95 of 1001 Movies: The Breakfast Club (1985)

John Hughes is sort of like the voice of teenagers, especially if you lived in the 80s and grew up with movies like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sixteen Candles, and most popularly The Breakfast Club. Hughes knew how to capture the thoughts and emotions of teenagers that resonates with people who even aren't teenagers. If John Hughes was the translator of the teenage mind, as he also wrote many teenage films, than Molly Ringwald was the face of the 80s teen as she starred in plenty.

Five students are given Saturday School Detention, and to make matters more interesting they all come from different stereotypes. There is the jock, the nerd, the popular girl, the rebel, and the goth sort of weird girl. The detention starts out a little rough when John, the rebel, keeps trying to pull pranks on the principal, and bother the other students he is assigned detention with. As the five begin to talk to each other though they learn each has their own obstacles and pressure they feel from the outside world that has led them to this moment where they are sitting in detention together.


John Hughes has wrote a range of movies, including the ones he is popularly known for, and others like Home Alone, or Beethoven. He has contributed writing to a variety of things. When putting together The Breakfast Club though he puts in so much thought to forming the characters backgrounds, and feelings despite the fact the whole movie is set in the school that day. The guys rarely even leave the library they are assigned to sit in. We grow so much with the characters though despite the predicament of their detention.

Molly Ringwald has played a variety of girls, mostly the sort of odd one out, like in Pretty in Pink, and even Sixteen Candles. In The Breakfast Club she is more so the not so smart, but popular girl. Judd Nelson is the bad boy type of the school. Just when you think you can like him he does something that lives up to his stereotype and you revert your feelings toward him. Anthony Michael Hall is sort of an interesting guy. He plays a geek in this movie who is feeling a lot of pressure to turn out the grades, but we later see him in movies like Edward Scissorhands where he is the guy bullying Edward. He is one of the few characters you consistently like in this movie though as he just seems to want to get along with someone.

Also, you can't forget Emilio Estevez who obviously plays the jock, Andrew. He surprisingly turns out to be one of the characters you feel very attached to, and sort of understanding toward even though he does have that jock nature about him. Then lastly, there is Ally Sheedy as the very strange Allison. We aren't really ever sure what stereotype she belongs to. She looks goth, but seems too off the wall to be apart of that. She makes random noises, and you can never tell how she will treat another character. Her transformation is one of the most interesting to watch though.

If you're looking to get started with John Hughes, or fill in your collection then this one is a must. It tops as his strongest film, and though you may know you aren't a teenager so you can't imagine enjoying it, there is something in it for everyone. Ultimately it is about trying to reach out, and be apart of other people's lives. Whether that is bumping to them into the hallways and just acknowledging they exist with a hello, or going further to be close friends. It's about people grappling to understand each other, and that life isn't a competition about who has it worse than you.

Rating 9 of 10.