Happy New School Year!
Monday, September 4, 2017 at 4:00PM 
Each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal."
Dancin' Dan here wishing you a happy start to the school year, on behalf of Team Experience.
Has there ever been a high school movie as universal as The Breakfast Club? It's not a surprise that it's (apparently) still shown in schools to middle and high school students, given how clear and needed its message is: We may seem different to each other, but deep down, we're all going through the same shit. And if we really listen, we can help each other get through it.
Who did you most want to be friends with the first time you saw The Breakfast Club? While I always related most to Anthony Michael Hall's good boy Brian, I always most wanted to befriend Ally Sheedy's Allison, because I loved how she playfully taunted the others when they stared at her freakish behavior. She seemed like the most fun. PLUS: Pixie Stix sandwich.
Reader Comments (14)
Alison easily. As long as she keeps her original look.
Brian. I remember the day I saw the movie -precisely in high school- and (spoiler alert) when he confesses he almost commited suicide because he can't fail, I suddenly felt like I wanted to hug and befriend him. I was also the nerd in high school and, although I wasn't bullied or heavily pressured because of it, I always felt a kind of self-pressure regarding the subject and that the only way I could actually stand out was by getting good grades.
Such an amazing film that seems to have only increased in popularity over the years, and rightfully so!
I had a huge crush on Emilio Estevez back in the day, and I still think he's a stud in this, lol
But Ally Sheedy's character, Allison, is the most interesting, and I would have loved to have gotten to know her more.
I remember watching this film as a kid and thinking it was a really cool great movie. I recently watched it as an adult (for the first time in 20 years), and it's just all-around fantastic. The script, the acting, the soundtrack. How the hell was the theme song not nominated for an Oscar?! Or even the screenplay?
A little off-topic, but in my 1985 ballot, it would be in for:
Picture
Director
Supporting Actor (Judd Nelson)
Supporting Actress (Ally Sheedy)
Original Screenplay
Editing
Original Song ("Don't You Forget About Me")
Love love this movie
I was a Brian who desperately wanted to be Claire, (and secretly bag an Andy). I was the same age as these characters when it came out, and it was a profound experience to see myself and others like me on screen. Not just one of the Best of the 80's, one of the best of all time. Completely agree with Eric Fremen's Oscar nominations.
Eric: I'd actually say every member of "The Breakfast Club" shares lead placement (only Paul Gleason's Assistant Principal Vernon is UNARGUABLY supporting), but, even if you were to designate only ONE Breakfast Club member as lead and the rest supporting? Judd Nelson should absolutely be the one to have Lead placement.
i was the nerd who wanted to "befriend"* the jock
that seems to be the universal story around these parts
*and i did [go, me!]
It's so hard to place them all as leads because it's an ensemble piece.
For example, this same year in my personal ballot, for the film "Clue," I have Tim Curry nominated for Actor and Madeline Khan for Supporting Actress. Curry seems to be the lead, but the others all seem to be supporting. It just wouldn't feel right to categorize them all as leads.
Maybe I should move Nelson up to Actor because he gets more lines and plot focus. Sheedy still feels supporting, though.
Either way, the whole cast is great. I would even like to add Molly Ringwald to my ballot as well. But Nelson and Sheedy are definitely in there, lol
I was in my early 20s when this movie came out. I remarked to a co-worker that I loved the movie, but I didn't believe there were jocks as insightful about themselves as Emilio Estevez. She said, no, that's exactly my boyfriend. Someone said to me they didn't think there were stoners as insightful about themselves as Judd Nelson, and I said, no, that was my crowd and I knew people like that.
So it hit me -- we were still living in those groups. If a movie has ever changed me, really reached into me and changed me, it was that moment.
Molly Ringwald, because, well, Molly Ringwald - but if not her, definitely Ally Sheedy.
I liked this film, but as a huge fan of high school movies from the 80s through the aughts, I've never really understood why this one gets the love it does versus the other John Hughes movies (I liked all of Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off more) and the nineties/aughts movies (although an easy answer there is those made less money), unless it's the power of "Don't You Forget About Me" (which I would understand, and I thought it was fun that Pitch Perfect acknowledged that).
Allison, for sure. I didn't feel like I belonged in any of the groups represented here, but I would for sure want to be friends with Allison if she deemed me worthy of her company. I think I could only handle her in small doses, though. I could see how she'd be exhausting after awhile.
Brian was definitely a kindred spirit and the most like me in high school,, but I also had a fair number of "misfit" friends in junior high/ high school so I also felt a bond with Ally. Claire was the one I'd secretly want to be friends with, though, but be too afraid of being snubbed.
Nice!
I like this high school movie; it really interesting and shows that modern teens have similar problems as our parents' generation. As for me, I wouldn't say I like to go to school because of homework, but now I use a writing service, everyone can try it and save some time for movies. I guess that not all students like to do lab reports or something like that.