Member review

The breakfast club is comedy-drama made in 1985. Directed , written and produced by John Hughes, this film follows 5 typical American Teenagers as they form unexpected friendships and explore different outlooks in an 80’s high school detention.

The story follows the brain, played by Anthony Micheal Hall, an athlete, played by Emilio Estefan, the basket-case, Ally Sheedy, a princess, played by Molly Ringwald, and finally a criminal played by Judd Nelson.

The film focusses on the development of characters and is one of the first films to completely convey the life of American teenagers in the 80’s and why they had all been given detention. As well as causing distress to Vice Principal Vernon, played by Paul Gleason.

The movie uses backing tracks to emphasise the laidback and 80s way of living, as well as using the now very well known “don’t you forget about me”. Furthermore, they use moments of silence to characterise the awkward and judgemental times that anyone in high school would experience.

In my opinion, I love the many changes of the scenes that keep the story moving and make the viewers interested in where the character are going. Consequently, the camera angles work really well with the change of scene as it gives a different environment even if it’s in the same room. The iconic scene at the end where “the criminal” walks towards the camera, as it as an establishing shot you can really feel the power of it.

However, I do have some criticisms. In the film it includes a lot of derogatory language and sensitive subjects that need to be talked about, although in The Breakfast Club it is normalised. This can be suggestive to younger people that this language is not okay but in the 80s this was normal.

In conclusion, I do really like this movie and the casting suits perfectly with each character, it can also be said that this movie pulls off the idea of not having that many characters and not having a clear protagonist. Although, I do think that the movie should only be watched by people who have the maturity to accept it as purely a movie.