The Breakfast Club , the prototypical 80’s high school film, opens with a scene depicting the 5 main characters arriving at Shermer High School for their Saturday detention, while also give the audience a glimpse into their home lives. In the background, the strains of “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” can heard. As the plot progresses, this song will seem especially relevant to the events and characters of the film. Breakfast Club deals with such diverse themes as: identity, rebellion, and the fear of adulthood. John Hughes directed the film, and the leads are: Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, and Anthony Michael Hall.
The film’s plot is simple, but fairly deep considering the subject matter. 5 students are serving an all-day detention due to committing various offenses during the previous week. Each student has been pigeonholed into a clique by the people in their lives: The Jock, The Brain, The Princess, etc. The students cannot see beyond these divisions, and so start off the film mildly antagonistic towards each other. After being assigned an essay on ‘Who they are’ by the principal, who mocks the students and brags about his authority, the kids blow off the essay, and instead spend the day talking, arguing, dancing, and getting to know each other. As a result, they find that they have a lot more in common than they thought, developing friendships and romances, but with the knowledge that come Monday, they’ll have to act as society expects towards each other. The movie concludes with a group essay being read over shots of the kids leaving detention, in which the kids conclude that “what we found out is that each of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, and a criminal. Does that answer your question?”
I love this movie, there’s no two ways about it. The fact that pretty much any teen high school movie has elements of Breakfast Club in it makes this movie the film equivalent of Mitochondrial Eve. Teens being better/smarter than the adults they deal with in their everyday lives, the shared experience of high school, and the way society sorts people into groups are themes that occur in pretty much any film set in a high school these days. The fact that this film is set in the 1980’s is the cherry on top, since this was a point in history where being a Teen was becoming an entrenched part of popular culture unlike any time before, with the additional caveat that the advancing technology helped to establish a shared teen culture, as well as designate those who were ‘cool’ and uncool. Being able to watch MTV? Cool as all get out. Knowing COBOL by heart? Get in the locker, Poindexter. It helps that I first saw Breakfast Club while I was in high school, because it really made the film resonate for me. The film’s timelessness and clever discussion of its themes really cement its status as THE teen movie. Sitting down to watch will remind you just how much high school rocked/sucked, may make you want to break curfew again just for the hell of it. The Breakfast Club definitely earns its place as a classic film, since it bleeds 80’s from every single pore.
Who would have thought that the John Hughes classic The Breakfast Club would still be Hollywood’s best attempt at understanding and then destroying stereotypes? Most of Hollywood’s forays into this realm are nauseatingly patronizing and unrealistic. However, a teen movie out of the alleged “Decade of Greed” successfully shows us what it is like to be different and, at the same time, how we are the same.
The Breakfast Club is a collection of high school students who attend a Saturday detention for each of their indiscretions. The movie introduces us to the characters as the stereotypes that each student considers the other: the Nerd (Hall), the Beauty (Ringwald), the Jock (Estevez), the Rebel (Nelson), and the recluse (Sheedy). Also, we are introduced to another stereotype; the mean overbearing teacher. Paul Gleason (the KING of all character actors) is Mr. Vernon, the teacher in charge of Saturday detention.
While in detention, Mr. Vernon gives them a simple assignment. They must write an essay about “who you think you are.” Each person has a good idea of what the other is. Yet, through several discussions and arguments, they learn that they have more similarities than at first sight. The Rebel, John Bender, initially focuses his anger at Andrew the Jock and Claire the Beauty. His outward hatred towards their “good life” masks his hurt about his own life. In reality, Claire just wishes her parents gave a damn about her, and Andrew wishes he had the guts to stand up to his overbearing father. All three seem to think Brian the Nerd is the “perfect son” and doesn’t have the same problems. My only character complaint is that Allison the Recluse is not developed nearly as well as the other cast members. Her problems are more self-created in order try to get attention but at the same time, keep people away.
Each has his or her own problems and as insignificant as they might appear, to a teenager, they are everything. This is what this movie captures the best. If anything, the teenage years are a time of self-consciousness and angst. When we look back at it, it seems a little ridiculous. Yet, at that point in our lives, it is important. Parents don’t get it and teachers don’t get it.
The movie does an outstanding job of deconstructing the stereotypes of the kids. However, The Breakfast Club misses a chance to do the same with stereotypes about adults. Mr. Vernon is almost comical in how mean-spirited he is. The typical mean teacher who is more put off by kids than anything. During a scene with Mr. Vernon and the custodian, Carl (Kapelos), Hughes begins to get inside the character of the teacher. When he bemoans that the students have changed, Carl tells him “No, you’ve changed”. Hughes stopped there but he could have introduced humanity into Mr. Vernon several times by having him at least show a facial expression of regret for his actions. Actually, there is one brief scene. After a verbal tête-à-tête with Bender early in the movie, you see Mr. Vernon pause just for a second as he leaves the detention hall. Yet, the movie does not expound on this. I suspect that Hughes planned to develop this subplot but dropped it when he realized his target audience had zero interest in a non-stereotypical teacher.
Some critique the ending of the movie for being a little too contrived. Those people weren’t paying attention during the middle of the film. In a normal Hollywood movie, they would have all become best buddies. This movie, on the other hand, admits that come Monday, they probably won’t be friends. The biggest truth about high school is missed here. Most kids, while saying they want to be seen as more than a stereotype, will never take that risk. Come Monday, they will each return to their comfort zone rather than risk the ridicule of their “friends”. So while the ending leaves us with the idea that the Jock hooks up with the Recluse, the Rebel has found his Princess, and the Nerd, er…might have a couple of friends, we could also leave with the opposite idea. Come Monday, the Jock and the Beauty might be back with their kind, the Rebel might go back to hating everybody, and the Nerd and Recluse might still be ignored in the hallway. Yet, Hughes leaves that to us. How you feel about the ending might be due to which stereotype you most represent yourself with.
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