In Honour Of John Hughes

There's something special behind the movies of John Hughes when one considers how beloved his films are. Whether it's Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Uncle Buck, or The Breakfast Club, there's humanity in all of his movies that not many other writers have captured in their time. Losing Hughes in 2009 was a big loss for the film industry because he was so good at finding the human story in the comedies he wrote, and it might be a long time before we see a writer as good as him again. With it being Christmas eve today, I don't usually write baout filmmakers in any way, but something caught my attention today when Christmas Vacation was on TV, and that was the use of hockey jerseys in two of Hughes' most prominent films.

The scene in Christmas Vacation is the one to the right where Clark Griswold, played by Chevy Chase, is standing in his living room while wearing a customized Chicago Blackhawks jersey. It dawned on me that Hughes had also used a hockey jersey in another one of his more famous films, and that was on Cameron Frye, played by Alan Ruck, in Ferris Bueller's Day Off as he wore a Detroit Red Wings jersey with Howe on the back. With both of these John Hughes films set in Chicago, it seemed odd that Cameron would be wearing the colours of the Red Wings when Hughes seemingly had a soft spot for the Windy City in his heart. That led me down a rabbit hole tonight as I was wrapping gifts, but the answer was found with John Hughes' son, James, who spoke about the fascination with hockey that his dad had in a 2013 article he wrote for Grantland.

Unbeknownst to me, John Hughes developed a love of hockey during his childhood in Michigan. As James wrote in the Grantland article, "... it was his hometown Wings that first captured his imagination — intensified, as he often told us, by the fact that when he visited the dentist as a kid, he’d occasionally spot Red Wings in the waiting room. The work they were about to endure in the dentist’s chair most likely made a couple minutes in the Olympia Stadium penalty box feel like paradise. The encounters were a sobering reminder of the players’ sacrifice for the community. He was hooked."

That seems to explain the Gordie Howe jersey in Ferris Bueller's Day Off despite the Red Wings being an archrival in the NHL of the Chicago Blackhawks - it's a bit of an homage to his childhood. Being that Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a bit of a coming-of-age story for the characters in the film, I can accept Alan Ruck wearing the winged wheel throughout Chicago and not getting yelled at for his clothing.

For those that don't know, the story of Christmas Vacation came from a short story that Hughes had published in the National Lampoon magazine in 1980 that was titled “Christmas ‘59”. In reading the story, a lot of the elements from Christmas Vacation are baked into it despite needing a little massaging, but one has to wonder if Clark and, earlier in the movie, Rusty wearing the Blackhawks jerseys was a nod to John Hughes' sons who grew up as Blackhawks fans.

Again, James Hughes writes in the Grantland piece,

"My brother and I remain Hawks fans for life, though we were always mindful that our father could never quite shake the deep impression the Red Wings made on his childhood, the first 13 years of which were spent in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. The Blackhawks were the team he chose to follow as an Illinoisan, and his ratio of attendance between games in Chicago versus games in Detroit must have been at least a hundred to one — though that one time was Game 4 of the 1997 Stanley Cup finals. When Steve Yzerman skated a well-earned victory lap around Joe Louis Arena, my father was there, in the second row."

Being that the Blackhawks hadn't won a Stanley Cup since 1961, working Blackhawks jerseys into the 1989 film seems like a John Hughes thing as he shared in their anguish over the NHL team's struggles as his adopted team. Hughes had moved as a teenager with his family to Chicago in Grade Seven, and, with Hughes having two sons - James and John III - who were Blackhawks fans around that age in 1989, it seems only appropriate that Dad would add the Blackhawks jerseys into the movie just as he did with Cameron Frye.

Maybe that's a stretch in terms of how John Hughes' love of hockey and filmmaking intersected, but there was almost a second time the Blackhawks got into a John Hughes movie as James notes that Uncle Buck almost had a Chicago Blackhawks scene in that film. He writes,

"I recall my father explaining that a character was going to ask Buck what the greatest moment of his life was, and it would cut to him making a shot during the Blackhawks' 'Shoot the Puck' contest, held between periods at every home game. If Candy made the shot, perhaps they'd use the footage in the final cut. He didn't prevail, despite the overwhelming encouragement from the crowd. When I found an album of production photographs documenting that game, which I attended, it was like finding the blueprint to a dream."

Look, this was a long-winded article about hockey jerseys that appeared in movies, but today is a day for family which is the overall arc in every John Hughes film. Whether it be Christmas Vacation, Uncle Buck, or Ferris Bueller's Day Off, there's always an element of a family coming together when it seems like everything is falling apart, and that's what this festive season is all about: family coming together. It's Christmas Eve, after all, and everyone should be with the ones they love tonight and tomorrow. That's the Christmas spirit.

In saying that, I am going to finish wrapping presents tonight before getting to bed for what should be a fun-filled day with family tomorrow as good food is shared, great gifts are exchanged, and some new core memories are made. While Uncle Buck was the black sheep of the family, he proved his importance. While the Griswolds went through a pile of crises, that family came together. And when Ferris Bueller needed an assist, it was his sister, Jeanie, who helped him escape Principal Ed Rooney. That's the importance of family.

Find your family this season, be grateful for their love, share in their joy, and be warmed by their embrace. That's the true blessing of season! Merry Christmas from me and HBIC to you and yours if you celebrate, and Happy Holidays to those who may be celebrating one of many other holidays and observances this season. Joy to the world!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!