The Breakfast Club

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For other uses, see The Breakfast Club (disambiguation).

Template:Infobox Film The Breakfast Club (1985) is a motion picture written and directed by John Hughes. Widely considered a quintessential 1980s teen film, The Breakfast Club follows several teenagers (each representing a different clique in high school) as they spend a Saturday morning in detention together and come to realize that they are all deeper than their respective stereotypes.

The film's name came from the son of one of Hughes' friends. When asked what detention was called at the local high school (New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois), the son told him it was known as 'The Breakfast Club'.

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.

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Cast

Each of the film's 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 25, while Sheedy and Estevez were both 22 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.

Ringwald and Hall dated briefly after filming ended.

In 2005 MTV announced that the film would be rewarded with the Silver Bucket of Excellence Award in honor of its 20th Anniverary at the MTV Movie Awards . To further coincide with the event, MTV announced that it would attempt to reunite the original cast. A majority of the cast reunited during the ceremony as Sheedy, Ringwald, and Hall appeared together on stage, with Kapelos in the audience and Gleason personally rewarding 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, 2005.

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Interpretations

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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.). It should be noted, however, that she does not completely shed her kleptomania, for example, stealing Andrew the jock's wrestling patch from his jacket, in an idiosyncratic show of affection.

Given that there are five members of the Breakfast Club, one character had to be left single when the other four characters pair 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 bookish, rather than athletic or rebellious, will be ignored by the opposite sex. 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.

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Legacy

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.

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

  • The term 'Eat my shorts' is used to insult the principal in the film, and has since been adopted by The Simpsons cartoon character Bart Simpson. Also Principal Skinner from the Simpsons bears several uncanny resemblances to the Breakfast Club's head teacher played by Paul Gleason.
  • 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 (a reference to Club director John Hughes), and eat in the Anthony Michael Dining Hall (a reference to Club actor Anthony Michael Hall).
    • Ringwald makes a cameo in the movie.
    • The original theme song for The Breakfast Club, "Don't You (Forget About Me)", was played during the final credits of the film.
  • 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.
  • In Degrassi: The Next Generation, the third season episode "Take On Me" borrows from the film.
  • 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!". 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.
  • The movie is parodied in an episode of Lizzie McGuire, in which Kate, Larry, and Lizzie name themselves "The Lunch Bunch". The episode also uses the movie's theme song.
  • 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. A scene within the graphic novel set in a high school contains some Hughes/Club references.
  • 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 are sitting in their cafe hangout, Central Perk, when Chandler (Matthew Perry) begins whistling the tune used in the movie, and other join in mimicking the scene in the library.
  • In the comic book series Ultimate Spider-Man, an entire issue takes place in a detention room 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.
  • In a 2002 episode of ER many of the characters were forced into a detention (sexual harassment seminar) and fans quickly recognized the set-up as eerily related to Breakfast Club.
  • In an episode of Futurama, Fry remembers putting his lucky clover in the jacket of a copy of the Breakfast Club soundtrack, claiming that it was the best movie ever made. Bender the robot is also named after the rebel character John Bender in the film.
  • 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 the characters were forced to write reviews of "retro" (mid-late 80's, early 90's) video games. Character roles were performed by G4 personalities Adam Sessler (the nerd), Morgan Webb (the preppie), Kevin Pereira (the stoner), 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.
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Trivia

  • 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.
  • Molly Ringwald really wanted to play Allison but Ally Sheedy had already been promised the part.
  • Anthony Michael Hall's mother and younger sister play his character Brian's mother and sister in the movie.
  • The library in which this movie takes place was actually constructed in the gymnasium of Maine North High School specifically for the film. 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.
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External links

fr:The Breakfast Club he:מועדון ארוחת הבוקר nl:The Breakfast Club ja:ブレックファスト・クラブ ru:Клуб «Завтрак» (фильм) sv:Breakfast Club

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