I almost didn’t want to do this post. But I noticed that today is March 24, 2024. The Breakfast Club, a cornerstone movie in both teen angst, coming-of-age comedy/drama as well as showcasing The Brat Pack, is set on March 24, 1984 at the fictional Shermer High School in a suburb of Chicago. Five students have been subjected to a Saturday detention for a variety of discipline problems. Some of which, today, would result in a transfer to an alternative education school or even expulsion.
John Bender (Judd Nelson) is a rebellious delinquent who pulled a fire alarm. Social awkward Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall) is very smart but he brought a flare gun to school that went off in his locker. Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald) is from an affluent family and was caught skipping school. Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez) is a celebrated student athlete who bullied a student and assaulted him by taping his buttocks together which led to skin being pulled off. And Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy) is a quiet, but weird student who claims she only came in because she didn’t have anything else to do. But there’s hints that she isn’t telling the truth.
There are two school employees at the school. Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason) is the vice-principal who is a strict disciplinarian. Then there’s Carl Reed (John Kapelos) who is the custodian. A more formal picture of him is shown when he was a student there years earlier indicating that he was a star pupil at the school was intending to go on to better things. This is a far more interesting story than some of the students. Carl is friendly with Brian is initially embarrassed when he sees him. But their relationship is never expanded on.
For reasons that don’t make any sense, Vernon leaves all five in the library as he goes across the hall to his office. But why would Vernon leave the students alone in another room? I had to go to detention a few times and we were never left alone. There always was a teacher or administrator there. It seems this is bad writing on John Hughes’ part.
Also, Bender is not likeable at all. He’s a bully and a deviant. He jokes about raping Claire and then actually tries to sexually assault her and it’s played for laughs. Also, Andrew being a star wrestler would have been able to really knock Bender out. (Another thing is Andrew has an outrageously fattening lunch of sandwiches, chips and donuts. The wrestlers I went to school with ate the same lunch Bender brought – nothing. They had to maintain a weight.) Yet, we’re supposed to relate to Bender and initially hate Andrew because he’s a jock. However, Andrew stands up for Claire and even Brian.
I feel like Brian was supposed to be the main character before Hughes got fixated on Ringwald and made her character bigger. Bender and Andrew just seem like stereotypes. There was a deleted scene either written but not filmed or filmed and cut where Bender’s father drops him off near the school and more or less kicks him out throwing a bagged lunch at him which spills out on the ground. I have a theory that Bender is actually from a prominent family but his rebellious nature and his ratty clothing is a way of defying his parents.
Either way, the movie just doesn’t really look if you take away the cast and the fact that it was Hughes movie. Even growing up, I really didn’t think much of it. Yeah, it might be awesome to get underneath the skin of someone like Vernon. Now people are Vernon’s age and they probably hate seeing people like Bender around. Vernon’s seen people like Bender come and go and knows they’re all full of themselves. (Ironically, Gleason saved Nelson from getting fired as Hughes didn’t like how Nelson was badgering Ringwald and Hall. Gleason had to step in and say that Bender was “getting into character.” Later Hughes discovered Nelson wasn’t like that in real life and kept him on.)
After a lot of bickering and fighting, all five students eventually open up to each other and become more friendly. But it never seems like it’s earned. They smoke cannabis that Bender has which goes to show Hughes never did it (which is odd considering he used to work for National Lampoon), because they jam around the library and Andrew screams so loud, glass in an office room breaks. Hughes later said he regretted this. I know it was the era of “Just Say No” and “D.A.R.E.” but why make a movie R-rated if you’re still going to sugarcoat things.
In the end, Claire realizes she likes Bender as if her parents will allow them to date. Allison has to change her appearance to catch Andrew’s eye. And in the end, they stick Brian with having to write a paper they all have to turn in. First off, Vernon would make them all write their own papers. And it’s not like he’s going to not notice the broken glass or the ceiling tiles Bender falls through.
I think the problem here was Hughes was still trying to find his touch as many filmmakers sometimes do. His first directing job was Sixteen Candles less than a year before. The Breakfast Club was shot in just two months on a small budget of $1 million, even small for the mid-1980s. Many people have pointed to the late Dede Allen as editor with saving the movie during the editing process.
Maybe it was because the budget was so small, they weren’t able to do what Hughes had originally intended. Hughes was also notorious for refusing to do rewrites on his scripts when needed. The concept is good but all the teen characters never rise approve their stereotypes. We all know these characters won’t get along when they return to school the following Monday. It’s likely Andrew may not be as interested in Allison once the make-up comes off and Bender will probably still try to have sex with Claire. That makes the silly fist-bump to the sky at the end more pretentious and misleading.
What has Bender really accomplished? He has detention every Saturday for the rest of the school year. Does he think Claire is going to hold his hand in the halls or wait around for him every Saturday until he gets out to be with him? Also, by March 24, wrestling season is mostly over, which doesn’t make sense to a line of dialogue earlier in the movie where Andrew talks about a big meet coming up. Maybe he does shotput for track-and-field.
A lot of critics weren’t too favorable to the movie when it came out. Siskel and Ebert gave it Two Thumbs Up but other critics panned it. Just like Dazed and Confused, I think it only appeals to a very small section of the viewing public who lived during these times. But everyone else doesn’t see what the big deal is. I’ve even talked with people who were in high school at this time and they didn’t care for it.
What was so crazy was The Brat Pack was ending just as quickly as it began. Most of the cast of this and other movies like St. Elmo’s Fire went on to more mature movies by the end of the 1980s. I think some people are confusing nostalgia with greatness. Just because some movie came out when you’re a kid, it doesn’t mean it was great. Look at Mac and Me or Masters of the Universe. King Kong Lives, anyone?
The death of Hughes in 2009 probably added to the movie’s legacy but even he was wanting to move away from these teen movies with Planes, Trains and Automobiles and She’s Having a Baby. You can tell the difference in the American youth culture between this movie and Uncle Buck which was released four years later. And movies like Heathers almost seemed to be striking back at movies like these. So, it wasn’t exactly cherished as a lot of Gen Xers want to admit.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 