by Bridget N. Watts

Created on: April 10, 2008

The Breakfast club is one of the better eighties teen movies, written and directed by John Hughes, who is also known for other teen movies like Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It tells the story of five teenagers, each belonging to very different groups at school (nerds, jocks, etcetera), who are forced to spend a Saturday in detention together. During the course of the movie, the kids find out that they are not all what they seem, and in the end, they all become friends.

During detention, the students pass the hours in a variety of ways: they dance, harass each other, tell stories, fight, smoke weed, and speak on a variety of subjects. Gradually they open up to each other and reveal their inner secrets. This includes all the usual teen stuff, like being ashamed of being a virgin, and they admit to thing like lying and shoplifting. They also discover that they all have strained relationships with their parents and are afraid of making the same mistakes as the adults around them. Despite these developing friendships, the students are afraid that once the detention is over, they will return to their very different cliques and never speak to each other again.

At the end of the movie one of them writes the essay they were supposed to write (the subject of which was to be a synopsis by each student detailing "who you think you are"). Instead of writing about the actual topic, he writes a very motivating letter that is in essence, the main point of the story. We then watch the kids leave the school, saying goodbye to each other, and getting picked up by their parents. While they are all driving off or walking away, you can hear the Simple Minds "Don't you forget about me", which became the theme song of the movie.

I really like this movie, I am a big fan of eighties teen movies, and this is definitely one of the better ones. Watching it reminds me of what it was like to be a teenager and in high school. I think this film catches those sentiments pretty well. I loved it when I was a teenager myself, and I can still relate to this movie today. If you enjoy teen movies, the Breakfast Club is definitely a movie you should see.

Learn more about this author, Bridget N. Watts.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.