The Breakfast Club (1985)

Directed by John Hughes

Released February 15th, 1985

Written by John Hughes

Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB

"Five high school students meet in Saturday detention and discover how they have a lot more in common than they thought."

How do I even begin to talk about and describe one of my favorite movies of all time? I guess the first order of business is to explain what I mentioned in one of my previous blogs: that The Breakfast Club is much different and better than Fast Times at Ridgemont High, even though they are about similar things. 

I guess the first point I will make is the casting, since I thought that was the biggest problem in Fast Times. In The Breakfast Club you have the genius that is the "Brat Pack.". Emilio Estevez (Andy), Anthony Michael Hall (Brian), Judd Nelson (Bender), Molly Ringwald (Claire), and Ally Sheedy (Allison). These actors where the stars of the movie industry at the time, they all had something special about them. Which is why their movies were so successful. Not only that, but this is one of the true High School movies that actually feels like it is telling the truth. The stress of clicks and how being placed in those stereotypes don't always illustrate who you are as a person. "...in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions" this movie will outlive all the people in the movie. It is a classic and timeless. That is the easiest way I can prove that this is better than Fast Times, most people haven't even heard of it and yet everyone knows The Breakfast Club.

Fun fact, though, Judd Nelson almost got thrown out of this movie. Turns out, he was staying in character even when they weren't filming, so he and John Hughes would get into arguments. Clearly, Hughes kept Nelson, but after this movie their relationship was strained. Which is sad because imagine what other genius movies they could have made if it wasn't for their falling out.

Now that, that is out of the way, let's talk about some logistics here. First of all, nine hours of detention on a Saturday!? Is that even legal? I know back at my high school you got a two hour detention on a Saturday. During the week you are not even at school that long (7:55am-3:15pm was my school hours). Maybe back in the 80s you could get away with that, but just try that now and you will have many parents to deal with.

On that topic, since Mr. Vernon clearly knows why everyone is in detention, why doesn't he say anything about Allison being there? Later in the movie she claims that she had nothing better to do than to come to Saturday detention, she didn't get in trouble. So why doesn't Mr.Vernon say anything or ask her why she is there? He clearly knows why everyone else is there. I know this is a minor continuity error, but it bothers me every time!

Breakfast Club? I don't get the title. I have never understood the title. If anything, this should be called The Lunch Club because that is the only meal they eat together. They don't eat breakfast, they don't even talk about it at all in the movie! So why!?

Something else that also bothers me is the lunch scene itself. Before I get into that, I want to say this scene does also crack me up. Seeing how everyone eats. Claire with her sushi, Andy eating everything in his house probably, Brian's "standard regular lunch," Allison's umm... sugar rush, and of course Bender not eating anything. 

The thing that bothers me though is the sound foley. Now what that means is when movies go back in post-production and puts in sound effects and noises in afterwards. If you watch this scene many of the sounds are too loud or the timing of them is slightly off compared to the actions that the characters are making. Now this is a very technical thing, but I notice it because I have seen this movie too many times to count and I have started picking up on things like that. Watch for yourself and see if you notice how the sounds are not exactly matching up.

Something that I want to commend John Hughes on is the art of filming in one room. This movie is probably one of the most well-known movies to be filmed in a single room. Yes, they do leave the room and go into the hallway and Bender along with Mr. Vernon are in other rooms, but for the majority of the movie they are all in the library. Some other movies in this category are Reservoir Dogs, Saw, 12 Angry Men, and Rear Window. Shooting in one room comes with a whole set of challenges, not just in terms of filming, but also in terms of the story. You need to keep your audience entertainment more by the dialogue and the characters because you don't have elaborate scene changes or special effects to use when you are in one place. Your characters also can't go anywhere, so they are forced to talk to each other.

Maybe that is the biggest reason this movie is so relatable and it is still considered a classic. The dialogue and characters keep you engaged without dating the film too much in terms of pop culture references. The best representation of this is when they have their "therapy" session in the back of the library. Something that I find so interesting about this is that this scene wasn't scripted at all. John Hughes told the characters to talk and say why they think their characters were stuck in detention. Which is pretty amazing because the things Brian and Claire say are spot on and realistic for their characters. It is also the most serious and authentic part of the movie.

Speaking of unscripted, let's talk about this iconic ending for a moment. The one where Bender throws his fist into the air. Yeah, that was unscripted too! Hughes told Judd Nelson to fool around with things at the end and during one of the last takes he threw his fist in the air as a sign of defiance and everyone loved it! 

Seems like most of the genius that is John Hughes comes from him putting his trust in his actors. Giving them a direction and going with whatever feeling or actions they think their characters would do. Which gives his films a more natural and easiness to them when actors are simply just acting as their characters would instead of trying to make their characters act a certain way. I am not sure if that makes sense, but hopefully it does.

Now I feel like there is no better way to end this blog than with the iconic final scene. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed. 

Sincerely yours, Kristina

Bender: "Hey, how come Andrew gets to get up? If he gets up, we'll all get up, it'll be anarchy."