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 1985 R / Comedy Drama Directed by: Starring: |
- They only met once, but it changed their lives forever.
Summary Capsule
- Five high school kids -- the jock, the jerk, the princess, the nerd, the weirdo -- get locked in Saturday morning detention for the purpose of gabbing and destroying large amounts of property.
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Andie's Review: Okay, The Breakfast Club is movie that takes five stereotyped teenagers and forces them to hang out together for an entire Saturday. While some of this movie was fairly predictable, like the Princess (Molly Ringwald)/Criminal (Judd Nelson) attraction, and some of it was fairly farfetched, like the basket case girl (Ally Sheedy) puts on some make up and *PRESTO* the jock (Emilio Estevez) thinks she's hot, it was a good movie. It really does make you think, especially if you're in junior high at the time you see it, because stereotypes like this abound in junior high.
Clare's Rating: Makes me wanna run out and pursue a career in the custodial arts.
Clare's Review: Since I can review this movie without actually having to watch it again (since I've seen it maybe a billion times) I figured I'd throw my views into the mix. I don't see movies a billion times unless they speak to some very deep, personal part of my existence here on Earth (other movies I've seen a billion times include Say Anything, East of Eden {James Dean, 1954}, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Princess Bride and Good Will Hunting).
I've actually memorized large parts of this script and can annoy my friends by doing all the lines with the actors while they're saying them. One of the first times I realized that I would marry the man who is now my husband was when I found out he loved this movie as much as I do.
Being named Clare has forced me, because of this movie, to learn how to apply lipstick with no hands just to shut people up when they ask if I can. And Clare is NOT a fat girl's name.
Also, for the record, my favorite characters in the film are John Bender (Judd Nelson) and Allison (Ally Sheedy). Judd Nelson is flawless in this movie and absolutely embodies the complexities of his character. Tough to protect himself from harm, sarcastic and mean to open people's eyes to their BS and deep down, hurting, lonely and damaged. I want to wrap him up, take him home and tell him it's all gonna be ok. Allison is who I became in high school for better or worse and the only problem I had with her in this movie is the cop out cheap assed "make over" she gets to become more attractive to Andrew the jock (since all a girl really needs is a cute boy to pay her a little attention and all her problems just magically disappear - blechk!!!!)
Here's my one problem with this, and every other John Hughes movie ever made: everywhere you look it's a white suburban nightmare. The only times I've seen any characters of "color" in his films is if they're stealing people's cars (Ferris Bueller) or are hilarious foreigners used for comic relief (Sixteen Candles). One movie with no diversity is one thing. John Hughes apparently has a thing about white folks being the only people interesting enough to take seriously in any of his stories. It may be seen as a small problem by some, but it's a problem that really cheapens how much I enjoy his work.
Here's the movie in one very simple little sentence: But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question?
Kyle's Rating: These are the days I will never recall
Kyle's Review: I was about six years old when The Breakfast Club was released, so obviously it didn’t hold much relevance to me in my crayon-eating period (I was a late bloomer, and I still love to eat crayons). I believe I knew of the film because my mom liked a bunch of Molly Ringwald movies and I’m pretty sure this was one in the rotation. But still, to this day I admire the movie but I don’t like it. Maybe I’m too aloof, sheltered, and non-confrontational. Maybe I pay my analyst too much money.
Justin's Rating: That's SIX thumbs up! Okay mister, you asked for it... SEVEN! EIGHT thumbs up, you done yet?
Justin's Review: Unless you’re one of those people who simply never watch a movie more than once, ever — and probably don’t understand why someone could re-read a favorite novel again and again — you most likely have your own "movie history" with more than one film. I’m talking about a movie that’s been with you for a long period in your life, that shares part of your own life experiences in some way, a movie that’s meant different things to you at different times.
My early take on TBC (which sounds like a home shopping network or something) was that I cared for it as much as I cared for plain vanilla ice cream when you had a whole bar of strawberry in the neopolitan box. Quick fact: Neopolitan ice cream originated from Naples, Italy! Woo hoo for Italians! We might suck at world wars, but our desserts are to die for. Anywhodiddle, as I was saying about TBC, every time I watched it, it just left a blah feeling somewhere between my shoulders, causing me to shrug in apathy, and then I’d pop in Ferris Bueller for the "better" John Hughes teen flick.
The thing was, for how much I used to never really warm up to TBC, I watched it pretty regularly. Even I thought that was weird, me, a guy who thinks nothing of buying two jugs of half gallon milk for more than the price of one full gallon, simply because I don’t like opening that much milk at a time. What I didn’t realize then was how masterful TBC could be at being a highly rewatchable comfort film.
When you look at it, Breakfast Club is nothing more than a (mostly) one-set play, with six major characters, who do nothing more than ride out detention on one Saturday morning with a variety of conversations and strange activities. Five school kids — a tough guy, a jock, a nerd, a weirdo, and a princess — from the diverse cliques that seem to have always existed at high schools become unwilling participants in a grand social experiment. Do teens from such different cliques have anything in common? Who are they, really, when their exterior image (friends, activities) are stripped away to leave the vulnerable people that they are?
At times, TBC is quirkily funny — Anthony Michael Hall pretending to be a walrus never fails to crack me up — but can also easily swing into tough, depressing issues. Issues like child abuse, sex as a social status, doing horrible things to fit in, feeling under pressure by friends and family… issues that, surprise surprise, are still highly relevant in any teen's life today. By the end of the film, none of the characters have really come to any major conclusions about these topics or really change how things are at their school, yet they do realize a few new things about themselves and each other which give the audience hope for a positive change of some sort.
Truckloads of words, many of them useless fillers like "uh" and "so forth", have been dumped out on The Breakfast Club. It’s a perennial favorite of so many people, not just 80’s children, but of older and newer generations as well. The themes, the masterful art of the teen flick that John Hughes achieved in this time period, and the intimacy in which you get to know each of these five teens are what make TBC a movie that grows on you, as it did on me. Hey, it’s the only R-rated movie poster that I’ve hung in my church office, but I think it’s a great addition to any youth pastor’s office: to remind me that we are all, in our own ways, made up of parts of each of these characters.
 Gravity sucks. Totally.
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- The license plate on Brian's father's car is EMC 2. Director Hughes used personalized license plates in Ferris Bueller's Day Off as well
- John Hughes is Brian's father, who picks him up at the end of the film.
- In the beginning of the movie you see different shots of the school hallways and classrooms, you can see what the flare gun did to Brian's locker. Also there is a picture of a former Shermer High School student "Man of the Year." The guy in the picture is the janitor.
- Most teenage movies that John Hughes has written are also take place in Shermer Illinois and involve a Shermer High School. Weird Science, written by Hughes and also starring Anthony Michael Hall, also takes place in Shermer.
- The license plate on Brian's father's car is EMC 2.
Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits?
Nope.
Intermission! [some sources: IMDb]
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The joke that Bender tells but never finishes (while crawling through the ceiling) actually has no punchline. According to Judd Nelson, he ad-libbed the line. Originally, he was supposed to tell a joke that would end when he came back into the library and said, "Forgot my pencil", but no one could come up with a joke for that punchline.
Judd Nelson made up many of the terms used in the movie including "Neo-Maxi-Zoom-Dweebie"
The original running time of "The Breakfast Club" was about two and a half hours. Thinking the film would not be a hit, Universal Pictures trimmed the running time down to the modern 97 minute version. The studio then destroyed the negatives of the deleted scenes. John Hughes said in a "Premiere" magazine article that he has the only complete copy.
The library in which this movie takes place was actually constructed in the gymnasium of a high school that had closed down several years before filming began. As of 2000, the school is a police station.
Emilio Estevez was originally going to play Bender, but Hughes couldn't find someone to play Andrew Clark so Emilio agreed to play Clark. Ally Sheedy was originally cast as Claire. Anthony Michael Hall's mother and younger sister play his character Brian's mother and sister in the movie.
Director John Hughes insisted that the entire cast and crew eat their meals on location in the Maine North High School cafeteria.
Groovy Quotes
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Claire: I'm not fat.
John: Well, not at present, but I can see you're really pushing maximum density.
Andrew: If I lose my temper you're totalled, man.
John: Totally?
Andrew: Totally.
John: Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?
John: Brian, this is a very nutritious lunch. All the food groups are represented. Did your mom marry Mr. Rogers?
Brian: Uh, no. Mr. Johnson.
John (to Andrew): I wanna be just like you.. I figure all I need is a lobotomy and some tights!
John: How come Andrew gets to get up? If he gets up, we'll all get up! It'll be anarchy!
Mr. Vernon: What was that ruckus?
Andrew: Uhhhhh, what ruckus?
Mr. Vernon: I was just in my office and I heard a ruckus!
Brian: Could you discribe the ruckus sir?
Bender: But face it. You're a neo maxi zoom dweebie, what would you be doing if you weren't out making yourself a better citizen?
Andrew: Speak for yourself.
Bender: Do you think I'd speak for you? I don't even know your language.
[The "Unfinished Joke"]
Bender: Naked blonde walks into a bar with a poodle under one arm, and a two-foot salami under the other. The bartender says, I guess you won't be needing a drink. Naked lady says-- [The ceiling gives way.]
Andrew: What do you need a fake I.D. for?
Brian: So I can vote!
Brian: Dear Mr. Vernon: We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it is we did wrong, but we think you're crazy for making us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club.
Allison: When you grow up, your heart dies.
Soundtrack Review
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The most famous song from this soundtrack is "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds. This song was perhaps played at more high school proms during the 80's than any other.
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This review page was last updated on 6.20.05
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