Humanities
Professor Henry
Skye Duke
12.10.18
Unpopular Opinion: The Breakfast Club is Overrated
SET STANDARD – HOW MUCH PEOPLE RATE IT
Handcrafted for the cynical teenager inside all of us… The Breakfast Club remains to be seen as a significant piece of ‘history’, as it is continuously woven into the timeline with an ongoing desire of nostalgia and a sense of pop culture. It is undisputable that the movie was not only impactful when it came out, but it continues to shape the teen genre today. The movie is known to be a quintessential coming of age movie, that uses strong stereotypes to make an undeveloped point. Despite many die-hard fans and supporters, The Breakfast Club has its flaws. Together the plot and societal statements, the characters and the issues make for a movie that is both a crucial part of cinematic history, and an imperfect piece of art.
The movie was released in 1985, both written and directed by John Hughes. He is well known for not only his role in this movie but also Sixteen Candles, National Lampoon Vacation and Home alone. The Breakfast Club is the epitome of a teen angst in movie. The plot revolves around five teenagers in an all-day detention. Each teenager brings their own stereotype to the mix, the Brain, Criminal, Athlete, Princess and finally the Basket case. The movie follows them throughout the day and the audience watches the characters attempt to have meaningful connections with each other. Ultimately the group leaves feeling as though they have significantly changed as people. With all that being said, there’s an obvious realization that come the next day of school, everything will go back to how it was before. So what was the point of the 97 minutes?
The movie is pretty simple, production wise. There is only a handful of characters, and the movie is set in one room for the most part. This puts further pressure and importance on the core five characters, who essentially carry the movie. The Brain is arguably the most likeable character of the dull bunch. His name is Brian Johnson, and his character plays into the stereotype of the typical nerd who faces extreme pressure from his parents. The criminal is named John Bender, who is problematic at best. His character is defined by his disobedience of the rules and throughout the movie the audience witnesses him not only misbehave but also sexually harass the Princess. The athlete is called Andrew Clark
Other than the blanket stereotypes, each character is built upon only the dark things they have to deal with. This can easily create a misconception of development, knowing that each of them live hard lives tell us nothing about what motivates them and offers little insight as to who they are as people. Especially when this movie is supposedly about accepting yourself and others for who they are and not what they are seen as. The audience is never really offered the true personalities that are referred to. For the first half of the movie, the teenagers are living up to their stereotypes, then all of a sudden, the ‘conflict’ hits and their personalities flip. Still, we aren’t presented with ‘who they really are’ because each of them are stuck in their individual states of self-pity. The movie clings to the claim that we are more than our issues, yet the portrayal of only stereotypes and self-indulgence contradicts this. The way the characters are developed suggests humans are defined by their dark parts, which is unfair and untrue.
Issues
This movie was successful in the opinions of so many because it took on a theme that is very real problem, societal stereotypes. Yet it failed through striving to achieve something that is very unlikely. It isn’t impossible to befriend someone who is seemingly categorized differently, yet the way the characters were developed… and the lack of development left for what felt like empty connections being portrayed as significant. In the end, each character leaves, pretending they have changed and are different people. Yet the psychology behind this movie doesn’t add up. It takes weeks to break a habit, changing your whole personality cannot happen after a mere couple of hours, no matter how life changing the events. The movie attempts to be relatable, yet the woe is me attitude each character takes on, leaves them feeling very out of touch and fictional. It is relatable to many but it doesn’t justify the lack of actual conflict.
The audience seems to have related to the fact each characters seems to be scared of forever being trapped in their given stereotype, which suggest why so many accept the inferior ending. The viewers relate with this fear and want to believe that change is possible, leaving many disturbing facts overlooked. This movie takes mental health and uses a romanticized vision of change to suggest that the issues can be easily transformed. Throughout the movie, the basket case, Allison, displays very alarming behaviors that lead the audience to believe that she is suffering with mental illnesses. Yet the conclusion of this movie presents a newly made over girl in a white dress. With her new look and the jock liking her, this movie plays into the unhealthy idea of conforming to societal standards and letting the deep routed issues sort themselves out. As previously mentioned, Bender, the main character continuously abuses and harasses the Princess, Claire. However, the ending puts the pair together, and the victim disregards his inappropriate behavior completely. This sends an awful message to actual victims of sexual abuse, portraying a victim to give in to her attacker and live ‘happily ever after’.