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I wish my dad had given me a carton of cigarettes for Christmas back when I was a kid, Bender's dad was pretty cool. High school felt like a prison to me, and those kids were doing time, I can still identify with the inmate type behavior, being locked up on a Saturday will do that to a kid, lol. I spent some time in detention and a few days in "In School Suspension" where they put you in a little room and bring your lunch to you, got busted for forging hall passes. This sounds strange but I was about half Brian, half Bender, I kept a foot in both worlds. I never identified with the jock character at all, I had a steady job after school, and a car, and thought that was better than going to football practice and bullying other kids. After the bell rang at 3:30, I wanted a clean break from the prison, ooops I mean school environment.
If you want to see a movie about rowdy frustrated kids, check out "Over The Edge" from 1979, I like it slightly better than Breakfast Club. Very awesome and a bit more intense, and absolutely gushes with late 70's flavor. Lots of drugs & vandalism, and cops chasing kids. Matt Dillon was quite the little punk in that one, pay a visit to New Granada and see for yourself. Never saw that one played much after Columbine, or Lord of the Flies either. I might suggest Children of the Corn if you prefer a more Midwestern feel.
I liked the janitor in Breakfast Club, enjoyed the part where he shook down the principal for 50 bucks at the end, lol The best movie principal of all time was Jim Belushi in "The Principal", and best TV principal was Mr. Woodman from Welcome Back Kotter.
"So, this was part of a whole series of films about high school that John Hughes wrote and directed, including "Sixteen Candles" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." But what is it about this one, "The Breakfast Club," that's lasted?"
I don't think the teens were meant to be "heroes" per say. I was an 80s teen and saw it when it came out. If you watch the beginning, the theme evolves quickly when the parents drop off their teens at detention. The parents are clearly dysfunctional. The wrestler's father is a brutal perfectionist who condones brutal bullying behavior as long as his son "wins" the state title which is ridiculously hard in a place like Chicago (e.g. a state champion in the 190 lb division of Chicago can typically bench press 400 lbs and has about 10+ years experience at age 17). The math "geek" has a mother who expects nothing but A grades. The rebel teen, Bender, is highly dysfunctional because his father is physically and verbally abusive. Bender also comes from a low-income family. By contrast, Molly's character is wealthy and snobby like her parents. Then Ally's character is a recluse but can easily see the dysfunctional aspects of her classmates. One of the most powerful scenes was when the rebel teen and wrestler realize their fathers are both highly abusive as dysfunctional dads, and they actually empathize with each other despite the initial hostility.
So they are from different paths of life in the social strata of the HS: jocks, geeks, spoiled princess, rebel teen, outcast, etc. The janitor makes it clear he knows the dysfunctional behavior as the "eyes and ears" of the institution. But he also sees it in the adult character, the assistant principal, when he is caught raiding confidential files.
The movie wasn't really about having a lead character with positive virtues. They were messed-up teens psychologically who somehow bonded in the detention center after initial conflicts. The main message was about a happy ending in the sense that teens from different social groups managed to "cross lines" and make friendships.
Decades later, Judd Nelson does have a cameo on "Two and a Half Men". He played a divorced dad who got caught having sex with the babysitter, and then his wife left him for Jon Cryer's character. That show was a propagation of the 80s teens into middle-age with Charlie Sheen and Cryer. Nelson's cameo was awesome. He began stalking his ex-wife's new boyfriend and still had the witty sarcasm and assertiveness expressed long ago in 1985 as a teen rebel (albeit deeply middle-aged).
It totally does. I saw it recently and sympathized so much more with the principal than I did as a teenager. This lead to a debate I had with a friend when someone asked what our favorite John Carpenter movies were, and I said Sixteen Candles and he said The Breakfast Club. I told him I watched recently and saw it from a different perspective and just couldn't root for those kids.
Sincerely intrigued here,care to share how you grew to sympathize with the principal?
Ps...not once did I identify with bender. Loved the character...just didn't have that volatile anger as a teen..the humor though,indeed!
I don't think the teens were meant to be "heroes" per say. I was an 80s teen and saw it when it came out. If you watch the beginning, the theme evolves quickly when the parents drop off their teens at detention. The parents are clearly dysfunctional. The wrestler's father is a brutal perfectionist who condones brutal bullying behavior as long as his son "wins" the state title which is ridiculously hard in a place like Chicago (e.g. a state champion in the 190 lb division of Chicago can typically bench press 400 lbs and has about 10+ years experience at age 17). The math "geek" has a mother who expects nothing but A grades. The rebel teen, Bender, is highly dysfunctional because his father is physically and verbally abusive. Bender also comes from a low-income family. By contrast, [BMolly's character [/b] is wealthy and snobby like her parents. Then Ally's character is a recluse but can easily see the dysfunctional aspects of her classmates. One of the most powerful scenes was when the rebel teen and wrestler realize their fathers are both highly abusive as dysfunctional dads, and they actually empathize with each other despite the initial hostility.
So they are from different paths of life in the social strata of the HS: jocks, geeks, spoiled princess, rebel teen, outcast, etc. The janitor makes it clear he knows the dysfunctional behavior as the "eyes and ears" of the institution. But he also sees it in the adult character, the assistant principal, when he is caught raiding confidential files.
The movie wasn't really about having a lead character with positive virtues. They were messed-up teens psychologically who somehow bonded in the detention center after initial conflicts. The main message was about a happy ending in the sense that teens from different social groups managed to "cross lines" and make friendships.
Decades later, Judd Nelson does have a cameo on "Two and a Half Men". He played a divorced dad who got caught having sex with the babysitter, and then his wife left him for Jon Cryer's character. That show was a propagation of the 80s teens into middle-age with Charlie Sheen and Cryer. Nelson's cameo was awesome. He began stalking his ex-wife's new boyfriend and still had the witty sarcasm and assertiveness expressed long ago in 1985 as a teen rebel (albeit deeply middle-aged).
I wish my dad had given me a carton of cigarettes for Christmas back when I was a kid, Bender's dad was pretty cool. High school felt like a prison to me, and those kids were doing time, I can still identify with the inmate type behavior, being locked up on a Saturday will do that to a kid, lol. I spent some time in detention and a few days in "In School Suspension" where they put you in a little room and bring your lunch to you, got busted for forging hall passes. This sounds strange but I was about half Brian, half Bender, I kept a foot in both worlds. I never identified with the jock character at all, I had a steady job after school, and a car, and thought that was better than going to football practice and bullying other kids. After the bell rang at 3:30, I wanted a clean break from the prison, ooops I mean school environment.
If you want to see a movie about rowdy frustrated kids, check out "Over The Edge" from 1979, I like it slightly better than Breakfast Club. Very awesome and a bit more intense, and absolutely gushes with late 70's flavor. Lots of drugs & vandalism, and cops chasing kids. Matt Dillon was quite the little punk in that one, pay a visit to New Granada and see for yourself. Never saw that one played much after Columbine, or Lord of the Flies either. I might suggest Children of the Corn if you prefer a more Midwestern feel.
I liked the janitor in Breakfast Club, enjoyed the part where he shook down the principal for 50 bucks at the end, lol The best movie principal of all time was Jim Belushi in "The Principal", and best TV principal was Mr. Woodman from Welcome Back Kotter.
I thought breakfast blew over the edge away. You should start s thread for that movie though, gave you seen the directors cut with the bonus part where they talk about how they discovered Matt Dillon? It's awesome...
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Who's Molly?
