Sixteen Candles :: Film Analysis

The 1986 film â€Å"Sixteen Candles† tells a timeless tale of growing up in suburban America. The film’s star, Sam, played by Molly Ringwald, wakes up with big expectations on her sweet sixteenth birthday only to be completely disappointed. Not only does she find that she looks exactly the same as when she was fifteen, but her family is so preoccupied with her older sister’s wedding that they forget her birthday altogether.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The film opens with Sam on the phone with her best girlfriend Randy. She is examining herself in her full length mirror and is totally horrified to find that her body didn’t’ magically transform overnight. She was hoping to wake up with a body just like Caroline’s. Caroline is the head cheerleader, prom queen, and girlfriend of the most popular boy in school, Jake Ryan. Sam is hopelessly â€Å"in love† with Jake and is convinced that he won’t know she exists until she is more developed, more mature, more like Caroline. Little does she know, Jake does notice her. He is intrigued by a certain mispassed note containing some very personal information about Sam’s sex life (or lack of one). In this note, Sam confesses that she is a virgin (she has never done â€Å"it†) and is saving herself not for marriage, but for Jake Ryan. Jake finds himself wanting to get to know Sam and wanting a real relationship with someone like her, rather than with someone like Caroline. He knows Caroline doesn’t love him, and he doesn’t love her either. The only real reason they’re together is because he’s the most popular boy at school and she’s the most popular girl. Throughout the movie, Sam is preoccupied with becoming more like Caroline, while the real reason Jake is interested in her is because she is not like Caroline. By the end of the movie Sam learns a valuable lesson about being her own person and even gets the guy along the way.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This film contains some classic examples of the kinds of real life issues adolescents deal with. Issues such as popularity, peer relationships, family/sibling relationships, sex, and struggles with identity are all addressed in this ninety-minute film.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sam’s high school is like any stereotypical high school with it’s various social crowds. The popular crowd in this movie is composed of mostly jocks and cheerleaders. These adolescents seem to be the most physically attractive and have the wealthiest parents.