Written And Directed by John Hughes
Andrew: "We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all."
If you've watched any teen drama in the last thirty years, chances are you'll have seen a homage or reference to this specific film. I've only watched it once a long time ago and sought it out last night to remind myself. My god, what a film.
It's so gloriously simple. Five very different teenagers spending a Saturday in detention. It's so simple but so effective and so brilliant to see play out. Now let's look at the teenagers in question, shall we?
There's the popular Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald), wrestling champ Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez), delinquent John Bender (Judd Nelson), brainiac Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall) and compulsive liar, Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy). All of them being badly supervised by vice principal, Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason).
As a group, they mostly clashed and antagonised one another. In particular, John absolutely enjoyed getting a rise out of both Andrew and Claire and was pretty scornful of Brian's healthy choice in lunch. John was also the target of scorn for Vernon. The latter seemed to enjoy being an absolute bastard towards John, purely just because he could.
There's at least one scene where Vernon did give some context for his behaviour. Much as I disliked the guy, his conversation with janitor, Carl (John Kapelos) revealed a very real fear about the next generation. It at least gave some context behind his attitude towards the teens in this film.
Getting back to the teenagers, in between all the sniping, discussions of virginity, family life and flirting, all of these characters were full fleshed out. We learned so much about them and saw a bond form between them. A few different ones actually.
- There was a plan for a sequel that never came to pass. I'm glad this was a one and done tbh.
- John Hughes has an uncredited cameo as Brian's father.
- Standout music: Simple Minds Don't You (Forget About Me).
- Chronology: Took place on March 24th 1984, which was a Saturday in Illinois.
The Breakfast Club is the perfect teen movie, regardless of when you were born. It's as relatable now as it was upon it's initial release and all five teenagers are brilliantly fleshed out as characters. It's an incredible movie.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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