in Dogma, to Shermer, Illinois as being the town in which John Hughes' movies take place. Jay decided he wanted to go there because "All the honeys are top-shelf, but all the dudes are whiny pussies - except for Judd Nelson, he was fuckin' harsh - but best of all, there was no one dealin', man; then, it hits me: we could live like phat rats if we were the blunt connection in Shermer, Illinois" only to find out that there is no Shermer, Illinois.
    • Jay also refers to Pretty in Pink saying, "... and then there's Pretty In Pink which I can't watch with this tubby muthafucker any more, because every time we get to the part where the red head hooks up with her dream guy, he starts sobbin' like a little eight-year-old with a skinned knee and shit. And nothing is worse then watching a fat man weep."
  • In the performance poem The Wussy Boy Manifesto, poetry slam artist Big Poppa E references Duckie as a "wussy boy icon."
  • In the Gilmore Girls episode "Super Cool Party People", Lorelai plays the film for a bunch of 12-year-olds, commenting "Yes, that is the guy from Two and a Half Men", in reference to Jon Cryer.
  • In Not Another Teen Movie, in the scene at the airport, Jake quotes a line from Pretty in Pink. Molly Ringwald also has a cameo role as a flight attendant.
  • In Season 2 of Degrassi: The Next Generation, Emma's and Manny's outfits for the dance match outfits worn by Andie and Jena.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../p/r/e/Pretty_in_Pink_9312.html"