Back to School 2023: The Breakfast Club (1985)
Director: John Hughes Run Time: 97 min. Rating: R Release Year: 1985
Starring: Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald
Country: United States
Language: English
About the film:
What happens when five strangers end up together in Saturday detention? Badass posturing, gleeful misbehavior, and a potent dose of angst. With this exuberant, disarmingly candid film, writer-director John Hughes established himself as the bard of American youth, vividly and empathetically capturing how teenagers hang out, act up, and goof off.
The Breakfast Club (2023) brings together an assortment of adolescent archetypes—the uptight popular girl (Molly Ringwald), the stoic jock (Emilio Estevez), the foulmouthed rebel (Judd Nelson), the virginal bookworm (Anthony Michael Hall), and the kooky recluse (Ally Sheedy)—and watches them shed their personae and emerge into unlikely friendships.
With its highly quotable dialogue and star-making performances, this exploration of the trials of adolescence became an era-defining pop-culture phenomenon, one whose influence now spans generations.
About the filmmaker:
John Hughes was an influential American filmmaker who began his career as an advertising copywriter before becoming a regular contributor for the National Lampoon magazine. He captured the adoration of a generation with his perceptive and light-hearted Brat Pack comedies, beginning with writing and directing Sixteen Candles (1984) followed by The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985), and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), and writing the screenplays for Pretty in Pink (1986) and Some Kind of Wonderful (1987).
He went on to write and direct the adult comedies Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), She’s Having a Baby (1988), and Uncle Buck (1989). He also penned the screenplays for many feature films, including National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983), Mr. Mom (1983), Home Alone (1990), Beethoven (1992), Dennis the Menace (1993), and the live-action 101 Dalmatians (1996). In 2010, Hughes’ career was honored posthumously with a moving tribute at the 82nd Academy Awards.
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