Seriously. I don't want to sound like a prude here, but that part of this movie disturbs me. I'll get to that in a minute.. let me tell you what I DO like first.
I loved Sixteen Candles as much as anyone else when I was a teenager.. it's a cute story of a 16 year old girl who has a gigantic crush. It's a pretty realistic portrayal of teenage problems, and the different social classes. The characters are likeable, well-developed, and portray a wide spectrum of teenage life, from the ultra-popular party people, to the sometimes pathetic geeks.
The plot of the movie involves Samantha, the 16 year old, whose family has forgotten all about her birthday in the excitement of her self-absorbed sister's wedding, which is the next day. The entire movie takes place over two days, but they are a FULL two days, involving a party, wedding preparations, a school dance, and putting up with invasive grandparents. You'll be drawn in to the story of these teens, at times funny, at times sad.. but pretty accurate, in my opinion.
The movie features a young Molly Ringwald, who is very convincing in her role, Michael Schoeffling (where did he GO, by the way?), a VERY young Anthony Michael Hall as The Geek, and perhaps the most memorable character, Long Duck Dong, who is played by Gedde Watanabe. (currently Yosh Takata on ER.) The acting is a bit schmaltzy, typical of an 80's John Hughes film.. but this one wasn't meant to win any Oscars, it's just a light, entertaining comedy that manages to touch your heart with the characters' plights. Again, your typical John Hughes. (I love that man!)
The soundtrack to the movie is okay, but it's not on the level of Hughes' other films of that era. One of my favorite Hughes films is The Breakfast Club, and who can forget that ending scene, fading to "Don't you forget about me", by Simple Minds? Sixteen Candles doesn't really use music that much, but it works okay without it.
So what disturbs me? For those who haven't seen it (and for those who have, and didn't think about this), there is a scene in the movie where one of the characters sends his extremely drunk girlfriend home with another guy in exchange for another girl's underwear. His girlfriend is so blitzed that she thinks the guy she's leaving with (and eventually has sex with) is in fact her boyfriend.
Excuse me? Isn't this considered date rape? And this is done by Jake, the boy that you're supposed to be in love with in the movie.. the handsome, sweet hunk that Samantha ends up falling in love with. Given the fact that this movie is very obviously aimed at 14-18 year olds, I don't think this is a very healthy behaviour to be attributing to a character that is held up as a "dream guy". Has anyone else thought of this, or am I just oversensitive? Comments?
Samantha s life is going downhill fast. The fifteen-year-old has a crush on the most popular boy in school, and the geekiest boy in school has a crush...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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