Reviews

"Saturday, March 24, 1884. Shermer High School. Shermer, Illinois, 60062."

Most people would give an exasperated sigh at that monotonous voice-over, but not in this case, since preceding it was a David Bowie lyric from "Changes" on a black screen smashed like a glass window, the pieces falling to reveal Shermer High. Such an opening visual wakes up the audience to the sleepy town of Shermer, Illinois--sleepy like the monotone of the voice-over.

What you get from the voice-over is that five people have detention from 7:00 a.m. to dinnertime (I believe it's 6:00 p.m.), and each person is a typical high school teenage stereotype: the brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess, and the criminal. Following the voice-over, you witness each student arrive at school.

The princess skipped class to go shopping, but her father clearly spoils her and doesn't seem to care much about her offense. Because we know so early what Claire (the princess) did to get the detention, we assume that her character is easy to read. But after a while, you find out that her parents use her for leverage in a crumbling and loveless marriage; that she's no promiscuous "little-miss-popular," but rather a naive virgin; and she actually hates being the popular person she is, and hates her material world and the pressures in it.

The athlete's father seems to be genuinely concerned about his son. He says that guys "screw around" and that's customary, except this time Andy (the jock) got caught, and he has to suffer the consequences now. His father tells him to basically get his act together, because no school will give scholarships to discipline cases--which is true, and he's right. But throughout the movie it's revealed that Andy has no desire to be a varsity wrestler; he only does it because it makes his father proud. And then you find out that the reason Andy is in detention is because he beat up a much weaker kid in the locker room. Why? Because his father dislikes weakness, and Andy wanted to please his father. Once Andy's heartbreaking story is told, you look back on the conversation between Andy and his father in the truck and realize what a douche-bag his father really is.

The brain's case is possibly the most surprising of all of them. Brian (brain, with the "a" and the "i" reversed) is a straight-A student who seems to be picked on a lot by people like Claire, Andy, and the criminal. He always tries to fit in, and you wonder what got such a nice kid in detention in the first place? A gun in his locker, because he failed wood-shop (a class he thought would be easy and give him a chance to mingle with more "average" and popular kids) and ruined his 4.0 GPA. It's not really his family that pressures him so much (although you can see in the beginning that his mother isn't happy with him AT ALL), but rather himself, because school smarts are the only smarts that people like him really know, and they are afraid to fail at the one thing they are good at. (Take it from someone who was almost exactly like him in junior high--minus the gun.) Although the gun was only a flare, it showed everyone else at detention that Brian needed to break out of his shell and become their friend.

The criminal, John Bender (they just call him Bender), doesn't come to school with a parent, he walks. When he gets inside the library (where the detention is held), he takes the phone off the hook and does a couple of other kooky things. He seems to take pride in being able to annoy people, especially Claire and Principal Vernon, the guy who basically represents the rest of Society to the five students. He pulled a false fire alarm to get into detention, and he earns another eight during this detention. But he's not really heartless, despite several arguments where he practically crucifies Claire (his crush). During the course of the movie, you find that his father is physically abusive (proven by the cigar burn on his arm), and he has just as many feelings as any other kid at school, though his are well-hidden.

The last student is the basket case, Allison. She didn't do anything to earn the detention, but lied to her parents because she actually had nothing better to do on a Saturday. When she gets out of the car in the beginning (the back seat, actually), she tries to talk to her mother, but her mother rolls up the window and drives off. Apparently, she is always ignored at home, and she reaches out to the unsuspecting students at detention, actually finding out most of their stories through careful insight before they admit anything (especially Andy).

So, what happened on Monday? This is a popular question for Breakfast Club fans. Do Andy and Allison stay together? What about Bender and Claire? When Brian walks up to one of them, will they shun him (as usual) or accept him? Will Andy apologize to Larry Lester for beating him up? Will all of the students resolve their problems with the parental units? And finally, will Principal Vernon find a way to actually reach out to students in need instead of always putting them down? The fact that the Breakfast Club is open-ended, and the way it makes the viewers' imaginations take off, is one of the many things that make it a perfect 10.