Just watched the butchered WE network airing of The Breakfast Club, where they obviously substitute very vanilla euphemisms for the swear words. This is a movie which I’ve seen about 200 times by now, so I know what they really said anyway. Saw it when it came out, and I have always loved it and cop many lines from it whenever I can. However, I am now about twice as old as I was when I first watched, and in that time I’ve become a secondary ed teacher. There were certain elements of it that bothered me more this time around.
First, why is it that Andy can’t express any interest in Allison until after she comes out wearing a pink tank top? Poor Allison, is she really going to change her whole schtick just to date a guy who taped a nerd’s butt cheeks together to impress his dad? Does she think it’s going to work?
Also, I notice that the outcasts take proof of their recent connection. Allison takes Andy’s sweatshirt and his varsity letter. Will that evidence dispel Andy’s Monday morning jitters as he faces her in the hall for the first time? Will Andy use Allison the make his stand against his conformity, or will he cave? Why does Allison want him anyway, just because he’s cute? Deep down, was she longing to be popular all this time? Really???
Claire gives John her diamond earring. Is that meaningful? Claire probably has 10 pairs just like it, but to Bender, it’s a big deal. Maybe they can ride the thrill of parental and peer disapproval through the prom, but it seems unlikely. Egos willl get in the way; John has a mean streak and deep down, Claire’s pretty shallow. Will Mom and Dad’s horror be enough to sustain them?
Poor Brian. He’s the best of the lot, and he’s the one who gets no lovin’ and has to write the apologia for the whole group. Maybe he can get Bender to help him make an elephant lamp that works.
The teacher guy, Dick Vernon, really isn’t a very appealing example of my profession, though there are some like him out there, I admit. The janitor, sorry, practitioner of the custodial arts, had him nailed-- he thought teaching would be easy and fun, and was ticked off when he found out it was actually WORK and that kids are difficult and surly as teens. Such disillusionment breaks many a teacher’s heart and spirit; however, he really is a cartoon character, donning Barry Manilow’s wardrobe, toilet cover sticking out his pants, easily duped and manipulated by John Bender, who he handles ALL WRONG. Never let a kid like that get your goat, or he pwns you. Ah well, what more can I expect of an authority figure in a John Hughes movie? If school were a fun and helpful place, full of worthy and venerated educators, there’d be no disaffected teens to feature in such films, right?
That said, I still love this movie. I’m sure someone will come and post on this thread to say how much they hate it and how insipid it is. Why bother? It’s too late to change my mind. Screws fall out all the time; the world’s an imperfect place. I love me some fantasy iconoclasm for teens, what can I say? John Hughes is a premier auteur of that genre. When this movie came out, we were pretty intrigued by the idea of breaking out of those strictly delineated peer groups back then. Kids still are now. Ah, youth. It’s wasted on the young.