Pretty in Pink

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

Pretty in Pink is a popular 1986 film about teenage love and social cliques in 1980s American high schools. It is notable for belonging to the group of John Hughes movies starring Molly Ringwald and belongs to the Brat Pack movies. The title of the film comes from the song of the same name by British music group The Psychedelic Furs.

The film was directed by Howard Deutch, produced by Lauren Shuler, and written by John Hughes.

Tagline: He's crazy about her, she's crazy about him, and he's just crazy.

[edit] Cast

• Molly Ringwald as Andie Walsh
• Jon Cryer as Philip F. "Duckie" Dale
• Andrew McCarthy as Blane McDonough
• Harry Dean Stanton as Jack Walsh
• Annie Potts as Iona
• James Spader as Steff McKee
• Kate Vernon as Benny Hanson
• Andrew Dice Clay as Bouncer at CATS
• Kristy Swanson as Duckette

[edit] 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 McDonough (Andrew McCarthy). When Andie and Blane try to get together, they encounter resistance from their respective social circles.

Andie lives on "the wrong side of the tracks" with her unemployed, sluggish father (Harry Dean Stanton). She is trying to convince him to get a job and seems to be struggling with it. Her mother left the family a few years before. To save money, Andie buys secondhand clothes and uses her sewing and fashion skills to create unique New Wave clothes. She drives an old, beat-up, dusty-rose-coloured lowlight Karmann Ghia. Her best friend is Duckie Dale (Jon Cryer). Duckie has an obsessive crush on Andie, often riding his bike around her house, but plays it off as a joke in front of her. In school, she and Duckie are harassed by the "richie" kids, namely Benny and Steff (James Spader). Blane, however, is secretly eyeing Andie, unbeknownst to her right away.

Andie works at TRAX, a New Wave music store in Chinatown, managed by her older mentor friend Iona (Annie Potts), who dresses younger than her years and moans about her newly single life. Iona advises Andie to go to her senior prom despite not having a date. Blane and Andie talk for a brief moment as Blane buys an album. Andie then begins developing feelings for Blane. She discusses them with a few friends at the local club, CATS.

Soon, Blane makes his move via chatting in the computer lab and Andie is smitten. Blane ventures out to the area at school where the punks, metalheads, and New Wavers hang out during lunch and after classes, and asks Andie on a date. Steff begins questioning why his best friend "was conversing with a mutant" but Blane brushes him off.

On the Friday night of the date, Andie waits for Blane at TRAX, but he is late. Duckie arrives instead, only to find Andie upset because she thinks she's been stood up. When Blane finally arrives, Duckie and Andie argue when he sees who she is going on a date with. Duckie tries to convince her that Blane will only hurt her and that his group is all the same. Andie attempts to convince Duckie otherwise. After a few harsh words, Duckie storms out, frustrated and hurt. Andie goes on her date with Blane.

First, Blane suggests going to a party Steff is throwing. But the party isn't exactly what Blane expected, and Andie is treated poorly by everyone, including a drunk Steff and Benny. Andie, in turn, suggests going to CATS, where they discover Iona sitting with Duckie. Duckie is immediately hostile toward Blane, and as he and Andie start walking out of the club Duckie yells to Andie that she's been "replaced" soon after kissing Iona. It is obvious, however, that Duckie is bluffing. Blane offers to take Andie home but she wants to be taken back to TRAX. They briefly argue when Andie finally admits she doesn't want to be taken home because she doesn't want Blane to see where she lives. Despite the bad date, Blane drops Andie off at her home and the two end the night with a kiss. Blane asks Andie to the prom and she excitedly accepts. The next day, Andie visits Iona in her loft in Chinatown to inform her about the date and tells her that Blane asked her to the prom. Iona begins reminiscing about her own prom, donning her old pink prom dress and a beehive hairstyle.

At home, Andie's father surprises her with a pink dress he bought for her at the thrift shop. Questioning how he was able to afford it, Andie discovers he has been faking going to a full-time job. The two begin to fight until her father breaks down, obviously still bitter and depressed about his wife having left him. Andie responds by comforting him and they make up but she, too, seems distressed about the breakup as she looks at a picture of her mother and cries.

Meanwhile Blane, pressured by Steff and his reputation as a "richie", begins distancing himself from Andie. He avoids her at school and doesn't return her calls. She finally confronts Blane, yelling at him to admit that he is embarrassed to be seen with her. He says he asked someone else before asking her to prom and had forgotten. Andie runs away, heartbroken. Duckie overhears Steff trashing Andie and they end up fighting in the hallway. Teachers come out of the classrooms to stop the fight, and Duckie runs down the hall and out the door.

Andie seeks more advice from Iona, only to find Iona preparing for a date with a yuppie, dressing like her age for a change. Iona is so excited about the new man in her life that she is already thinking about a wedding in her future. She seems happy and barely notices Andie's pain amongst her pleasure. Yet somehow, Iona's newfound happiness inspires Andie, and she goes home with Iona's pink dress and creates a new pink prom dress and decides to attend prom to "show them they didn't break [her]."

Andie finds Duckie, dressed up for the prom, as soon as she gets there. The friends reunite and make up, walking into the ballroom hand-in-hand. Steff snickers and begins trashing Andie and Duckie again, only to be finally told off by the normally passive Blane. Blane says that Andie would never go for him because she sees him for who he really is; with all his money he could never buy her. Blane walks over to Andie and says that he always believed in her, he just didn't believe in himself. He says he'll always love her no matter what and leaves the prom. Duckie concedes that she was right, "He's not like the others" and advises Andie to go after him. After Andie leaves, a blonde girl notices Duckie and goes to dance with him.

Outside of the prom, Andie catches Blane in the parking lot just before he gets to his BMW and they kiss in the misty night.

In Hughes' original script, Andie and Duckie ended up together, but due to pressure, Hughes changed the ending. The producers worried that the original ending might come across as elitist. Ringwald, who was very sick during the shooting for the original ending didn't like the ending either. She also objected to it because she viewed Duckie as more of a brother than a love interest. Ringwald states that she felt no chemistry with Cryer, but did feel a connection with McCarthy for whom she had real-life emotions.

[edit] Trivia

• Andrew McCarthy is wearing a wig in the final prom scene because the actors were all called back to re-shoot 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 girl with whom Duckie dances at the end of the movie, referred to as "Duckette" in the credits, is Kristy Swanson.

• Pretty in Pink was filmed at John Burroughs Middle School located in the Hancock Park neighborhood in Los Angeles. It was also shot at Venice High School, where Grease was filmed. However the film was set in Elgin, a Chicago suburb.

• Alexa Kenin, who played Jena (Andie's friend) died in New York soon after filming. 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 Kenin.

• This movie ranked number 26 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies [1].

• The book Andie hands to Blane 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 (played by Ringwald) uses the word "richie" when describing Blane to her father. "Richie" was also a term Bender used in The Breakfast Club when speaking to popular Claire (also played by Ringwald) 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).

• Trax's real life location was Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, California.

• In 2008 DVD Release from Paramount Home Entertainment, the closed captions on the disc refer to Blane's family business as 'McDonough Electric' thus suggesting his surname is spelled as McDonough and not McDonnagh

[edit] References in popular culture

• Jon Cryer reprised his "Duckie" role for an episode of Mr. Show.
• Is referenced in the TV show Supernatural in the episode Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things when Dean refers to a diary as having "unrequited Duckie love written all over it."
• 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.
• 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.
• In a 2005 episode of Boston Legal, characters Alan Shore (played by James Spader) and Denny Crane (played by Willam Shatner) are dressed in pink flamingo costumes for Halloween. Shore says to Crane, "You look pretty in pink".
• 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.
• Fall Out Boy's first album, Evening Out With Your Girlfriend, has a song titled "Pretty In Punk", an obvious reference to the film.
• In a Season 3 episode of Dawson's Creek, Pacey tells Jen that he had "Duckie written all over [him]," referring to his belief that his romantic feelings for Joey would not be reciprocated.
• The Dresden Dolls covered "Pretty In Pink" on High School Reunion: A Tribute to Those Great 80's Films.
• On American Dad!, Cryer spoofed his role as Duckie as an old friend of Francine's named Quackie.
• In a 2007 commercial for the BMW 3 Series, the scene were Andie and Blane first kiss is shown with the narration, "We didn't intend to be a part of any ... pop culture".
• The My Favorite song "working class jacket" is loosely based on the film.

[edit] External links

• Pretty in Pink at the Internet Movie Database

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