re: On this day 38 years ago, The Breakfast Club first met in detention

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never liked that movie, I am more of a weird science or Better off dead type.

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I've always thought it was overrated among the John Hughes movies, though I've always liked it.

I always preferred Sixteen Candles, Ferris, and Some Kind of Wonderful with Sixteen Candles being my favorite. Kind of had everything I wanted out of those movies when I was that age, which was Anthony Michael Hall's age the same year it came out.

Breakfast Club, while great, always felt like it was trying too hard. Plus, Judd Nelson's character always made me laugh, because him being one of the "tough guys" at Shermer just made me assume Shermer High School must be filled with absolute pussies.

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overwritten into archetypes

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Everyone has their own opinions and ways of analyzing movies, but isn't the main point of this movie to highlight these archetypes? How is it overwritten? Like the ending says:

Each one of us...

...is a brain: Brian perfectly portrayed. Nerd with a lunch that hits all the major food groups. Chimes in with a "know it all" comment any chance he gets.



...is an athlete: Emilio plays this to a tee as well. Jock wearing his letterman jacket acting all tough and takes pride in being an athlete. Starts playing protector when Bender starts bullying and teasing the others.



...and a basket case: quiet emo girl sniffing the pencil eraser and pouring salt all over her food while wearing something out of Marilyn Manson's closet. You'd make sure to walk across to the other side of the hallway when crossing paths with these types during school.



...a princess: this may be the only character that is more complex than the archetype she plays. She essentially resented the fact she was the princess so I found her being labled as the "princess" just as ironic as accurate.



...and a criminal: no explanation needed here, but Nelson played this character perfectly as well. highlighted all by his actions while in detention and his at home stories about the altercations with his old man.




So again, not sure where the overwritten description fits into this movie but you are entitled to your own opinion.

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pouring salt all over her food

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Wasn't that sugar? She put Cap'n Crunch or some similar ceral on bread and then put a shitload of sugar on it to wash down with a Coke?

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udd Nelson's character always made me laugh, because him being one of the "tough guys" at Shermer just made me assume Shermer High School must be filled with absolute pussies.

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ehh I can see it, only because we've all known that "type" in school. Towards the end of the movie Judd showed he was all talk and basiclaly played the character of a tough guy he wanted people to see, but deep down 1)he was a pussy as seen in bitching out 1v1 to the principal and 2)he was a softie by falling for a girl he just met earlier that morning.

HOWEVER...when most of the school (during the mid 80s) is either 1)a jock like emilio 2)a dork like AMH, 3)an upturned collar preppy frat boy 4) a "normal" person that is just regular and plain and doens't fit any stereotype....Judd's character that acts out and defies authority and acts tough probably IS one of the tough guys. At least that's the way I see it.

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ehh I can see it, only because we've all known that "type" in school. Towards the end of the movie Judd showed he was all talk and basiclaly played the character of a tough guy he wanted people to see, but deep down 1)he was a pussy as seen in bitching out 1v1 to the principal and 2)he was a softie by falling for a girl he just met earlier that morning.

HOWEVER...when most of the school (during the mid 80s) is either 1)a jock like emilio 2)a dork like AMH, 3)an upturned collar preppy frat boy 4) a "normal" person that is just regular and plain and doens't fit any stereotype....Judd's character that acts out and defies authority and acts tough probably IS one of the tough guys. At least that's the way I see it.

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I guess my point is that this would likely have been he case with an ACTUAL tough guy as well, who when push comes to shove is acting the role. Judd Nelson looked and behaved more like some trendy wanna be the way I saw it. To compare him to another Hughes character, think Jimmy Montrose who was the bit character seen with Samantha in 16 Candles.




Nelson definitely fit an archetype, it's just that I thought he was softer than portrayed. Hughes tried to make him somewhat threatening, which never did it for me. When I started high school in 1984 the guys that were older and guys I was worried about were mostly wearing black band tour t-shirts and 501 jeans with longish hair. They didn't often tie bandanas around their ankles...



Then again, this may be regional and what is what passed as "tough guy" in John Hughes viewpoint in his fictional Shermer, Illinois. And thinking more about it, Kevin Smith must have had a similar thought as to the lack of tough guys in Shermer, though given Kevin Smith is a giant pussy himself he thinks Nelson was hard.

LINK

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I guess my point is that this would likely have been he case with an ACTUAL tough guy as well, who when push comes to shove is acting the role.

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I think the version of being a tough guy that is portrayed in the movie is not the guy that could literally beat the crap out of anyone but that guy or guys that did not care regarding the consequences. I knew guys that were jocks or not the stereotypical tough guy that would always win a fight. But his character was of that guy in HS that could care less and what made them dangerous is they were unpredictable.

Sheedy > Ringwald

Pre-makeover all day.

amazing movie. saw it for the first time when i was 9 years old - it's been a favorite ever since, 16 years later