Media Studies 120
Ms. M. White
Audience Project: “The Breakfast Club”
The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club is a 1985 American teen film written and directed by John Hughes. The storyline follows five teenagers (each representing a different clique in high school) as they spend a Saturday in detention together and come to realize that they are all deeper than their respective stereotypes. The film has become a cult classic and has had a tremendous influence on many coming-of-age films since then. The film was shot entirely in sequence. Shooting began on March 28, 1984 and ended in May 1984.
The plot follows five students at fictional Shermer High School in the widely used John Hughes setting of Shermer, Illinois (a fictitious suburb of Chicago based on Hughes' hometown of Northbrook, Illinois, which was originally called Shermerville, as they report for Saturday detention on March 24, 1984. While not complete strangers, the five teenagers are all from a different clique or social group.
The students pass the hours in a variety of ways: they dance, harass each other, tell stories, fight, and speak on a variety of subjects. Gradually they open up to each other and reveal their inner secrets (for example, Allison is a compulsive liar and Brian and Claire are ashamed of their virginity). They also discover that they all have strained relationships with their parents and are afraid of making the same mistakes as the adults around them. However, despite these developing friendships, the students are afraid that once the detention is over, they will return to their very different cliques and never speak to each other again.
At the request and consensus of the students, Brian is asked to write the essay Mr. Vernon assigned earlier (the subject of which was to be a synopsis by each student detailing "who you think you are"), which challenges Mr. Vernon and his preconceived judgments about all of them. Brian does so, but instead of writing about the actual topic he writes a very motivating letter that is in essence, the main point of the story. He signs the essay as "The Breakfast Club" and leaves it at the table for Mr. Vernon to read when they leave. There are two versions of this letter, one read at the beginning and one at the end, and they are slightly different; illustrating the change in the student's judgments of one another, and their realization that they truly have things in common.
The beginning letter is as follows:
Brian Johnson (although that is unknown at this point): Saturday, March 24, 1984. Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois. 60062.
Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was that we did wrong. What we did was wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write this essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us... in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at seven o'clock this morning. We were brainwashed.
The end letter is as follows:
Brian Johnson: Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong, but we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us... in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain...Brian Johnson...and an athlete...Andy Clark...and a basket case...Allison Reynolds...a princess...Claire Standish...and a criminal...John Bender.
Does that answer your question?...
Sincerely yours,
the Breakfast Club.
The letter is the focal point of the film, as it demonstrates and illustrates the changes the students went through during the course of the day; their attitudes and perspectives have changed and are now completely different. The movie ends as the characters leave detention.
Cultural impact
"The Breakfast Club" was ranked number 1 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies and has had a tremendous impact on both the teen film genre and on popular culture since the 1980s.
In addition, its theme song titled "Don't You (Forget About Me)", performed by Simple Minds, reached #1 on the U.S. Hot 100 in 1985, where it stayed for one week, and has since then become a symbol of teen films. Yellowcard performed a cover of the song during a special tribute to the movie The Breakfast Club at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. It has also been repeatedly used in several teen films as well as television programs and in a 2008 back-to-school commercial for the clothing store JC Penney.
The Breakfast Club is referenced many times in television shows created by cartoonist Matt Groening. The phrase "eat my shorts" (see Official Preppy Handbook) occurs in the film and was later popularized by Bart Simpson of The Simpsons. The character "Bender" in Futurama is named after Judd Nelson's Breakfast Club character, John Bender. An LP record of the film's soundtrack appears in the Futurama episode "The Luck of the Fryrish," and "Don't You (Forget About Me)" is played over the same episode's end credits.
In the Family Guy episode "Let's Go to the Hop," direct and indirect references to the movie are made, i.e. when Peter walks into the cafeteria and sees "The Breakfast Club," which literally is a club of cereal box characters: Tony the Tiger, Captain Crunch, the Trix rabbit, Toucan Sam, and the Lucky Charms leprechaun. The final scene in the episode also features the song "Don't You (Forget About Me)", and it shows Peter doing what Bender did at the end of the film, where he walks over the football field and throws his fist in the air.
The Degrassi: The Next Generation episode "Take On Me" follows the exact same premise with five similar characters from their respective cliques––jock/athlete (Jimmy), outcast/goth (Ellie), criminal/bad boy (Sean), princess/girly girl (Hazel), and nerd/brain (Toby).
In the episode of Disney's The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, First Day of High School, while serving detention, Cody asks a fellow male detention inmate on why he was in detention. The male student tells him, He had nothing better to do, a similar reason for Allison Reynolds, gives for being in detention.
In Disney's Lizzie McGuire, an episode directly parodied Breakfast Club where the characters had to be in detention. The episode ended with the characters writing a letter similar to the one at the end of the film, calling themselves "The Lunch Bunch". The episode ended with the song "Don't You Forget About Me".
Nickelodeon's As Told by Ginger referenced extensively to the movie in the first half of the episode "Detention", Disney's Lizzie McGuire did the same in "She Said, He Said, She Said". The latter one also had references to Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
In the spoof comedy, Not Another Teen Movie, one of the characters in detention argues with the principal while he is in detention. Paul Gleason plays the principal and wears the suit he has in The Breakfast Club. The scene where Bender is in the ceiling is also spoofed.
The dialogue where John Bender mocks about Brian Johnson's happy family in contrast with his abusive one is featured on the song "Diary of a Battered Child" from the band Dystopia.
A JC Penney commercial aired on TV and in theaters beginning in June 2008 pays homage the film. Several scenes are reenacted at a similar library by the commercial's actors, to the tune of a cover of "Don't You" by New Found Glory. The commercial shows a shot of the school with the name Shermer High School on the exterior of the building.
Soundtrack: The Breakfast Club
Released: 1985
Genre: Rock New Wave
Length: 38:02
Label: A&M Records
1. "Don't You (Forget About Me)" — Simple Minds
2. "Waiting" — E.G. Daily
3. "Fire in the Twilight" — Wang Chung
4. "I'm the Dude" (instrumental) — Keith Forsey
5. "Heart Too Hot to Hold" — Jesse Johnson, Stephanie Spruill
6. "Dream Montage" (instrumental) — Keith Forsey
7. "We Are Not Alone" — Karla DeVito
8. "Reggae"(instrumental) — Keith Forsey
9. "Didn't I Tell You?" — Joyce Kennedy
10. "Love Theme" (instrumental) — Keith Forsey
Lyrics: “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” – Simple Minds
Don't You (Forget About Me)
Hey, hey, hey, hey
Ohhh...
Won't you come see about me?
I'll be alone, dancing; you know it, baby
Tell me your troubles and doubts
Giving me everything inside and out and
Love's strange, so real in the dark
Think of the tender things that we were working on.
Slow change may pull us apart
When the light gets into your heart, baby.
Don't You Forget About Me
Don't Don't Don't Don't
Don't You Forget About Me
Will you stand above me?
Look my way, never love me?
Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling
Down, down, down.
Will you recognise me?
Call my name, or walk on by?
Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling
Down, down, down, down.
Hey, hey, hey, hey
Ohhhh.....
Don't you try to pretend.
It's my feeling we'll win in the end.
I won't harm you, or touch your defenses,
Vanity and security.
Don't you forget about me.
I'll be alone, dancing; you know it, baby
Going to take you apart.
I'll put us back together at heart, baby
Don't You Forget About Me
Don't Don't Don't Don't
Don't You Forget About Me
As you walk on by
Will you call my name?
As you walk on by
Will you call my name?
When you walk away
Or will you walk away?
Will you walk on by?
Come on - call my name
Will you call my name?
I say:
La la la...
Movie Review: Mean Girls
Written by Michael Clayton
Published May 02, 2008
To many who have weathered the perils of adolescence during and since the early 1980s, the filmography of director John Hughes has served almost as a guide to coping with the awkwardness and insecurity of this confusing time. Films like Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Pretty in Pink, and of course, The Breakfast Club have not only managed to portray teenage youth in a way that seems realistic, but it also has helped solidify the conventions of that period, and in many ways it seems as if teens are somehow attempting to model themselves after these films.
On a personal level, I can certainly state that I always view this period in my life through a John Hughes lens; I truly did feel that most adults, like most adults in those films, didn't "get it", nor did I believe they made true attempts to do so. I repeatedly observed that the stereotypes embodied in the detention session in The Breakfast Club are still alive and well in today's schools; no matter what school you populate, you can still find the "brain", the "athlete", the "basket case", the "princess", and "the criminal", still showering contempt on one another without realizing how much they truly are alike. And like most of the teenage denizens of John Hughes' fictional Shermer, Illinois, I too felt as if the challenges and adventures I was embarking on were challenges of epic proportions.
For many years, I have felt that there has not been a strong heir apparent to the Hughes throne that was vacated at the close of the '80s. Sure, films like American Pie and Can't Hardly Wait were great efforts, and certainly his influence is apparent in these films, but it always felt they were missing some vital piece of that magical formula. Much to my surprise, a return back to the style of teen film that I loved so much came from an unlikely source — a Saturday Night Live alumna and a troubled paparazzi-magnet teen.
The Tina Fey-scripted teen comedy Mean Girls (which is actually adapted from the non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes) may in fact be the closest anyone has gotten to capturing the glory of those aforementioned teen classics. The film relates the story of the beautiful yet awkward Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan, surprisingly strong in this role), a 15-year-old girl who has just moved from the wilds of Africa and is entering into public high school for the first time. In no time at all, she comes into contact with a trio known as The Plastics, gorgeous yet self-absorbed fashionistas led by the cunning Regina George (Rachel McAdams). Cady becomes the main figure in a scheme to bring the Plastics down by infiltrating their clique; however, Cady soon finds that the longer she walks their walk and talks their talk, the more she seems to truly become one of the Plastics.
For those who are ardent fans of Hughes' films, it is not difficult to recognize the influence of the acclaimed director in this seriously clever film. Head Plastic Regina seems to have taken the most negative traits of Molly Ringwald in The Breakfast Club and James Spader in Pretty in Pink and congealed them into one dastardly individual. The trials and tribulations of young Cady don't seem too far removed from the harrowing sixteenth birthday of Samantha Baker. Amy Poehler's hysterical cameo as "the cool mom" carries on the fabled Hughes perception of adults: they think they understand their youth and yet they are truly clueless. And in the end, for richer or for poorer, whether popular or outcast, our peers in the wild jungle that is high school are more alike than they had first suspected.
Audience Project:
What To Do First:
1. Read the background information; “The Breakfast Club” and “Cultural Impact.”