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“The Breakfast Club,” written and directed by John Hughes, barely takes place anywhere but a library. Five students at Shermer High School get placed in an eight-hour long detention class on a Saturday. Each one hates the other due to perceived stereotypes, making the library far louder than it should be for the entirety of the movie.

Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall) is put in detention for bringing a flare to school, Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez) is in detention for taping a student’s butt in the locker room, and Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy) goes to detention out of her own free will because she had “nothing better to do.” John Bender (Judd Nelson) gets eight weeks of detention for pulling the fire alarm and talking back to staff, while Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald) is in detention for skipping school to go shopping.

Each student had pressing family issues that inevitably placed the blame of detention on their parents. Some had neglecting guardians, some had overbearing parents, and one was neglected entirely.

For every student comes a strongly different personality, with some of these defining characteristics being “the brain,” “the jock,” “the beauty,” “the rebel,” and “the recluse.” These fruitful characters help fill the gaps that the lack of scenery creates, which makes the film unusual via its locations, yet still interesting and fun. 

With not many traditional “action” scenes aside from escaping Vice Principal Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason), “The Breakfast Club” is primarily dialogue. Most of this was teens arguing and insulting each other; even so, the dialogue feels like it could be spoken, especially by rebellious teens in detention.

In American culture, teenagers are often stereotyped as impulsive, gross, and rude, which is what “The Breakfast Club” tries to prove wrong. The film managed this with long heartfelt conversations between characters that showed why teens act the way they do. Surprisingly, these felt like very understandable reasons to do things.

Vernon didn’t appear as much as he could have, even though he is the opposing argument to the theme about teenagers. The film didn’t use Vernon’s idea that teenagers don’t understand themselves to be wrong often enough, which made his role as the main villain weaker than it could have been. Instead, Vernon’s like a small trial that the students face other than the main antagonist, even when there isn’t another.

Sadly, one of the five teens, “the recluse,” Reynolds, gets far too little screen time. Reynolds is portrayed as a quirky, shy, goth dressed girl who does odd things like biting her fingernails loudly at silent moments and occasionally stealing wallets and personal items. Sheedy played her flawlessly, adding in short squeals when yelled at, and rude comments when talked to, which makes Reynolds very amusing to watch.

“The brain,” Johnson, was very comedic. With comments about being in the math and physics clubs, Johnson broke up tense scenes and created witty moments. Although he was often used as a joke, he had very understandable lines, with some being the most crucial contributions to the film’s theme.

Johnson’s line, “…each one of us is a brain, and an athlete” paints the picture for the film’s message. The theme was mostly about breaking stereotypes but also teaching adults what teens go through and why they act the way they do.

The film unexpectedly makes good use of “the jock,” Clark, and his longing for his uncle to appreciate him. It gave an understandable background to the jock stereotype often being misunderstood. In fact, this was achieved with each character, enlightening a sliver of humanity in their stereotype, making them relatable.

Bender was definitely a rebel, but possibly too much. He always talked back to Vernon but also was snotty to the students. While he got the most attention in the film, he sometimes felt like an antihero.

“The beauty” stereotype is often depicted as a snarky, “Mean Girls” style person. Standish was not, in fact, she was often very respectful, which sort of ruined her stereotype and instead made her seem like a nice person.

Some of the teens’ motives were based on pressure to be perfect, and for others it was neglect from their parents or guardians. The movie strategically connected the teens even when they seemed unlikely to be similar. Johnson and Standish both were connected on being perfect and having good grades, while Clark and Reynolds both longed for attention from their guardians.

Thanks to relatable characters and a good message, the film bounces back from its taboo amount of locations. While it doesn’t have much of an opposing view against the theme, its dialogue gets the point across strongly. I would rate “The Breakfast Club” a 3.88📼 out of 5.00📼 and strongly suggest it to anybody who relates to or doesn’t understand teenagers.