When it came out in 1985, The Breakfast Club was extremely popular and relevant and watching it now, thirty years later, that relevancy is still there. It deals with themes of broken homes, stereotyping and teenage rebellion with such grace and subtlety that leaves you with a truly satisfying feeling after the film has ended.
This is more a character movie than a plot movie. Five students get given a detention on a Saturday and have to endure it together. They each come from a different stereotype that teenagers generally fall into; a nerd, a jock, a criminal, a princess and a basket case (who is just an introverted kid).
Over the course of the day these kids eventually learn that they each have something in common, despite their socially appointed roles that they think are so important. This is still something that pervades teenage culture today. The kids in the movie discover that these stereotype boundaries don't actually exist, although at the end of the movie they come to the grim reality that despite the time they spent getting to know each other, come Monday they will neglect to recognise that they are just the same as each other.
The other major theme is the idea of rebellion against authority figures. Early on this comes John Bender (Judd Nelson) "the criminal" against principal John Vernon (Paul Gleason). At one point in the film Vernon speaks about his difficulty relating and dealing with the teenagers. The kids also have trouble with their parents. It is hinted that Allison (Ally Sheedy) "the basket case" has an abusive home life. Both Brian (Anthony Michael Hall) and Andrew (Emilio Estevez) have undue pressure from their parents. Bender and Claire's (Molly Ringwald), "the princess", home lives can be summed up in this clip.
If there's one thing that is consistent throughout Hughes' movies, it's the soundtracks. And this is a great one. Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)" is a fantastic lead track in a list of songs that includes a lot of other 80's pop classics and themes from TV shows and other movies.
Verdict: Undeniably the best teen movie of all time that hasn't aged one bit.
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