The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club.
1985
Written & Directed by John Hughes
Starring: Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy.
Rated: R (Language & Drug use)



I decided to start with the John Hughes classic, The Breakfast Club, since it's the last thing I watched. Now, I know that pretty much everyone has seen The Breakfast Club, but if you haven't, you really should get on that.
It does get a lot of hype, but that's only because it is the quintessential "teen" movie. In all of John Hughes' films, he shows that a "teen movie" isn't any less important or impacting than a "Grown up" movie.

The Breakfast Club was the first time a film really took a teenager's issues seriously. (Apart from Rebel Without a Cause, which is a favorite of mine) They are ignored, pressured, abused, pushed, and expected to be perfect.

I love how "real" this movie is. The way that the parent's drop off their kids and how you can glimpse their home life in those few seconds.

Ally Sheedy's makeover is a controversial part, (did she sell out?) but I really like it. I don't think that she gives up who she is, rather, she is letting Molly Ringwald be nice to her. It's a gesture of friendship. Girls give each other makeovers, it's just what we do. We don't keep the made-over look, but it's something we do with each other as friends, and afterwards, incorporate bits of other 'looks' to add to our own.

One of the things I've noticed about this movie is that every time I watch it, I notice something different. You simply have to see it, if only because it shaped so much of our pop culture. And everyone, no matter who they are, can relate to how they felt in high school as the Jock, the Princess, the Brain, the Criminal, or the Basket Case.

Some of my favorite lines/scenes in the movie are:
- "Screws fall out all the time, the world's an imperfect place."
- "I forgot my pencil"
- Bender's re-enactment of home life (Brian's and his own)
- Andrew's dance
- "Hey, how come Andrew gets to get up? If he gets up, we'll all get up, it'll be anarchy!"
- Lunch
- John Hughes' placement and use of "We are Not Alone"
- "neo maxi zoom dweebie"
- "what am I? I'm a walrus"