The Breakfast Club
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
- For other uses, see The Breakfast Club (disambiguation).
| The Breakfast Club | |
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| Directed by | John Hughes |
| Written by | John Hughes |
| Starring | Emilio Estevez Anthony Michael Hall Judd Nelson Molly Ringwald Paul Gleason Ally Sheedy |
| Produced by | John Hughes Ned Tanen |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date | 15 February 1985 |
| Runtime | 97 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | |
| IMDb page | |
The Breakfast Club (1985) is a motion picture written and directed by John Hughes. Widely considered a quintessential 1980s film, The Breakfast Club follows several teenagers (each representing a different cliques in high school) as they spend a Saturday morning in detention together and come to realize that they are all deeper than their respective stereotypes.
Each of the film's stars became part of the Brat Pack (whose other members include Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, and Demi Moore) because they all hit stardom at the same time and tended to star in movies together. The teenagers in the film were played by Emilio Estevez (Andrew Clarke, the high school jock), Anthony Michael Hall (Brian Ralph Johnson, the nerd), Judd Nelson (John Bender, the rebel stoner), Molly Ringwald (Claire Standish, the rich preppie), and Ally Sheedy (Allison Reynolds, the basket-case). Paul Gleason played the counselor and detention supervisor named Richard Vernon; John Kapelos played the janitor, Carl. Hughes appeared in an uncredited role as Brian's father. Of the entire cast, only Hall and Ringwald were actually high school age; Nelson was 26 years old.
Judd Nelson’s impressive performance throughout the film was influenced by his method style technique of staying in character off set. He was accused of bullying Molly Ringwald off camera due to his insistence of being the character “Bender” between shooting. This behavior almost made John Hughes fire Nelson, but Nelson was defended by Paul Gleason, ironically playing Nelson's on-screen nemesis.
Some argue that the movie has a disappointing ending because Allison renounces her maverick ways and succumbs to the mainstream female image (makeup, pink dress, rather submissive, etc.). It should be noted, however, that she does not completely shed her kleptomania, stealing the jock Andrew Clarke's wrestling patch from his jacket, in a unique show of affection.
Similarly, while the other four characters pair off, the nerd, Brian, ends the film without anyone, reaffirming similar mainstream conventions of male stereotypes as well, that a male who isn't either athletic or rebellious, and more so is intelligent and bookish, will be left behind and ignored by the opposite sex. Some have speculated reasons for Brian not ending up with anyone at the end, one popular one being that the character is gay, though this idea itself could be read as something of a mainstream stereotype about men in general.
The answer given by John Hughes was that he felt that Brian, despite his academic intelligence, wasn't socially mature enough to have a relationship yet.
The film's theme music, "Don't You (Forget About Me)", was a U.S. and UK top-selling hit for Simple Minds.
The film was parodied in the movie Not Another Teen Movie. A Saturday detention episode of the British children's drama Grange Hill also bears a striking resemblance to scenes from the movie, even including the quip "Welcome to the Breakfast Club...!" A first-season episode of Dawson's Creek entitled Detention was a takeoff of the movie, as was the 3rd season episode "Take On Me" of Degrassi: The Next Generation. Also, an episode of Family Guy parodied a scene from the film, as Peter Griffin walked in on a group of cereal mascots and exclaimed, "Oh, geez. It's the Breakfast Club!". In that same episode, Peter walks across the school field and makes a similar victory salute as Judd Nelson's character. The movie was parodied in an episode of Lizzie McGuire where Kate, Larry, and Lizzie name themselves "The Lunch Bunch".
The film's name came from the son of director John Hughes' friend. When asked what detention was called at the local high school (New Trier High School of Winnetka, Illinois), the son told him it was known as 'The Breakfast Club.'
Some members of the cast (Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall and Paul Gleason) appeared together at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards for a tribute to the movie, which received the Silver Bucket of Excellence Award. This show was taped on May 28, 2005 and aired on June 9, 2005.
