Breakfast Club: High School Kids and Their Commentary on the American Society
Critical Analysis on the John Hughs Cult Classic
Breakfast Club
1985 ‧ Comedy ‧ 1h 37m
Production List
Production company: Universal Pictures, A&M Films
Director: John Hughes
Producer: Gil Friesen, John Hughes, Michelle Manning, Andrew Meyer, Ned Tanen
Screenplay: John Hughes
Cinematography: Thomas Del Ruth
Editors: Dede Allen
Casting: Jackie Burch
Music: Keith Forsey
Cast
Emilio Estevez (Andrew Clark)
Paul Gleason (Richard Vernon)
Anthony Michael Hall (Brian Johnson)
John Kapelos (Carl)
Judd Nelson (John Bender)
Molly Ringwald (Claire Standish)
Ally Sheedy (Allison Reynolds)
Perry Crawford (Allison’s Father)
Mary Christian (Brian’s Sister)
Ron Dean (Andy’s Father)
Tim Gamble (Claire’s Father)
Fran Gargano (Allison’s Mom)
Mercedes Hall (Brian’s Mom)
Synopsis
The film starts with the production list being introduced to the audience as “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds plays in the background. David Bowie’s quote appears on the black screen. Then the screen shatters, as if someone hit it from the inside, revealing Shermer High School.
Brian Johnson’s voices over the opening scene with the opening of his letter to the teacher Richard Vernon.
It is barely seven o’clock and the school is empty. It is Saturday and five people are supposed to come in for detention. Clair Standish arrives in the BMW with her dad. She is only here because she cut classes to go shopping. Her dad comforts her before she walks into the school.
Brian arrives in the car with his mom and sister. He was scolded and was told to study during detention.
Andrew Clark sits in the car behind Brian’s with his dad. His dad had a relaxed attitude towards Andrew’s detention. But then his attitude completely changed. He got angry with Andrew because this might affect his sport career.
John Bender walks to school alone in the cold weather.
Allison Reynolds was dropped off by both her parents. But they drove off before Allison could say anything.
The five of them walks into the library as Vernon comes in and tells them they have eight hours to think about their mistakes. He has a firm attitude and tells the students to each write an essay describing who they think they are. Bender bumps head with Vernon and immediately tries to stir trouble as Vernon left the room. He annoys the crowd by behaving obnoxiously and saying outrageous thing. Clair is in disgust and tells him to stop. Andrew is also irritated and he threatens Bender to stop. Brian tries to get them to quiet down like Vernon told them so. Meanwhile Allison sits quietly in the back and observes them.
Bender, Claire, and Andrew engages in a verbal fight where Bender was told that he “doesn’t even count” and that no one would care if he disappears. He makes a come back at them making fun of their sports teams and clubs. Brian babbles on about his experience being in the Physics Club.
Bender looses a screw on the library door which resulted in the doors having to be closed. Vernon sees the shut door and comes in the library questioning the students on who did it. Although no one rats out on Bender, Vernon immediately suspects that it’s him. They engages in a heated conversation where Bender repeatedly talks back to Vernon. Clair tries to get him to stop but failed.
The time goes on. The teenagers engages in past times as they are bored by being in detention. Eventually everyone puts their heads down trying to fall asleep. Vernon wakes them up and tells them they could go use the bathroom.
It is about twenty minutes after ten as they all returned from the bathroom. Claire’s family problems were brought up in the conversation between the group. Her mom and dad always uses her to get back at each other. And they have an unsteady marriage where they mention divorce over the littlest things. Claire reveals that she doesn’t think her parents even care about her. Bender initiates a conversation about their relationships with their parents.
Carl, the janitor, walks into the library and he got into a conversation with Bender in which he tells them that he knows all of their stories.
As the time turns to eleven thirty. Vernon calls them for lunch. Allison and Andrew were paired up to get beverages. Allisons tells Andrew that she drinks Vodka. Andrew says that he is in detention because his father and coach doesn’t want him to miss the scholarship. Meanwhile in the library, Brian was ashamed to let Claire know that he is a virgin. But she assures him that it’s okay to be one.
At lunch, Claire has sushi while the others have sandwiches. Bender doesn’t have any lunch. He reveals his family situation. His dad and mom abuses him both verbally and physically. He shows them the cigar burn on his arm that his dad put on him when he spilled paint in the garage. He storms off in the library angrily.
Bender then decided to bring the group to his locker, where he hides his weed. As they were sneaking back to the library, he sacrificed himself getting caught by Vernon so that the rest of the group can return.
Vernon locks Bender in a storage room and openly speaks on his hatred towards Bender. He thinks that Bender is a bum and a future criminal. And no one would believe Bender if he told them about Vernon’s true character.
After Vernon left the storage room, Bender crawled on the ceiling, falling back into the library. His fall through the ceiling caused a ruckus. When Vernon came to check on the ruckus, everyone covered for Bender.
The group gets high with the weed from Bender’s locker. Andrew dances maniacally to “I’m the Dude” by Keith Forsey. Later, Allison approaches Brian and Andrew and told them that she is always planning to runaway as her family neglects her.
Vernon and Carl shares a beer and Vernon expresses his frustration with the students. Carl thinks that Vernon cares too much about what the kids think and that it is only normal for them to hate Vernon. Vernon says that he gets scared that these are the kids who’s going to take care of him when he gets older. Carl suggests that it is unlikely that they will take care of Vernon.
Meanwhile in the library, Allison made up a lie claiming that she is sexually provocative. Claire’s pressured by the group and revealed that she is a virgin. Brian and Andrew finally reveals why they are in detention. Brian is failing Shop class and he could not stand the thought of getting an F, nor could his parents. He has been a Straight A Student his whole life. He brought a gun and hid it in his locker as a last resort. The gun went off in the locker and that’s how Brian got in trouble. As for Andrew, he is a successful athlete, but he never feels enough. He tried to imitate his dad’s behavior in high school and he bullied a kids in the locker room. He feels very guilty afterwards.
The five of them discusses the pressure they encounter at school. Claire and Andrew belongs to the popular groups in the school, and they would not want to be seen with the others once Monday rolls around. But Brian and Allison thinks of the groups as friends. Bender remains silent, but Claire was sure that he would not want to be seen with her in front of his friends either.
The five people who thought that they had nothing in common finally realize that they get along better than they thought they would. They realize that every one of them faces pressure, just in different forms.
Coming to that conclusion, they decides to welcome each other into their lives as friends as they dance to “We Are Not Alone” by Karla Devito.
In the end of the film, Allison receives a makeover from Claire and gets involved romantically with Andrew. Claire, on the other hand, makes a move on Bender. Brian writes the essay to Mr. Vernon. In the letter, he addresses that every one of them processes the characteristics of others, and that they should not have labels put onto them.
Song Analysis & Critical Analysis
Accompanied by Brian’s VoiceOver, the film starts with a sequence showing different parts of the high school. Of course, we would later find out that Brian is reading the essay he wrote during his time in detention. The opening sequence of the school focuses on the despair and rage of the high schoolers being portrayed through the aftermath they’ve left at school. There are words like “I’M EATING MY HEAD” carved into the wooden panel. Brain’s locker is blown off by his gun, shown with a close up shot of the shattered ceramic elephant. Graffiti is all over the desk, words and drawings scattered everywhere, clearly portraying teens’ frustration. The notebook is filled with one word and one word only—“HELP”. You go into any high school, and you could probably find variations of the things shown in the film(Brian’s gun being an exception, maybe).