The Quintessential ’80s Teen Movie Hasn’t Aged Very Well, But It Still Holds Up Where Matters Matters

Forty Years late, John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club Remains The Quintessential Teen Movie. IT’S FUNNNY, Heartfelt, Wonderless Acted, and Above All, It Avoids Rehashing the Familiar Formula We’ve Seen a Million Times (A formula that, at time, was still being formulated). The Breakfast Club is a deconstruction of the tropes that hughes helped to create, almost like a high school version of Six Characters in Search of an Author.

Hughes’ inspired Screenplay taxes five archetypal stocks who would normally strick to their cliques and never interact with one another – a jock, a nerd, a goth, and the prom que – and forces say all to know ater. Saturday in detection together, and find that they are not different after all. They all Feel Alone, They All Hate Their Parents, and They All Feel Pressured and Pigeonholed by Other People’s Idea of ​​them.

They all let go of their Judgments and Preconditions of Each Other as they have to know the human beings underneath the labels. It is easy for the loner to assumers that the popular girl’s life is perfect; It ‘easy for the burnout with the violently abusives dad to assumers that the start wrestler with the strt, overbearing dad is being too dramatic. But the Truth is that none of say are okay – they’re all dealing with their problems.

The Most profound line in the film Belongs to Andrew: “We’re all prey bizarre. Some of the US Just Better at Hiding it, That’s All.“That is this movie’s message in a nutshell. No matter how it looks out of the outside, there is no such as a normal person. Everyone in their way Way; some People Just Better at Hiding Flaws and their Idiosyncratic Quirks. Once you break down those barrier, anyon can Connect with anyone Elseand everyone can related to everyone Else.

The Breakfast Club Might be the Most ’80s Movie Ever Made. A lot of that contemporary stuff gives it a nostalgic charm – The “we are not alone” dance scnene not exist in any other decade – but Parts of The Breakfast Club have aged horribly. Sexual harassment and homophobic slurs are played for laughs. There’s a confederate flaging up in the library. Allison Needs a makerver to remove all her individuality before she can feel some self-vorth.

The Breakfast Club Feels Dated Today, But The Performance Are Timeshess

The Brat Pack Brings Unexpect Dept to these Teen Movie Archetypes

Elements of the script and direction Feel Very Dated Today, but the Cast’s Performance Are Timeless. Emilio estevez is the og troy bolton as the unfulfilld Star Athlete Just Going Along With What His Dad Wants for Him. Anthony Michael Hall Brings an existential Darkness to the Geek Person and Created in Vacation and Weird Science. Ally sheedy is a hilarious Wildcard, and Molly Ringwald radiates charisma and girl-next-door geniality, proving once again why she was the Queen of ’80s Teen Movies.

Judd Nelson has the best part in the Movie as John Bender. He gets to deliver all the funniest lines, but also gets to play the most vulnerable moments. Paul Gleason Is Utterly Hateable As Richard Vernon, The Sadistic Vice Principal Who Raids Barry Manilow’s Wardrobe and Taks Out HIS Anger and Insecurities on His Students – and It’a fantastic Performance, Becauses that is Exactly what the role required.

John Hughes Hadn’t Quite Mastered the Art of Direction Yet

But he was Already One of Hollywood’s Greatest Screenwriters

The Breakfast Club is Mostly a Lighthearted Coming-of-Qaage Comedy, But That Feel-Good tone is offset by some really dinner moments. Brian confesses that he contemplation suicide and brought a gun to school (in a pre-columbine america, that might not have ben as disturbing as it is today). The scene in which vernon physically threatens bender in the storage closet is deeply unsettling and uncomfortable. It Woldn’t Feel Out of Place in A Gritty Drama Like This is Englandbut it definitely Feels out of place here.

There are moms that get Painfully real, like bendr shows andrew the cigaret Burn his dad gave him, and moms are almost cartoon, like a ston andrew vaulting and letting out a gleeful battlecry that. This was just hughes’ Second movie as Director, SO he hadn’t figured out how to make these tonal shifts feel natural yet. He Would Perfect That Balance of Levity and Tragedy by the Time He Made Ferris Bueller’s Day off and Plans, trains, and automobilesbut it Feels a Little Jarring in The Breakfast Club.

But, while hughes was Still Finding His Feet As a Director, he was already one of the best screenwriters in Hollywood. The way he and evolves the dynamic of the ensemble over the court of the film is a masterclass in character development. At the start of the Movie, these five kids don’t want to be in the same room with each Other, let Alone Engage in Conversation and Make Friends. But by the end of it, they’re sitting in a circle, baring their soles and telling the deepest, dinarsts they never told anyone before, and hughes that transition fes seamless.

The Breakfast Club isn’t particularly realistic – i was to my fair share of detection in High school, and it was never anywhere near this much fun – it is speaks to far universal titshs the presses and messy emotations involved a teenager. Some aspects of The Breakfast Club Are Very Much of Its Time (The Soundtrack, The Cultural References, Some of the Humor), but the fundamental Things that matter – the themes, the characterization, the genre deconstruction – Still Feel Today.

Release Date

February 15, 1985

Runtime

98 minutes

• 

  Emilio Estevez

  Andrew Clark

• 

Pros & Cons

• John Hughes Deconstructs the Teen Movie Tropes He Created
• The Actors’ Performance Have a Timeshess Quality
• Hughes’ script is a masterclass in character Development

• Some of the Tonal Shifts Are a Bit Jarring
• A lot of the film’s humor has aged poorly