There is one boy I never got over. My husband, however, does not consider him a threat. He was tall, sculpted and had the sensitivity of someone considering a life in the monastery. He was unattainable but put himself out there. His name was Jake Ryan.
For those who came of age with John Hughes’ films, Jake Ryan was the Prince Charming of our generation. If you are unaware of Jake Ryan, the character played by Michael Schoeffling in Sixteen Candles, here’s a brief synopsis:
The film’s heroine, Samantha, a gawky redhead, is a high school sophomore about to turn 16. Samantha’s birthday becomes an afterthought as her family gathers one weekend for her sister’s wedding.
Enter Jake Ryan, the demi-god senior who sits behind Samantha in homeroom, making her as hot as a volcanic flower. Throw in some amusing supportive roles—notably a geek with a penchant for floppy disks and a Chinese exchange student who wears cardigans—and a high school dance that trickles into Jake’s home with out-of-town parents. The night is comedic, with one-liners served in each scene, though we keep returning to Samantha’s romantic plight. Will Jake leave his perfect girlfriend for an awkward girl he only knows by poorly timed stares in homeroom? He does. Jake rescues Samantha from her sister’s wedding in a red Porsche—1984’s version of a white stallion. We cut to the final scene of the two seated over a birthday cake blazing with 16 candles. They kiss.
Sixteen Candles includes many improvisational moments and sultry, gratuitous Jake Ryan shots to assure its classic status with regular plays on cable television. Sometime after the success of the film, Schoeffling did a very strange thing: He fell from Hollywood to become the J.D. Salinger of young heartthrob actors. This one-hit wonder adds to his intrigue, which assures the love-lost phenomenon that has bewitched myself and countless others.
I related to the growing pains of a character like Samantha, completed the necessary credits in college to achieve a respectable place in the real world, met a man I love and started a family. But there is a part of me fueled by Jake Ryan. The side that is interested in how a couple met and what they do to keep the spark alive. How I waited to commit to someone who I could imagine driving to a wedding for no reason other than wanting to eat a birthday cake with me on top of a dining room table.
Source: Romantic Homes Magazine
The film’s heroine, Samantha, a gawky redhead, is a high school sophomore about to turn 16. Samantha’s birthday becomes an afterthought as her family gathers one weekend for her sister’s wedding.
Enter Jake Ryan, the demi-god senior who sits behind Samantha in homeroom, making her as hot as a volcanic flower. Throw in some amusing supportive roles—notably a geek with a penchant for floppy disks and a Chinese exchange student who wears cardigans—and a high school dance that trickles into Jake’s home with out-of-town parents. The night is comedic, with one-liners served in each scene, though we keep returning to Samantha’s romantic plight. Will Jake leave his perfect girlfriend for an awkward girl he only knows by poorly timed stares in homeroom? He does. Jake rescues Samantha from her sister’s wedding in a red Porsche—1984’s version of a white stallion. We cut to the final scene of the two seated over a birthday cake blazing with 16 candles. They kiss.
Sixteen Candles includes many improvisational moments and sultry, gratuitous Jake Ryan shots to assure its classic status with regular plays on cable television. Sometime after the success of the film, Schoeffling did a very strange thing: He fell from Hollywood to become the J.D. Salinger of young heartthrob actors. This one-hit wonder adds to his intrigue, which assures the love-lost phenomenon that has bewitched myself and countless others.
I related to the growing pains of a character like Samantha, completed the necessary credits in college to achieve a respectable place in the real world, met a man I love and started a family. But there is a part of me fueled by Jake Ryan. The side that is interested in how a couple met and what they do to keep the spark alive. How I waited to commit to someone who I could imagine driving to a wedding for no reason other than wanting to eat a birthday cake with me on top of a dining room table.
Source: Romantic Homes Magazine
