The Breakfast Club: Breaking the Stereotypes of the American Teen

By far, The Breakfast Club is one of my favorite movies we have watched in this class. My favorite aspects of this film are the relatable characters, important themes, and humor.  Taking place in 1984 Shermer, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, five students are forced to atttend an all-day Saturday detention. On the outside, the students couldn't appear more disimilar and all fit into five disparate groups: Claire (the Princess), Bender (the Rebel/Criminal), Andrew (the Jock), Brian (the Brain /Nerd), and Alice (the Basket-Case). The clothing, cars, and acting really conveyed the disparities in each character's personality. The assistant principal, Mr. Vernon, assigns the group the task of writing a paper about "who they think they are." Instead of obeying Mr. Vernon's instructions, the motley group spends the day getting into a little bit of trouble, but also getting to know one another as well.

My favorite scene by far from this film was after the entire group smoked the marijuana and were talking about why they had received detention in the first place. This scene was extremely emotional and revealed the true personalities of each character. For example, when Andrew (the Jock) admitted his regret for humilitating another kid in the locker room and his hatred for his father's encouraging behavior, it dismantled the stereotype of the jock as the mean, bully without any emotions. In Brian's (the Brain) case, he dismantled the stereotype of  the nerd just caring about school all of the time and not feeling the extreme pressure to get good grades. Although Claire (the Princess)  appeared to "have it all", she dismantled  this idea that having money will make you completely happy, as she received no true love from her family and didn;t truly like her "friends". Bender (the Criminal) showed that seemingly troubled kids often come from violent, abusive backgrounds. In his case, Bender's father was abusing him. The eccentric Alice revealed that  she just simply wanted her parents to pay attention to her. 

In general, I loved this movie because it shed light on the problem of trying to put teenagers into distinct groups. In reality, teenagers don't know who they are and still need time to find themselves, a fact that Mr. Vernon failed to understand. I really liked the scene in which Mr. Vernon was looking at the letter from the group and you could hear the voiceover of Brian reading the letter, which reinforced Mr. Vernon's ignorance for trying to get them to define themselves the way he wanted them to. This is a great movie that shows that seemingly different people, especially teenagers, have so much more in common than they think. In addition, this film reinforces the old saying: "Don't judge someone unless you've walked a mile in their shoes."