Review of The Breakfast Club (1985) by Brendan C — 20 Dec 2013

This is perhaps the greatest teen drama of all time. It is relatable, well acted, well written, and above all timeless. It is the kind of film that can be watched by any generation and still be loved. This and Ferris Bueller's Day Off are in my opinion the two most timeless 80's films about teen's. This is a film that I notice is talked about all the time at my school, and it really does reach people my age. It is really one of the only teen movies that I think portrays teens accurately, and seems realistic. Most of those films tend to just feel stereotypical or they exaggerate things. This felt like something that probably would happen. I am really tired of seeing teen movies or teen comedies that are really stereotypical, and as I have gotten older I have grown to like this one even more, because it has more depth. It is about a group of high school students, who are from entirely different crowds and backgrounds that have to spend their Saturday in detention, while their extremely mean teacher Mr. Vernon makes them write a paper about who they are. They all hate it and they don't like each other either. It is about how they bond and learn a lot about themselves.

Mr. Vernon is the antagonist of the story who you hate. He is almost evil if you ask me and he just hates kids for reasons that just seem to be problems within him and not the kids. He is definitely unhappy, because you almost never see him in a scene where he isn't mad. I felt like the entire time he just vented his problems on the kids. He isn't an interesting character, but he adds to the story by making them write the essay. The fact that the essay is "Who you think you are" I felt like was really symbolic in the story, because none of these people really did no that much, but by the end of the day it seemed like they figure out a lot. Though they pretty much ignore everything that he asked them to do the one thing he assigned him is what pretty much summed up everything that they learned.

The kids are for the most part very interesting. I only say for the most part, because Claire is kind of boring and she seemed kind of whiny. Her problems were almost annoying, and I felt like they should have spent more time focusing on the interesting characters like Allison (Ally Sheedy). I say her because I felt like they didn't give that many exact details about her, and they mostly gave details that made you have to use your imagination more. They gave us details like she is a compulsive liar, and her parents ignore her, but I wanted to hear more about her. I question how much we learned about her is actually true because she said she is a compulsive liar, but however there was something about her that made her more intriguing then everybody else to me. Her character was definitely a weird one though, but is also what made her interesting. She felt slightly underdeveloped, or maybe I felt that way because she was the most interesting character to me, and I wanted to know more about her.

John Bender (Judd Nelson) is a rebel and a total punk. I really didn't like him at first, but by the end of it he turns out to be a really good character, and I thought he and Allison were the two most interesting people. I disliked him at first because of how rude and obnoxious he was towards everybody. He just seemed like he was starved for attention, and like a jerk. But when he reveals what his home life is like you learn that he is just an angry young man. He lives by his own rules, and does and says whatever he wants to. He isn't afraid to get in trouble, and that is showed when he talks back to Mr. Vernon and by several other scenes. I think his character is an example of how you shouldn't judge somebody, because you don't know their background or where they come from.

The film had several interesting characters, and a very interesting plot. It shows how much you can do in only one setting. For pretty much the whole movie they were in detention, and they still made it really interesting. It broke many stereotypes about teens, and brought more depth to them. It showed how different kids from completely different backgrounds and click's can still get along. I feel like that is the message of the story. That no matter how different people are we can all get along, and connect. This film did a great job of showing that. This is a timeless classic that will be passed on from generation to generation.