Yesterday marked the 30th anniversary of the release of one of the most enduring teen films of the 1980s: Pretty in Pink (see our latest issue, out this week, for our Pretty in Pink inspired ‘Class of ’86’ cover shoot in conjunction with Beyond Retro).
Part of its appeal has always been that it talks to the under-privileged, the disenfranchised, the alternative sub-sects and the just plain cooler than yous. It’s a simple story of a love that transcends monetary and privilege barriers with the stalwart Andie, who looks after her single-parent dad, wears “volcanic ensembles” of pink and takes it on the chin from the ‘richies’ every now and again, that is, until rich kid Blane asks her out on a date.
Now one of the things that has been argued over for years, especially since the release of the 20th anniversary ‘Everything’s Duckie’ DVD, is the change of ending after the one John Hughes intended tested badly with audiences. The ending was then reshot (with a disastrous wig on Andrew McCarthy after he’d had his hair cut for a subsequent role) to the one we know: Andie goes to the prom on her own, meets up with her friend (and unrequited romantic pursuer) Duckie, only to discover that Blane is also there alone and has been moping after her all evening. He apologises, they kiss and go off into the night together leaving Duckie on his own once more (or maybe not?).
Since then a generation of fans have felt they’d been served an injustice with this new ending and believed that Andie and Duckie should have ended up together as Hughes originally had it.
Well I’m here to tell you: I have to disagree!
You see, like a lot of the film’s cult following over the years, I was a Duckie. The oddball misfit whose unrequited teenage love for that someone of the cultural norm of attractiveness or popularity, of a someone who didn’t even notice them, never happened and never would have came about anyway. But what hindsight tells us is there’s always another Duckie (male or female, naturally) out there and they are the one worth waiting for.
The truth of it is that Duckie shouldn’t have ended up with Andie, not because Duckie wasn’t right for Andie but because Andie wasn’t good enough for HIM.
After all, she was quite frankly boring and a little self-obsessed. More than that, she didn’t notice his affections, didn’t appreciate him for what he was or find him in the remotest bit interesting as a lover or soul mate. They were incompatible. And I think what the eventual, released ending shows us is that Duckie was the better man, that he was willing to let Andie go off with Blane because Blane was the one who was right for her (i.e. equally as boring and self-obsessed as she was), they were a better match, and the reward of this, as the final scenes at the senior prom demonstrate, is that there are other people out there who are more interesting and more suited to us, a Duckette, as the credits put it.
Simply put, don’t bother wasting your time on someone who isn’t worth it, look for another Duckie and you’ll be infinitely happier.
“I remain now, and will always be, a Duckman.”
