After-school special (20th anniversary of “The Breakfast Club”)

The State ^ | 3/03/05 | Doug Rutsch

[qam1]

Nostalgic Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

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20 Years --- Ouch!

[cripplecreek]

I think we were supposed to "identify" with one of the characters in our own way. Personally I didn't really identify with any single character. I was geeky, on the track team and wore the black leather so I guess I was a mix of all 3 males.

[ViLaLuz]

"5. The Basket Case: Today, Sheedy's character likely would be punk or goth. And she definitely wouldn't be a friendless outsider — these groups are nearly as common as the athlete or the brain."

Wrong. She'd bring a gun to the library and kill all the rest before killing herself.

[cripplecreek]

Funny thing about these goth types today. They think they're doing something new but in reality it goes a lot further back than the 80s.

[Clemenza]

Holy Sh-t! I remember when this was playing at the Malverne Twin (my hometown theatre!). Despite being in the fifth grade at the time, I really enjoyed this film and the fact that it showed, in microcosm, how people from different backgrounds can bond when in a similar situation.

Its a shame Judd Nelson turned out to be such a dork in real life.

[Clemenza]

Out of all the characters, I'm a mixture of Ally Sheedy and and Anthony Michael Hall. As I get older, I'm becoming more and more like Richard "Dick" Vernon, played all so memorably by Paul Gleason.

[RockinRight]

Great movie. Still one of my favorites. Part of me could identify with every character.

[Hoodlum91]

Ugh, 20 years. I feel VERY old.

Must go get my walker now.

[LibertyRocks]

Thanks for helping me feel "old"! LOL 20 years huh? Doesn't really seem like THAT long ago!

The Breakfast Club is one of my all-time favorite movies... I can't even tell you how many times we watched it back then but we knew EVERY line!

I thought it was so cool that it was filmed in the high school my friend's mother attended (Maine North) and the high school my cousin was currently attending (Glenbrook North).

[Choose Ye This Day]

You mess with the bull you get the horns, young man.

Don't talk! Don't talk! It makes it crawl back up.

Demented and sad, but social.

I forgot my pencil.

[LibertyRocks]

"If he gets up, we'll all get up - it'll be ANARCHY!"

Too many great quotes from this movie!

Loved Allison's lunch - Pixie Sticks and Cap'n Crunch? She HAD to be on something! LOL

Another thing that would be different today vs. the movie is that Brian would have been expelled for bringing a flare gun to school - zero tolerance and all. Another thing you may not hear kids say nowadays was the reason Brian gave for his fake ID - so he can vote.

[GoBucks2002]

Another thing you may not hear kids say nowadays was the reason Brian gave for his fake ID - so he can vote. I don't think many kids were trying to vote in 1985, either, unless your poiunt is that in certain places they'll let anyone vote without checking ID.

To me, the essence of the film is summed up in the note at the end:

Dear Mr. Vernon

We accept the fact that we had to spend a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong, but we think it's stupid for you 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 with the most convienient definitions. But what we found out is that each of us is a brain, an athlete, a basketcase, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question?

Sincerely Yours, The Breakfast Club

[lainie]

At the time I was atttending Glenbrook South so it was really cool for us! (Sixteen Candles was filmed in the area, too)

[KneelBeforeZod]

Little know facts about "The Breakfast Club"

Before every death in the movie, there are bananas in the previous scene.

Molly Ringwald had an agent named Estevez, and Emelio Estevez had an agent named Ringwald.

Marlon Brando received $4 million for his ten minutes on screen.

Anthony Michael Hall, the geek, had no idea that his dialogue had been dubbed over with James Earl Jones' rich baritone until he saw Sixteen Candles in the theater.

During filming of the chariot race scene, one of the extremely expensive cameras was completely destroyed when a chariot ran right over it. The footage right up to the camera's destruction was used in the final film.

Judd Nelson nor anyone else ever said "Play it again Sam". What he did say was "Play it Sam".

The last word Ally Sheedy says is Rosebud. In real life Rosebud was the nickname for Ted Turner's mistress.

[Flux Capacitor]

"No, dad.... what about you?"

"F--- you."

"NO, dad - WHAT about YOU?"

"F--- YOU!"

"DAAAD! WHAT.... ABOUT.... YOU?!"

[lainie]

Go fix me a turkey pot pie!

[sinanju]

I was a big boy of twenty and in the Nav when I saw it at the mall outside NTC Orlando, but I knew it was a work for the ages. John Hughes, I already knew from Sixteen Candles, and he would go on to do as well or worse in the years to come. I never understood his obsession with this whole class-struggle theme (Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful) but I guess he grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and was unable to get it out of his system. I personally saw his lack of racial mix as necessary to not detract from his central, class-obsessed theme.

[Desdemona]

Man, do I feel old.

[Desdemona]

The characters were probably supposed to be some sort of cross-section. Nobody relates to just one. Most of us can relate to at least three.