One of my favourite films of all time is the Breakfast Club. Any film directed by John Hughes is genius in my books – Weird Science, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles, Uncle Buck, Home Alone – I could go on and on.
The Breakfast Club is pretty much the messiah of teen movies and blows modern films like Mean Girls and Clueless out of the water – in my opinion anyway.
With a basic plot that revolves around a group of five teens attending a Saturday detention in a high school library, the Breakfast Club brings together a collection of 80s ‘Brat Pack’ icons including Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Emilio Estevez and Ally Sheedy.
The film revolves around five high school students who all fall into cliché stereotypes of American High Schools. There’s the Jock – Andy (Estevez), the Nerd – Brian (Hall), the Popular Girl – Claire (Ringwald), the Rebel – Bender (Nelson) and the Loner – Allison (Sheedy).
After being given an assignment by overbearing teacher Mr Vernon, the five students are asked to write an essay on ‘who you think you are’. The film revolves around the five characters having pre-judged misconceptions about each individual, for example, each character sees Claire as a popular spoilt girl when in reality she just wants to feel ‘wanted’ by her parents.
We also witness each of the characters write Bender off as a rebel, liar and waste of space which leads up to one of the most emotional scenes in the whole film where Bender reveals the darkness of his home life to the other characters, to which Andy replies ‘That’s bullshit. It’s all part of your image, I don’t believe a word of it’. Bender then displays the level of abuse he receives at home from his father by showing the cigar burn etched into his skin caused by knocking a can of paint over – causing the other characters to finally feel pity for Bender instead of judging him.
With a roller coaster of different discussions throughout the course of the movie which shows us and the characters deeper insights into each of their lives, it becomes clearer and clearer how much each person has in common – each of them are facing the struggles and life challenges that comes with being a teenager – the angst, emotions, the ups and downs, the pressure and the drama – not one individual is exempt from it – even if they do experience it a different way.
The film comes to a close with detention finishing and leaves the audience with an insight into each character’s future. Despite their differences and conflict of lifestyles displayed continuously throughout the film, the audience is left with the impression that Andy and Allison and Bender and Claire have both respectively moving towards love at the end of the film – the most surprising being Bender and Claire as they represent the biggest clash of stereotypes in the film. However the film ends with Claire taking out her diamond earring and placing it into Bender’s hand before kissing him followed by the iconic scene of Bender walking across the school’s football field with only the voice over of Anthony Michael Hall reading out the group’s joint essay to Mr Vernon.
“We think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us… In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain… an athlete… a basket 
case… a princess… and a criminal… Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club”.
Bender then thrusts his fist into the air followed by Simple Mind’s – Don’t You (Forget about Me) closing the film.
The Breakfast Club set the standard for all high school movies that followed – something that in my opinion can never be outdone and it will forever be one of my favourite movies of all time.
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