John Hughes made a name for himself by making movies about teenagers that were hugely successful and entertaining. I have seen and enjoyed many of them over the years. I just watched The Breakfast Club again.
Five different students arrived one Saturday morning to serve detention. Claire was the popular girl. Andy was the star wrestler. Brian was very smart and obsessed with his grades. Allison was a loner and a bit weird. John Bender was always getting in trouble. The only thing they all had in common was that they didn't like Principal Richard Vernon. He was sort of supervising the detention and kept going after Bender. The five had many disagreements throughout the day but discovered that they had more in common than they thought.
I felt like the plot of The Breakfast Club was fairly straightforward without anything too complicated going on. The entire movie took place during the time the students spent in detention. They were there for the whole day, which did allow for several things to happen. As the movie progressed and more things were shared about each of the students, a little bit of depth was added to what was going on. The movie was fairly predictable overall, though one thing that came out did surprise me a bit.
The Breakfast Club was made in 1985, but certain things about it still seem to be relevant. It was several years after the movie came out before I was in high school, but the cliques were still very much there. In fact, the one with the popular kids - who would have been in Claire’s group - even started in grade school and carried all the way through high school. Many of the popular ones were also the smarter ones, and some were also good athletes. That sort of blending of the cliques was not present in the movie, which did hurt the believability just a bit. It was accurate, at least from when I was in school, that the popular ones did tend to look down on anyone not in their special group. It did feel like some of the stereotypes were a bit exaggerated in the movie.
There was some humor in The Breakfast Club in a few scenes, but I really didn’t think of it as a comedy. The movie was still entertaining even though I really didn’t think it was that humorous overall. I think most of what made me laugh was some of the odd or even bizarre things that Allison said or did. She was very odd. All of the characters said or did a few things that were funny. A few of the things said or done for humor might upset or bother some viewers.
Even though the main characters of The Breakfast Club were teenagers, the movie really wasn’t family friendly. John used a lot of profanity throughout the movie, including many versions of the word that rhymes with luck. A few of the other characters also used that type of language, but none were as bad as Bender. There were several sexual discussions, some of which did get more graphic than others. All of the students ended up smoking pot at one point as well. The drug use was handled in a light manner, which might bother some.
There was a lot of hostility between the characters for much of the movie, mostly because Bender kept saying or doing things to annoy the others. He seemed to enjoy focusing in on one person and picking until they blew up. There was a lot of arguing and yelling going on between the students. That did get a little old for me, though the disagreements did work for the characters. That was why it wasn’t as believable that they went from basically hating each other and fighting to acting like best friends by the end of their time in detention. The movie did just follow the one day with them, so there is no way to know if they actually remained friends after that or not.
The characters were all somewhat interesting, with some being more likable than others. Most of them showed off some bad points or did things that irritated me. Claire did have a bit of a pity party for herself at one point that annoyed me a bit. All of the characters had different issues they were trying to deal with, some a bit more serious than others. They all went through some changes by the end of the movie. I thought that Claire and Andy were friends before because of a few things that were said, but I might be wrong about that. Brian was very smart and obsessed with getting good grades. Allison kept to herself for a while and then said things that made her seem even weirder. John acted like a tough guy who didn’t care about anything. There was more depth to him than there appeared to be at first.
Richard Vernon was the principal who had a chip on his shoulder. He didn’t care about the students and just seemed to be putting in his time until he could get a different position, probably in administration. He was a huge jerk and not likable in any way. Paul Gleason fit the role well. Carl, the janitor, turned up in a few scenes as well. All of the cast was good, though only Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall were actually high school age when the movie was made. The others were over twenty, with Judd Nelson being the oldest.
Main Cast
Emilio Estevez - Andy Paul Gleason - Principal Vernon Anthony Michael Hall - Brian John Kapelos - Carl the janitor Judd Nelson - John Bender Molly Ringwald - Claire Ally Sheedy - Allison
John Hughes - Director
The Breakfast Club is available on DVD, but since I haven’t seen that version of the movie, I have no clue what type of extras might be included. It was on one of the HBO channels when I watched it again. An edited version of the movie turns up on different channels every so often.
The Breakfast Club is an entertaining movie that is worth seeing. Fans of the cast or other movies that John Hughes made may like it.
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