Five teenagers are assigned detention on a Saturday morning and afternoon. They are a jock (Emilio Estevez),a hood (Judd Nelson),a rich girl (Molly Ringwald),a geek (Anthony Michael Hall) and a basket case (Ally Sheedy). During the course of the detention (and with a little help from marijuana) they open up and talk and begin to know each other.

A dead on target examination of teen life in 1984/85. This was a very challenging thing to do--release a film about teens just talking and relating to each other. It also was (unjustly) awarded an R rating for the frequent swearing--but that's how high schoolers talk!

I was in college when this came out, but I saw it with a friend who was still in high school. According to him the movie got everything right--the clothes, dialogue, styles and music were accurate. He said it was one of the few movies that accurately showed how he felt. I felt the same way. I think any teenager can relate to this movie. The movie is somewhat unpleasant (some of the kids really attack each other verbally) but there's plenty of comedy mixed in too.

The cast: Estevez (what ever happened to...) is just great as the jock. He gives a very believable and moving performance especially in a speech about his father. Nelson, however, is horrible as the hood. He looks the part but he's way too eloquent and his acting was pretty bad. Ringwald and Hall are perfect in their roles, but they WERE teenagers when this was filmed. Sheedy does what she can with a criminally underwritten role. John Kapelos (as a janitor) is hardly in it (I'm assuming his part was severely cut) and Paul Gleason (a good actor) is given a very 1-dimensional role--the evil adult. He does what he can with it.

The movie isn't perfect--parents are the root of all the kids problems; there are annoying lapses in logic (like how does Ringwald get to see Nelson at the end and Sheedys character wasn't assigned detention, so wouldn't Gleason know that) and there is a whole dance sequence squeezed in.

Still--a truly great teenage movie. A definite must-see. A bonus is that the movie opens with one of the best songs of the 1980s (and a big hit)--Simple Minds "Don't You Forget About Me". This is rightfully considered a classic.

"Who'd your mom marry--Mr. Rogers?" "No--Mr. Johnson"

The 80s was the decade of the Brat Pack and the decade of John Hughes who did films that spoke to teens and 20 somethings of the era. His enduring classic was The Breakfast Club a character study of a cross section of teen America of the Reagan years.

In my childhood and adolescent years the culture had a great divide on what made the young tick. The model were shows like Leave It To Beaver and The Donna Reed Show. All the kids were wholesome and clean cut. The polar opposite was found on the big screen in Rebel Without A Cause and dozens of pale imitations of hot rodding kids. And the girls for the most part were just orbiting satellites around the males.

That's the most radical thing about The Breakfast Club I Found. The teen princess Molly Ringwald and the weird girl Ally Sheedy are most definitely not satellites around the males. Although Ringwald could have shown up on The Donna Reed Show she like the others is a complex character with her own issues regarding school and life. Sheedy was something unique, an oddball who not only doesn't fit in but regards that as a virtue. Not that people weren't like her in real life, but just not shown on the big screen or small.

The 'good' kids are jock Emilio Estevez and overachiever scholar Anthony Michael Hall. Superficially both of those could be Donna Reed or Brady Bunch characters. What's revealed is both are just trying to fit into their assigned niches in life and both question why is there so much pressure to succeed. One has suicidal intentions because of it.

Judd Nelson is your James Dean character, good but truly the least original of all the charter members of The Breakfast Club. He could truly have been part of the motorcycle clique that Dean belonged to in Rebel Without A Cause. Dean himself bared his soul, Nelson took a bit longer to do it on the screen. For him and Sheedy detention is just part of the day. The other three are new to it and in the normal course of school day they would not be caught dead associating with these two or in fact each other. They all have their cliques except Sheedy who is a total loner. In the end they find they have a lot of the same issues and anxieties. Detention enforced socialization on them.

Paul Gleason plays the school principal and in his career he took out a patent on these authority figures who are so alien to the kids. He did the part of the principal in so many films and TV shows his appearance almost became expected like Margaret Dumont in a Marx Brothers comedy. The Breakfast Club became his signature part.

The Breakfast Club is a true classic, long and deep on character almost like a Eugene O'Neil play.

While I slightly prefer Planes, Trains and Automobiles, this along with Ferris Bueller's Day Off is one of John Hughes' better films. It isn't a perfect film I agree as admittedly the characters are clichéd and there are minor logic lapses, but here's the thing- the more I see The Breakfast Club the more I like it. It still has its freshness, and while I never had a detention when I was in school even from what I've heard from people who have this actually makes detentions cool. And it is still relevant not only to the teenagers back then but now too, it does ring true a vast majority of the time what with its justified grievances, self-pitying whinges and hard-hitting home truths. The cinematography is nice and fluid, typical Hughes really, and the soundtrack adds to the film's coolness. Hughes directs wonderfully, and the script and story are well written and I think memorable. While their characters are clichéd, that I agree, the cast do a great job with what they have. Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall and especially Molly Ringwald give very appealing performances and interact well together. In conclusion, I love this film, while not perfect I like it more every time I see it. 10/10 Bethany Cox