Who would have thought that 28 years later the John Hughes classic The Breakfast Club would still be the best attempt at understanding the stereotypes we find in High School? Most of the movies that we find about high school are normally patronising and very unrealistic. However, this teen movie successfully shows the audience what it’s like to actually be different but how we are all evidently the same.
The Breakfast Club is a classic movie about a group of High School students who end up with Saturday detention. We are introduced to each of the characters by the stereotypes that each student considers the other, the Nerd (Anthony Brian Hall), The Beauty (Molly Ringwald), the Jock (Emilio Estevez), the Rebel (Judd Nelson), and the recluse (Ally Sheedy). Not only are we introduced to the stereotypes of the students but also of the mean teacher (Paul Gleason). Mr. Vernon is the teacher that is in charge of the Saturday detention. During their detention Mr. Vernon gives them a simple assignment. The students must write an essay about “Who You Think You Are”. Now each of the students think they know exactly who the other is. However, during several discussions and arguments, they each learn that they actually have more similarities than they first thought. At first we see The Rebel initially focuses all of his anger at Andrew the Jock and Claire the Beauty. We see that he has an outward hatred towards their “good lives”, this hatred masks the hurt about his own life. In reality, Claire wishes that her parents would give a damn about her, and Andrew wishes that he had the guts to stand up to his father. All three of them think that Brian is the “perfect son” and does not have the same problems that they have. We see that these characters are very developed and we learn a lot about them. However, Allison is under developed and we don’t learn nearly as much as we do about the others. The problems that Allison has are problems that she created herself in order to get attention yet distance herself from others.
Each students has their own problems and as insignificant they might appear, to a teenager, they are everything. Being a teenager myself I can completely understand how the characters feel. This is what captures the movie so well. Teenage years are a time of self-consciousness and angst. I’m sure when most people look back at their teenage years it may seem a little ridiculous. Yet at one point it was important. Parents don’t understand and teachers don’t understand.
The movie does and incredible job portraying and deconstructing the stereotypes of the students. There have been different critiques of the movie and how it was a little to contrived. Those people were not paying attention on the middle of the movie. A normal Hollywood movie would have had a clear happy ending to it and they would have all become best friends. This movie allows us to see what would have actually happened, the movie admits that come Monday they probably won’t be friends. The biggest truth about high school is missed here. Most kids, while saying they want to be more than just a stereotype, will never actually take that risk. By the time Monday comes they will return to their comfort zone rather than risk the ridicule of their “friends”. While the ending of the movie leaves us with the idea that the Jock and the Recluse hook up, the Rebel has found his Beauty and the Nerd has actually found friends, we could also leave with the opposite idea. When Monday arrives, the Jock and the Beauty will return to their own kind, the Rebel might go back to hating everybody, and the Nerd and the Recluse might still get ignored in the hallway. Hughes leaves this all to us to figure out for ourselves. How you feel about the ending might be due to the stereotype you actually represent yourself with.
At the end of the movie we get to see what the essay that they wrote says. At the request of the group, Brian agrees to write the essay that had been assigned to them earlier that day which challenges Mr. Vernon and his preconceived judgments about all of them. Instead of writing about the actual topic, Brian writes a very motivating letter that is the main point of the story.
He signs the essay “The Breakfast Club”, and leaves it on the table to be read by Mr. Vernon. There are two versions of this letter, one read at the beginning and one read at the end, they differ slightly; showing the shift in the students’ judgments of each other, and their realisation that they actually have things in common.
The beginning of the letter is as follows:
Dear Mr. Vernon: We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was that we did wrong. What we did was wrong. But we think you’re crazy to make us write this 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 and the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Correct? That’s how we saw each other at seven o’clock this morning. We were brainwashed.
The letter ends as follows:
“Dear Mr. Vernon: We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong, but we think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us… In the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain…Brian Johnson …and an athlete…Andy Clark …and a basket case…Allison Reynolds …a princess…Claire Standish …and a criminal…John Bender
Does that answer your question?… Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.
The letter is the most important part of the movie, it demonstrates and illustrates the changes the students have undergone during the course of the day; their attitudes and perspectives have changed and are now different.
If you haven’t seen this movie then you need to. After watching this movie it made it into my Top 10 Movie list. It is a must see!
Writer's Block 