"The Breakfast Club" (1985)

Five secondary school students who would not normally seek out each other’s company have to spend a Saturday together in detention: Brian “the geek” (Anthony Michael Hall), Alison “the basket-case” (Ally Sheedy), Andy “the jock” (Emilio Estevez), John Bender “the jerk” (Judd Nelson) and Claire “the prom queen” (Molly Ringwald). Directed by John Hughes.

The film is very much revolved around the characters and the conversations they share throughout the film. The story is told almost completely through their dialogue. I’d have thought this could mean the pace would slow at times but not at all, it works really well here. In ways it allows the audience relate to the characters more, I think. There's a likability about each of them. They begin the film at each other’s throats, but eventually loosen up during a pot smoking session and realise they have more in common than they first assumed. - This is brilliance of the film really, I think: this underlining message of stereotypes. There’s such a diverse set of characters that have each been brandished off under specific stereotypes that school life has unwittingly dictated and categorised them into. As the film goes on, they all get to know the people behind the stereotypes and realise each of them experience their own kind of pressures and problems. It’s like the saying ‘you never really know what goes on behind closed doors’.  The question of whether or not things will simply go back to normal the following week is raised by Brian when he expresses that he now considers them to be his friends after this day. I’d almost kind of like a little sequel just to see what happened – just purely for curiosity sake, you know?! But having said that, I don't think such a project could add anything to something that's already a perfect version of what it is.

  

John Huges wrote the script in only a few days, but got the cast to rehearse it first as a play before shooting began, developing the story this way. I can see how it could have worked equally well as a play. He shot the film in sequence in several schools in Northbook, one of these schools he attended himself. The film’s name comes from a phrase used at a school he knew where people who had been on detention were known as “The Breakfast Club”.

The song “Don’t You Forget About Me” is a brilliant. Call me a bit dense, but I actually never clicked to the significance of this song until recently. I always thought it was a great song, but just the particular link to the plot of the film was lost on me! But sure, the name fits in perfectly‼ 

Anyway. This is a brilliant movie. One not to be missed!

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