Being Fearless and Wrong About Pretty in Pink

Was John Hughes wrong about Pretty in Pink? Am I wrong about Pretty in Pink? Could most of us be wrong about Pretty in Pink? Probably yes.

Let me explain. But first, I want to take you in the chaos that is my mind!

So after writing a TMI article about a girl I went to prom with, I found myself thinking about the movie Pretty in Pink. Then someone sent me a meme. My former chemically damaged brain cells formed what I will loosely call a hypothesis. I was right. John Hughes was wrong. Many others are wrong and everyone is going to be stunned by my insightful findings.

I reached out to some Gen X women I knew and gave them my idea. They liked it. They saw where I was going. After that I spoke with some Gen Z college kids. Contrary to what some say, I find Gen Z to be insightful and have a greater social awareness than we do. They liked the idea.

Confirmation Bias is exciting!

But there was one aspect in scene order that I was not completely sure about. If I am wrong about the order of events, the whole thing is shot. I had to watch the movie again. Early Friday evening I dug my DVD out from a dusty bin, discovered Need for Speed has been sitting in my Playstation for who knows how long, put the DVD in, and watched Pretty in Pink for the first time in years.

I was right on the sequence! And I was right about one of the characters! But I was wrong on everything else. So now what the fuck do I do?

In my 20 years as a Gonzo Journalist, I own being wrong after I write a story, but if I don’t get to be the wise and plucky foul mouthed sardonic protagonist, I don’t wanna be a part of that. But what I learned intrigued me.

I spoke with the Gen X women and Gen Z college students again about being wrong. They agreed, but found what I discovered interesting.

So here we go.

Before we go any further, if you have not watched Pretty in Pink in awhile or have never seen it, please please please watch it right now.

I’ll wait.

I need to get caught up on some reading anyway. See you in 96 minutes!

OK! I’m back. So how was it? Ready to talk about it?

If any of you actually did watch the movie before reading on, let me know in the comments and I will totally send you a Gen X Watch button for your jean jacket. I mean it! Just let me know in the comments. Okay. Now that we have the baseline established, let’s dig in!

The meme sent to me talks about the original ending that was filmed for Pretty in Pink not being the original ending ending. For those who don’t know, the ending you saw was not the original ending.

The original ending featured Andie and Duckie at the prom together dancing to David Bowie’s Heroes with the insinuation that they become and a couple. Test audiences hated it and some literally booed. Months after the movie was in the can, they had to come back and reshoot a new 5 page ending in one day. It was the ending you saw in theaters, VHS, DVD, Blu Ray, or streaming.

When this news became public, social media had a field day. The working class hero Duckie should not have lost to the privileged spoiled rich kid with no spine! Teen girls just did not know what they should want and it was all about the good looking preppie with no substance.

I was one of those who was “team Duckie” until I thought about it some more in my recent viewing.

Duckie is kind of a toxic friend zoning expectation filled jerk with a bit of incel in him. And Blaine is really nothing like Jake Ryan in 16 Candles. But in my original new theory I had the other day, Andie should not have been with anyone. She has this moment of strength and resolve that is taken from her under this binary idea that she needs a man to be fulfilled. And I am right, but I am also wrong. So lets dig into some key characters and some scenes.

Duckie:

I know the the Duck man is a beloved character. I have empathy for him as well and he was a fond part of my cinema nostalgia. And as we examine him honestly, maybe we can understand that many incels who say and do unacceptable things are created and may also be victims. But I am looking at him through the lens of metoo and pretending he is a real person.

In our first introduction with him in the school halls, shortly after his banter with Andie, he approaches two women and tells them he can get one of them pregnant by the holidays if they are lucky. They slap him, and this establishes him as a hilarious character.

We see many unwelcome sexual innuendos to Andie when she offers to give him a ride home after he waited hours outside a club she was in where he is not allowed in. Let me state that last part again. He waited outside where she was for hours. And we know this is a pattern because the doorman establishes this in his conversation with Duckie outside the club.

The doorman, ironically played by Andrew Dice Clay, tried to ask Duckie if it has ever occurred to him why Andie goes to a space Duckie is not allowed into for hours at a time. It does not occur to Duckie. Duckie brushes off the reality.

Duckie informs Andie’s father that he is going to marry Andie. Andie’s father asks Duckie how Andie feels about this betrothal. Duckie informed her dad that she will come around as he lays the groundwork. Andie’s father tries to get Duckie to see it using his own life. He points out that his wife left years ago. He loved her very much but she did not love him. Sometimes you can be in love with someone and they do not love you back and you have to accept that and be okay with it. Duckie brushes off the reality.

Now we get to Andie’s first date with Blaine. When Duckie realizes she is going on a date with Blaine, he expresses anger and goes into “I am a nice guy you should be with me,” mode. Like any good incel, he proves he is a nice guy and tells her emphatically that she cannot respect herself and go out with this other man who he does not even know. And he can not be her friend or respect her if she does this. It is an ultimatum. And he means it.

While the first date is going on, Duckie is confiding in Andie’s older adult co worker, Iona. It is here that we learn that Duckie stalks her every move. He rides by her house on his bicycle 80 to 100 times a day to ensure she is at home. He also called her dozens of times a day.

When Andie and Blaine, still on their first date, bump into Iona and Duckie, Duckie places his arm around Iona aggressively. He is passive aggressive to Duckie and Blaine and as they leave, to try to make Andie jealous, he grabs Iona without consent, bends her over, and kisses her hard. We need to call that what it is.

I have known two men in my youth that were this obsessed with girls. The obsession lasted for years. It was not okay and as I look back, I do not think these men were safe. Like them, Duckie never once apologizes for his behavior. We never see evolution of character. We do see him in one scene sulking to the Smith’s. This almost feels like foreshadowing of a problem considering that Morrissey is a sexist racist fascist. I am half shocked there is not a copy of The Fountainhead in his room.

So, is this a man you would be comfortable with your daughter or granddaughter dating? Andie falling into his arms to dance with him at the end of the movie suggesting they become a couple with no apology from Duckie of his behavior?

I am with the test audiences on this one.

Blaine:

Blaine is far from perfect too. On the plus side, Blaine is courteous, attentive, kind, and authentic. He also has a bit of whimsey in how he expresses affection. As a guy who once asked a woman out using a hand written calligraphy scroll delivered to her during her chorus class by a guy dressed as a medieval scribe, I appreciate that. Keep it fun as long as it is real.

The first chink in his armor is when he takes Andie to Steff’s party. Andie expresses discomfort about going there and he does not listen. When they get there, Blaine sees his friends through Andie’s eyes and it is embarrassing to him, and he keeps admitting they are kinda jerks, but dismisses it in some ways.

But when Steff and his girlfriend push it too far and Blaine has to get her out of there, he does own up that he screwed up. It was a mistake to take her there and what happened was not okay. Now he does what we want men to do after mistakes. Not just say you’re sorry, but to provide restitution and changed behavior to show this is for real. He gives Andie her agency back, listens to her and asks her where she wants to go and he honors it and accepts that he is the outsider there.

At the end of the date she initiates the kiss, not him. He has continued to give her the agency and control.

Now we have to talk about the biggest problem of Blaine. The ghosting of Andie and Andie having to call him out on it and get him to admit they will not be going to prom.

Blaine has a conversation with Steff similar to the one Duckie had with Andie. Where Andie stood up for Blaine when Duckie assassinated his character and did not back down when Duckie tries to leverage the friendship, Blaine does not. Blaine does not stick up for Andie as Steff slut shames her and poor shames her. And when Steff threatens the end of their friendship, Blaine crumbles.

Blaine hides from her. He does not answer the phone. Nor does he make a stand. He cries when confronted, not because he is confronted, but he cares about her and is ashamed of his cowardice.

And like the last time he made a mistake, he would own it.

In the revised ending he calls Steff out for being a small person and his problem with Andie is that Andie cannot be bought or controlled by him and knows what he is. Then he goes to apologize to Andie. Andie says it is fine and he says he is glad she is okay. But she goes on to tell him she is not okay and it is not okay and it hurt. He hurt her. And that was not okay.

Blaine agrees and makes it clear that she did nothing wrong. He believed in her. He takes ownership and says he did not believe in himself. Then he says he loves her and walks away. In the walking away he does not offer her choices. There is no asking for another chance or promises. There is looking her in the eye, apologizing, explaining that she was not at fault, but he was, and walks away asking for or demanding nothing.

Andie:

We see Andie’s strength established almost from the beginning. Early on in the movie we see her reject sexual advances and slut shaming from Steff twice. When people bully her friends she stands up for them. When in the principal’s office speaks very forthrightly to authority about the experience of being shamed for being poor. She is not a shrinking violet for the most part. There are times where she could have made stronger stands, but there is an evolution to that we will discuss shortly.

She has no problem telling Blaine where he could have listened to her better about the party. And with her dad she calls him out on his lies about his job situation and the need to accept the reality that her mom did not love them and she is never coming back. They were abandoned and they need to face that.

She confronts Blaine on the ghosting and calls out his lies about why they are not going to go to prom together. She makes sure Blaine knows this is not okay and the way he handled this is wrong. This is where we get to her growth.

She goes to see her coworker Iona and asks for her old prom dress. She is not going to prom with Blaine but she needs it.

Now we have a montage where we see Andie take Iona’s dress and a dress her father bought her and make an entirely new dress that meets her desires for what she wants. While she is doing this there is a moment she looks at a picture of her mother that sits at her bedside. She puts it in a drawer. The grieving is over. The questioning why her mother left was over. She was stronger now.

When she shows her dress off to her father before going to prom, she explains to him that Blaine is not taking her. Her father is a little confused about why she is still going. With clarity of mind and a proud voice she tells him that she wants ‘them’ to know they did not break her.

When Andie walks into that prom, she is fully independent and has grown. She is stronger. Andie is more self assured than she already was.

In the hero’s journey Andie has won the confrontation, gained the reward of wisdom, and walks to the prom resurrected with the freedom to live.

And this is the point I was wrong on.

When Andie follows Blaine into the parking lot, she does not do so from a space of weakness or need. She wants him. She doesn’t need him. Andie chooses to be with him.

Seeing the inner strength Andie already had along with the growth she experienced in the dress montage, we have to trust that Andie is going to be all right. If Blaine ever were to step out of line again or revert back to spineless, she would call him out on it. And, if necessary, end the relationship and live her best life.

In our memes and discussions about this movie’s ending, we get it wrong. We live in this binary of Duckie or Blaine. I wanted to make it Andie and no one. But in all three of those choices we are taking autonomy from Andie.

There is no Duckie or Blaine. There is only Andie. Andie moved past those simple binaries in the dress montage. When she chose to be with Blaine, she did so eyes wide open. She got the apology she wanted. She also got the truth she demanded. Andie made a choice from a position of strength and the movie ended as it should have.

She grew. Did we?

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