Sunday, February 17, 2013

The Most Important Meal of the Day

Film: The Breakfast Club
Format: DVD from personal collection on laptop.

There are films that define particular generations at particular moments in their history. For my generation, the 1980s were defined by the films of John Hughes, and of these, none more perfectly encapsulated that generation than The Breakfast Club. This is not a film that I have any ability to discuss with anything like dispassion or objectivity. I’d guess that anyone within five years of my age will comment similarly: this more than any other film defined who we were, how we thought, and how we wanted to be at our disaffected, semi-rebellious best. I’d go so far as to suggest that almost everyone of my generation has a character in the film that he or she identifies with immediately, and if they watch it again today, they’ll likely identify themselves in the same way. The Breakfast Club told us who we were (mine isn’t that hard to guess).

Five kids are sentenced to a Saturday detention in their high school. The five represent completely different cliques in the school. There is the princess, Claire (Molly Ringwald); the jock, Andrew (Emilio Estevez); the burnout John (Judd Nelson); the brain, Brian (Anthony Michael Hall); and the basket case, Allison (Ally Sheedy). Their day starts at 7:00 in the library under the direction of vice principal Dick Vernon (Paul Gleason), and they will be released at 4:00. They aren’t supposed to talk to each other or leave their seats, and Vernon has given them the additional task of writing a 1,000 word essay on who they think they are. From that premise, the five kids actually spend the day discovering who they are, what makes them who they are, and the many, many ways they are actually alike. That’s really it—it’s a character study times five, with the added bonus of a bit of character study on Dick Vernon, too.

That sounds perhaps vaguely interesting, or perhaps maudlin and bit silly, but it’s not. Like I said, I can’t really look at this film objectively. I admit that it has its faults; the Ally Sheedy character, for instance, isn’t given nearly as much value until the moment she gets a makeover, when she instantly becomes desirable. I see that, I recognize that it plays into the same Disney/Barbie myth that is prevalent in our society, but this is also one of the few places that that doesn’t bother me as much as it normally would.

There are a dozen fantastic moments in the film—Judd Nelson crawling across the ceiling tiles, Anthony Michael Hall fishmouthing at marijuana smoke, Emilio Estevez dancing through the library, the Pixie Stix and Cap’n Crunch sandwich, and more. The true moment of truth, though, is not the end, but time before, when the five are sitting in a circle, baring their souls to each other in their frustration and rage at their parents, the system, and everything else. It’s in this scene that our brain character, the good kid with good grades who is failing shop class, asks what happens when school resumes on Monday. How do these five very different but very similar people react to each other when the social pressures of life in school return? That’s really the only question worth asking. We never see what happens on that following Monday, so we never really find out. But how we think it goes in many ways defines this film for the individual viewer as much as does our personal choice of avatar from among the five students.

The second critical moment is the actual essay that is penned by Brian as the day wraps up. The students, having experienced something none of them could have expected, a complete catharsis and possibly a new way of looking at world, walk out of the building, leaving Vernon behind to read what Brian has left him. It’s a beautiful encapsulation not only of the five characters, but of their relationship to each other and his relationship to his students. Earlier in the film, he divulges his problems to Carl, the school janitor (John Kapelos). Carl knows the truth, and we discover at the end that the kids have figured out the truth, too, or at least as much of the truth as is relevant to them.

I can say with perfect candor, and I believe perfect accuracy that there isn’t a person who went to high school when I did who didn’t identify completely with this film. It’s one that I think needs to be seen in that sweet spot of years, ages 15-18, to really understand the magic that John Hughes pulled together.

Forgive me for waxing nostalgic. With this film, I just can’t help myself.

Why to watch The Breakfast Club: No other film best encapsulates growing up in the 1980s.
Why not to watch: We never find out why Claire got her detention.

14 comments:

  1. I love this movie. Absolute mad love. My only bone to pick with it is why the hell does Brian get left alone? AND he does the homework too :(

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  2. You're right! I'd never noticed the lack of explanation behind Claire being there!

    Anyway, other generations can enjoy this film too - I absolutely loved it - but then again I did see it during that 15-18 sweet spot you mentioned, and I've since shown it to people who have escaped that zone un-Hughesed and they didn't take to it nearly as much.

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    1. @Nikhat--Three guys, two girls. One guy was always going to be left out, and given the choice between a 1985 Anthony Michael Hall and a 1985 Emilio Estevez, most young girls wouldn't think that hard. And while Hughes might play with some conventions, the athlete is going to get the girl over the nerd.

      @Jay--I think it's very much like "Catcher in the Rye." I know a lot of people who love that book, and they all read it at roughly the same age. I read it outside of that same "I'm a teen and the world hates me" sweet spot, and it didn't do anything for me.

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  3. Fabulous tribute to a fabulous film. When the AFI did their first big 100 years 100 Movies thing and The Graduate came in at #7 (A film I hate). I posted on an film scholars listserv that I figured as the generations change, The Graduate would slide down the list and The Breakfast Club would appear on the list (or similar lists) in later polling. I got eviscerated of course, but when the list was done again 10 years later The Graduate has slid down 10 spots. Perhaps The Breakfast Club isn't as well made as a film, but it's much better made emotionally.

    RetroHound.com

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    1. I'm with you on The Graduate completely.

      There's always a worry when I go back to these films that were meaningful or important or merely "great" from my youth. Maybe they aren't as good as I thought. Maybe I've gotten cynical. I watched Stripes--a classic comedy from the same era--not too long ago and found that it really didn't hold up. It's not as good or as funny as I remembered. The Breakfast Club really does hold up, though. It's still just as good as I remembered it being, and that makes me really happy to have seen it again.

      The problem with things like the AFI list is that so many things get grandfathered in. The Graduate is one of those films we're all supposed to like. I have no proof, but I think a lot of people like it precisely for that reason: they know that they should.

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    2. Plus, today is Molly Ringwald's 45th birthday.

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  4. I missed this film, not seeing it until I was in my twenties. As such, it does very little for me (plus Molly Ringwald tends to drive me insane). I get why others have a soft spot for it, but I missed it. I like how you call it a "sweet spot," because that's very true.

    Interesting to hear you talk about why you love it so. Thanks!

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    1. I get that. It's exactly how I feel about The Graduate. Your reaction to it convinces me that I'm right, though. I mentioned it at work today to two people and both of them love it, but both saw it at roughly the same age I did.

      Molly Ringwald didn't do much for me, either (I used to call her Molly Ringworm), although I admit that she has grown on me a bit. I was always more of an Ally Sheedy fan.

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    2. Oh, I definitely think you're right. I don't "get" The Graduate either for a very similar reason.

      But I've made my peace with The Breakfast Club, in that I understand *why* others love it so.

      I'm definitely more of an Ally Sheedy fan too, and I think I tend to gravitate towards her character the most, although she feels the least fleshed out in the film. Anthony Michael Hall's nerd is too stereotypically nerdy for me.

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  5. Isn't this like one of the best coming of age films ever? I loved it! Growing up, i remember watching this film so many times :) Good review

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    1. I completely agree, provided you see it at the right age the first time. Too young and you don't really get it. Too old, and you don't really care.

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  6. I didn't see this until I was in my twenties. I still liked it quite a bit, but it didn't become a life changing movie for me or anything. Like the other commenter I felt the Brain got a raw deal, not just because of the lack of relationship, but also because he pretty much got nothing at all in terms of something better. (Guess which one I identify with.)

    For me, two 80s movie I will always identify with as showing my generation are Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Risky Business.

    And I also feel The Graduate isn't that great. It's not quite as dated as Easy Rider, but it's awful creaky.

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  7. Sorry, but I'm the exception. I was 20 in 1985, saw this in the theater and HATED it. I couldn't stand any of the insufferable characters even a little bit. I've always considered this and Risky Business to be the two most overrated movies ever, the two movies whose appeal just baffles me. Bleh.

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  8. @Chip--Poor Brian does get a raw deal, but I like to think that maybe John Bender helped him with his shop class after this.

    @Ip--There's got to be one person who feels that way. That's sort of how I feel about Ferris Bueller, which usually gets me yelled at.

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