Film Review: ‘The Breakfast Club’

Welcome back for another 80s film review 🙂

I recently watched this iconic cult classic after wanting to watch it for so long. ‘The Breakfast Club’ focuses on a group of 5 high school students, placed in detention on a Saturday.

Each student is part of a different social group in the school. Clair is the popular, pretty prom queen; John is a “burn out”, spending his lunchtimes smoking weed; Brian is the typical nerd; Allison is a silent loner, and Andrew is your typical jock.

The film follows these 5 students while they sit through the long hours of a Saturday detention, trying to escape the horrible teacher supervising their detention. Hating each other at first, they start to chat about anything and everything.

This film shows that, while these students may be from different “groups”, they all have things in common. They all have parents who don’t seem to care about them, and they feel constantly under-estimated because of their restrictive roles in the school. Each student shares their worries, their thoughts and the reason why they are in detention.

I really liked the range of characters in this film, and while their eventual bonding at the end of the film may have been stereotypical, I enjoyed watching the character relationships and dynamics.

I loved the dynamic between Clair (Molly Ringwald) and John (Judd Nelson). I liked seeing how Clair realised this group of people wouldn’t judge her for her lack of experience, comparing to her shallow, popular friends. I liked the scene where Clair lets loose a little, dancing and chatting with Allison instead of remaining uptight like at the start of the film.

The characters from 'The Breakfast Club' sit on a desk and look in different directions. They look moody and fed-up.
Picture credits here

I also liked the scene where the students get out of the detention room, running around the school corridors in their attempt to get away from their supervisor, who in typical John Hughes style, is crazy and power-hungry.

However, I think it is a cult classic for its iconic music and star-studded cast, rather than its storyline. While I enjoyed this film, it wasn’t packed full of action, and the majority of the film focused on the conversations and revelations of the students. Despite this, I liked the way in which each character connected in some way, creating a greater level of understanding about the plight of those from different social groups.

Did you enjoy my review of ‘The Breakfast Club’? Do you enjoy films from the ’80s? What was your favourite part of this film?

Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below 🙂

Happy reading x

Picture credits here

60 thoughts

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  9. This movie is a great coming of age story. These teens realized during their detention that they needed to change their point of view towards both themselves and others. This was a huge theme in the 80s, as sterotypes were deeply ingrained still in society and mindsets. These kids learned to see beyond surface image–something we all need to do in this age of perfect Istagram stories and photos. So the movie is a classic because it touches on a theme that likely will always be relevant to the human experience. Glad you got a chance to watch this film.

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    1. Yes that’s so true, coming of age is a good way to describe it. I love 80s films and you’re definitely right about that- the themes can relate to our lives now! Thank you for contributing your thoughts 🙂

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  11. This was a good one but my absolute favorite from the 80s is Clue or Weekend at Bernie’s. A couple of other good 80s films are Date With an Angel and The Manikin.

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  14. I love 80s movies! The Breakfast Club is one of my favorites. John Hughes was a master at the craft of film making. He left this world too soon! I think Clue was already mentioned, but here’s a few more: The Outsiders (1983), WarGames (1983), Ghostbusters (1984), St, Elmo’s Fire (1985), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), Top Gun (1986), Dirty Dancing (1987), Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987); Adventures in Babysitting (1987), and the Back to the Future trilogy.

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    1. 80s films are great! The Outsiders is one that I’m really looking forward to trying, and Dirty Dancing and Ferris Bueller are fantastic :)) thank you for your recommendations!

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  18. I watched this for the first time last year at uni, and while I did enjoy it quite a bit, I agree that its really more of a ‘monologue’ film, where its all about character development etc. I also found that some of the things in the film didn’t age very well, mostly concerning Molly Ringwald’s character. Overall, it is such a fun film though!

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  24. Such a classic!! Love this movie. I love how they create the discussion of cliques in high school, and that about relationships which can transcend high school. So so good

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  30. This finalizes my selection for tonight’s movie date ☺️ I have seen so many references to the soundtrack and the ending scene of this movie and yet have no idea whatsoever what it was, after hearing that my cinephile boyfriend haven’t seen it as well, we once made a mental note to watch it together on a call 🥰

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