BREAKFAST CLUB, THE

(February 1985, U.S.)

It was 1985 and young people's movies were about to change. By 1985, Rocky had defeated Mr. T, E.T. had gone home, Darth Vader and the Empire were dead, Spock had died and come back to life, and we knew who we were gonna call if we needed some ghostbusting! Yes, it was time for young people's movies to get a bit serious...

I was a white suburban high school teenager for part of the year 1985. This means that I was partially raised by director John Hughes. For those of you who may have been living deep under a rock in 1985 and actually never heard of THE BREAKFAST CLUB, arguably the most influential teen film of the 1980's young MTV pop culture decade, then know right now for the record that it is the story of five white suburban teenagers (each a member of a different high school clique or social group) as they spend an entire Saturday in detention together and come to realize that they are all deeper than their respective stereotypes. Note that I have used the word WHITE and SUBURBAN twice already because it was the emotional challenges of white, upper middle class suburban teenagers that Hughes most depicted in his films. In fact, the only African-American characters of any key value I can recall in any of his films is the school nurse and a parking garage attendant in FERRIS BEULLER'S DAY OFF (1986). Whatever that was about, I'm afraid that Hughes may have taken it with him when he died in August 2009.

What strikes me as most interesting about THE BREAKFAST CLUB more than 25 years after its release is not so much how it played out back then, but rather how might play out today. Would a film like THE BREAKFAST CLUB work today? Perhaps. I mean, high school is still high school, right? High school students are still the same as they ever were, right (though they seem to be doing a lot more SINGING on TV these days)? Actually, I'm guessing the answers to these questions is really a big NO! While I'm long since past my high school years (though I'm only 43), my guess - my PRESUMPTION is that the high school student of the 21st century is hell and gone from the one of the 1980's. We now live in a world where communication has become primarily dependent on a tiny keyboard that fits in the palm of your hand. Why would five totally different teenage kids ever be brought into a room together to share their lives in actual conversation when they could simply text each other or spill their guts on any number of social network websites? Hell, would five different teenage kids even be brought together in detention in the first place? In today's educational world of zero tolerance, a trouble-making student like John Bender (played by Judd Nelson) would have likely been suspended for pulling a fake fire alarm. Student Brian Johnson (played by Anthony Michael Hall) would have been outright expelled and prosecuted for having a flare gun in his locker. You see what I'm talking about? It's my firm opinion that opportunities for real human communication between today's high school teenagers likely no longer exist! That being the case, how could you make a film like THE BREAKFAST CLUB today??

For myself, I can only offer thick memories of this film and thank director John Hughes for reaching out and attempting to bring some sense of a young person's self-worth to the big screen. Thanks, John. I still miss you.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Brian Johnson (voice-over): "Saturday, March 24,1984. Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois, 60062. Dear Mr. Vernon, We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. What we did WAS wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an 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, in the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at 7:00 this morning. We were brainwashed."