The Breakfast Club

*The Breakfast Club*
The Breakfast Club
Directed by	John Hughes
Written by	John Hughes
Produced by	John Hughes; Ned Tanen
Starring	Emilio Estevez; Paul Gleason; Anthony Michael Hall; Judd Nelson; Molly Ringwald; Ally Sheedy
Cinematography	Thomas Del Ruth
Edited by	Dede Allen
Music by	Keith Forsey
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	February 15, 1985
Running time	97 min
Country	USA
Language	English

The Breakfast Club is a 1985 film written and directed by John Hughes. Widely considered the quintessential 1980s coming of age teen film, The Breakfast Club follows five teenagers (each representing a different clique in high school) as they spend a Saturday in detention together and come to realize that they are all deeper than their respective stereotypes.

Plot

Template:Spoiler Five students at a suburban Chicago high school report for Saturday detention on March 24, 1984. Claire ("The Princess") is in trouble for skipping school to go shopping; Andy ("The Athlete") played a humiliating prank on another student (taped his buttocks together with athletic tape); Brian ("The Brain") brought a flare gun to school in a parasuicidal gesture that accidentally discharged in his locker, causing minor property damage; Bender ("The Criminal") continually causes problems at school (it is suggested that this particular detention is for pulling the fire alarm, but it is not definite); and Allison ("The Basketcase") shows up because she has nothing better to do that day.

The five strangers with seemingly nothing in common meet in the library, where they are harangued by the antagonistic principal Mr. Vernon (Paul Gleason). He assigns an essay and then leaves them unsupervised. Bender, who has a particularly negative relationship with Mr. Vernon, disregards the rules and riles up the other students, mocking Brian and Andy and sexually harassing Claire. Allison remains oddly quiet, with the occasional weird outburst.

The students pass the hours in a variety of ways: they dance, fight, and smoke marijuana. Gradually they open up to each other and reveal their secrets (for example, Allison is a kleptomaniac and a compulsive liar and Brian is ashamed of his virginity). They also discover that they all have strained relationships with their parents and are afraid of making the same mistakes as the adults around them. However, despite these developing friendships, the students are afraid that once the detention is over, they will return to their very different cliques and never speak to each other again.

Nevertheless, genuine connections have been made. Andy and Allison are drawn to each other, and Claire and Bender overcome their differences and kiss. Both couples exchange tokens: Allison takes a patch from Andy's letter jacket, and is seen with his jacket around her shoulders at the very end of the movie when they're saying goodbye. Claire gives Bender one of her diamond earrings. Brian is the only one who completes the essay (the subject of which was to be a synopsis by each student detailing "who you think you are"), which challenges Mr. Vernon and his preconceived judgments about all of them. They sign the essay as "The Breakfast Club." Here is the letter:

Brian Johnson: Saturday, March 24th, 1984

Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois, 60062.

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 seven o'clock this morning. We were brainwashed.

But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain...

Andrew Clark: ...and an athlete...

Allison Reynolds: ...and a basket case...

Claire Standish: ...a princess...

John Bender: ...and a criminal...

Brian Johnson: Does that answer your question?

Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.

Cast

Each of the film's young stars became part of the Brat Pack (whose other members include Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, and Demi Moore), a group of actors who 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 Richard Vernon, the principal and detention supervisor, and 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 upon the movie's release; Nelson was twenty-five while Sheedy and Estevez were both twenty-two years old.

Judd Nelson’s performance 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 on remaining in character off-camera. This behavior almost made John Hughes fire Nelson, but Nelson was defended by Paul Gleason (ironically playing Nelson's on-screen nemesis). Gleason stated that Nelson was just trying to stay in character and didn't mean anything by it. [1]

Ringwald and Hall dated briefly after filming ended.[2]

In 2005, MTV announced that the film would be rewarded with the "Silver Bucket of Excellence Award" in honor of its twentieth Anniversary at the MTV Movie Awards. To coincide with the event, MTV attempted to reunite the original cast. Sheedy, Ringwald, and Hall appeared together on stage, with Kapelos in the audience, and Gleason personally gave the award to his former castmates. Estevez could not attend the reunion because of other commitments, and Nelson appeared earlier in the show but left before the on-stage reunion for reasons unknown. Hall joked that the two were "in Africa with Dave Chappelle." This show was taped on May 28, 2005 and aired on June 9.

Gleason died on May 27, 2006 at a Burbank, California hospital from mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer connected with asbestos, which he is thought to have contracted on building sites while working for his father as a teenager.

Interpretations

Template:Spoiler

Some argue that the movie has a disappointing ending because Allison, the basket-case, renounces many of her maverick ways and succumbs to the mainstream female image (makeup, pink dress, submissive behaviour, etc.).^{[citation needed]} She does not completely shed her kleptomania. For example, she steals Andrew the jock's wrestling patch from his jacket, in an idiosyncratic display of affection.

Given that there are five members of the Breakfast Club, one character had to be left single when the other four characters paired up. Some viewers find it disappointingly clichéd that the screenwriter John Hughes chose Brian the nerd, as this reaffirms the convention that a man who is intelligent and pedantic, rather than athletic or rebellious, will be ignored by potential objects of his affection. Various justifications have been offered for this decision. Hughes responds by saying that Brian, despite his academic intelligence, wasn't socially mature enough to have a relationship yet.^{[citation needed]}

At the end of the movie, the "criminal" was paired with the "princess" while the "athlete" was paired with the "basketcase," thus uniting a person of high social status with a person of low social status in both cases and sending the message that there's nothing wrong with a popular teen being friends with or dating an unpopular or awkward teen. (This was a theme in other Hughes' films, such as Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, and Weird Science.) Template:Endspoiler

Legacy

Template:List to prose (section) The film's theme music "Don't You (Forget About Me)" was a U.S. and UK top-selling hit for Simple Minds, hitting #1 in the U.S. in 1985.

Yellowcard performed a live version of the theme at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards during the surprise 20th anniversary reunion of the cast.

The iconic status of The Breakfast Club has resulted in numerous references in subsequent film, television and music:

The comedy Not Another Teen Movie features a number of references to The Breakfast Club and its actors:
- Most significantly, the film features a scene parodying the exchange where Vernon repeatedly increases Bender's detention. The scene is set in a replica of the library where most of The Breakfast Club takes place and even features Paul Gleason reprising his role as Vernon.
- The students attend John Hughes High School and eat in the Anthony Michael Dining Hall.
- Ringwald makes a cameo in the movie.
- The original theme song for The Breakfast Club, "Don't You (Forget About Me)", plays during the closing credits.
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" is a takeoff of the movie.
A September 2006 issue of Boston Magazine makes a parody of the film.
In Degrassi: The Next Generation, the third season episode "Take On Me" borrows from the film, with Jimmy (The Jock),Ellie (The Goth/Basketcase),Sean (The Criminal), Hazel (The Princess), and Toby (The Brain) serving detention.
The poster art for the Breakfast Club was parodied in the poster and video box art of the 1980's horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2.
The Family Guy episode "Let's Go to the Hop" references the film: Peter Griffin walks in on a group of cereal mascots and exclaims, "Holy crap, it's the Breakfast Club!" Tony the Tiger's line parodies a quote from the movie. "You know what I got for Christmas? It was a banner freakin' year at the Tiger house. I got a carton of cigarettes. My old man grabbed me and says, 'Hey, smoke up Tony. They're grrrrreat!' Bastard." The episode's ending also parodies the ending of the film, as Peter walks across the school field and makes a victory salute similar to that of Judd Nelson's character with "Don't You (Forget About Me)" playing in the background.
Kevin Smith, first in his graphic novel Chasing Dogma and then in his film Dogma, has his characters the stoner duo Jay and Silent Bob attempt to visit the fictional town of Shermer, Illinois, where many of Hughes' films (including Club) were set, in order to deal marijuana. Also, Judd Nelson appears as a Sheriff in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Multiple scenes within the graphic novel, including one set in a high school contain some Hughes/Club references, as does the diner scene in Dogma.
A music video from the A*Teens has parodied this movie.
In the song "Man Research (Clapper)" by the band Gorillaz, the lyrics "This is the Breakfast Club" can be heard in the beginning.
In an early episode of the television series Friends, the cast is sitting in Monica and Rachel's apartment folding envelopes while whistling the tune used in the movie, mimicking the scene in the library.
In the comic book series Ultimate Spider-Man, issue #65 takes place in Saturday detention as an homage to The Breakfast Club. Writer Brian Michael Bendis has had homages to other John Hughes movies, including Ferris Bueller's Day Off. At one convention when talking about these references Bendis self-mockingly said "John Hughes is my life." It should be noted that this was about a year before the Breakfast Club issue was published.
In the episode "Secrets and Lies" of ER, originally aired March 7th, 2002, five of the characters were forced into an "all-day Saturday" detention (actually a sexual harassment sensitivity seminar) to which the instructor arrived over 2 hours late, and fans quickly recognized the set-up as eerily related to The Breakfast Club.
The phrase "Eat my shorts" is used to insult the principal in the film and has since been adopted by The Simpsons ' cartoon character Bart Simpson. In addition, it is believed that creator Matt Groening based the character of Seymour Skinner on Principal Vernon.
In the Futurama episode "The Luck of the Fryrish", Fry hides his lucky clover in the sleeve of The Breakfast Club soundtrack, commenting "Man I can't wait till I'm old enough to feel ways about stuff". Later his older brother, Yancy, discovers the clover while looking for music to play at his wedding, claiming the soundtrack will "clear out the room at the end of the reception". At the end of the episode, the song Don't You (Forget About Me) begins to play after he learns the truth of his nephew. Also, the robot Bender was ostensibly inspired by John Bender, as admitted by Groening himself.
In the movie Go, one of the characters asks Claire if she's a virgin.
In the Star Wars Tales series of graphic novels, The Breakfast Club was parodied as "The Rebel Club."
An episode of As Told By Ginger in which Ginger has Saturday detention mimics scenes from The Breakfast Club.
An episode of the G4TV show X-Play parodied the movie, except that the characters were forced to write reviews of "retro" (mid-late 80s, early 90s) video games. Character roles were performed by G4 personalities Adam Sessler (the brain), Morgan Webb (the princess), Kevin Pereira (the rebel), and Michael Leffler (the jock). The basket-case and Vernon also appeared in the episode, but the names of their actors are unknown at this point.
In the movie Along Came Polly, Philip Seymour Hoffman's character was a child star who was only in one movie in the 80s called "Crocodile Tears." The poster shown parodies that of The Breakfast Club.
In an episode of the flash show Waterman, the main character, Bryan Waterman, has a flashback where he was in a Breakfast Club featuring cartoon breakfast cereal characters.
An episode of Lizzie McGuire is based off of the movie, in which Larry Tudgeman, Kate Sanders and Lizzie are all stuck in the cafeteria after a food fight when their principal says they either have to tell who started the fight or clean up the cafeteria. They make a connection with each other, then they clean the cafeteria together and write their principal a note signed "The Lunch Bunch"
In an episode of American Dad "Failure is not a factory-installed option", they show the reading of the letter at the end of the movie in a drive-in movie at the home scene
In the Relient K song, In Love With The 80's, the lyrics say "When you're the president of The Breakfast Club and you're not hesitant to fall in love."
This movie ranked number 1 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.)

Trivia

The opening quote are lyrics drawn from David Bowie's song "Changes."
Emilio Estevez was originally going to play Bender, but John Hughes couldn't find someone to play Andrew Clark, so Emilio agreed to play Clark. [3]
Anthony Michael Hall's mother and younger sister played his character Brian's mother and sister in the movie. John Hughes made a cameo appearance as his father, who picks him up at the end of the film.
The library in which this movie takes place was actually the gymnasium of Maine North High School. The school closed down in 1982, two years before filming began. The building had been used for park district purposes and the Chicago Blitz before the Illinois state police bought it, turning it into a police station, which it still is to this day.^{[citation needed]}
At the end of the movie, John Bender walks through Deerfield High School's football field.
The school used in the filming of The Breakfast Club was also used for some of the school-based scenes in another John Hughes film (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which was released just a year after The Breakfast Club). [4]
The movie has a 100% ranking at the Rotten Tomatoes website.
In the episode of the CBS Crime Drama Cold Case named 'The Sleepover' (directed by Emilio Estevez) there is a clip of the Breakfast Club playing in the background as a tribute to Estevez.
The movie was voted number one on Entertainment Weekly's list of '50 Best High School movies'[5]
Two deleted scenes appear in the televised cut of the film, but are not included on the original DVD release, either in the film or as special features.
- A continuation of the scene in which Vernon chooses Andrew and Allison to visit the soda machine.
- The five students observe Mr. Vernon angrily kicking and punching a vending machine.

Taglines

They only met once, but it changed their lives forever.
They were five total strangers, with nothing in common, meeting for the first time: a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel, and a recluse. Before the day was over, they broke the rules, bared their souls, and touched each other in a way they never dreamed possible.
Five strangers with nothing in common, except each other.

External links