The Breakfast Club is not only a classic
part of film history, but also an insight into the idea that, at the base of it
all, we are all the same. When five seemingly different teenagers are stuck in
detention together under the watch of a vicious assistant principle, the
tension within the group quickly comes to a boil. Spurred on by local bad boy
and trouble maker, John Bender, the group sways between constant bickering and
goofing off together. Eventually, the group comes to understand that, despite
the differences in their social circles and socioeconomic statuses, they aren’t
so different from each other after all. While the outer layer of The Breakfast Club (and the source of
most of the movie’s fun) is simply a bunch of bored teenagers doing bored
teenager things, at its core the movie is about the realization that all people
can relate to one another in some way and that social status and images should
not really matter.
If The Breakfast Club simply blasted its message
at every possible moment, it would have been far less effective as a film. Comedy
was essential in keeping the film from getting too heavy. This light
heartedness is also what gave us some of the film’s most iconic scenes and
lines. “Did I stutter?” Most
importantly, however, these scenes made the characters more relatable. The
members of the club acted like teenagers, making it easier for teenaged viewers
to empathize with them. The fact that, even today, most young people can still
relate to these characters shows the effectiveness of the The Breakfast Club’s writing. By making the characters so
relatable, the audience actually cares about what each member is going through.
Each teen’s struggle and how each member of the group relates and interacts
with the others is the main crux of the film. All of them have their own
problems, usually stemming from their parents. Looking deeper into the film, it
may not be too far-fetched to say that the main theme of the film (aside from
judging people based on stereotypes) is the group’s shared fear of becoming
like their parents or other adults in general. At the end of the film, the
group seems to have come to terms with each other and have decided to be
friends, despite not being from the same social circles. It’s possible that
they may have even decided to be different than the majority of the adults they
knew. This is further substantiated by the nastiness displayed by assistant
principle Vernon throughout the film. Later in the film, Vernon has the following
conversation with the school janitor, the only adult not portrayed as
completely venomous during the course of the film:
Vernon: You think about this: when you get old, these kids-
when I get old- they’re going to be running the country.
Janitor: Yeah.
Vernon: Now this is the thought that wakes me up in the
middle of the night. That when I get older, these kids are going to take care
of me.
Janitor: I wouldn’t count on it.
The members of The Breakfast Club had never been given any
reason to see adults as people who had a positive influence on their lives.
Perhaps, in the end, The Breakfast Club
was about a film not only about forgoing social norms, but about the characters
deciding not to make the same mistakes as their parents.
Our
class viewing of The Breakfast Club
was not my first viewing of the film, but it was the first time I actually paid
attention to the unedited version. Although I was aware of the amount of
language and some of the innuendo in the film, I never paid enough attention to
the unedited version before to notice some of the more distasteful scenes.
Frankly, the film could have held its own just as well without a panty shot of
Molly Ringwald. However, despite its more disgusting downfalls, The Breakfast Club was a groundbreaking
film and I would highly recommend the TV
edit to audience members old enough to handle it.
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