Phillip commented on Anson’s blog about how a movie should have ended. He said, “Molly Ringwald should have ended up with Duckie at the end of PRETTY IN PINK as originally written and filmed.” WTF?!?!?! WTF?!?!?!?! And again, WTF?!?!?!?!
IT SHOULD’VE BEEN DUCKIE??!?!?!?!
You mean, Pretty in Pink, my all-time favorite John Hughes film while growing up; a film which defined my ideas of love-at-first-sight, my ideas of what a relationship is, my ideas of self-crafted fashion, my ideas of friendship…. had a totally DIFFERENT ENDING? Where Duckie (played by Jon Cryer), the-best-guy-friend-she-grew-up-with-and-who-was-madly-in-love-with-her, actually GOT THE GIRL???? MIND-FUCKIN-BLOWING.
So I grew up with a fallacy! My pubescent mind grew up believing that no matter how much someone professes their love to you, you must choose the rich, aloof, emotionally-unavailable guy (played by a boring Andrew McCarthy) who can’t stand up for you or put two words together into a coherent sentence!! Thus, my love life was doomed starting from the age of 12!!!!
I’ve dated nothing but Andew McCarthys all my life!
Let’s see, there was:
-Mr. Run Away: He was my college boyfriend. We were walking thru the forest at night, and he heard a sound up ahead on the path. He instinctively and promptly then pushed me into the direction of said sound, while he turned and ran away at a full tilt. He could barely protect me from a bear, let alone a raccoon.
-Gaston from Beauty and the Beast: He looked like an all-american version of a greek god: 6’3 and a mandible so chiseled that he could cut a tin can and then a tomato easily with it. He was the kind of guy that leaned against walls with his hand raised above his head so that you could admire his biceps while you conversed. He slept with me, my classmate, my roommate, and then some virgin intern within the course of 3 days. And then he tried to get us all to do a 4-way even though 2 of us were mortal enemies. I’m so glad I made him use condoms.
I could go on and on: Mr. Here-and-Now, Mr. I-Have-No-Past, Mr. Most-Likely-To-Be-Gay…every single one of them, an Andrew McCarthy: a non-commital, lost, tepid, incher thru life.
DUCKIE!!!!
It should have been DUCKIE! The best-guy-friend-who’ll-act-the-fool-have-your-back-tell-you-the-ugly-truth-and-still-be-standing at the top of the stairs for that time you decide to go to the prom all by yourself because Blane (Andrew McCarthy) stood you up.
The problem is, I’m usually the DUCKIE. I’m every guy’s best girl friend. (Just ask any of my guy friends. I’m awesome. I can throw a fart joke farther than any guy can burp.) And I’m not remotely interested in my DUCKIE guy friends. I suppose all us DUCKIEs will just have to go around, having amazing fashion sense and performing great renditions of lip-synching love, while the rest of the bland Blanes continue to procreate and populate this world with more confused uncertainty masking as charm. It’ll work. It worked on Molly Ringwald. And at least it was to a great soundtrack.
And we’ll always have John Hughe’s rewrite of Pretty in Pink in “Some Kind of Wonderful“. You go, female DUCKIE posing as a potential lesbian but not!
Female DUCKIE on the right!
Yup, the original ending w/ Duckie getting the girl was “tested” and the test audience gave it low marks so the studio made Hughes go back and shoot a new ending where Ringwald ends up with McCarthy instead.
But as you suggest, SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL was Hughes’ attempt to go back and remake the same film (albeit with genders reversed) with the ending the original envisioned and wanted. I prefer SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL.
Plus, SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL had a brilliant opening title sequence, easily setting up our main characters (Eric Stoltz as the brooding grease monkey pining for Lea Thompson, the floozy who only dates rich guys) and of course, Mary Stuart Masterson kicking ass on the drums. I had a huge crush on MSM. I preferred her from the get go, but hey, if I was in the lead, there would be no movie!
…curse of the “nice guy” (or girl) syndrome
The forest story was funny. Sorry. Glad you are “ok”.
I stopped believing in love a long time ago. And I wish just once during the 80s someone would make a film about what a load of crap romantic love it.
That’s why I write that material now.
T.L. Young
yeah I loved Some Kind of Wonderful the best. I had no idea Duckie was supposed to get the girl.
As an aside, the movie the Debut made me realize how much I never did relate to John Hughes’ coming of age films. It’s truly is eye opening when you actually see a movie that depicts your similar family life on the big screen.. and I’m not talkng about the plot of the movie, but the underlying subtexts and backstories.. like the scene in the morning after the debut. It shows the father cooking fried rice for breakfast, filmed as a matter of fact.. lol not cereal or pancakes for breafast.. I think that quick shot is the one thing in AA cinema that has affected the most.
Always go for the nice guys. That is what I have always believed. It saves a lot of heartache. And I have been with my man for eight years!
at that age, duckie seems like the lovelorn hero for all shy boys and misfits who never get the girl. but with the benefit of age and wisdom, he actually comes off as a passive aggresive dick who cannot verbalize what he wants and instead chooses to creepily lurk around a girl who so clearly is not in romantic love with him. you know that were andi to actually go out with duckie he would be the most needy limp noodle who would nearly suffocate her with his need for daily affirmations.
Here’s another fun fact from an upcoming book about the Brat Pack:
“Molly Ringwald badly wanted Robert Downey Jr. to be cast as Duckie in ‘Pretty in Pink.’ When Jon Cryer was cast instead, she felt no romantic chemistry, so she was pleased when the ending of the film was reshot so that her character winds up with Blane (Andrew McCarthy) rather than Duckie. “
[...] Andrew McCarthy’s character. But after a negative test screening, the climax was reshot so that Ringwald ended up with McCarthy instead. Ringwald had really wanted Robert Downey Jr. to play Duckie and felt she had no chemistry with [...]