Oh No!!! (Clutch chest - fake heart attack)
…Bad… Acting!!!
-hashiriya-
Bender is a potential abuser. Claire is his practice victim.
“We’ll get the prom queen impregnated” is a direct threat. Not comedic at all. Bender shouldn’t have been left unsupervised with young women if that’s the kind of thing he thinks is funny.
The underlying, unchallenged message is, “Treat women like shit and they will adore you.” Unfortunately, that’s a formula that works all too often. But the fact that so very many of my generation heard that message in this film, and continue to laud it, makes me so angry my hands are shaking while I type this.
Note: I know there are many, many films that show women as victims, and many of those many which don’t give the women a chance to prove themselves. It’s just the fact that this one film has been so fully canonized by my peers, in spite of the sick values it espouses.
It leads me to the inescapable conclusion that these people must agree that a woman does not have the right to decide what she wants to do with her own body, that the world owes it to men to have had sex by the time they’re 18, and that upper-class people are responsible for their own circumstances, while lower-class people are not. If you don’t believe those things, then I don’t see how you can like this film.
See now, on British TV, they don’t show these films nearly enough. DD was my number 1 all-time-favourite-film for years - i was 9 when i first saw it. And i have to argue with your claim of best line… the best line is undoubtedly
But as far as i recall, DD hasn’t been on British TV for years sigh
The Breakfast Club always weirds me out because Brian is the spitting image of an ex-boyfriend of mine. He looks, talks, and acts like him (or rather, like he did when we were 16… he’s an arsehole now).
Following on from what Rilchiam was saying - another film with a bit of a screwed up message is Grease. Now, i love this film, but i can’t help feeling a bit miffed by its final premise - that Sandy must change everything about who she is in order to catch and please her man. He loved her when she was a simple Aussie girl! Danny’s a complete hypocrite!
Fran
::snicker:: that’s funny!
I think Comedy Central is on some kind of campaign to make certain movies anathema. I mean, I know if I turn it on on a Friday night, I will see one of the following:
[ul]
[li] Cheech and Chong’s _______________________ (fill in the blank)[/li][li] How to Be a Player (or whatever that Bill Bellamy movie was)[/li][li] BAPS[/li][li] The Road to Wellville[/li][/ul]
Now, I have nothing personal against these movies, but they play them over and OVER and OVER. Once every 6 months is fine, people!!!
Hey!
Jennifer’s a hottie!
They’ve left BAPS behind (thank god) but know it’s either Revenge of the Nerds or Weekend at Bernies. I can’t wait for the next movie of the season…
Shit, Breakfast Club is mild compared to the message contained in another John Hughes movie, ** Sixteen Candles**.
Remember when the popular girl got really drunk and Anthony Michael Hall proceeded to pretty much rape her? She woke up in love with him, for some strange reason. If that’s not a confusing message to send out to teenage boys, I don’t know what is…
Y’know, I grew up on these films, and I gotta say that I never learned lessons like this. It was pretty obvious to me, even as a clueless teenager, that the violent and abusive behaviour of Bender and all characters like him was unacceptable. Young Molly accepts him not because of the abuse, but because she sees and identifies with the frightened and counfused person underneath it. Not that that excuses the abusive behaviour, but she always seemed to me to be more than capable of handling him. Did any Doper, seeing The Breakfast Club when they were a teenager, come away from the movie thinking that saying things like “let’s get the prom queen impregnated” was going to get them any dates?
Frankly, I’m getting tired of this attitude of “don’t show nasty things in movies, our children might learn from them”. Where the fuck else are children supposed to learn about nasty behaviour? School shootings notwithstanding, kids should be given a little more credit for being able to figure out when behaviour is not acceptable.
Mind you, there is plenty of material that is unacceptable fare for children, and their parents should ultimately decide that. Anybody see the Eco-Challenge last night? Truly awful…
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Kamandi *
**
I hope you’re right. But I’ve heard from so many people who say Bender was their favorite character.
**
What I saw underneath was a big baby. Did you notice that when his rants reached their peak, he would fall back on pushing and throwing things like a two-year-old, and sitting on the balcony looking through the bars like they were a crib?
Now that I’ve calmed down, I can say that I understand what you’re getting at, but Bender was still just way too arrogant. I was with him right until, after showing his scar, he said, “So I don’t think that I have to sit with you fuckin’ dildoes any more!” I know his problem is bad, but it doesn’t make him superior to the others. I would have supported Claire in wanting to nurture him if only he hadn’t said that, and if he hadn’t gone off about her everlasting earrings. John Hughes just has such a hangup about people with money being evil. Well, I hope he hates himself now.
**
Why should she have to, though? He goes off on her for not having a job. Does he have a job? He demands change, but isn’t willing to modify his own behavior.
**
There are always people who get off on intimidating people for the sake of it; dates aren’t a motivator for them. I also wonder about all those pictures Bender was carrying: how many of those girls had his baby? Okay, maybe none of them did. But 1985 wasn’t too early for AIDS, either.
Rilch, I think Hughes was trying to glamorize Bender’s character, he was trying to give us insight into what makes him tick. He was trying to show us that people like Bender, angry “bad boys”, may be acting out of frustration and fear, not out of malice. (And by extension, maybe we should give kids a break instead of throwing them into the “wastecase” bin.) He was trying to show that people like Claire, who seemingly has it “all” is trapped in her self-created act. That Brian, a “parent’s wet dream,” is under unbelievable pressure to measure up to his parents’ very high expectations.
The movie showed how a group of kids who would never socialize with each other under normal circumstances connected with each other through a unique, never-to-be-repeated circumstance (detention). As the day progressed, they let their guard down because none of their friends were there to say, “He’s gross.” Without peer and parental intervention they were able to talk, to relate to each other. And they found that they had a lot in common.
My impression was that the next day they would all resume their pre-created roles, because the pressure to conform was too great outside the vacuum. And they realized and accepted that. But they still had the memory of that one “John Lennon dream” day and were better people because of the experience.
Claire giving Bender her earring was a tangible way for her to tell him, “You are worth something.” It was a symbolic bridging of socio-economic barriers, if you will.
Pundit,
I couldn’t have said it better myself. In addition,
I definately liked Bender the best because I could relate to how he acted out. It wasn’t due to malice, but because he didn’t feel safe enough to open up to anyone. I love that movie, and I love 16 Candles, too. Great stuff, both, IMHO.
Zette
Personally, I liked the style of Ally Sheedy’s character (the quiet girl in the back, remember?) way more before Molly’s makeover. Molly slapped makeup all over this poor girl’s face, changed her clothes, and suddenly the young jock is panting like a dog for her. That offended me. Very weak story line there.
BTW, to get back to the OP, I despised Dirty Dancing. Throughout the movie, I couldn’t get Jennifer Grey’s character from Ferris Bueller’s (sp?) Day Off out of my head.
Nicely put. I still don’t buy the whole bag, but you said it beautifully.
Oh poop!
Ferris Buehler. Now that is a trip in the WayBack machine. One of Ben Stein’s best dramatic performances.
This is what I thought this thread was about. I’m kind of glad it wasn’t so that I got to be the one to break the news to ya’ll. I’ve known about this for months. A sequel… Ain’t life grand?
Ricky Martin and Natalie Portman in Dirty Dancing 2?? Augh!!
Speaking as a straight male, I think Ricky’s so yummy even I’d fuck him ;).
But Natalie? Every time I see her all I think of is the 12 year-old she played opposite Jean Reno in “The Professional” (a superb movie, BTW). Cute, yes. Talented, yes. But keep your mitts off the kid, bub!