One of my favorite movies of all time and one that always makes me smile is The Breakfast Club. Some, including myself, call it the “quintessential 1980s film”. In February 1985, The Breakfast Club debuted at #3 at the box office grossing $46M domestically and $52M worldwide, making the film is a box office success, given its alleged $1 million budget.
The Breakfast Club is a 1985 American coming of age comedy drama film written and directed by John Hughes and starring Judd Nelson, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, John Kapelos, Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy. The media referred to the film’s five main actors as members of a group called the “Brat Pack”
The main theme of the film is teenage rebellion against authority figures with a sub theme of stereotyping. Initially it seems the students have little in common with each other although they eventually bond over a common disdain for their parents and authority in general. With regard to stereotyping, toward the end of the film the characters empathize with each other’s struggles, dismiss some of the inaccuracies of their first impressions, and discover that they are more similar than different.
What is The Breakfast Club about? The story follows five teenagers with each belonging to a different high school clique who together spend a Saturday in detention for various things they did during the previous week and come to realize that they are all more than their respective stereotypes. On March 24, 1984, the five students — “criminal” John Bender, “athlete” Andrew Clark, “brain” Brian Johnson, “basket case” Allison Reynolds, and “princess” Claire Standish — report for Saturday morning detention at Shermer High School in the Chicago suburb of Shermer, Illinois. While not complete strangers, each of them comes from a different clique, and they seem to have nothing in common. They gather in the high school library where they are instructed by the assistant principal, Richard Vernon, not to speak, move from their seats, or sleep for a period of eight hours, fifty-four minutes, until they are free to leave at 4 PM. He assigns a 1,000-word essay to the students in which each must write about who he or she thinks he or she is. He then leaves, returning only occasionally to check on them. Bender, who has a particularly antagonistic relationship with Vernon, ignores the rules and frequently riles up the other students, teasing Brian and Andrew and harassing Claire. Allison is initially quiet except for the occasional random outburst.
The students pass the hours talking and creating various adventures gradually opening up to each other and reveal things about their personal lives: Allison is a compulsive liar, Andrew hates his overbearing father, John comes from an abusive household, Brian has contemplated suicide due to a bad grade, and Claire is a virgin. They discover that they all have strained relationships with their parents and fear making the same mistakes as the adults around them. However, despite these developing friendships, the students are afraid that once the detention is over, they will return to their very different cliques and never speak to each other again.
Near the end of the day, the other students ask Brian (the brain) to write the essay that Vernon earlier assigned. Brian writes the essay but instead of writing about the assigned topic, he writes a letter objecting to Vernon’s request to describe who they are, stating that the man has already judged who they are (an athlete, a basket case, a princess, a brain, and a criminal), and that he will not accept any different accounts from them. Brian finishes the essay and leaves it at the table for Vernon to read after they leave. Before the students part ways outside the school, Allison and Andrew kiss, as do Claire and John. Brian then finishes the narration of his essay by signing it as “The Breakfast Club” as the movie ends with John raising his fist up in triumph as he leaves for home.
Filming took place at Maine North High School in Des Plaines, Illinois, which had closed in 1981. (The school, not the city.) The school building was later used for some of the scenes in John Hughes’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which was released one year after The Breakfast Club. At the end of The Breakfast Club, John Bender walks through Glenbrook North High School’s football field, which is also where some of the outside shots of Ferris Bueller were filmed.
There is something about this movie. Maybe that it came out when I was in high school and could relate to all the characters? I dunno. But whatever it is, The Breakfast Club always makes me smile.
What is your favorite scene from The Breakfast Club and which character can you relate with most? Let me know in the comments. Would love to hear from you.