I can’t relate to it for several reasons.
First, the fact that everyone’s white. Now, I’m not saying Hughes should have tokenized an existing character; that wouldn’t have worked. But my high school was very racially diverse, and as such, no one was just a jock, just a princess, thug, or whatever. No one was just rich or poor, just popular or not. The fourth factor was always race, whether you were black, white, Mexican or “miscellaneous”, as Reverend Lovejoy would say, and nobody was just their race, either. There were basic social groupings, sure, but there were all kinds of subdivisions, based on whether you were black from the projects or black from the suburbs, an Asian malljammer or an Asian Smart Kid, a white person who was willing to cross over or a white person who used the n-word, a Mexican who stuck to the Mexican group or a Mexican who tried to assimilate. There’s no way you could have put five kids in a room at my school and had every social group represented.
BC just seemed like a dream world to me. If you want to see my high school, rent “Zebrahead”. Except that I’m white, I’m the Asian girl in the last scene, sighing, “Everything with you is race. Race, race, race…” And there were plenty of kids at my school who replied, as the black guy did, “That’s right, because everything IS race!” We didn’t have guns yet, but we had gangs (all of them segregated by race). There were skirmishes, and a couple times, the police had to be called. And this was Joliet, IL, which the last time I looked was in the Midwest. Maybe our town and school were just an anomaly; I dunno. But none of our conflicts were as simple as “You have money and I don’t” or “I hate jocks”. And for that matter, all-day detention would probably have been supervised by the one big ornery brother of a dean. Bender wouldn’t have dreamed of giving him a hard time.
Next, the character interactions.
Bender vs. Claire
I must be the only person who didn’t hate Claire. In the first place, I can’t get a handle on her. The character was originally supposed to be a rah-rah, sweater-wearing type, but somewhere along the line, she got changed to uber-rich and sophisticated. And the result is that she just doesn’t seem like she belongs in high school at all. I can’t see her wanting to be prom queen, because it’s so plebian. Hughes said in an interview that he didn’t have any sympathy for Claire, because she was based on the kind of girl he knew in high school who would have told him to get lost. So she’s not really a character; she’s a woman-shaped target for [del]Hughes[/del] Bender to fire his aggression and resentment at.
I hear so many people say, “I knew girls just like her,” but again, I didn’t. I knew some truly “mean girl” types, and if she’d been like that, I would have been rooting for her to get a taste of her own medicine, but Claire’s not like that. I knew some annoying muffinheads who needed to have their eyes opened, but though Claire is uppity, she’s not stupid. If she avoids people like Bender, it’s probably for a reason. And the people I knew who were most like her were my friends in senior year: the ones who’d pretty much outgrown high school and were looking ahead. Those were the ones I was thinking of when Bender goes off on her, and that’s why I was not on his side. But if one of those girls had been in this situation, it wouldn’t even have gone as far as it did. They probably would have responded with frosty silence or “Well, what are you DOING to help yourself?”
And in the second place, I empathize with her, even if I don’t sympathize. I don’t see one damned thing she’s done to deserve Bender’s wrath. Is she the one who physically pushes other people around? Is she a vandal? I just don’t see what she does that is so terrible. She’s not rude to Brian or Alison, though someone in her position easily could be. She doesn’t like having paper wads thrown at her head – whatta bitch! I can understand Bender having some resentment against her for her circumstances, but not to that extent. It’s not a zero-sum game; her having diamond earrings is not the reason his family is dysfunctional. And the remark about her mother was way, WAY out of line. He takes it too far, and yet we’re all supposed to cheer for him.
And so much is made of Claire allegedly using Bender. Yeah, like he’s so gentlemanly. “We’ll get the prom queen impregnated.” He’s not interested in her either; he wants to use her and throw her away. Women are attracted to men who treat them like shit, and that may well apply to the girls whose photos are in Bender’s wallet. I shudder to think of the scene in Bender’s basement when he finds out that Claire still doesn’t think she owes him her body. Of course she wasn’t given a chance to defend her position during the “Have you ever done it?” scene. It couldn’t possibly be that she doesn’t want to get pregnant, doesn’t want to be used, wants to wait for the right guy, or simply feels that it’s her choice to make. No, she’s the one hurting others by not putting out, and she should be ashamed of herself. What she wants or needs means nothing. Bring on the Spur Posse.
Bender vs. Andy
And so much is made of Andy’s remark to Bender. I’m beginning to think that there are two versions of this film. I saw the one where Bender walked in, intimidated Brian, spit, made obnoxious noises, threw a paper wad at Claire, taunted her and Andy, after which Andy said “You don’t even count.” Other people must have seen the version where everyone walked in, sat in silence for a minute, and then Andy turned around and said, apropos of nothing, “You don’t even count.” And nothing was ever resolved between them, as far as I could see. Don’t know what to make of that.
Vernon vs. Bender
This is another character based on someone Hughes was holding resentment against. So of course, he’s portrayed as almost entirely one-sided (although there are the character glimpses Ass for a Hat pointed out). I admit his actions in the closet are way over the line, but then they have to be, otherwise we can’t see Bender as contributing to his situation in any way. Except, he does. There’s what we saw, and probably a history of conflict that led to this. It’s not like Vernon is picking on him for an arbitrary reason.
Bender vs. the world
He antagonizes everyone, then wonders why everyone doesn’t love him. I’m sorry he’s abused, but he lost me when he said, “So I don’t think! That I have to SIT! With you fuckin’ dildoes any more!” and then threw a tantrum and ended up looking through the bars of the balcony, like a two-year-old in a playpen. Which is what he is: a big baby. He’s not better than the others just because his scars are visible. If he wants sympathy, he should stop being an asshole to others.
Some people get dealt a bad hand. How you play it is up to you. My grandfather grew up in an orphanage, where he was beaten. He was determined to make a better life for himself, and he did. He got an education, and became an elementary school principal. (No, he didn’t victimize kids like Vernon did. He wasn’t everybody’s grandpa, necessarily, but he was good at what he did.) Now granted, this was in the early 20th century, before the culture of entitlement, so maybe that’s why he was able to motivate himself. But he did. And I simply can’t get behind Bender. He rants and raves about how horrible his life is, he demands change, but he’s not willing to modify his own behavior. In the end, his fate is up to him. Not his parents, not Vernon, not Claire. Him.
Bender vs. Brian
I give Brian credit for being the only one who, while sparring with Bender, didn’t turn it into a dick-duel, but made his point concisely and unemotionally: “Did you know without trigonometry there’d be no engineering?” And another mark against Bender, for refusing to even consider that Brian doesn’t have it any easier than he does. Brian deserves abuse even less than Claire does, because she has more of a fallback position, socially. Brian saying “That was you?” when Andy starts telling what he did to Larry Lester speaks volumes.
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. One thing, though: I think he agreed to write the essay not only because giving in was his way of life (although I’m sure that was part of it) but also because he wanted to be the one to write it: to show what he could do. He seemed pretty proud of it when it was finished, after all.
Alison vs. her issues
I also have a hard time reconciling that someone as withdrawn as Alison would suddenly morph into a master manipulator. The character’s not as developed as she was in the original script. Maybe Hughes decided to give her more of an air of mystery, but I would have preferred to see the scene where she described her home life in detail. As such, she’s just kind of there. I’d like to think that Andy would have his horizons expanded by their association…but probably, either she’ll have to adapt to his way of life, or the relationship will fail. Anyway, her issues are too deep-seated to be resolved so easily.
And finally, there’s the way it just goes from high point to high point, with very little transition. How did Bender convince everyone to come to his locker with him? How did they all get into the circle – it appeared to be Claire’s idea, but what prompted her? Why did they suddenly start dancing? If Claire’s so image-conscious, how come we never saw her fussing with her hair or makeup (except when she was doing her trick)? Didn’t Brian want to read anything? What did Bender have for lunch? Maybe I just have too much of a '90s/2Ks, Kevin Smith mentality, but I think the drama is in the details, and there weren’t enough details.
