As a little kid growing up in the Chicago burbs during Hughs' prime, the settings always made his movies seem like a story being told by a family friend. The setting was always it's own character.

It's so sad to think that we currently don't have anyone even close to the caliber of a John Hughes and may never again.

Until I watched this, I honestly didn't realize that this man essentially wrote a hugh chunk of the films of my childhood. Marvelous

That was probably the longest intro I have ever seen, though at the same time I never thought how much of an impact John Hughes would bring to the world with his incredible films, from Sixteen Candles to Planes, Trains and Automobiles. This is the best way to tell his story. I applaud you Joe.

I love how Huges and Candy were so close. It seems like 2 incredibly nice people.

What a legacy - and what a decade to grow up in.

Divorce numbers surged in the 1980's. Many of the children of this period experienced this trauma and we were forced to grow up too fast. The art of John Huge's was there for us to provide comfort while our parents were losing thier minds. Thanks John👍

His movies had a magic and charm to them that is hard to even describe. He wrote teenagers with empathy and understanding, you never get the feeling he was looking down on them. He could do sentimentality without it coming off as forced and cheesey. Also, as someone who was born 2002 and didn't get to experience the 80's, I feel like his movies are a nice little window into a seemingly simpler, more straightforward era. The man was one of the greats, and there will never be another John Hughes.

Fun Fact: Steve Martin was convinced to join the production of Planes, Trains and Automobiles after favoring two scenes he had read from the script: the seat adjustment-scene in the car, and the F-word tirade at the car rental desk.

This is an outstanding documentary. An informative love-letter to a once-in-a-generation writer/director.

I love how his director's chair has a built-in cupholder and ash tray.

I live in Chicago and during the 80's would go out to the local nightclubs on the weekend with a friend of mine, while at the Limelight (a nightclub converted from an old gothic church) my friend pointed out John Hughes to me, who was standing by himself enjoying the music, so we didn't bother him. A few years later I got into the film business doing special effects make-up and the first major film I worked on was 'Home Alone 2'. I will always appreciate John Hughes' films and what they meant to me, especially having worked on one myself and the memories that I have from that production. I had the opportunity to talk to Macaulay Culkin, Catherine O'Hara, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard and the director Chris Columbus, but because he never came to set I never did see Mr. Hughes again. However, the following year I went to a special preview screening of a yet to be disclosed film with my brother, the movie turned out to be 'Mrs. Doubtfire' and at the end of the movie as the lights came up, sitting in front of us was Chris Columbus the director. I briefly talk to him, mentioning that I worked on 'Home Alone 2' and he asked me what I thought of his new film and I told him that I really enjoyed it, which I did. Good times.

This man was a FREAKIN' genius and he gave us way more than what we deserve!!!.... he's a HUGE part of why the 80s and 90s are the greatest decades ever!!!.... no one will ever come close to what he did and thats ok cause we can always go back and watch his work!

Greatest screenwriter of all time. His dialogue, characters, humor, and heart are unmatched.

No other movie maker has made my childhood and great memories so fulfilling as this man has.

Career Opportunities, and Jennifer's body in it, will never ever fully escape my mind

He literally put his heart and soul into his movies and it shows.

I grew up as a kid with the Home Alone Movies, I watched his Brat Pack movies in High School and intertwined all his John Candy movies inbetween... His movies are my life. An absolutely incredible series of films and he gave us the best of John Candy, which is a treat in and of itself.

I laughed, I cried. I learned something new (She's Having A Baby!). I am so touched at the sheer magnitude of Ge X / Millennials (like me), that he had an impact on so thoroughly. I hope the legend status only grows with the changing of generational taste....maybe /maybe not. But aren't we the lucky ones to have lived in a world with John Hughes.

These are by far the best mini docs I've seen. I can feel the love & passion as I'm watching them. This is one of my favorite KZfaq channels.

John Hughes has always been one of my absoloute favourite directors and writers and this just made me fall in love with him and his movies all over again!! My dad and I can qoute almost every film of his backwards and forwards. (My dad always reminds me of John Candy so Uncle Buck is one of my huge soft spots) His characters feel like close friends like no other and it warms my heart

How lucky I was that I got to experience John Hughes movies and 80's music while I was a teenager in the 80s.

Joe, this is top tier work. Beautifully portrayed and deeply inspiring.

No mention of Only the Lonely? It's a shame how badly that movie has been completely forgotten. John Candy, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Quinn, and the great Maureen O'Hara coming out of retirement. Possibly Candy's most endearingly romantic role.

Fantastic piece.

My favorite John Hughes film tidbit is that he had originally cast a very young John Cusack as Bender in The Breakfast Club. But he ultimately dropped him during preproduction in favor of Judd Nelson due to him being more physical intimidating than Cusack.

It always amazed me how he was able to get beneath the skin of his characters to reveal a unique soul that was relatable by anyone. He genuinely understood people. I'm surprised "She's Having a Baby" did not do well, I enjoyed it. Maybe it was too mature for his broader audience of teens and young adults that hadn't yet faced the trials and temptations of a married adult. I was nearing 30 before I became familiar with his movies. I think Ferris Bueller was the first one I had seen.

Fantastic Mini-Docu. Superb editing and script. It must have been quite time consuming searching out the right scenes for the project. You definitely made me see things in the films that I never noticed before, especially in detailing John's character and life. Also never knew about some of those later films being from his scripts, especially "101 Dalmatians".

Planes trains and autombiles will forever be one of my favorite movies.

John Hughes is just one of the people who raised me.

Dear Sir, never stop making your videos. You and your voice are just moving me so much. Thank you. Sincerely, thank you so much.

I have never seen flubber, love Robin and had no idea it was a Hughes movie. Theres several that i had no idea he was involved with.

Beautiful. John Hughes was a true genuine filmmaker and storyteller. Had I kept my ambition to break out into acting and had John Hughes still been alive, I would’ve loved to be a part of one of his productions. Merely for the camaraderie that would (hopefully)form between all of the actors.

I can say there are only a few KZfaq channels that I automatically hit "Thumbs Up" before I even watch the video. 👍🎩

fantastic retrospective on an amazing talent

I hope the Hughes family shows you some appreciating. You’ve done so much to honor him and his films.

Excellent job. 28:11 just breezed by.

This is excellent!

I was fortunate to be a fellow student of his in high school. Although we were only in one class together, he made quite an impression on me. We were never friends, but he was funny, smart, and handsome. I had a serious crush on him, but I was so shy in those days, I just admired him from afar. I was and still am a huge fan of his movies. I was sad to hear of his passing away at only 59, but happy to know how prolific a writer he became and that he had a very full life. It was great to find this "docu-mini" on him.

Wow, another great Mini Doc! Big thanks!!

Bravo!!!! Awesome documentary!! 👌

Lovely documentary - Hats off to you

Quality content as usual.

I live in Northbrook, which is the town John Hughes grew up in. It's also what the fictional town of Shermer was based on, as Northbrook's original name until 1923 was "Shermerville."

he has made some great movies

What a talent; what a gift this man shared with the world. When I think about (or watch) Uncle Buck, The Breakfast Club, Home Alone, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and others ... I think to myself, to be able to inject smart comedy movies with the sweetest, most touching, amazingly uplifting and truth-filled *heart* .... that is something that will always impress me, and that I'll always be grateful for and appreciate. You cannot underestimate John's legacy, nor the legion of admirers who hold his films in such high esteem and with such deep and thriving affection. Thank you for this tribute.

All my kids are acquainted with Mr Hughes and his complete collection of work. They thank me more than you would expect for doing this. Thank you Mr Hughes and all involved!

Can you describe the ruckus, John Hughes? Oh, you did and perfectly. Legendary.

Hats off to you for making an amazing tribute to this man. I'm now going to re-watch the ones I've seen and check out the ones I missed.

Boy, oh boy! All these movies brings me incredible amount of nostalgia. Classic Disney animation and Hughes movies pretty much defined my childhood.

I do feel the death of John Candy really hurt him and why he became distant in the 90s you could tell they had a very special friendship and just think of the projects they could've done more together

That opening montage hit me right in the feels so hard 😭

Thanks for making a half hour long video on one of my favourite filmmakers. I can't wait to drop everything to watch it. While several aspects of Hughes' works are rather dated now, namely the casual homophobia, racism and sexism, his stories and characters are timeless, and still resonate to contemporary audiences.

So nice to finally see you dedicate a vid to this guy. Love your channel and the insight you provide.

Much like the paintings in museums that John loved so Much….his movies have become works of art that will live on forever and be loved by billions.

A friend of mine once said that when John Hughes died, the 80s died with him.

Bravo to your video here of a man who was a pure genius with writing scripts for movies. There just is no one even close to JOHN HUGHES today and he is sorely missed more than ever now. RIP JH as I hope you and JOHN CANDY are having a blast today!

Some Kind of Wonderful is a very underrated film of his.

My favourite director. His style influenced me more as a director than the big more-respected auteurs.

May we be lucky enough to see another era like the 80s and 90s and may we be lucky enough to have men like John Candy and John Hughes around again.

I watched Summer Rental this past week. Then, the og Vacation was recommended next on my streaming service. I then went down the John Hughes rabbit hole and am still working through it. All from just watching a non Hughes film. ❤

I seen some of his movies and I still watch them every year.

I hope you consider doing a video on John Hughes' unrealised scripts someday. During the time Pretty In Pink was being made, John Hughes wrote a script named Oil and Vinegar that would have had Matthew Broderick play a salesman travelling across country at night to his wedding in a car. He picks up a Rough-and-Tumble hitchhiker (Molly Ringwald) along the way and the two talk about their lives in the car and later in a motel room. Those who read the script say it is similar to The Breakfast Club and was the best script of John Hughes' they ever read. Another unmade movie was Barthomelow VS Neff (1991) in which John Candy (a banker?) and Sylvester Stallone (former Baseball Star?) would play feuding neighbours in the Chicago suburbs. There was also another script called The New Kid which Howard Deutch rejected to make Pretty In Pink. It would have been a movie about a teenager who has moved to a new neighbourhood. John Hughes apparently had Anthony Michael Hall in mind to play the lead. There are also other unmade John Hughes movies but I cannot recall.

Great Docu-Mini. And a good way to introduce John Hughes to people who probably only know one or two of his films. Hats off to you, Joe.

Always love your editing for these videos

Outstanding work. I love the neverending Hughes appreciation here. On a realed Hughes note I read the Sincerely, John Hughes blog post from time to time. Hughes truly appreciated his fans.

Very Interesting what John said about writing dialogue and scripts. Rather than over think dialogue or plot, he just lets it flow out quickly and finishes it. Then, he goes back through if he likes it and does many rewrites to hone it in.

Can i just say, as a fan of John Hughes work, and the mystique of the man himself, and his journey in this life, I am deeply grateful that you took the time to create this look at his life & career. It was excellent. There were even some things I never knew about him that you revealed. Thank you so much. You made my year.

You are truly doing the lord's work

Yet another legend gone topic soon.

thanks, well worth the wait, intro is gold

We need another John Hughes so much. Most movies today are just garbage remakes and sequels with no originality. There are some that do work though. Even kids today can relate with John Hughes movies he sure knew how to craft stories and characters truly one of a kind.

Beautiful documentary of a great director. Thanks for sharing!

I am a film director from Brazil and I have always had admiration for the great directors in the history of cinema, however, on the one hand, the indifference of great authors to the great questions of human individuality has always bothered me and, on the other hand, it has always attracted me the directors who knew how to sensitively frame the nuances of the human psyche, both from an individual point of view and from a collective point of view. After decades, I came to the conclusion that a cinema and an art that manage to penetrate these layers of humanity are part of a superior art and so I started to apply it in my cinematography and, at the same time, I started to have as the greatest example of an author in the history of cinema, that fantastic and sensitive human being that was John Hughes. He is today, for me, one of the greatest references in the art of cinema and I am very grateful for the incredible work you did to honor him and immortalize the qualities of this Master. Thank you very mutch for this work

This retrospective made the lump in my throat grow quite large. This man's work was my childhood. So many of his films have meant such a great deal to me. The world really needed and continues to benefit from the work he left behind. I can't think of a writer/director I more closely related with how he was presenting people from all different threads of experience and what ever social box buzzword you could place them with. The this, the that and everything in between, John understood people and reflected back onto the screen to the audience, those very character archetypes he paid tribute so well through his craft. Very grateful for his output.

Great homage to one of the most prolific icons of my generation. Long live John Hughs

bravo. another great presentation. thank you.

Planes Trains and Automobiles is my mother's absolute favourite movie. She has watched it on a near-weekly basis for the 35 years. She hammered her love for the film into me since I was a kid, and now I really enjoy it. It's not my favourite Hughes film, I prefer Uncle Buck and probably even Home Alone, but PT&A is still an excellent film. John Hughes wrote something special there... Actually, since it's in this video, can we get a video on the original ending for National Lampoon's Vacation? It's a great film, but it's surprising that the first ending has never surfaced on home media...

One of those well-known yet still UNDER-RATED creatives that basically defined a genre, an era and all these popular tropes and conventions...But did it with such heart... I have found myself laughing one moment, crying another, and being kinda protective of some of his films that I loved, like they're *my movies*.

He was involved in so many iconic films of that era, you can't really go wrong in watching ANY of them. Regardless of whether he directed or not. If you only know him from Breakfast and Ferris Bueller, you owe it to yourself to watch them all at least once. Fond memories of my childhood/teen years and of all the crap from back then, to me at least, they still hold up. If anything, I like them more now!

Flubber is criminally underrated. It wasn’t just a remake of an older movie from Disney, it managed to also be its own thing and breathe new life into a property that otherwise might have been forgotten to time.

That was a really good retrospective on John Hughes. To be honest I didn't know he wrote a lot of the movies I grew up with. Though I do remember hearing his name floating around. Loved his movies though, he had an amazing talent.

I didn’t get to develop a love for John Hughes movies until the 90s because I was too young for his teen comedies when they were first released, but his first movie to fully hit me and to become my absolute favorite was Planes, Trains, & Automobiles. I remember I was driving somewhere near my home when I heard on the radio John Candy had died. I was devastated and just happened to be passing a video rental place. I swung into the parking lot and went in to see if I could find a great John Candy movie. In the previously viewed for sale section I found a VHS copy of PT&A and bought it right away. I was 18 years old and I discovered my first John Hughes directed movie, which instantly became an all-time favorite. Over the years, I became a John Hughes fan even though I’d already loved a couple of the things he’d written such as Uncle Buck and The Great Outdoors, movies that had already made me love John Candy! Last November, I finally got to see Planes, Trains, & Automobiles in the theater thanks to an anniversary Fathom Event! And you’d better believe I bought the 4K Blu-ray even though I’d previously bought the VHS, the DVD and the Blu-ray releases. What can I say, I really love that movie!!

Nice job on the documentary Joe, this is one of your best ones yet! John Hughes is one of my two favorite directors of all-time! My favorite film of his and John Candy is Planes, Trains, and Automobiles!

Great video, man. I never realized Hughes was such a mysterious creature.

A lovely tribute! Thank you for letting me learn a little more about an iconic filmmaker.

You really tapped into why we love Hughes's films so much. I love all your videos and docu-mini's, but this one may be my new favorite. Great job, as always, Joe!

Joe my man, you have outdone yourself with this video.

He was a type of filmmaker I had hoped to have been.

Vacation and Home Alone remain 2 of my favorite movies of all time. Countless rewatches and they never feel dated.

It's really a shame that there aren't more commentaries and interviews with Hughes. He's way more badass than he looks. And what a body of work! The 80's wouldn't be the same without him. P.S; Excellent video. Liked. 👍

Life Moves Pretty Fast. If You Don’t Stop And Look Around Once In A While, You Could Miss It that Hats Off Entertainment made most awesome and well-crafted Docu-Mini on the legendary John Hughes great job sir loved Hughes writing and his work keep up awesome content.

What a voice of generations to come. We can only see, hear and feel the love! ❤

Amazing docu-mini about an awesome filmmaker. His movies were my childhood.

You deserve much more, every video you make is so detailed and full of love that I get excited when I get that notification that you posted a new video. Hat's off to you sir.

Yes. All of the yes belongs to this examination of the cinematic voice that spoke to the experiences of a generation. I had no idea what "cool" looked like when I was 6 in 1990. But once I saw him, I just knew it would resemble Jon Bender.

All hail the mighty John Hughes. Thank you for my teens, your films are a major element. Life indeed moves pretty fast. ❤

What a great video. Bravo. Love John Hughes and it was amazing to see all this unseen footage 👏

One of the greatest runs of all time, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Buellers Day Off, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Uncle Buck as a director. Let's be honest and nothing against Howard Deutch who is a very decent director but Some Kind of Wonderful, Pretty in Pink and The Great Outdoors are good because of Hughes and you can see his style in those movies. Same with Home Alone 1 and 2 with Chris Columbus. These are all John Hughes movies.

I was born in 1974, so I had the privilege of spending childhood, adolescence and early adulthood being exposed to John Hughes films back when they were brand new.