"And these children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds are immune to your consultations. They are quite aware of what they are going through..." -David Bowe

[Edited 10/27/14 6:08am]

On March 24, 1984, five students report for Saturday morning detention at Shermer High School in the Chicago, Illinois suburb of Shermer. While not complete strangers, each of them comes from a different clique, and they seem to have nothing in common: the popular and pampered Claire Standish (a "princess"), the sports jock Andrew Clark (an "athlete"), the bookish Brian Johnson (a "brain"), the reclusive outcast Allison Reynolds (a "basket case") and the rebellious John Bender (a "criminal").

Cast

• Emilio Estevez as Andrew "Andy" Clark, the athlete
• Paul Gleason as Richard "Dick" Vernon, the school assistant principal
• Anthony Michael Hall as Brian Ralph Johnson, the brain
• Judd Nelson as John Bender, the criminal
• Molly Ringwald as Claire Standish, the princess
• Ally Sheedy as Allison Reynolds, the basket case
• John Kapelos as Carl Reed, the school janitor
• Ron Dean as Mr. Clark
• Mercedes Hall as Mrs. Johnson
• John Hughes (uncredited) as Mr. Johnson
• Mary Christian as Brian's sister
• Tim Gamble as Mr. Standish
• Perry Crawford as Mr. Reynolds
• Fran Gargano as Mrs. Reynolds

Production

Casting

Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall were both in Hughes' 1984 film Sixteen Candles. Towards the end of filming, Hughes asked them both to be in The Breakfast Club. Ringwald was originally approached to play the character of Allison Reynolds, but she was "really upset" because she wanted to play Claire. She eventually convinced the director and the studio to give her the part.^[4]

Emilio Estevez originally auditioned for the role of John Bender. However, when John Hughes was unable to find someone to play Andrew Clark, Estevez was recast. Nicolas Cage was considered for the role of John Bender, which was the last to be cast, though the role came down to John Cusack and Nelson. Hughes eventually cast Cusack, but decided to replace him with Nelson before shooting began, because Cusack did not look threatening enough for the role. At one point, Hughes got angry at Nelson because he stayed in character by taunting Ringwald off-camera, and the other actors had to convince Hughes not to fire him.^[4][5]

Rick Moranis was originally cast as the janitor but left due to creative differences and was replaced by John Kapelos.^[6]

Filming

In 1999, Hughes said that his request to direct the film met resistance and skepticism because he lacked filmmaking experience.^[7] Hughes won the investors over with his argument that due to the film's low budget of $1 million and its single-location shoot, the risks involved were minimal.

Hughes originally thought that The Breakfast Club would be his directorial debut. Because of his own inexperience, he set the film in one room and wrote it about high school students, who would be played by younger actors.^[8]

Principal photography began on March 28, 1984, and ended in May of that year. Filming took place at Maine North High School in Des Plaines, Illinois, which had closed in 1981. (The building was later used for some of the scenes in Hughes's Ferris Bueller's Day Off, released one year after The Breakfast Club.) At the end of the film, John Bender walks through Maine East High School's football field, which is also where some of the outside shots of Ferris Bueller were filmed.

The library at Maine North High School was considered too small for the film, so the crew built the set in the school's gymnasium.^[9] The actors rehearsed with each other for three weeks and then shot the film in sequence.^[10] Some of the posters on the walls during filming of The Breakfast Club were still there when Ferris Bueller was filmed. On the Ferris Bueller's Day Off DVD commentary (featured on the 2004 DVD version), John Hughes revealed that he shot the two films back-to-back to save time and money, and some outtakes of both films feature elements of the film crews working on the other film.

The first print was 150 minutes long.^[11] During a cast reunion in honor of the film's 25th anniversary, Ally Sheedy revealed that it was Hughes' director's cut, but Hughes' widow did not disclose any details concerning its whereabouts.^[5]

Themes

The main theme of the film is the constant struggle of the American teenager to be understood, by adults and by themselves. It explores the pressure put on teenagers to fit into their own realms of high school social constructs, as well as the lofty expectations of their parents, teachers, and other authority figures. On the surface, the students have little in common with each other. However, after the day rolls by, they eventually bond over a common disdain for the aforementioned issues of peer pressure and parental expectations.^[12][13] The main adult character, Mr. Vernon, is not portrayed in a positive light. He consistently talks down to the students and flaunts his authority throughout the film. Bender is the only one who stands up to Vernon.^[12]

Stereotyping is another theme. Once the obvious stereotypes are broken down, the characters "empathize with each other's struggles, dismiss some of the inaccuracies of their first impressions, and discover that they are more similar than different."^[14]

Opening and closing

Opening quote

The film opens with a short quote from the second verse of the 1971 David Bowie song, "Changes":

"...and these children that you spit on, as they try to change their worlds are immune to your consultations. They're quite aware of what they're going through..."

Opening voice-over

The voice-over in the opening is performed by Anthony Michael Hall and differs from the version that is delivered at the film's closing:

"Saturday, March 24, 1984. Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois, 60062. Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was that we did wrong, what we did was wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are, what do you care? You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at seven o'clock this morning. We were brainwashed."

Closing voice-over

The voice-over in the closing is performed by Hall as well, with Estevez, Sheedy, Ringwald, and Nelson also speaking in character in reference to their "type":

"Dear Mr Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. 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 basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club."

Poster

The film's poster, featuring the five characters huddled together, was photographed by Annie Leibovitz toward the end of shooting. The shot of five actors gazing at the camera influenced the way teen films were marketed from that point on.^[15] The poster refers to the five "types" of the story using slightly different terms than those used in the film, and in a different sequence, stating "They were five total strangers with nothing in common, meeting for the first time. A brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse."

Release

Critical reception

The film holds a 91% "Certified Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 44 reviews, with an average score of 7.4/10. The critical consensus is "The Breakfast Club is a warm, insightful, and very funny look into the inner lives of teenagers".^[16] Review aggregator Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 62% based on 11 reviews from mainstream critics, considered to be "generally favorable reviews

love that movie...it's one of my favorite 80s films

there's a scene in the movie where one character is holding a copy of Prince's 1999 album in the library

SoulAlive said:

love that movie...it's one of my favorite 80s films

there's a scene in the movie where one character is holding a copy of Prince's 1999 album in the library

^^ that's it

I have the 45

I still put the soundtrack on and dance like Ally Sheedy still to this day.