The Breakfast Club (film)
"The Breakfast Club" is a 1985 film directed by John Hughes, set in a high school in Shermer, Illinois, during a Saturday detention session attended by five teenagers. Each character represents a distinct stereotype: the jock, the prom queen, the juvenile delinquent, the geek, and the weirdo. Initially perceived as having nothing in common, the teens engage with one another throughout the day, revealing shared experiences and insecurities that resonate with many young viewers. The film's engaging dialogue and character development have sparked discussions about the complexities of teenage life and societal pressures.
Starring notable actors from the Brat Pack, including Emilio Estevez and Molly Ringwald, "The Breakfast Club" became a cultural touchstone, particularly among teenagers, grossing over $45 million. The soundtrack, featuring the hit single "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds, played a significant role in the film’s popularity and influenced the marketing of teen films. While it was specifically targeted at a teenage audience, its impact helped shape 1980s teen culture and solidified Hughes's reputation as a defining voice in the genre. The film is also noted for its representation of mid-1980s fashion, highlighting the distinct styles associated with each character.
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Subject Terms
The Breakfast Club (film)
Identification Teen movie
Writer/Director John Hughes
Date Released February 15, 1985
The Breakfast Club achieved a cult following among teenagers, helping define teen culture of the 1980’s and cementing John Hughes’s reputation as a master of teen films.
Key Figures
John Hughes (1950-2009), film writer and director
In 1985, John Hughes released The Breakfast Club, his second directorial effort after 1984’s Sixteen Candles. The 1985 film takes place at a high school in Shermer, Illinois, on a Saturday when five teenagers are serving a day of detention, each for his or her own transgressions. Aside from being forced to spend the day together in the same room, the characters in the film appear at first to have nothing in common. However, as the teens interact, they get to know one another, and they realize that they share much more than a simple Saturday detention.
Fellow Brat Packers Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, and Ally Sheedy made the roles of the five teens their own. Each character in the film represents a stereotypical teen personality: the jock, the prom queen, the juvenile delinquent, the geek, and the weirdo. Critics of the film have often dismissed these characters as one-dimensional, but others have argued that the film’s humorous and emotionally effective dialogue reveals hidden facets of each character, while engaging issues all teenagers face, such as insecurity and the pressure to live up to society’s standards.
The Breakfast Club was a reasonable hit, striking a chord with teenagers all over the United States and taking in more than $45 million. The sound track to the film was also extremely popular, especially the single “Don’t You Forget About Me” by the New Wave band Simple Minds. Hughes’s decision to accompany an extended sequence in the film with nearly the entire song helped popularize the strategy of using teen films to pushing hit singles, which became an important marketing device for the industry. Moreover, because the film used costume so effectively to help differentiate the five types represented by its protagonists, it became a useful document of the range of popular fashion in the mid-1980’s.
Impact
The Breakfast Club was frankly marketed to only one age group, teenagers. As a result, it was unable to achieve blockbuster status, but it was incredibly popular among the teens who formed its target audience, helping define the teen culture of the 1980’s. Many high school kids could quote entire scenes from the film verbatim. The film’s success, following on the heels of Sixteen Candles, confirmed Hughes as a major, bankable talent in the lucrative teen market. He directed two more teen films, Weird Science (1985) and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), before transitioning to comedies with older protagonists, including Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987) and She’s Having a Baby (1988). Despite his relatively limited output as a director (after 1991, Hughes contented himself with writing and producing films for other directors), John Hughes is considered by many to have defined the genre of the teen movie and to have connected it irrevocably with 1980’s American culture.
Bibliography
Clark, Jaime, ed. Don’t You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes. Foreword by Ally Sheedy. New York: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2007.
Deziel, Shanda. “The Man Who Understood Teenagers.” Maclean’s 119, no. 45 (November, 2006): 7.
Prince, Stephen. A New Pot of Gold: Hollywood Under the Electronic Rainbow, 1980-1989. Vol. 10 in History of the American Cinema. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
Schneider, Steven Jay. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. London: Quintet, 2003.