Zoom-in Online

John Hughes seminal high school classic puts five barely acquainted students from different social orders into the library on a weekend to serve out a detention. The day begins with stereotype reinforcing banter. It’s easy to differentiate the jock (Emilio Estevez) from the outcast (Ally Sheedy), the spoiled rich girl (Molly Ringwald) from a nerdy A student (Anthony Michael Hall) and the burnout (Judd Nelson) from all of them. But soon their forced conversation –what else can they do? —leads to soul-searching confessionals and the crumbling of the social order walls that their high school identities impose on them. The Breakfast Club ends with the following quote, written by the brain, but delivered via voice-over with each student chiming in:

“You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basketcase, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club.”

The simple genius of the movie is in the way it manages to accept and discuss those labels without really subverting them –they’re hard to escape in high school, let’s face it. This Club merely expanded the definitions a little to give you breathing room, whichever classification one happened to fall into. It was a lively conversation starter but not a subversive riot.

I was in high school myself when The Breakfast Club (1985) opened. Believe it or not, I had never seen an R rated film before it. And yes, The Breakfast Club was rated R. People forget that, but it’s true. Though I could be classified as a “brain” I felt like a “criminal” in February 1985 on my way to the Quo Vadis in Michigan with my best girlfriend. The movie opened on the 15th but if my memory serves we saw a “sneak preview” screening prior to that date. My friend was also of the “brain” social order  [tangent: If you ask me, we were the prototype characters for Judd Apatow’s brother/sister leads in the Freaks and Geeks television series in more ways than one --even if Mr. Apatow never met us and didn’t know it. But this is a subject for another day] After the movie we were complete “basketcases” –quite unable to escape the movie in all subsequent high school social functions and deep conversations.

Some combination of our group of 10 closest friends could be seen at various theaters in Michigan every Friday or Saturday night for the next few months as we returned again and again. The activity was as regular as going to church, only their were multiple houses of worship, the language was racier, and nobody as cool as Molly Ringwald circa 85/86 was ever seen within the congregation. I had and have never, before or since, seen a movie as many times in the theater. The Breakfast Club hit theaters at exactly the time it could strike me with maximum force.

“When you grow up, your heart dies”

Amongst my group of friends, that particular Ally Sheedy quote was a frequent refrain and subject of conversation. It’s the one thing about our collective fawning for the movie that I regret. Because, you know, we all grow up. My heart didn’t die but my emotions did settle. When you’re a teenager it can be hard to interpret or relate to the comparitively numb emotions of adults.  Nevertheless, on rare occasions in difficult situations when I find myself feeling numb, my mind has drifted back to that Breakfast Club quote and I’ve gotten a little defensive.  That’s how much the movie hit me in my formative years. I remember sequences from that movie with frightening clarity even though I avoid it now, all chopped up and neutered on TV.

The Breakfast Club will always be one of the most significant pieces of my personal history from those years. It’s like a nostalgia inducing yearbook but it comes with colorful moving photos. Some signatures in my yearbook belong to people I can’t ever recall meeting but Molly, Anthony, Ally, Judd and Emilio –these people I remember well. They're not quite as real to me as Christine, Linda, Therese, Scott, Robb and the rest of my inner circle in high school but they're real enough. We must have shared lockers or gabbed over lunch regularly for four years straight.

*

Please Note: Tomorrow we’ll return to the regular Thursday Triple feature but on Friday I need to continue this Breakfast Club conversation. I want to check back in with its actors.