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Johncox88’s Film Club – Week 2: ‘The Breakfast Club’

Jan 11

JohnFilm Club, Films club, film, the breakfast club View Comments

This week was the John Hughes classic film about a group of mismatched teenagers trapped, and ultimately united together, in detention.

Playing out the usual high-school archetypes are Molly Ringwald as the girly-girl, Emilio Estevez as the jock, Anthony Michael Hall as the geek, Judd Nelson as the rebel and Allison Reynolds as the arty loner.

“Now this is the thought that wakes me up in the middle of the night. That when I get older, these kids are going to take care of me.”

“I wouldn’t count on it.”

The film is entirely set in the school, with the students confined to the library by their stuffy, asshole of a principal. The group initially clash, however after a few altercations and a little self-sacrifice by Judd Nelson,  the group begin to see past their respective archetypes and bond over some joints and casual mischief.

One cathartic conversation about the students fates and a quick dance break and detention is over and the kids all go home – after the popular kids break high-school social hierarchy and smooch the weirdoes though, obviously.

I want to like the film. It has cheesy 80’s music, decent acting performances and well observed script. But I just felt it was a bit slow going and the formation of the couples at the end just seemed tacked on. What about Brian eh? Emilio Estevez will be up to his armpits in clunge, he doesn’t need some weird girl. Will he still be kissing her on Monday?

“Dear Mr. Vernon, We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. What we did *was* wrong. But we think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us – in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That’s the way we saw each other at 7:00 this morning. We were brainwashed.”

It’s a great film, it’s just not my film. I think people with more spectacular high-school experiences are the ones that love it but I’m completely indifferent towards mine.

Stick with it until the emotional finale though, it’s the best bit. Oh, and the dance break that follows it of course.

 

7/10

 

Trivia:

Emilio Estevez was originally going to play Bender, but Hughes couldn’t find someone to play Andrew Clark so Emilio agreed to play Clark.

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.

The dandruff that Allison shakes onto her pencilled drawing for snow was achieved by sprinkling Parmesan cheese.

The scene in which all characters sit in a circle on the floor in the library and tell stories about why they were in detention was not scripted. John Hughes told them all to ad-lib.