Last week John Hughes passed away at the age of 59 from a heart attack.

John Hughes. Writer / Director of The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles, etc.

John Hughes, who helped me survive high school by sharing his outlook and his humor through his films.

John Hughes who has influenced literally everything I’ve done or tried to do as a filmmaker.

What do I mean by that? I have never made a film that was overtly John Hughes-esq, true. But as much as I sing the praises of Spielberg and discuss the processes of Coppola, whenever I sit down to write or start to shoot a new film, it’s John Hughes’s work that I’m thinking about.

I wasn’t really movie going age when John Hughes was making the majority if his films. The only Hughes movie I remember seeing in the theater was Home Alone, and I was quite young. Despite this, The Breakfast Club came into my life at just the right time.  I was in Jr. High School, at a friend’s house.  He told me he had this great movie that we should watch, and put in a VHS copy of The Breakfast Club.  I watched it in stunned silence, not even really understanding everything that was happening in the film, but knowing that I was watching something important.  From that experience, I walked away thinking that The Breakfast Club was a good movie, but not much else. 

As time continued on, I would come back to The Breakfast Club, watching it and rewatching it.  Growing in appreciate for it at every viewing.  I started recognizing people that I knew in high school.  There was the Criminal, the Athlete, the Weirdo, etc.  But as I recognized people that I knew in those molds, I also recognized the intent of The Breakfast Club, which is to say that these people are not just these people.  They are layered and complex and … valuable. 

Of course it’s impossible to watch The Breakfast Club without recognizing yourself in the characters.  I saw the best and worst bits of me.

I think about the scripts that I have written, or am writing.  When I heard about John’s death, I thought about a few scripts in particular that I’m working on that I lovingly think of as “my John Hughes picture.”  What I came to realize is that all of my scripts are my John Hughes pictures.  Some just resemble Pretty in Pink or Some Kind of Wonderful more than others. 

I may try to emulate the filmmaking power of Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, or a handful of other filmmakers that have influenced me, but I think it’s because of John Hughes that I have filmmaking in my soul.  His work has impacted my life in ways that I didn’t even realize.

He will be missed.

Christopher Johnson, Director, Easy Water Films, L.L.C.