THE BREAKFAST CLUB
US, 1985, 92 minutes, Colour.
Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall, Paul Gleason.
Directed by John Hughes.
The Breakfast Club is a funny and serious youth movie. It has much in common with the youth trends of the mid?'80s but has far more substance. Five youngsters spend a Saturday at school detention. They don't know one another well, some really dislike others. As the day goes by they argue, hurt each other, call truces, share angers and get to understand themselves better. Under the sometimes brash American style are universal feelings of insecurity, self-doubt, parental oppression and having to meet academic and sport expectations.
The film definitely slants things for the youngsters. Briefly glimpsed parents are unsympathetic. The middle-aged teacher is soured, although the friendly janitor sees things more clearly and fairly. The film does not say everything about its topic but dramatises some adolescent viewpoints effectively.
The ensemble playing of the cast is excellent from Emilio Estevez (That Was Then, This Is Now, Repo Man), Molly Ringwald (Tempest, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink), Judd Nelson (Making the Grade, St, Elmo's Fire, Blues City), Anthony Michael Hall (Sixteen Candles, Weird Science), Ali Sheedy (War Games, Twice in a Lifetime, St. Elmo's Fire, Blues City) is excellent. John Hughes wrote several of the National Lampoon comedies as well as Mr. Mom. He directed Sixteen Candles, Weird Science and Pretty in Pink.
1. A film of the '80s? '80s youth? The tradition of the school film? The confrontation of the generations? A feel for adolescents in the '80s? Wisdom?
2. The structure of the film: one day at detention, the Saturday, the early start, the group arriving, the environment of the school, the focus on each of the characters, the interaction, leaving? The highlighting of the characters? Editing and pace for action? The voiceover with Brian's essay at beginning and end? The musical score, use of music especially for the release of tension? Credits?
3. John Hughes as a writer of satire, the series of youth movies? His skill with comedy? His serious insights?
4. The ensemble playing of the cast? Talent? Appearances, style, manner? Manifesting their interiors? A strong cast? The skill of their interaction and tension?
5. The brief glimpse of adults: the parents as they dropped their children, the intimations of relationships, expectations, lack of regard? How fair was the film to parents? The youth viewpoint?
6. Vernon and his supervision: his reasons for having the youngsters for detention, his supercilious treatment of them, authoritarian, sneering, humiliating? His attitude as different for each? The criticism of Bender? His statements of policy, his manner of supervision? His own office, accidents with the coffee, the door, filling in the day, his hostility and pursuit around the corridors, anger at Bender, taunting him to hit him, his going through the files? The encounter with Carl? Carl as fair, his criticism of the kids and their superciliousness? His discussions with Vernon, highlighting the loss of idealism, asking him had he changed or the kids? His catching Vernon with the files and blackmailing him? His final farewell?
7. The day passing: the arrival, the focus on the clock, eight hours, sitting, confined, the task of their writing an essay on themselves, going to the toilet, eating? The reasons to be revealed? Silences, sleep, fooling around, talk, eating, getting out, chasing round the corridors, talking to each other, the hurt, humiliation and anger, the pot-smoking, telling of the truth, touching their experiences? Pondering their friendship and future? An authenticity about the characters and their exchanges?
8. The school environment, the library and its use, storerooms, basketball court, the basement?
9. What had happened by the end of the film? Changes in each, their leaving? Their questions about how they would behave on Monday?
10. The focus on Andrew: his relationship with his father, the tough macho image and the expectations, his wrestling, the sports jock, his fitness, his father's demands on him? Not being able to think for himself and the others criticising him? Sitting next to Clare? Taking sides? Thinking the others were weird? His antagonism towards Bender and humiliating him? His curiosity about the others? 1nteractions? Covering for Bender about the door? His lunch and his fitness? Tough? Standing up for others? Bonds being created, joining the run round the corridors, smoking pot and letting loose, breaking out physically? Sympathetic? Not in touch with his own feelings? The eventual monologue about his humiliating of the skinny boy in the locker room, his empathy towards the boy being humiliated by his father? His own reaction to his father? Final responding to Alison? With her at the end?
11. The focus on Clare: the Prom Queen, pretty, wealthy, her arrival, her comment about her parents playing her off one against the other? Prim, belonging to the various clubs? Her reaction to the grossness of the others? Their picking on her and their threats? The focus on sexuality? Brian idly referring to her and her resentment? The reaction to Alison and her declaration of her virginity? Her accepting the others? Her health meal? Our never knowing the reasons for her detention? The clashes with Bender? Love-hate? Gradually relating, freedom? Her elegant pot-smoking and unbending? Bender's taunts? Relating to him, going out to him, kissing him? Her insight into herself, the gift of her earring?
12. Alison: in black, bedraggled, her face covered, alone, at the back of the room, biting her nails, gross behaviour, her meal? The others often watching her? Her silence, oddness? Her following the others (except for the pot-smoking)? Her gradually opening up, sympathy for Brian and Clare? Her story about the psychiatrist and sexuality, her compulsive lying story, her virginity? More considerate? Allowing herself to be made up ? the transformation, in white? The reactions? Andrew being charmed?
13. The focus on Brian: his parents and the exhortations to use the time, proper, naive, obeying all the rules, awkward mannerisms, reaching out to others and being snubbed, the joke of his name, the butt of comments? His knowing Carl? Trying to share with others, his lunch and Bender's cruelty imitating his parents? His belonging to intellectual clubs? His joining with the others, the pot-smoking and his letting loose? His questions about Monday? The story of making the elephant and his inability, his straight As and the impact of the failure? Decision to kill himself, the flare-gun and its going off in the locker? Awkward and joke? Yet his empathy, his tears? His being moved by what happened? His writing the essay for the others ? and his declaration that Vernon was seeing them not as they were but as he wanted to see them? Brian as the brain antithesis of Andrew's brawn?
14. The focus on Bender: tough, pushy, posers, his appearance, antagonism, uniting the others against him, loud towards them, towards Vernon, slouching and mocking? The imitation of Brian's parents and its cruel accuracy? His imitation of his own parents and his desperation (and Andrew's disbelief)? His challenge to the others? His displaying on the surface the angers that they felt interiorly and were not necessarily in touch with? His capacity for sensitivity? His telling the truth? The reactions, taking down the door, leading the others around the corridors, his not having any food, his saving the group from Vernon by the basketball incident, his being locked up, the irony of his escape, falling through the roof, joining in the others, the pot-smoking? His beginning to relate to others, listening to their stories? Their reaction against his relentlessness, especially towards Clare? Her appreciating him, the earring? His own social background, antagonism towards his father, poverty? The end and his defiance?
15. An interesting view of youth? Realism? Insights? Angers, family, school? The possibility of affirmation and growth?
