The Breakfast Club (1985): Can Stereotypes Lead To a Movie's Success?

★★

(This review contains spoilers)

The Breakfast Club, aka 98 minutes of a bunch of teenagers in detention bonding over the fact that even though they are all different, they are equally unlikeable.

In this 1985 classic directed by John Hughes we follow five teenagers who meet on a Saturday during detention. This distinct group of unlikable teenagers include Andrew (Emilio Estevez) "The Jock", "Brainy" Brian (Anthony Michael Hall), "Princess" Claire (Molly Ringwald), "Outcast" Allison (Ally Sheedy), and "Rebel" John (Judd Nelson).

They all gather in the school library where their principal Richard Vermont (Paul Gleason) assigns them a thousand word essay in which they must all describe "who you think you are" whilst following his three rules which prohibit them to talk, move, or sleep until 4:00 pm. He then leaves these teenagers in detention alone and only occasionally checks up on them.

John the Rebel, which is just another way to say bully, then encourages the other 4 students who are in detention with him to ignore the rules that their principal set for them and to just have fun. Seeing as the other students were hesitant about this, John starts harassing Claire, Brian and Andrew in hopes of annoying them enough to break the rules. But as soon as John realizes that annoying them won't achieve anything, he tries guilt tripping them. He goes on to tell them how he spends most of his time in detention and has to deal with the constant

abuse from adults such as Vermont and his parents. This then makes the rest of them feel so bad that they decide to give in and break the rules with him.

Throughout this constant harassing, John ends up taking a special liking to Claire specifically, which is why he starts asking her intrusive questions regarding her virginity. Even after Claire dismisses him time and time again, he continues to bother her, at times even sexually harassing her by sticking his head up her skirt and talking about how he wants to rape her. If this is the writers idea of an "enemies to lovers" arc, they have failed miserably.

They pass the time by talking, smoking, arguing, and eventually they all start opening up to each other about their problems. Claire tells the others that she often faces peer pressure due to her popularity, John comes from an abusive household, Allison is a compulsive liar who's biggest dream is to runaway from home, Andrew has a controlling father which prohibits him from thinking for himself, and Brian has contemplated suicide over a bad grade. While they continue talking, these teens discover that even though they are all different, they all have bad relationships with their parents.

Throughout the movie, we also find out why all of them are in detention. Claire was peer pressured into going shopping with her best friend, Andrew taped another kid's butt together using athletic tape because he felt like he hadn't bullied anyone and therefore will never be like his father, Brian left a flare gun in his locker which Vernon consequently found, Allison was bored and had nothing better to do, and John pulled a fire alarm.

This part in particular bothered me and was what made the characters so unlikable. A lot of the time, these teens blamed other people (specifically grown ups such as their parents) for their mistakes and for them acting out. I can understand that they feel the need to act in order to get attention from their parents or whatever, but it's not an excuse to be terrible people.

Towards the end of the movie, Claire gives Allison a makeover which then sparks a romantic relationship between her and Andrew. Even though this movie is supposed to show that despite being different they were all able to get along, they decided to give the only "different" looking one a makeover which made her look like all the other generic girls. Very superficial for a movie that was supposed to encourage differences.

Seeing the blooming relationship between Allison and Andrew Claire decides to kiss John, the same guy who harassed her throughout most of the movie.

Ah, but wait! What happened to the essay they were supposed to write? Well, "Brainy" Brian decided to be creative and instead of writing a thousand word essay, he told Vernon that there was no need for it since he had already judged who they are by stereotyping them. Vernon reads the rest of the essay which states, "Each one of us is a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question?"

I think the only question that wasn't answered was mine which is, "Why is this movie so popular?" To say my expectation were high wouldn't even begin to explain how excited I was about watching this movie. Needless to say I was disappointed before the movie even ended. I was bored for the first half of it and the other half was problematic in itself.

I couldn't care less about these characters who were constantly looking for other people in their life to blame for their mistakes. My biggest problem with The Breakfast Club was how sexist and disgusting the dialogue between Claire and John was. This movie did a great job in portraying predatory and borderline sexual assault as romance. If someone younger and more impressionable was watching this, it could definitely give them the wrong idea of what romance should be.

On the contrary, I can see why some people might like this movie. I think that most viewers were able to relate to at least one of the characters portrayed through these very "in your face" stereotypes. The most enjoyable part of this whole movie was definitely the dance scene and the only reason I didn't give this movie 1/5 stars. However overall, this movie left me disappointed to say the least.

Trailer