In 1985, the famous director John Hughes, who wrote the scripts for such hits as Curly Sue, Beethoven, 101 Dalmatians, and Home Alone, made the film Club Breakfast. The actors and roles played by them are remembered by many people. Although the time of making the film is 30 years behind us, the story of five schoolchildren is called the standard of youth cinema today.
Plot of the film
The film tells the story of five teenagers from a fictional Shermer school in Illinois. For various faults, they were left to study on Saturday in March 1984. These five are completely unfamiliar with each other and belong to different social groups and school groups. Their names:
- John Bender (Judd Nelson) - “criminal”;
- Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald) - “Princess”;
- Brian Johnson (Anthony M. Hall) - The Brain;
- Andy Clark (Emilio Estevez) - “athlete”;
- Alison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy) - “Strange.”
Mr. Vernon, the principal of the school, gives them, as punishment for wrongdoing, a task: to write an essay on the topic “Who do you think you are?”
One day, described in the film, teenagers entertain themselves as they can: they dance, run after each other, tell stories about themselves, fight and smoke marijuana. Gradually they become sincere with each other, telling their secrets. Allison, for example, is a pathological liar. Brian and Claire are ashamed of their virginity. Andy was in trouble because of his domineering father.
The boys also discover that they all have a tense relationship with their parents and are afraid to make the same mistakes as the adults around them. Despite this, children develop friendships. The only thing they are afraid of is to stop communicating with each other after returning to their groups.
In the end, each of them opens up new traits of character. Claire shows leadership. Bender becomes softer and friendlier towards others. The girl even kisses him at the end of the film and, it seems, a romantic relationship begins between them. Andy became interested in Allison after Claire transformed her appearance with makeup.
At the request of Claire, supported by the entire group, Brian agrees to write an essay to Mr. Vernon to dispel his biased judgment about them. This essay reveals the main idea of the film. The guys sign the essay “Club Breakfast” and leave it on the teacher’s desk before leaving.
There are two versions of this letter. The first is read off screen at the beginning of the film, and the second at the end. They are not much, but they differ, illustrating the change in the relations of schoolchildren. In the end, they realize that they are not that different.
The beginning of the letter is as follows: “Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept that we had to sacrifice the day off as a punishment for the mistakes that we made. What we did was wrong. But we believe that you are crazy, just ask us to write an essay and tell you who we consider ourselves to be. Do you care? You perceive us as you feel comfortable. You call us “brainy”, “athlete”, “hopeless case”, “princess” and “criminal”. Right? That's how we saw each other at seven in the morning. We were wrong".
The letter read before the final credits reads: “Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept that we had to sacrifice the day off as a punishment for the mistakes that we made. What we did was wrong. But we believe that you are crazy, since they asked us to write an essay and tell you who we consider ourselves to be. Do you care? You perceive us as you feel comfortable. But we found out that each of us is a “smart guy”, and “an athlete”, and “nutty”, and “princess”, and “criminal”. Is this the answer to this question? Sincerely yours, members of the Breakfast Club.
Writing is central to the film, as it illustrates the changes teenagers go through throughout the day. Their relationships and opinions about each other have become different. Everything is now completely different for each of them, which the actors played very reliably. The Breakfast Club ends when the punished leave the school building. The final frame shows Bender, raising his goodbye hand and disappearing into a dark frame. Then come the final credits.
Actors of the movie "Club Breakfast"
The main roles in the film were: Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Ellie Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez. The film made the actors famous. Unfortunately, in the future, none of them was able to repeat this success. Neither the beautiful Molly, nor the reckless Judd, nor the promising Emilio Estevez (the son of the American artist Martin Sheen) became real Hollywood stars after the movie “Club Breakfast”. Actors only in the 80s really were teen idols.
Features of the picture
The Breakfast Club is still at the top of the list of the "50 Best School Films" of Entertainment Weekly magazine. For a film in which there is practically no action, this is an amazing result.
The picture is similar to a theatrical play: long dialogues, one location, a small number of actors. Later, the director even rewrote the script in the form of a theatrical play so that it could be used in school productions.
Interesting facts about the film
There are so many interesting details in the history of the creation of the movie "Club Breakfast." Actors who played the main roles initially wanted a different character for the shoot. For example, Molly Ringwald planned to get the role of the “strange” Allison, which, after all, was given to actress Ellie Sheedy. Also, at first the director wanted Emilio Estevez to play the role of Bender's troubled teenager, but Hughes could not find the right actor for the role of athlete Andy Clark, and in the end, she was played by Estevez. The director even wanted to invite Nicolas Cage to the role of Bender, but he refused.
Judd Nelson had a difficult relationship with Molly Ringwold, the film's partner, and they were so spoiled that the director even wanted to exclude him from the movie.
Music for the film
The tape sounds the hit band Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me). He became the hallmark of the movie "Club Breakfast." Actors, plot - everything in this small masterpiece is organically supported by a wonderful soundtrack. The tape has a lot of good tunes that create a unique atmosphere of the 80s. The singers Brian Ferry and Billy Idol both regretted that they had refused to participate in the Hughes project.
The best movie on a teenage theme is undoubtedly the Club Breakfast. The actors created unforgettable images in which every adult can recognize himself in his youth. This movie is about who we are and who we want to be. Such films are not forgotten, they are relevant now.