Sixteen Candles
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Hughes
Produced by	Hilton A. Green Michelle Manning Ned Tanen
Written by	John Hughes
Starring	Molly Ringwald Paul Dooley Justin Henry Anthony Michael Hall
Music by	Ira Newborn
Cinematography	Bobby Byrne
Editing by	Edward Warschillka
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	May 4, 1984
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$6,500,000
Box office	$23,686,027

Sixteen Candles is a 1984 American film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling and Anthony Michael Hall. It was written and directed by John Hughes.

  Plot

High school sophomore Samantha "Sam" Baker struggles to get through the day of her 16th birthday, which her entire family forgets because her older sister, Ginny, is getting married the next day. She is also plagued by her ongoing infatuation with the very popular and very attractive senior, Jake Ryan. 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 Asian foreign exchange student, Long Duk Dong. 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 minutes to find an unlikely girlfriend — the tallish, large-breasted jock, Marlene, nicknamed "Lumberjack." It is found that they are slow dancing in the gym.

A running subplot involves a geeky freshman 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." Sam knocks him off in the bus on the way home by saying, "Go to hell."

In the auto shop 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 panties to help him win a dozen floppy disks.

Later (after a peepshow of Sam's panties for $1 admission, which she does not find out about until the next day), Ted and his equally unwelcome geeky friends, Cliff and Bryce (John Cusack), enter the senior after-party. When Cliff asks Ted if he's panicky about going to a senior party, Ted assures his friends by saying, "We got seventy dollars and we got a pair of girl's (Sam's) underpants. We're safe as kittens, okay? This is a great social opportunity for us! Come on!" When they knock the door, Long Duk Dong who also attends the party with his new girlfriend greets them and Ted and his gangs get through the door but they make a big mistake by knocking the beer cans on the table all over. Ted and Bryce leave it all up to Cliff.

Meanwhile upstairs in Jake's bedroom, Jake takes the opportunity to look through the yearbook and finds Sam's photo. He jots down her phone-number on his scrap of paper and calls her only to be disappointed when her grandparents pick up the phone. He says, "Um..Would it be possible for you to tell me if there's Samantha Baker there and if so may I converse with her briefly?" but he is unsuccessful.

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 drunk girlfriend, Caroline Mulford, in Jake's father's Rolls Royce. Jake later uses the excuse of finding them together to break up with Caroline (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 16 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

Supporting characters

• 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
• Jami Gertz as Robin
• Brian Doyle-Murray as Reverend
• Zelda Rubinstein as Organist

  Production

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sixteen Candles

John Hughes had asked his agent for headshots of young actresses, and among those he received was Molly Ringwald's. Inspired by it, he put it up over his desk and wrote the film just over a weekend with her specifically in mind for the lead role.^[1][2] For the male lead in the film, it had come down to Schoeffling and Viggo Mortensen.^[3] For the part of Ted, Hughes saw a number of actors for the role: "Every single kid who came in to read for the part... did the whole, stereotyped high school nerd thing. You know - thick glasses, ball point pens in the pocket, white socks. But when Michael came in he played it straight, like a real human being. I knew right at that moment that I'd found my geek."^[4]

Sixteen Candles was filmed primarily in and around the Chicago North Shore suburban communities of Skokie and Highland Park, Illinois during the summer of 1983, when leads Ringwald and Hall were 15 years old.^[5] Most of the exterior scenes and some of the interior scenes were filmed at Niles East High School,^[6] close to downtown Skokie, the setting for Hall's driving the Rolls Royce.^[7] A cafeteria scene and a gym scene, were filmed at Niles North High School. The auto shop scene was filmed at Niles East High School in the auto shop. The Baker house is located on the 3000 block of Payne Street in Evanston. The church and parking lot where the final scenes take place are in Glencoe.^[8]

  Soundtrack and songs

Sixteen Candles
Soundtrack album by various artists
Released	1984
Genre	Rock, New Wave
Length	17:28
Label	MCA Records
Producer	Jimmy Iovine (16 Candles & Hang Up the Phone), Ira Newborn (Geek Boogie), John Cale (Gloria), & Alex Sadkin (If You Were Here)
Music sample
"Thompson Twins - If You Were Here"

The original soundtrack was released as a specially priced mini album containing only 5 songs. However, the movie actually featured an extensive selection of over 30 songs. Songs from the movie that were not included on the soundtrack EP are as follows:

• "Snowballed" Performed by AC/DC
• "Today I Met the Boy I'm Gonna Marry" Performed by Darlene Love
• "Love of the Common People" Performed by Paul Young
• "Kajagoogoo" (Main Title Song) Performed by Kajagoogoo
• "Happy Birthday" Performed by Altered Images
• "Kazooed on Klassics" Performed by The Temple City Kazoo Orchestra
• "Dragnet" Performed by Ray Anthony and His Orchestra
• "Rumours in the Air" Performed by Night Ranger
• "Peter Gunn" Performed by Ray Anthony and His Orchestra
• "True" Performed by Spandau Ballet played during the school dance
• "Wild Sex (In the Working Class)" Performed by Oingo Boingo
• "Little Bitch" Performed by The Specials
• "Growing Pains" Performed by Tim Finn
• "When It Started to Begin" Performed by Nick Heyward
• "Lenny" Performed by Stevie Ray Vaughan
• "Whistle Down the Wind" Performed by Nick Heyward
• "Ring Me Up" Performed by The Divinyls
• "Love Theme" from The Godfather Conducted by Carlo Savina
• "Turning Japanese" Performed by The Vapors
• "Rev-Up" Performed by The Revillos
• "Farmer John" Performed by The Premiers
• "Theme from New York, New York" Performed by Frank Sinatra
• "Young Guns" Performed by Wham!
• "Rebel Yell" Performed by Billy Idol
• "Lohengrin Wedding March" Performed by The Bavarian Staatsoper Munich Chorus and Orchestra
• "Young Americans" Performed by David Bowie

  Reception

  Critical response

Sixteen Candles was well received by critics and is considered by many as one of the best films of 1984.^[9][10] Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 90% of critics gave it a positive rating, based on 30 reviews.^[11] Ringwald's performance was especially praised; Variety called her "engaging and credible"^[12] while Roger Ebert wrote that she "provides a perfect center for the story".^[13]

  Controversy

The character of Long Duk Dong was criticized for being racially insensitive and offensive to Asians and others^[14] who, in the words of Alison MacAdam of NPR, found that the character "represents one of the most offensive Asian stereotypes Hollywood ever gave America"^[15] with some complaining that they were taunted with quotes of his stilted-English lines.^[16] Ebert defended him, writing that Gedde Watanabe "elevates his role from a potentially offensive stereotype to high comedy".^[13]

  Box office

Sixteen Candles was a moderate success at the box office, grossing $23,686,027.^[17]

  Awards

In December 1984, Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall both won Young Artist Awards as "Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture" and "Best Young Actor in a Motion Picture" for their roles in the film respectively, becoming the first and only juvenile performers in the history of the Young Artist Awards to win the Best Leading Actress and Best Leading Actor awards for the same film (a distinction the film still holds as of 2012).^[18] In July 2008, the movie was ranked number 49 on Entertainment Weekly's list of "The 50 Best High School Movies".^[19]

  Sequel

In 2005, Ringwald was reported to be producing a sequel to the film.^[20] As of March 2010^[update], Ringwald stated that she thought it was not a good idea to do remakes of great classic films.^[21]

  References

  External links

	Film portal
	Comedy portal
	United States portal
	Asian Americans portal

• 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 AllRovi
• Sixteen Candles at The 80s Movie Rewind
• "Reflections on Jake Ryan of the John Hughes Film Sixteen Candles" article