The Breakfast Club – John Hughes

“Screws fall out all the time, the world is an imperfect place.”

John Bender – Judd Nelson

The Breakfast Club is a pop culture classic. It features five young teenagers in a Saturday detention who have absolutely nothing in common, but slowly bond as the film progresses. There’s a bizarre glass smash animation at the start that reveals the only set in the film – the school. There’s an odd marijuana smoking scene where four out the five kids get high in the detention room. There’s a Scooby-Doo-esque hallway chase scene where the kids follow the Principal (Paul Gleason) around the hallways but don’t ever quite run into him. Mashed in with all of these, are emotional heart-to-hearts, constant bickering, and some classic stereotypes. The whole film takes place in one school, which is a nice simple setting, although I was glad the run time barely scrapped an hour and half. Ultimately, not a huge amount happens throughout. Again, nice and simple but a little dull in parts as, where you lose out in set/location changes, travel, and character introductions/development (there are only fourteen credited roles), you make up in dialogue. The acting is ok, some nice emotion from all the key characters (the kids and the principal) and all have some great ’80s outfits. The soundtrack is good, with some great use of ’80s music. The production design is relatively obsolete, as it all takes part in a school- it is effective nonetheless. It’s a bit of a slow burner, but The Breakfast Club has its place in the world of film, and is one of the most successful high school films ever made.

It’s actually a bit of a tricky film to talk about. Did I love it? No. Did I Hate it? No. Yes I enjoyed it for the most part, but was my interest peaked for the entire 90 minutes? Definitely not. It’s just a bit dull and slow for my liking. Not much happens and for a film that is quite so dialogue heavy, I feel it needs a bit of visual supplement to keep it moving. Essentially, the film spends the first hour showing five miscreants in Saturday detention, who share only the fact they’ve rebelled and been put in detention, not getting along, and half an hour having them bond, express their guilt, and come out a changed person. Fine, nothing wrong here. Just, not that interesting. I stress that this is literally a personal taste, I have many friends who love it, and there are definitely bits I liked. Each kid embodies a different high school stereotype – you have Andrew Clark the Jock (Emilio Estevez), Brian Johnson the nerd (Anthony Michael Hall, Claire Standish the prom queen (Molly Ringwald), John Bender the criminal/loner/bully (Judd Nelson), and Allison Reynolds the basket case (Ally Sheedy). I like this element and adds a real sense of nostalgia and inclusiveness (it would have mighty dull if they were all criminals, for example). There are one or two nostalgic product placements too, such as the Coca-Cola cans they all drink at lunch. Bender (Judd Nelson) is generally quite an interesting character, and he has some amusing spats with the Principal. The others play their parts well but Bender is definitely the better of the five. He also has the most interesting character arc, filling the classic juvenile to relatively nice guy development. The score is the better bit of the film. It has some great ’80s beats and is a very good standalone soundtrack. 

My best description for this film, is a background film. I would happily have this on while I do something else, like cooking or playing a simple, not fully attention grabbing card game with mates. I would struggle to sit down and make an evening of watching it. On a second watch, it’s less interesting, which isn’t a great deal surprising as not much happens and the point of the film is to learn about each story and watch them develop – second time round sort of kills this interest. I was certainly glad it didn’t drag on past 90 minutes like the original planned two and half hours…

All in all, The Breakfast Club is a solid film. It’s made a mark in pop culture and is the sort of film everyone has seen at least once in their lifetime. If you haven’t seen it you definitely should. Is it a favourite film? No, but I have watched it a couple of times so rewatchability is not a big issue. Actually when it comes to rewatching, it’s a great with friends who haven’t seen it before. I understand the lack of awards attributed to this movie, but it’s one add to the list of classics.

Awards
N/A

Ratings
Cinematography – 7/10
Storyline – 6/10
Editing – 6/10
Sound/Score – 8/10
Acting – 6/10
Overall – 6.5/10