John Hughes' PLANES, TRAINS, & AUTOMOBILES. A Thanksgiving 2020 Appreciation

HAPPY THANKSGIVING SECRET MOVIE CLUBBERS! We're thankful to you for being part of our community of filmlovers and filmmakers. In honor of Turkey Day, we wanted to write this short appreciation of PLANES TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES, John Hughes' Thanksgiving comedy masterpiece. Whatever essence and indescribable whatsit that made John Hughes, John Hughes is on full display here. Hilarious, heartbreaking, heart on its sleeve, this comedy tells the torturous tale of travel of Ad exec Neal Page (played by Steve Martin in one of his greatest roles with a surprisingly subtle mix of peevishness and exhaustion) as he struggles to get home to his Chicago family from a New York Ad pitch meeting for Thanksgiving dinner. Along the way he meets shower curtain ring salesman Del Griffith (played with a heartbreaking mix of broad comedy and pathos by John Candy in what is probably his career best performance). And in some kind of karmic twist from above, the two find themselves continuously running into each other until they are forced to join forces to road trip it back to Chicago. Like all Hughes' best comedies, the movie is a series of hilarious set pieces. The story, though totally solid, is more jazz riff around an accepted structure than chesslike plot. Of course, possibly better than he achieved in any other work, even Cameron's decision to confront his father in FERRIS, Hughes pulls the rug out from under us in the final ten minutes so we land firmly in emotional reckoning territory. But the reveal here and resolution somehow manage to be genuinely grounded in the difficulty of life AND uplifting. And the decisions made here are so inspiring, Hughes, Candy, Martin get at the heart of Thanksgiving, America, togetherness beyond any Cinefile's wildest hopes.

Written by Craig Hammill, Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer