Sixteen Candles
Plot
Awkward high school sophomore Samantha “Sam” Baker (Molly Ringwald) struggles to get through the day of her sixteenth birthday, which her entire family forgets because her older sister, Ginny (Blanche Baker), is getting married the next day. She is also plagued by her ongoing infatuation with the very popular and very attractive senior, Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling). Her day at school fares no better when she finds out that her completed “sex quiz,” which she surreptitiously slipped to her friend, never reached her (and, unbeknownst to either of them, was picked up by Jake Ryan himself). Sam panics as the quiz contains personal information, including the fact that she is a virgin and is saving herself for Jake.
She has a whole new set of problems when she arrives home to find that both sets of grandparents are staying at the Baker home for the duration of the wedding visit. On top of it all, one set of grandparents brings along bizarre foreign exchange student Long Duk Dong (Gedde Watanabe). Sam’s grandparents force her to take him along to her school dance that night and, to Sam’s amazement, it takes “The Donger” only five hours to find an unlikely girlfriend the tallish, large-breasted jock, Marlene, promptly nicknamed “Lumberjack.” After some ensuing madness with everyone involved, Sam’s family eventually makes up before the wedding and apologizes for forgetting her birthday.
A running subplot involves a geeky freshman (Anthony Michael Hall) who continually (and unsuccessfully) tries to bed his love interest, Sam, to satisfy a bet with his friends. The character is referred to on several occasions in the movie as either “Ted” or “Farmer Ted”, but he is credited solely as “the Geek.”
In the auto-shop room during the dance, Sam and Ted begin talking and Sam confesses her love for Jake. Upon hearing this, he tells her that Jake had been asking about her at the dance, and they agree that Sam should just go and talk to him. As she’s leaving, he reveals the wager to Sam, who, in her excited state, agrees to loan him her underwear to help him win a dozen floppy disks.
Later (after a peepshow of Sam’s underpants for $1 admission, which she does not find out about until the next day), Ted and his equally unwelcome friends, Cliff (Darren Harris) and Bryce (John Cusack), crash the senior after-party at Jake’s house during which the entire house is completely trashed. At night’s end, Jake finds Ted trapped under a table and they begin to talk. Jake inquires further about Sam; Ted explains the situation. Jake makes a deal with Ted: If Ted lets Jake keep Sam’s panties, then he will let Ted drive home his inebriated, stuck-up, prom queen girlfriend, Carolyn Mulford (Haviland Morris), in Jake’s father’s Rolls Royce. Jake later uses the excuse of finding them together to break up with Carolyn (who had surprisingly fallen for Ted, and thus doesn’t mind the break-up very much). Afterward, Jake drives to the church just in time to meet an incredulous Sam after her sister’s wedding. The movie concludes with them sharing a kiss over a birthday cake with sixteen candles.
Cast
Main characters:
Molly Ringwald as Samantha Baker
Justin Henry as Mike Baker
Michael Schoeffling as Jake Ryan
Anthony Michael Hall as Ted, aka “The Geek”
Gedde Watanabe as Long Duk Dong
Haviland Morris as Caroline Mulford
Paul Dooley as Jim Baker
Carlin Glynn as Brenda Baker
Blanche Baker as Ginny Baker
Edward Andrews as Grandpa Howard Baker
Billie Bird as Grandma Dorothy Baker
Carole Cook as Grandma Helen
Max Showalter as Grandpa Fred
Liane Alexandra Curtis as Randy
John Cusack as Bryce
Darren Harris as Cliff (Wease)
Deborah Pollack as Marlene, aka “Lumberjack”
Joan Cusack as Geek Girl
John Kapelos as Rudy Ryszczyk
Filming locations
Sixteen Candles was filmed primarily in and around the Chicago North Shore suburban community of Evanston, Illinois during the summer of 1983. Most of the exterior scenes and some of the interior scenes were filmed at Niles East High School, close to downtown Skokie, the setting for Hall’s driving the Rolls-Royce. A cafeteria scene, gym scene, and auto shop scene were filmed at Niles North High School. The Baker house is located on the 3000 block of Payne St. in Evanston. The church and parking lot where the final scenes take place is in Glencoe.
Rating
The film released eight weeks prior to the establishment of the PG-13 rating was originally rated R by the MPAA, and then re-rated PG on appeal.
Reception
Sixteen Candles was well-received by critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 90% of critics gave it a positive rating, based on 30 reviews. Ringwald’s performance was especially praised; Variety called her “engaging and credible” while Roger Ebert wrote that she “provides a perfect center for the story”. The character of Long Duk Dong was criticized for being offensive. Ebert, however, defended him, writing that Gedde Watanabe “elevates his role from a potentially offensive stereotype to high comedy”.
The movie ranked number 49 on Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 50 Best High School Movies.
Sixteen Candles was a moderate success at the box office, grossing $23,686,027.
Sequel
In 2005, Ringwald was reported to be producing a sequel to the film. As of July 2008[update], Ringwald was still interested in a sequel.[citation needed]
References
^ Internet Movie Database. Sixteen Candles (1984). Accessed 11 January 2008.
^
^ Julia Cameron 1986. CHICAGO: HOOT SPOT OF THE ARTS :What once happened in L.A. and New York now seems to be blooming in our back yard. Chicago Tribune (1963-Current file), March 30, http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed September 10, 2008). Gene Siskel 1984. ‘Sixteen Candles’: Teenage comedy matures. Chicago Tribune (1963-Current file), May 7, http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed September 10, 2008).
^ Howard Reich 1983. MOVIES :Lucy Salenger: The ‘stage mother’ who turned Illinois into a movie star MOVIES For Salenger’s successor, an ‘enormously difficult job’. Chicago Tribune (1963-Current file), July 24, http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed September 10, 2008).
^ Wilmette Public Library “Movies filmed on the North Shore” reference page. http://www.wilmette.lib.il.us/reference/record_display_public.php?id=28
^ Alex Thomas and Dave Wiemer 2002. Hughes Hunt. The Daily Northwestern (online archive), March 7, 2002. http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2002/03/07/UndefinedSection/Hughes.Hunt-1909290.shtml (accessed September 10, 2008).
^ “Motion Picture Association of America: What do the ratings mean?”. http://www.mpaa.org/FlmRat_Ratings.asp. Retrieved November 28, 2007.
^ Unsigned, Search for “Sixteen Candles”. [www.mpaa.org MPAA website], accessed 3 December 2007.
^ “Sixteen Candles (1984)”. Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sixteen_candles/. Retrieved 2009-06-17.
^ Staff (1984-01-01). “Sixteen Candles”. Variety. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117794929.html?categoryid=31&cs=1. Retrieved 2009-06-17.
^ a b Ebert, Roger (1984-01-01). “Review: Sixteen Candles”. Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19840101/REVIEWS/401010384/1023. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
^ Maslin, Janet (1984-05-04). “Review: Sixteen Candles”. The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F00E0DA1038F937A35756C0A962948260. Retrieved 2009-06-17.
^ “50 Best High School Movies”. http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,1532588,00.html.
^ “Sixteen Candles”. Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=sixteencandles.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-27.
^ William Keck. “MTV awards honor actors”. USAToday.com – June 5, 2005. http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2005-06-05-mtv-awards_x.htm. Retrieved November 15, 2007.
External links
The Sixteen Candles DVD Official Universal Site
Sixteen Candles at the Internet Movie Database
Sixteen Candles at Rotten Tomatoes
Sixteen Candles at Box Office Mojo
Sixteen Candles at Allmovie
Sixteen Candles quotes at MovieWavs.com
Sixteen Candles at The 80s Movie Rewind
“Real Men Can’t Hold a Match to Jake Ryan of Sixteen Candles” article
v d e
John Hughes
Director
and writer
Sixteen Candles (1984) The Breakfast Club (1985) Weird Science (1985) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) She’s Having a Baby (1988) Uncle Buck (1989) Curly Sue (1991)
Writer
National Lampoon’s Class Reunion (1982) Mr. Mom (1983) National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983) Nate and Hayes (1983) Pretty in Pink (1986) Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) The Great Outdoors (1988) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) Home Alone (1990) Career Opportunities (1991) Dutch (1991) Beethoven (1992) Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) Dennis the Menace (1993) Baby’s Day Out (1994) Miracle on 34th Street (1994) 101 Dalmatians (1996) Flubber (1997) Home Alone 3 (1997) Reach the Rock (1998) Just Visiting (2001) Maid in Manhattan (2002) Drillbit Taylor (2008)
Categories: American films | 1984 films | American coming-of-age films | Films directed by John Hughes | American teen comedy films | Universal Pictures films | Directorial debut filmsHidden categories: Film articles using deprecated parameters | Articles containing potentially dated statements from July 2008 | All articles containing potentially dated statements | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from November 2009
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