To some fans, The Breakfast Club is one of the greatest teen movies of all time, perfectly capturing the outlook of a high school kid in the ’80s. Following five students on a single Saturday serving detention, the beloved film by John Hughes takes a look at their prejudices, their internalized stereotypes, and their commonalities as members of very different social cliques. The Jock, Weirdo, Nerd, Criminal, and Princess all leave detention knowing their lives have been changed forever.
Made in 1985, the regard some fans have for the film will vary greatly depending on if they were high school age at the time of its release. Almost 35 years have gone by since it came out, and in that time, attitudes about high school society have changed, to say nothing of clothing and the interactions of teens. The timeless messages make it a classic for a reason, but in some ways it will always be a product of its era. Below you’ll find 10 things from The Breakfast Club that haven’t aged well.
THE INSULTS
Due to the fact that a bunch of kids with various grievances are locked in a classroom all day, moods will be tested. These kids aren’t friends, they don’t hang out with each other at lunch, and if walking past each other in the hall, wouldn’t even acknowledge each other’s existence.
When tempers flare between the more aggressive detainees, like The Jock (Andrew) and the Criminal (Bender), you get such lethal insults hurled like “Dildo” and “Butthead” as particularly lethal castigations. It’s just too benign to be taken seriously and definitely keeps the movie in the ’80s.
WHEN DETENTION DOESN’T FIT THE CRIME
The reasons the teens are all in detention varies - pulling a fire alarm, taping some guy’s butt cheeks together, and a kid gets caught with a gun in his locker and gets detention. It’s the socially awkward nerd Bryan, who doesn’t get respected and is easy to pick on. It turns out to be a flare gun, but still.
This isn’t a dig at the film, but it highlights the fact that in the current climate, if a kid brought any type of firearm to school, the police would immediately be involved. The kid wouldn’t be in detention, he’d be in a jail cell overnight and charged with a crime. In the ’80s the threat of mass school shootings wasn’t a concern like it is today.
THE ROYAL TREATMENT
Whatever you may think of Claire, so dubbed the “Princess” because of her privileged upbringing, she didn’t exactly deserve the treatment she received in the film. She was perceived as a spoiled rich girl, and as a result her worth in the eyes of the other male characters was directly linked to who she’d date among them.
“Let’s get the Queen impregnated” is one line used which would never make it to the big screen today as it implies that she just needs to be tamed by someone (in this case Bender) whose caustic observations can cut through her pretense. Ringwald has written extensively since the film came out about how she feels it portrayed women, especially her character, extremely negatively.
THE MUSIC
The ’80s was an era of music that belonged to synthesizers, base drums,and guitar solos. A film full of ’80s music is instantly a time capsule, and The Breakfast Club is no exception. In one memorable scene, the Nerd puts on Karla DeVito’s “We Are Not Alone”, and they all dance in the most ’80s ways to it.
And of course, the theme song by Simple Minds “Don’t You Forget About Me” is burned into the memory of any teen that watched the film in 1985. Complete with Bender’s freeze-frame fist pump, it adds to the quintessential ’80s cheese festival that is most of the film.
THE OVER THE TOP ACTING
Parts of the film are incredibly natural and well-acted, like scenes with the Nerd, the Jock, and the Princess. But as Bender, the Criminal, Judd Nelson over-acts nearly every scene he’s in. He doesn’t so much act like an angsty teen, but a disgruntled man at 40.
The same goes for the Weirdo Allison. played by Ally Sheedy. She’s completely deranged from the moment we meet her, putting dandruff on her picture to make “snow”. These two characters pull you out of the film whenever they’re on screen, reminding you that they’re in their ’20s “acting like a teen”, while the rest of the cast were actually teens.
THE AUTHORITY FIGURE
If you grab the bull, sometimes you get the horns. In this case, Vice-Principal Vernon (Paul Gleason). He’s pretty upset about having to waste his Saturday babysitting a bunch of unruly teenagers, and he lets them know it every time he stomps into the classroom.
A surly authority figure is par for the course in any movie about teens, but what dates this one so much is the fact that he even threatens the kids with physical violence (like punching Bender in the face). In the ’80s, corporal punishment was much more widely accepted in schools than it is now.
THE SMOKING SCENE
A bunch of kids forced to do detention on their Saturday aren’t going to sit and mope around in a classroom. They’re going to move around, probably destroy a few pieces of property, maybe even leave the classroom to raid the vending machine.
And inevitably they’re going to take part in some extracurricular activities. The scene where they all smoke is one of the most amusing in the film, simply due to how painfully awkward it is. The nerd declaring, “Chicks can’t hold they smoke, that’s what it iz” and Andy hot boxing in the foreign exchange office and breaking a window while screaming? Also, there’s absolutely no teacher in the room to prevent them from doing it.
THE MAKEOVER
One of the biggest gripes viewers have with the film is the makeover scene, where the Princess helps the Weirdo become socially accepti– pretty. Her hair is swept away from her face, her smokey black eyeliner is removed, and she’s given some pastels to wear instead of her gothic attire.
Today, most girls would prefer to look themselves rather than have what was attractive defined for them. The whole scene conveyed the notion that the way she was before wasn’t good enough, and that if she just polished herself up, she’d get that cute boy to notice her. Luckily makeover scenes in teen movies started to fade out after this.
THE ROMANTIC ENDING
Like a lot of ’80s movies, The Breakfast Club ended on a feel good high note. Four out of the five kids seemed like they were destined to be romantically involved after one day in detention, and the Nerd was left to ponder and recite the messages they’d all learned.
The messages include; the good girl will go with the bad boy, the jock will like the weird girl as long as she changes to fit his narrow view of beautiful, and the nerd will continuously be on hand to witness these two momentous truths in teen life.
THE STEREOTYPES
One of the things that was probably always going to date the film was its stereotypes. Sooner or later, the Jock, Criminal, Princess, Weirdo, and Nerd were going to disappear as teen classifications. As social cliques blended, this sort of labeling served no purpose.
So while the concept of the stereotypes dates the film today, there’s still a secure takeaway message from their inclusion; everyone is a little bit of all of the stereotypes at different times. We’re all a little hot-headed, a little judgmental, a little stuck-up, a little awkward, and a little strange. And that’s ok. Fist pump!
