Deconstructing "The Breakfast Club"

[Linty_Fresh]

I liked the movie. Yes, the characters were cliche’s. Yes, the teacher was over the top, but not really, because I’ve had a few teachers who were just as bad or worse. But that’s what movies are sometimes. It doesn’t mean that there isn’t a message.

@Rilchiam

Brian vs. himself
Oh god, what to say. It hurts to see him acting so immature and insecure; I can’t even watch the scene where he breaks down. I wonder if he’s maybe supposed to be younger than the others? But the thing is, he doesn’t strike me as being so much intellectual as just…square. True intellectuals aren’t afraid to color outside the lines, while Brian is torturing himself to conform. Is he creative? Does he have dreams and ambition? We don’t know; he doesn’t know. So it’s not a matter of his being smart so much as being a grade-getting machine. But unlike Bender, at least he knows how to play the game, and if he can get to, and through, college, in one piece, he’ll have a chance.

I’d like to point out that this isn’t always an option. I spent five years in a rural public school where guys like Bender were in charge, and it was a fucking nightmare. If anything, Bender was an understatement. He was far more articulate and self-aware than the majority of those headcases, many of whom would have physically assaulted Brian on instinct as soon as Vernon left the room, which, by the way, he would never do in that school. I imagine that quite a few white guys currently gracing the halls of some maximum security gen pop grew up in that sort of environment. I was a stereotypical Brian, and those five years were easily the hardest period of my life. The army was a distant second.

But back to my point. In those sorts of places, the Brians of the world have to be careful. They can’t flaunt it or they’ll get hurt. I’m not talking about their feelings. I’m talking about their safety. In a weird way, it was good for me. I was forced to toughen up and learn how to fight. I got into sports and fitness and got out of my shell. Of course, intellectualism went by the wayside until after I graduated from a different and much more laid back high school, but I believe I’ve caught up. And I’m usually able to not take the minor stuff in life very seriously. But I can still see where Brian was coming from. I can even see where Bender was coming from.

@IdahoMauleMan

My Dad watched it with us and was disgusted. He rooted for, and agreed with, Dick Vernon the whole movie. When Vernon goes off on Judd Nelson with his ‘You want to see something funny? Take a look at him in 5 years, and then see how goddamn funny he is!’ line, I could hear my Dad muttering ‘He’s right. He’s absolutely right.’

I’m no bleeding heart liberal, but was Vernon right to publicly humiliate a kid less than half his age? Was he right to challenge him to a fight? One didn’t do anything to help the situation, and the other was actually illegal. No, Vernon wasn’t right. I’m currently on a track to teach, and I don’t plan to take any more shit from kids than I absolutely have to, but if I were to even think about losing it like that by letting an idiot like Bender get under my skin (which, I might add, was exactly what Bender was trying to do), I’d know it was time to quit.

I couldn’t stand the petty entitlement of the kids, and how they portrayed all parents and authority figures as hypocritical, overbearing losers. And how they wantonly destroyed school property, which undoubtedly would require a new bond issue in the next round of elections to pay for. Out of my wallet.

I think you’re missing the point of the movie. The kids walked into Saturday school with an air of entitlement. They left a little bit humbled and more broad-minded. Again, sometimes the movie has to portray stereotypes to make a point; it’s under no obligation to include all sides of an argument, especially when it’s trying to tell us something pertinent.