HomePodcastsGenXGrownUp BacktrackThe Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club

GenXGrownUp BacktrackGenXGrownUp PodcastMediaPodcasts
By Mo
0 Comments


About This Episode

In 1985, filmmaker John Hughes created a movie that redefined teen cinema. From its unforgettable characters to its timeless themes of identity, rebellion, and connection, this film still resonates with audiences decades later. So grab a seat in detention and start planning your 1000-word essay, as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Breakfast Club!

(May contain some explicit language.)

Discord » GenXGrownUp.com/discord
Facebook » fb.me/GenXGrownUp
Twitter » GenXGrownUp.com/twitter
Website » GenXGrownUp.com
Podcast » GenXGrownUp.com/pod
Merchandise » GenXGrownUp.com/merch
Shop » genxgrownup.com/amazon
Theme: “Grown Up” by Beefy » beefyness.com

Apple » itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/genxgrownup-podcast/id1268365641
CastBox » castbox.fm/channel/GenXGrownUp-Podcast-id2943471?country=us
Pocket Casts » pca.st/8iuL
TuneIn » tunein.com/radio/GenXGrownUp-Podcast-p1020342/
Spotify » spoti.fi/2TB4LR7
iHeart » www.iheart.com/podcast…
Amazon Music » amzn.to/33IKfEK

Show Notes

TRANSCRIPT

SpeakerTranscript
JonWelcome back Gen X Grown Up podcast listeners to this, the backtrack edition of the Gen X Grown Up podcast. I am John joining me as always, of course, my buddy George.
JonHey man.
GeorgeHey, how’s it going guys?
JonIt is not a show without Mo, hey Mo.
MoHey, how’s it going?
JonIn this episode, and in 1985, filmmaker John Hughes created a movie that redefined teen cinema. From its unforgettable characters to its timeless themes of identity, rebellion, and connection, this film still resonates with audiences decades later.
JonSo grab a seat in detention and start planning your thousand word essay as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Breakfast Club! And you, yeah first 40 years, second
Moyears.
JonThere is so much to know about this. I don’t know, you’ll be able to cram it all into one episode, but it’s, it’s really it’s fascinating stuff too.
GeorgeYeah.
JonLike it’s not fluff. It’s a really interesting, not in the movie, but the backstory a lot, a lot. We’re going to get to that.
GeorgeLike if we were if we were going to do a podcast about 80s movies, like as a separate podcast from this, this could be a whole season of episodes.
JonI promise.
Jone Yeah.
JonThis is season two, right?
MoI’m just talking.
GeorgeYeah.
MoYeah.
JonYeah, right. I think about how ah was that series that Nacelle does where they do, well, just about James Bond or just about Harry Potter.
GeorgeMm hmm.
JonLike one season would be just about the breakfast club.
GeorgeExactly. Icons unearthed.
JonI know, right? Exactly.
MoYeah.
JonSo, okay. we’re gonna We’re gonna get into that in just a minute. First though, it is time for some fourth listener email. ah Hey, if you take time to write in, you are our fourth listener and we love that you’re here.
JonFourth listener this time is Jimmy B who dropped us a line. Subject of his message was your episode on Saturday morning cartoons. That goes back a bit.
GeorgeWow.
MoYeah, that’s a fun one.
JonYeah, yeah.
GeorgeYeah.
JonSo ah here’s what Jimmy says. Hey there, I have just started listening to your podcast and I was born in 1967, Mo.
MoThe best year.
GeorgeAh!
JonHey, look at that. The poet, he says, I am trying to catch up, but I have a few years to go still.
Georgeah
JonI wanted to make a, first of all, I’m always stunned when people go back and binge the back catalog. It tells you that even back then when maybe our audio quality wasn’t what it should be, and maybe the editing, the content was there.
MoYeah.
JonAnd that’s so gratifying to know that we, yeah We stuck the landing, at least from the start, that people enjoy back there. So thank you, Jimmy, for going back. ah He says, I wanted to make a quick comment on your Saturday morning cartoon episode.
JonYou mentioned how the TV was yours for Saturday morning. Well, that’s the way it was in our house also. I could watch whatever I wanted on Saturday morning, but at noon, the TV went back to my dad.
MoYeah.
GeorgeMm hmm.
Moah Oh yeah.
JonYep, okay, similar experience.
GeorgeYep.
Jonah He says, here in Dallas, we had a station, channel 39, at noon. It became all Westerns for six hours.
Georgeah wow Oh,
JonMy dad would watch the Lone Ranger, the Rifleman, one of my favorites, Rawhide, Bonanza, and others all day long, both Saturday and Sunday. ah
MoYep.
JonThe was, that was one of my favorites. ah with as it Chuck Honors, yeah, yeah, and the little kid.
GeorgeChuck Connors, right? Yeah.
JonAnd I remember I used to have to jockey, I wasn’t a reruns, I might’ve been, definitely reruns, but it was, That aired at the same time as the Untouchables. And it was always whether my dad would win or I would win, who’d get the TV, because he’d want to watch the Untouchables and I wanted to watch the Rifleman.
JonAnd so after a while, that’s when we got to hand me down black and white TV, because you can watch the Rifleman on black and white. You don’t miss anything.
MoRight, it was fine.
JonIt’s black and white.
GeorgeRight. Yeah.
JonSo it was okay. I didn’t mind at all. I’d sit in their bedroom in the foot of their bed and watch the Rifleman.
GeorgeImagine the time when you had to get a second television to watch something different because you couldn’t record it or stream it or anything like that.
JonYep, I can relate.
MoRight.
JonThat’s right. easy that’s That’s exactly the time we were living in. Anyway, Jimmy wraps it up saying, look forward to catching up. Jimmy, Jimmy, thank you for, thanks for finding us.
JonWe’re glad you did. Thanks for listening. Thanks for going back to the bat catalog and tearing through that.
MoYeah, absolutely.
JonYeah, we’re glad you’re enjoying it. We always appreciate hearing from our fourth listener to know what we’re doing right, what we’re doing wrong, and hear what you’re thinking. Listener, if you would like your email featured here on this show, you know it is drop dead easy. All you have to do is fire off an email to podcast at GenXGrownup.com. I read every single one, and most of them, like Jimmy’s, will eventually make the show. All right. At Good Business Behind, it’s this time to jump into the body of this backtrack all about The Breakfast Club right after this.
MoMan, this thing came out 40 years ago.
Jonhe
MoUnfreakin’ believable. I feel old. But it came out, actually, the 40th anniversary is coming up right now.
JonJust a
MoIt’s so the 15th of February, 85.
Joncouple days. Yeah.
MoYep, is when it came out. ah The film is set in the fictional Chicago suburb of Shermer, Illinois, which is ah really funny because we had this guy, Mike Fraternity, who was from a suburb of outside Chicago, and his name was John Bender.
Moso Yeah, so we already gave him crap about that.
GeorgeAh, nice.
JonReally? ah
MoBut, you know, if you don’t know the story plot line, I’ll explain it, but you really should just go watch the movie. It’s the film. It tells the story about five teenagers who are from like different, very different cliques in high school, and they all have to serve a Saturday detention who’s overseen by the stereotypical power hungry disgruntled with his life principal or vice principal.
MoWas he principal or vice principal? That part I don’t remember. But anyway,
GeorgeWell, yeah, that makes him more angry because he wasn’t the principal.
MoYeah.
JonBecause he’s the vice principal.
MoHe was the principal.
JonHe’s not even the principal.
MoThat’s right. Who was not happy with his life, but he’s going to prove that these kids out that he has very low regard for the kids and what they did wrong. well And it it it starts simple, but it just gets so deep into these characters.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeWell, and I think there’s no better metric sometimes of how well a film is received then, how it does in the box office versus its budget.
JonYep.
GeorgeSo this film was made on the cheap. Even back then, it was a million dollars to make this movie in total.
MoWow. wow
GeorgeRight now there’s a lot of reasons why it was only a million dollars. One room setup basically, existing infrastructure, ah like only seven credited characters or eight credited characters or something like that.
MoYeah.
MoJeez.
GeorgeIt was crazy small setup for this movie that gave us so much. One million dollar budget, total gross worldwide, 51 million dollars. 45 domestic here in the US.
GeorgeSo
JonTalk about a return.
Georgebig, big hit compared to its budget. It’s no wonder that after this movie and because of his previous directorial movie, Sixteen Candles, John Hughes became the it guy for making quote, teen movies, which I feel is very unfair because The truth of the matter is these are just good movies.
MoYeah.
GeorgeI hate when you call them teen movies because it’s almost like you’re, you’re like downgrading it a little bit.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeLike this is not as good as an adult movie. This is a teen movie, which is to me, just a sacrilege considering how good it is.
JonYeah, it definitely targets young teens, I can imagine but i have to imagine. Like you’re that age seeing a movie of this type and you’re like, Oh, Jesus, can I relate, right? it’ It’s almost like aimed toward you, whereas older people might not get it as much. Maybe they don’t remember their high school experience. And speaking of which, your experience, often we do a film like this, and I want to ask again here, ah each of us As we get into this backtrack, what is your relationship to and familiarity with the Breakfast Club?
JonLet me start with you, Mo.
MoOh, I mean, yeah, this was right when I was my senior year of high school. So it was fit right in there.
JonPerfect.
MoAnd even when my freshman into my freshman year of college, it was, ah you know, it was a movie that was shown in the student union often, you know, because it was a guaranteed fill it up for dollar a piece with popcorn.
JonMakes sense.
MoAnd ah it was like and everyone knew the movie as soon as you heard the theme song. Come on. Everyone started applauding. You know, it was it like one of those movies.
JonMm hmm.
Moso
JonYep. What about you, George?
GeorgeUh, so I was a freshman in high school when the film came out, uh, completely related to Brian Johnson, the Anthony Michael Hall character, because he was, he felt like that.
JonMm hmm.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeAnd I’ve, I’ve, uh, seen people talk about it since that that character was the one that no matter what click you might’ve been a part of that the other characters might’ve represented.
GeorgeApparently most people, um, talked about relating to the Anthony Michael Hall character more than any of the others. ah Just a solid, solid film that made me feel at the time like I wasn’t alone with my experiences and my fears more than anything.
JonHmm. Yep.
Georgeum Being a freshman in high school is very scary. I’m sure it is now just like it was then. And this movie gave me permission to be me a little bit.
JonHmm. Isn’t that look crazy how how film can do that? How media can do that sometimes?
MoYeah.
Georgemhm.
Jonyeah but Nothing else can. like Music helps. Music is almost just a salve that soothes the problem whereas film sometimes can actually heal you and actually do something.
GeorgeSure.
Jonyeah ah you know it’s funny My experience with this film is ah Wow, what was it was might have been the war games we talked about before where ah I re-watched this film for this episode to make sure I was the most familiar with it and I made the realization this might be the first time I watched the entirety of it chronologically.
MoMm hmm.
Georgeoh Wow.
JonIt was always around. like i always I would have sworn in a stack of Bibles, I’ve seen the movie from beginning to end, There was nothing in it I wasn’t familiar with, but I don’t know that I watched it without interruption as a piece of art and entertainment to watch in one sitting. And I always liked it after this viewing. Now, 35 years after it’s relevant to me as a human being, remembering when it came out and when I was first familiar with it,
JonI like it more now than I ever thought I did. It has so much more impact watching it as the intended whole piece of media rather than in, you know, Facebook reels and whatever.
JonAnd you know, Ben you’re holding his fist up because you’re listening to Simple Minds. It is even better than I remember it. It’s a tremendous film and more than worth this backtrack, let alone a whole season.
MoYeah, absolutely.
JonAs you said, George, maybe it would validate.
GeorgeI mean, in you know, you talk about doing a whole season, on there’s so many facts and stuff like that that I just started throwing them in this section because there wasn’t enough room in the next section for everything I knew or found as I did some research.
JonYeah.
GeorgeBut um one that I did know, which is an interesting little factoid that I think relates to this part of it. Originally, it wasn’t going to be called the breakfast club. Originally, it was going to be called the lunch bunch, which is a terrible name.
JonYeah.
MoDon’t like that. That’s a terrible.
GeorgeEven if I didn’t love the breakfast club name already, the lunch buns is just awful.
Jonyeah
MoOh.
GeorgeShame on you, John Hughes in the grave.
Moah yeah
GeorgeThat was a terrible idea. But he had a friend who was at another school in a detention class that the students called the breakfast club. So he stole that from his friend.
JonI love it.
MoNice.
GeorgeAnd that’s what became the title of the seminal movie.
JonIsn’t it cool? Like I’ve never heard of a nickname for detention. I mean, I was such a good kid. I never was in detention, but from my, from my troublesome friends who were in it, there was no cool nickname for it.
GeorgeI was going to say.
JonLike if it was called the breakfast club, I might’ve wanted in, you know?
MoAnd like we mentioned before, I mean, the filming took actually took place in a high school, Maine North High School in, was it Des Plain, Illinois, which is funny because like the interior scenes and stuff were also used for Ferris Bueller’s days off.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeMm hmm.
MoAnd
GeorgeYeah, another John Hughes film.
MoIt seems yeah and it seems like John Hughes, all his movies seem like they were part of the same universe.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeYep.
MoLike yeah you have the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s like you have the John Hughes Cinematic Universe.
JonYeah.
MoLike all these things take place in the same time, plate time and earth and all that stuff.
JonYeah.
Georgeah So a lot of them all take place in Shermer, Illinois. So that’s why they all feel like they’re part of the same universe.
MoYeah.
Jonyeah
GeorgeAnd even though it’s a fictional town, we’ll talk about it a little bit later. Other filmmakers loved John Hughes so much that when they got to make their movies,
JonMm hmm.
Georgethey talk about John Hughes or Sherman, Illinois in their characters dialogue, which I think is one of the best homages to a great film and a great director is if other directors take your stuff, they don’t copy it, but they put it in their stuff as a reference point for something that’s great that their characters love.
JonHmm hmm.
MoMm hmm.
JonIt’s like anchoring yourself, you know how good fiction is sometimes based in reality, like you’ll do a Civil War drama. Well, Civil War was real, so it makes my fictional story seem more real.
Georgeright
JonSo if your movie references Shermer, Illinois, well, that’s real, that’s established, that’s beloved, it makes your movie almost that much more elevated.
MoYeah.
JonI found a list-mo of the high school in particular, not just references to the town this high school appears, in the Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which you already mentioned, 16 Candles, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Pretty in Pink, and Uncle Fuckin’ Buck, all feature Shermer High School in the the Hughes-niverse or whatever this thing is called.
GeorgeRight. Yep.
Georgeyep
MoYeah, we’ll call it Hughes verse.
JonIt’s this thing that, and and it’s almost like they don’t draw attention to it. It just is. It’s it’s the reality, yeah.
MoYeah.
JonThey’re okay.
MoOh,
JonThey’re a lot. You’re right. We have a ton of factoids to cover. Get back from the break.
Mogeez. so
JonWe’re going to talk about those and some of the talented people that brought this film to life. Stick around.
JonAll right. I don’t think I jumped anybody. I’m just winding down there. Okay. um Okay. I’m gonna start with the the musical thing. and Yes.
GeorgeSo question is, I just started plugging them in, but in this way, because you had put two things in it, but typically we do the talent first, then we get into the facts.
GeorgeDo you want to reverse that and do the facts first and then the talent? I’m fine with either way, but
JonIt’s fine.
Moum see i would you Okay.
JonI think it’s fine as it is. Yeah. Yeah. No, it’s fine. Cause we’re talking about trivia and we’ll finish the trivia and I’ll use that to kind of springboard into it. And yeah, I don’t think there’s a wrong way to do it.
JonCool. Okay. I’ll start it off. Uh, somebody be ready to grab the next one. Maybe Mo you can do the screenplay one.
MoSure.
JonGeorge has got some stuff after you. All right. Talent and factoids or factoids and talent.
JonIn five, four, three.
JonAs is so often the case with films from the 80s, music plays a big part of of the film. And though this is comes out in 85, surprisingly, there’s not that much music in it because a lot of the film was based on kids being quiet.
JonBut what I did note, and if you know nothing else about the Breakfast Club,
Mohey Yeah.
Jonum don’t forget Don’t you forget about me, the song by Simple Minds is a bookend in this movie. It’s how the film starts as the kids are showing up for detention. And it’s how the film wraps up.
JonIf you’ve never seen it a single frame of it, except the ending you’ve seen in where he comes out and he’s defiantly throws his fist up in the air. And, you know, don’t you forget about me as playing. And I don’t think you can detach this film from that simple minds hit.
MoOh, absolutely not.
Jonit When I heard on the radio, I imagined that scene from the end of the breakfast club. And it’s because it’s so powerful for this film especially.
MoNo, absolutely. And I was shocked to learn that he wrote the screenplay in just two days.
JonIs that nuts?
Moand eighty Which makes me think he might have had it like in his head the entire time.
GeorgeWell, yeah, he he wrote draft number one in two days.
Moand He just put it on paper in two days. That’s the only thing I can imagine, right? It’s kind of like.
GeorgeThere are 17 drafts of this damn movie.
MoYeah. Oh, okay. Okay. There you go.
GeorgeYeah like I’m exaggerating there’s there I don’t know exactly the exact number but I know there are multiple drafts of it because there was an interview with um with Judd Nelson who plays John Bender where he where he and Emilio Estevez found out that there were multiple drafts of the of the original document or the original screenplay and they asked Hughes for them and that’s how
Mothat’s I feel a little better now.
MoMakes sense.
Jonah
GeorgeA lot of scenes that weren’t in the final draft ended up in the movie because they were scenes from other drafts that they asked him, can we do this instead?
Jona
JonThat’s cool. I didn’t know that.
Georgeyou know I think one of the um one of the most iconic scenes ah from the movie was the scene where all the characters sit around in the circle on the floor in the library.
Georgeright like That’s kind of the heartbeat of the second act.
MoMm hmm.
JonOh, man. Hmm.
GeorgeAnd the most interesting thing is 90% of that scene was completely unscripted. It was all ad lib. ah John Hughes had told all the actors, look,
GeorgeI just want you guys to talk like normal high school kids in this situation would I don’t want to write what you should say so just you know your characters they talked about in other ah interviews where they did a whole bunch of rehearsal before they ever shot this movie much like stage people do for a stage play that doesn’t often get done in film they did that for this movie because he wanted them to become their characters more to make things things like this scene because
MoMm hmm.
JonHmm.
JonMm hmm.
Georgebe a little bit more off the cuff and a little bit more realistic.
JonAnd I think you could feel that in that scene. Again, it was a scene that I was familiar with, but not having, again, the ah sequential lead up to that, how they’re kind of adversarial and at each other and and how they gradually become reluctant friends and to the point they’re just bear their souls in this thing.
JonAnd I was bought in like, man, they’re incredible actors. I don’t think they’re not incredible actors, but it explains they’re just talking like they would talk.
MoYeah.
JonAnd that makes so much sense to me knowing that now, damn.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeYeah. And, you know, it’s the actors got so far into their characters that some of them almost got fired. Judd Nelson playing John Bender, he apparently decided he was going to stay in character or whether he was on or off camera.
GeorgeHe was doing method acting, I guess.
MoYeah, method actors.
GeorgeAnd during that um method period, he was even bullying Molly Ringwald to the point that she was crying on set. And John Hughes almost fired him from the film.
JonYou imagine
Georgeand believe it or not the vice principal Paul Gleason came to his defense saying no no no don’t fire him he’s just a really good fucking actor we need him in this movie otherwise Judd Nelson wouldn’t have ended up staying John Bender we might have gotten Emilio Estevez who originally was chosen for the part but got moved over to the other character because
MoJeez. Yeah.
GeorgeJohn Hughes couldn’t find anybody to play the jock character.
MoYeah.
Georgeah So many things happened in this movie to produce what we now love.
MoYeah.
GeorgeIt’s crazy to think that it every little decision almost changed the entire film.
Moyeah
JonAnd you felt that from from Judd Nelson too. like He was an annoying prick over the top, and I felt that.
GeorgeMm-hmm.
MoYeah.
Jonand
MoYeah.
Jonto know that he continued to act that way. Like he he felt like other insecure dickhead bullies that I knew in high school.
Moyeah
JonAnd it made me so uncomfortable watching it.
GeorgeRight.
JonAnd again, it’s like, what a great actor. Well, he’s sustaining that with his co-stars off screen. I couldn’t handle it. I see why they would be upset.
MoYeah, absolutely.
JonJeez.
MoOh, geez. I mean, that’s nuts. The, ah I mean, and the thing is, like he you said, he improvised a lot of parts of this, right?
JonMm-hmm.
MoAnd one of the things that I did not know this was improvised, which in hindsight and hearing what I hear now, I totally make sense that it was, was, you know, the, the you know, the huge scene at the end of the movie when he finishes like the voiceover with him reading the letter, you know, about, you know, who are you to say who we are?
GeorgeRight.
Modada And he raises his fist into finance as he’s walking into the camera, you know,
JonMm hmm.
MoThat was like, that ended, that’s where everyone started applauding and because that was like, you know, yeah, that’s, you know, that’s like how we feel.
JonMm hmm.
MoThat’s how feeling being a kid at the time and all that stuff.
JonYep.
MoBut then that was all improvised. He, I guess they shot it multiple times with him walking to the camera, doing different things and trying different things.
JonLike peace sign backflip, you know, flipping people off, just do something.
MoAnd yeah, or him just walking, you know, but instead, you know, he threw his fist up and all of a sudden the guy’s like, and again, the jaw is huge credit. He saw that I said, yep, that’s the take, you know, and that’s the one we’re going to use.
JonThere’s the one, there’s the take.
MoYou know, it’s funny because in a second, I know we’re going to go through the actors and stuff that were in this movie that we’ve talked about already. But one of the parts i that ah George found out, which I thought was hilarious, is that Anthony Michael Hall’s character, b Brian Johnson, the mother and the sister in the car with him were his mother and sister.
Moin real life, which to me is just hilarious because I don’t think anyone could shoot a look at a little sister like that unless she was actually your little sister.
JonOh, that’s cool.
GeorgeYeah.
Jonactually her little sister
GeorgeWell, the thing that got me was the little sister got a line in the movie, like the mother is chastising him and we understand, you know, we’re never going to do this again, right?
MoYeah.
GeorgeNo, mom, we’re never going to do this again. And then the little sister goes, yeah.
MoYeah, and that look he gives her.
Georgejust like needling your big brother a little bit.
JonYou’re in trouble and I love it.
Jonah so Here’s something I just learned in preparation for this podcast, like 20 minutes ago, George shared with me that I didn’t know. So I’m not gonna go too deep in how we got to this part of the discussion, but there were planned to be more films in the followup to her Breakfast Club. And the part, as you were telling me this, I’m like, the most interesting part of that, like, yeah, see these kids when they’re older, five or 10 years in the future,
JonBut the janitor, Carl, who we see, who Bender is relentlessly, he’s bullying the janitor, frankquit frankly, when he gets an opportunity.
GeorgeMm hmm.
JonOh, this is your life, you clean up after kids, whatever.
GeorgeYour dad works here.
JonApparently in the…
MoYeah.
JonIn the opening shots, you see him, he was a star student at Shermer when he attended the school as a younger man.
JonAnd he ended up here as a janitor. What’s his story? How did he get there? What is it?
MoYeah.
JonThere’s backstory to be told even around this. I think that’s… that’s I’m gonna say it’s easy to miss. It’s drop dead easy to miss because I missed it every time I’ve ever seen any part of this film.
MoYeah, I had no idea.
JonBut to know that John Hughes put those kind of thoughtful little little nuggets, little, you know, breadcrumbs to make this a real fleshed out universe that this man is not just a guy who’s introduced middle of the first act as a janitor, but oh shit, he’s been here his whole life. That adds some gravitas to this film that these kids aren’t sure what their future holds and neither was Carl. Here he is.
GeorgeWell, in in particular, one scene that he is a focal point in, not the scene where he’s interacting with the students and Bender is making fun of him and Brian Johnson at the same time.
MoMm-hmm Yeah
GeorgeThere’s the scene later on when the vice principal is down in the the secure records room, right?
JonMm hmm.
Georgeand And Carl walks in on him and, what are you doing here?
JonYeah, they talk.
GeorgeAnd mobile ID starts blackmailing him for $50. They come back to that scene a few moments later where the two of them are having a conversation and the vice principal is bemoaning how the kids don’t listen to him and they’re the kids are bad compared to when he was young and blah blah blah and.
GeorgeCarl goes no it’s not the kids they’re the same we’re the ones who have changed.
JonWe’re changed.
MoYeah.
JonYeah.
GeorgeAnd if you picked up on his picture being in that hallway of the star students at the beginning of the movie, then you watch that scene later on thinking about that.
JonYeah.
GeorgeIt takes on a whole new meaning.
MoMm hmm.
JonIt just drives the nail right in the, doesn’t it?
GeorgeYeah.
JonYeah.
MoYeah, I like that part of the scene that when he says like, these are the kids are gonna take care of me when I get older.
JonJesus. Yeah.
MoAnd he’s like, will they?
GeorgeRight.
Jonbut I talked about the simple mind song a second ago. Of course that was Scottish rock band. I’ve loved it. We were talking about, don’t you forget about me a second ago, Scottish rock band Simple Minds.
JonSo the film came out, what did we say, May or ah February, February 15th.
Georgein February. Yeah.
JonThat single came out a week later, February 23rd in the US. Number one, the Billboard Hot 100.
GeorgeMm hmm.
MoOf course.
JonYeah, why wouldn’t it? So there’s a sneak preview when we get around to our ah Billboard Hot 100 for 2025, 40 years ago in 1985. Guess what’s gonna be on the list?
GeorgeYou know, ah we we’ve talked a lot about factoids. We really need to get into the actors and the characters they play just a little bit, since this is kind of the factoids talent section of the podcast. ah We kind of need to start with the Brat Pack leader himself, Emilio Estevez.
JonYeah.
GeorgeI know he hates that term after we watched that documentary about the Brat Pack, but he played the character Andrew Clark, who was an athlete.
JonHe does. Yeah. Yeah.
GeorgeHe’s in saturn Saturday morning detention because he taped another student’s butt cheeks together.
MoRight.
GeorgeIt sounds funny and you chuckle and laugh at the situation, but when they’re doing the round circle and he finally is a little bit vulnerable and you can see how pained he is at what he did to this other person, you get to see that other side of that character.
JonBut yeah.
GeorgeIt’s those kinds of moments in this movie that allow you to feel like it’s okay to be you, like I was talking about at the beginning of this episode, because
MoRight.
GeorgeHe’s not just that athlete and the essay that they have to write gets to that point at the end of the film.
MoRight.
GeorgeHe’s not just the athlete who is great in wrestling and is going to get a scholarship and everything. All these things his coaches and parents want him to be. He really is something else also and
MoYeah.
Jonsure
GeorgeStudents and young people often have a hard time finding their way through to who they want to be because of all the pressures that everybody else puts on top of them.
GeorgeThis film does such a great job of letting you see that fact from their point of view, not from adults’ point of views who are telling you about the teenage experience.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeYou’re seeing it from teenagers, which is awesome.
MoYeah, I couldn’t agree more. I mean, I think it’s like you said, it’s the movie seems to be about these kids that are put into these silos, you know, and, you know, and they feel and part of them feels like they need to fit in that silo.
Moand But they’re really not right there. They’re more than that. definition One definition of them of who they are.
GeorgeYeah.
MoAnd I think.
JonThat’s kind of the moral of this film, right?
MoRight.
JonIs that we’re we’re we’re everything, we’re not one thing.
GeorgeMm hmm.
MoThat they’re all more than just. Mm hmm.
JonYeah, yeah. ah next ah Next star of the film maybe doesn’t get the fanfare he should, but he’s a presence in the film. And in some cases a scary presence, the way he interacts with the kids.
Jonah Paul Gleason plays Richard Vernon. He’s the vice principal of the high school. He’s the man who clearly is required to, he’s the disciplinarian of the school. He runs the detentions.
MoYeah.
JonHe wants to run it with an iron fist. He right away has trouble maintaining whatever rules he set up that aren’t gonna fly. And you get the feeling that he wants kids to do what he tells them to, but really he just wants, I think he the power is what he wants. He wants to be able to,
Jonhave power over these kids that in a way he’s kind of afraid of because as he feels like they’re gonna have to take care of him me like we’ve talked. And it’s, yeah, it’s, I found him to be a tragic character and also a deeply flawed character, and but played pretty well by Paul Gleason, who I, I don’t remember seeing him in a whole lot more, but he’s one of those character actors I saw pop up here and there.
MoMm hmm.
MoDie hard.
JonDie hard, yep, yep, yep, there we go.
MoThat’s I remember most from.
GeorgeGreat.
GeorgeReally, I remember him most from trading places.
MoOh, yeah, he was a detective.
GeorgeHe speaks.
JonHuh?
MoYeah, he’s beat Meeks.
JonOkay, sure.
GeorgeYeah.
JonYep.
MoOh, yeah. yeah
JonYep.
MoYeah, and also, I mean, Anthony Michael Hall, you know, um he’s been a bunch of huge movies.
GeorgeOh.
MoYou know, he played Brian Johnson, the brain, you know, you know, who’s in Sunday detention for taking a flare gun to school, which that whole scene is is hilarious and tragic also.
GeorgeIt’s hilarious and heartbreaking, right?
MoYeah, exactly at both the same time.
JonYeah, right.
MoAnd it’s but I mean, and he was probably one of the it kid young actors of the time. I mean, because at the time he was in every yeah every weird science.
GeorgeYeah.
MoI mean, he was in all these movies at the time and.
JonYes.
GeorgeHey, think about it.
JonYeah.
GeorgeHe’s in four Hughes films, I think, or is he three?
MoYeah, I think so.
GeorgeI know. Cause he’s in vacation, national looping vacation, which Hughes wrote. He’s in 16 candles and, and this was he in pretty and pink?
MoYeah, I think he maybe probably probably.
GeorgeNo. Was he that was cry or I know was opposite of Molly Ringwald and that, but I can’t remember. Anyway, he’d been a lot of stuff here, right?
MoYeah, and we talk about these things.
Jonyeah
MoAnother another thing that you didn’t see much when they talk about like high school movies is he most of these actors are actually within the age range of high school kids.
Jonthey’re they’re Not quite 30, right?
MoYou know, I mean, a couple were 17.
GeorgeYeah.
JonThey’re not as old.
MoActually, a couple were still in high school age.
JonOh, really?
MoYeah, two of them were 17 at the time.
JonThat’s cool.
GeorgeYeah, I think, um I think what’s his name?
MoI think I think Michael Hall was and.
Georgeah Yeah.
Moah
GeorgeNelson was the oldest at 26.
MoYep, 26.
JonYep.
MoAnd I think maybe it was like Molly Ringwell, I think was also 17 at the time when she did this, maybe.
GeorgeMm, yep.
MoBut but still, though, they were all like 26 was the oldest. So at least, you know, and I remember seeing a bunch of high school movies back then, you thought, you know, these people are like 30.
JonAll right.
MoYou know, I mean, it was so obvious.
JonAnd you have to expect John Bender got held back a couple of years too. So he should be older.
MoYeah. He should look a little older.
JonYeah.
Georgeah One of the older actors on set was John Capellos. He played Carl Reed, the janitor. ah It’s funny because his character is friendly with the brain nerd misfit character.
GeorgeAs we say, you know, Hey, Brian, you know, and even says hi to him as he’s leaving.
MoMhm.
GeorgeBut it’s funny because Brian barely acknowledges him as he’s leaving at the end of the day. But John Bender’s character says, I’ll see you next Saturday because he is, you know, like accepted his fate, so to speak.
Moyeah
GeorgeBut
JonYep.
GeorgeI love ah John Cabelos and he’s been in a lot of stuff. He’s a very well-renowned character actor for movies, TV shows and everything. He…
GeorgeI feel like on set, he might’ve been the actor who was the glue that held the cast together, just in the way that they related to him.
JonHmm. Wow.
GeorgeIn the few scenes they had with him, there’s only like one scene with the students with him, and then two scenes with the vice principal, and then the one scene at the very end as the students are walking out.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeThat’s it for his whole role in this movie, but he’s such an iconic character
Moyeah
Georgethat people remember his dialogues and everything. You people think I’m some untouchable peasant and everything. His whole the character was very well written for such a brief appearance and short of time in the film. But ah Capellos really does a great job with it. I I wish I could see more of him in that movie.
MoBut also he was like the kids too, like they had put him in a a category, right? They they had a preconceived notion to him as well.
JonOh, yeah. Right.
GeorgeYeah.
JonYou’re the janitor. Yeah.
MoLike he’s the janitor, he’s, you know, and when that speech he gave him, which kind of shut him all up was great.
JonRight. Like, that’s all he is.
GeorgeMm hmm.
MoI mean, he’s like, yeah, I know what you guys do.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeYeah. I listen to your conversations.
JonYep.
GeorgeI go through your lockers like, damn it.
JonI love that. Wait a minute. right ah We’ve talked about of course, Judd Nelson is John Bender already with his his theme. I, I love, I love that.
Jonwe have no idea why these kids are here. And gradually throughout the film, we learn. And I think by the end, we know what they’ve told us. I don’t think we believe them.
JonBut even when they tell us, you can’t be certain because they kind of lead some red herrings here and there a couple of times. Why exactly are they there? They don’t want to disclose it. And then finally, they all come clean. Bender was, he was in Saturday detention for setting off the fire alarm, a typical hooligan thing to do.
MoMhm.
JonIt makes perfect sense, you know? um and I ah keep wanting to think he’s the star of this film, but I’m not sure there is a star of this film.
MoNo.
JonI think it is a true ensemble piece.
MoHe’s… Yeah.
Jonum But if there is one, he’s one of them, but the more the more the film progresses, the focus seems to shift. This spotlight moves from character to character, and now you’re the star, and now Ringwald’s the star, and now Hall is the star.
MoMhm.
JonIt really shifts a lot, and everyone kind of gets there their showcase. I appreciate that too.
MoYeah, he’s definitely the antagonist, though.
JonOh, well he’s the instigator of many, many that weird?
MoYou know, yeah, like he he pushes a lot of stuff that happens.
GeorgeSure. He’s kind of both. He’s the antagonist and the protagonist.
MoYeah, true.
JonThis anti-hero-ish, but he’s not a hero at all, yeah.
GeorgeYeah.
MoI’m sorry. um And we can’t forget Molly Ringwald. I mean, again, a John Hughes staple character, you know, who’s Claire.
JonMm, yep.
MoI mean, can you get a more princessy name that Claire Standish?
GeorgeRight.
MoI mean, you know, it’s, you and she was the princess, you know, the popular girl and all that stuff. And of course, you know, she’s an attention for skipping school, of course.
MoI mean, that makes perfect sense, right?
GeorgeHmm.
JonThat’s the worst thing you she would do, right?
Moand probably going shopping, right?
JonWhat else would she do? Right.
MoOr something like that. But again, she played the role just really, really well. Like, you know, you felt like that was who she was.
GeorgeYeah. I don’t know that there’s, uh, any actor who was further away from their role though, then Ali Sheedy was from Alison Reynolds, the, the basket case ah character who we found out through a discussion with the characters later on, she wasn’t even supposed to fucking be there.
GeorgeShe just had nowhere else to go.
Moit’ to
GeorgeSo she went, um,
JonThat’s a better to do.
GeorgeI really loved her character because we you know if you pay attention to the movie, she actually doesn’t even utter a sound until 25 minutes into the movie. So almost a third of the way through the hour and a half long film, ah which just goes to show, by the way, today we’ve got to have movies that are two and a half hours long for people to feel like they’re epic.
JonYep.
GeorgeBack then, John Hughes could write a fucking film in an hour and 36 minutes and you you were like, holy shit, that was perfect.
Jonyep
Georgelike it’s It’s almost a perfect film.
JonYou’ve been on a ride.
MoHe
JonYeah.
Georgeum And speaking of John Hughes, he actually got in the movie himself
JonOh, yeah.
Mowas?
GeorgeYeah, he’s in an uncredited cameo. He plays Mr. Johnson, Brian’s father, Anthony Michael Hall’s father, who picks him up at the end of detention in the car.
MoOh, who picks them up? Oh, that’s him.
JonWell, I dropped him off too, right?
MoI never do that.
GeorgeHe never says a word.
JonYeah. Yeah.
GeorgeHe just picks him up, Brian gets in the car and drives off, and that’s John Hughes.
MoWell, saving them some money from another actor, right?
JonMm.
GeorgeWell, I mean, he only had a million dollars.
JonI’ll just, what are you going to do? Drive? I can drive. ah
GeorgeHe had to do what he had to do, you know?
Moyeah Exactly.
JonYep.
MoOkay. I know we all love this movie.
JonMm hmm.
MoWe all have our favorite scenes. And I i know we’re all supposed to pick one, but I’m gonna pull a George and just do a brief one than my real one.
JonConfirmed.
MoOkay. Just my real brief one, then my real one.
JonWell done. Yeah.
MoBriefly, one of my favorite scenes is the Captain Crunch sandwich. that Ali Sheehy’s character makes, just because I love Captain, and it was just hilarious, just the whole, they were just staring at her the whole time, and then she takes that defiant bite out of it, you know, looking at him.
GeorgeOh yeah.
JonShe throws the lunch meat and it sticks on the the ah statue and falls.
MoIt sticks to the statue, that sculpture, whatever it was.
GeorgeRight.
JonYeah, yeah.
Mobut But the scene I think I felt the most for was the flare, when, excuse me, when Michael’s, sorry, when Michael Hall was talking about the flare gun.
MoAnd in the circle when they’re talking about like, you know, what’s wrong with their lives and stuff like that, does he talk about how much pressure he’s under to always get A’s?
GeorgeMm hmm.
MoAnd the fact that he took a class and maybe got a B or whatever it was and you know and and just how much stress. And I just felt for that character at that moment.
GeorgeYeah.
Molike I just felt like, holy crap. like i I’ve known kids like that, you know especially with the high school I went to. I knew a lot of kids like that who would like lose their birthday if they got bad grades.
MoI mean, in all seriousness.
Jonoh geez.
Moyou know And so I just totally felt for the guy, but they did such a good job of having this heavy, heavy scene. They find out it was a flare gun.
JonYeah.
MoAnd it, oh yeah, but it, but it broke this, the ceramic thing he was supposed to make in his shop class.
JonStill, which could still do some damage and still be dangerous. Yeah.
MoAnd then they all just start laughing about it. It was just a good way of just breaking that tension and letting the movie move on without having this dark cloud over it.
JonYeah.
MoUm, but you know, again, just that scene for me, just, I just, I just, I just felt with that character.
Jonyeah
MoSo how about you, George?
GeorgeOh, well, I mean, this is another one of those difficult things that we do in this podcast, right? where’re Where we’re instructed to pick a favorite thing of something that is your favorite.
GeorgeAnd this movie is absolutely one of my top five of all time.
MoYeah.
JonYeah.
Georgeum it If you’re gonna take a scene from this movie and say it’s the your favorite scene or the best scene or whatever, I don’t think you can go wrong with going with the circle.
JonYeah.
GeorgeIt absolutely is the heart of the film. It ends the second act into the third.
JonUndoubtedly. Yep.
Georgeum I think that all of the character’s stories are all deeply moving in one way or another. The lightest one is probably Claire because she doesn’t really tell a story.
GeorgeIf you notice in the circle, Her story is more a reaction to somebody else’s comment. And that’s when ah she’s talking and Brian’s like, what’s going to happen on Monday?
MoMm.
GeorgeAre we all going to be friends still?
JonHmm.
GeorgeAnd she’s like, I don’t think so.
JonOh, that’s heartbreaking.
GeorgeYou wouldn’t understand the pressures my friends put me in. That’s her story. Everybody else that’s in that scene is talking about a devastating life consequence thing that may have started or been a part of school, but is really more a part of their family life.
GeorgeBender’s talking about his father beating the shit out of him.
JonMm hmm.
Georgeah You know, ah the athlete, you know, he’s talking about all the pressure that his father puts on him about getting a scholarship and not losing his ride and so on and so forth. um But the circle has so much in it.
GeorgeThere’s so many dynamics between the characters and every time one of them gets a little vulnerable, I do find myself tearing up every single time.
JonI certainly wouldn’t debate you that that that scene is it’s the heartbeat of this movie.
MoYeah.
JonIt’s the thing it’s the payoff. that It’s not the end of the film, but it’s the thing where all the characters turn. You actually see who everyone is, and you understand them differently from that point later in the film. And that one line you said, they have this discussion.
JonIt’s heartbreaking. Are we going to be friends on Monday? And there’s a debate back and forth about it. And it’s not really about them. It’s about the the struggles to find a place in the world. They found a peer group that they don’t want to upset by.
Jonletting in someone who isn’t suitable for their friend group even though they’ve just made clearly someone they’ve connected with and a friend and someone they relate to that maybe on Monday they can’t talk to them anymore because their friends will look at them differently and that’s that’s true of
MoMm hmm.
Jonfucking high school. And it’s true of the experience that we all go through it once for one side or the other. And it’s, it’s crushing because that part is like, Oh, yeah, there ought to be friends now. No, no, no, they’re gonna discuss it.
JonWe maybe can’t be maybe they will. Maybe they won’t. But yeah.
GeorgeWell, and it’s it’s crushing because, and I saw um an interview with Hughes where he says, one of the reasons why that scene is so crushing, especially to anybody who’s gone through that time in their life already, is when you’re young, when you’re in high school, the entire universe is filtered through you.
GeorgeYou are the center of the universe at that point and it’s not until you get much much older and start to realize you’re just a small little tiny speck in the universe that doesn’t matter quite as much as you might have thought of when you were 15, 16, 17.
JonRight. Yeah, sure.
GeorgeThat’s where all that pressure comes from because when you’re at that age everything is life or death. Nothing is inconsequential.
JonYeah, yeah.
MoYeah.
JonYeah.
GeorgeAnd that’s what those characters are doing. That’s why Brian brings a gun, albeit a flare gun, to school because his little elephant trunk wouldn’t turn on his lamplight.
JonYeah.
MoRight.
GeorgeAnd I think The best part of that scene that’s revealed is the most well adjusted of those five kids is the basket case because she has no friends, which she mentions in that scene.
GeorgeThey’re like, would you be friends?
JonYeah.
GeorgeWell, I don’t have any friends anyway, but the friends I would have, they wouldn’t give a shit.
JonWhy not?
MoYeah.
GeorgeShe’s the most well adjusted of the bunch.
JonYeah, yeah.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeSo I love that scene.
JonYeah, loved it.
GeorgeI think it’s it’s critical.
JonYou’re not wrong.
Georgei I watched this entire movie in 15 minutes, because I just put it on fast forward, because I know the movie by heart. But that scene, I stopped and watched it on regular speed, because I love it.
JonStop and play.
MoSure.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeAnyway, ah John, enough about my favorite scene.
JonYeah.
GeorgeWhat about yours?
JonYeah. Oh, hey, Mo, we’re the two of us are going to pull a George and George is not.
MoYeah.
JonHe picked one. So but I do.
MoOh my God.
JonFirst, I want to talk about the biggest laugh I got in this movie. And this was a surprise and not a scene I remembered seeing before. The only one that ah was surprised me just a little five second bit.
MoOK.
JonAnd it’s when Ben toward the beginning, Bender takes the screw out of the door so it won’t stay closed or won’t stay open.
MoMm hmm.
Georgeoh
JonRight. And so the the vice principal shows up and he’s like, who did this? what’s what Where’s the screw? What’s up with the door? And so he’s gonna try to prop the door open. And Bender is being sarcastically respectful.
Jonum The door’s not way too heavy, sir, for this little plastic chair. And he sets the chair there and wham, the door hits and the chair goes flying.
MoYeah. and
GeorgeOh, yep, you hear him cussing.
JonHe’s on the other side of the door. And it’s just so embarrassing for him. And he, right, he’s on the other side of the door. You know how mad he is and embarrassed he is. made me laugh out loud. I snorted, had to pause, rewind, watch it again.
JonBut not my favorite scene of the movie. I probably in a vacuum would pick the circle, too. It’s the most powerful. But watching it this time around, the effect, we could call it a music video or montage.
Jonto It’s kind of like to the song We Are Not Alone right after the circle.
GeorgeMm hmm.
JonWe’re kind of in blended toward the end of the circle. It. Yeah, they are stoned and but it’s Now, I don’t think kids would do a choreographed dance on top of the bookcase.
Jonlike this is This is stylized for film, but it represents them all feeling as equals, feeling part of the same thing together.
MoYeah.
Jontheyre they’re They’re goofing off and dancing. I see this as the way they imagine them dancing when they’re high. They’re probably all just laying around giggling. But it’s so especially coming after the heaviness of that circle scene where they’re kind of pouring out their souls. This is so uplifting. This is so fun. And so celebratory, I guess, of them just being kids and enjoying one another’s company, tore down all the walls, they’re just kind of equals in this room.
MoMhm.
JonAnd again, it’s artificial, but I found it to be the one that made me smile the most, especially after the heaviness coming out of the confessional.
MoYeah.
GeorgeYeah. ah You know, fun little factoid about that scene that you’re talking about, you know, the part where they’re dancing on the banister there and they’re choreographed, you know, the guys are doing the one thing, the two girls, so on and so forth, ah Bender and Ali Sheedy’s characters together.
JonYes.
Jonyes
JonMm hmm.
Georgeah That banister, that was a gift that John Hughes gave to each one of the actors after they left the film. He gave them a part of that banister.
Jonah
GeorgeNow, I don’t know how many of them still have it, but if you’re going to walk away from something from that movie, that banister is probably one of the more iconic set pieces in the film, aside from maybe the magazine rack in the door or the crazy statue that the meat hits.
JonYeah. I bet you they all have it.
JonYeah.
GeorgeBut it’s just such a great fucking film. There’s just too much to love about it. There’s too many facts to know. We don’t have enough time. We need to do like five more episodes on this fucking movie as far as I’m concerned.
Georgebut yeah Hell with acting.
JonAll right. You just pick an act. Let’s do the first act and talk about that. There’s so much more. Yeah. Right.
GeorgeWe’re gonna have to go scene by scene, honestly.
JonAll right. When we get back, we have a little bit more to put into this episode of seven a series that we’re going to be doing about the breakfast club, talking about its legacy since the release.
JonStick around.
JonAs we come into this last segment talking about the breakfast club, and I mean, George, you’re right. There’s so much more we could have talked about, but I want to ask one more roundtable question, and I think we probably already know the answers to these based on the discussions that we’ve had, but with which of the characters in the film do you most closely identify?
GeorgeMm.
MoMmm.
JonSo, George, I think you’re the one that’s most closely tipped your hand. Why don’t we start with you?
GeorgeYeah. I mean, I think I flat out said it. It’s the Brian Johnson character. Um, I was young.
JonYeah.
GeorgeI wasn’t really the nerd that he was. I was very much an athlete at that point in my life, but I felt very, very insecure and I felt a lot of pressure. So while that might seem to relate more to the Emilio Estevez character, uh, I felt a lot more like the Brian Johnson character, which.
Georgein the interviews that John Hughes and other people have done since then is apparently the most parroted response to that type of question of which character in The Breakfast Club do you identify with?
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeLike, I think they one ah survey said like 75% of people said the Brian Johnson character, both men and women, which is, you know, there were two strong female characters in this film, but they still identify with that character.
GeorgeAnd I think it’s because I think he embodied the pressure of high school more than any of the other characters. The other characters had pressures that were from outside of high school, but his was directly related to his high school performance more than the others. And yeah, I just completely identified with that character.
JonAnd he’s probably the least polarized, you know, you you’ve got the prototypical jock, the prototypical queen, you know, and he’s kind of just a student trying to do well.
GeorgeSure.
MoYeah.
JonHe’s kind of, he’s not so extreme in his, his clique that he’s in a little bit mix makes, makes him more of a every man. I think it’s easier to react. What about you, Mo?
MoYeah, I had a tough with them because part of me said, you know, Brian character also because, you know, I was young, nerdy kid, you know, but again, I kind of like the movie says that’s like part of it.
JonMm hmm.
MoYou know, I think the other part is kind of like, ah you know, Ellie Sheedy’s character.
GeorgeMm hmm.
MoAlso, I kind of relate to her as well because I didn’t have a ton of friends. I had friends in high school, but They were a small group of friends and they were the kind of people that wouldn’t care who else I was friends with, you know?
MoSo, you know, so I kind of, it’s almost like bits and pieces of of a couple of them I would relate to.
JonMm hmm.
JonYeah, well, you fit right in the breakfast club. You’re not one thing.
MoYeah.
JonYou’re all those things, right? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it’s it’s easy to say the Brian character, but I don’t know if I relate the most closely to I empathize the most closely to and feel the most a kinship with ah Allison character, Ali Sheedy’s character. ah Not so much. I mean, I had great friends. I had hobbies and stuff that I did. I wasn’t the loner, but I did always try to become invisible in scenarios where I was uncomfortable. you know She did it by being in the back, in black, completely mute, not saying anything, trying to just blend into the background. Because when you don’t have confidence in yourself,
Jonif you aren’t noticed, you’re not criticized. And that’s a defense mechanism.
Mohe
Jonyou know And so I can relate to where she’s coming from in that. And so I think as throughout the film, I’m like, I understand why you’re doing that. I understand why you’re in that scenario kind of thing.
JonSo I relate to that character pretty pretty strongly, even though it’s a female character. I mean, that experience is not it’s not strictly for men or women. I think we all experienced, again, that and other of these characters in one time or another, and pretty powerful.
GeorgeYou know, this section that we’re doing right now is not just um this question about who we identify with but it’s really about the legacy of the movie doesn’t hold up in to- today’s society.
JonMm hmm. Yep.
Georgeum I think one way to answer that question is how The John Hughes universe ah fits into not only this movie and the other movies that he created, but into other directors, films and creations like I talked about earlier.
GeorgeSo this particular film, The Breakfast Club, is referenced heavily in a movie by Kevin Smith called Dogma.
MoNo,
GeorgeJay and Silent Bob end up in Illinois because they’re trying to find Shermer, Illinois because of 16 candles in the breakfast club because they think all the guys are prissy little assholes that they can beat up and there’s nobody selling drugs so they can make a whole bunch of money.
Mono yeah.
JonLittle do they know.
GeorgeRight and then there’s another great scene in a movie that you would not expect John Hughes to get a reference in. Do you guys remember the Quentin Tarantino Grindhouse film Death Proof?
MoYeah, of course, with the car with.
JonSure. Yeah.
MoYeah.
Georgeright so there is a scene where the um the second group of girls the and ones that end up killing the the bad guy they’re sitting around a breakfast table after you know they’ve picked up their friend and they’re just talking about liking these car movies because the two girls are car buffs and then they’re like
MoHmm.
GeorgeWhat? You guys are girls? You didn’t watch John Hughes films? Of course I watched John Hughes films.
MoYeah.
GeorgeAnd then the other girls like, oh, I love Pretty in Pink. And it’s just those little things that Quentin Tarantino, who we all know is a huge student and historian of film, for him to put a John Hughes reference, given the writer that he is into one of his films, it just shows you how well regarded this movie and John Hughes’ whole universe is.
MoYeah, even a reference in it.
JonYeah.
JonYeah.
JonIt’s kind of put on a pedestal. It’s like these films are eternal. And we’re going to talk about them in reverence and refer to them because they’re
Georgemm hmm.
Jonthat’s That’s the great thing about references is when you mention it, it comes with all of the information and baggage that everybody knows about that film. That’s a shorthand for what you’re trying to say. So yeah, yeah you know, this film represents
GeorgeRight.
Jonhow these kids are being reprimanded or punished for whatever it is that they did, or didn’t do in the case of Ali Sheebi’s character, but ah how how does, like, I haven’t had a kid in school for a long time. How do you think the, the how how punishment in school is portrayed in this film ah represents today? It feels to me like it’s like it’s a little soft, like kids today wouldn’t care about being in in detention or after school. I don’t but i don’t really know.
MoI mean, things like the stuff they did, though, to get in there with exception, maybe the flare gun was all like, would they even get in trouble for that these days?
JonYeah.
JonToday, hmm.
MoI mean, this it seems so minor compared to stuff if you hear about. I don’t know. It’s it’s it’s very different now.
JonYou have the youngest kids, George.
GeorgeSo I guess, yeah, I have I had the youngest kid, the most recent one in school, he’s 22 now.
MoMm hmm.
JonYes, huh? Yeah.
Georgeum I would say that even though he went to a small private religious school, kids do still get in trouble for stupid shit like is portrayed in this movie.
JonOh, sure, for kids, yeah.
Georgeah The type of trouble that they get in, though, is different in. OK, number one, it’s very difficult to put kids in detention when they have cell phones that open the world up to them in their pockets.
MoYeah, really. Yeah.
GeorgeAnd even 15 years ago, it’s different because 15 years ago, a teacher or a principal could take that cell phone away from the kid and wouldn’t face any repercussions.
GeorgeYou do that shit now you’re getting a lawsuit and you’re getting fired.
MoYeah.
Georgebecause our society has changed so much that nobody can tim reprimand or punish somebody else’s child anymore.
Jondumb.
GeorgeHell, as the parent, you almost can’t do it anymore. It’s like the society is trying to police the parents and the caregivers more than the children in some case.
Moyeah
GeorgeNow, granted, I understand that’s because of protection and making sure the kids don’t get abused or hurt. And that’s all great and good. But every now and then somebody needs to whip a child’s ass.
Jonyeah
GeorgeThat’s all there is to it.
Jonit’s It’s effective.
GeorgeYeah.
JonIt’s padded there. They’re gonna be okay.
GeorgeSo, you know, the one thing that as much trouble as I got in, in high school, I don’t think I ever remember a weekend detention.
GeorgeI remember suspended. Oh, I absolutely remember being suspended.
JonRemember that? Well, I’m sure you do.
GeorgeAnd I remember detention after school for like a couple of hours, but a Saturday detention, I don’t think I ever saw that.
MoAfter school.
JonAfter school. Yeah, right.
GeorgeAnd maybe that was a big city thing, but I can’t imagine a teacher being willing to come in on a Saturday to, so to moderate the detention, let alone it being a regular thing where you got to come back for two months.
JonI don’t know.
Moum They have to pay a teacher for that.
MoYeah.
JonYeah, yeah.
GeorgeYour, your ass is mine for two months.
JonYeah, me either.
JonLet’s see.
Georgeyou know ah Another thing, though, that um I think is nice when you talk about you know how a movie is portrayed, it’s not always the movie that gets portrayed in other films, but sometimes the actors get to reprise seminal roles in other movies.
GeorgeAnd even though I didn’t like the 2001 parody film, Not Another Teen Movie,
JonOK.
Georgeum I did like one scene in it because Gleason, who was the assistant principal in Breakfast Club, he gets to do that same character in not another teen movie in a short little scene that’s a little bit Breakfast Club like.
Jonah Oh, that’s cool.
Moinstance
JonOh.
MoThat’s pretty cool.
JonFunny.
MoBut I mean, I mean, you talk about how well regarded this movie was. I mean, again, just looking through the list of accolades and everything in this movie, it’s it’s just a huge list.
GeorgeMm hmm.
MoI mean, a couple of them is that um it was it was selected for preservation by the United States National Film Registry, which is the only Library of Congress. They only keep like historically, culturally, aesthetically significant movies.
MoRight. So that was picked for that.
JonRight. This is all three of those things.
Moah Yep.
JonThat’s appropriate.
GeorgeMm hmm.
MoEmpire magazine has it listed like, you know, in their top 500 movies of all time. In fact, they moved up rankings when they they did their list between 2008 and 2014. It moved further down the list.
GeorgeYeah. How did that happen, by the way?
MoYou know, that’s confusing, actually.
GeorgeLike, how did it went from 369 to 38? Did 300 films just quit existing or some shit?
Jonbut
MoOr, yeah, I know.
JonThey got, they got a lot worse for some reason.
MoYeah, it must get a lot worse.
JonI don’t know. That’s weird.
MoSo anyway, but but then entertainment Weekly said it was the number one film for 50 best high school movies. That’s a no duh if I ever heard one.
JonOh yeah. Yep.
MoYeah, it’s ah you know.
JonYeah. Yeah. That teen movie bucket. Yeah.
MoIt’s absolutely.
JonYeah.
GeorgeYeah. You know, and I’m going to keep harping a little bit more on the whole, you know, how this movie is featured in other movies later on to the point that even the poster, which is that family shot of all of the kids, you know, standing around a little bit like the clerks poster later on, uh, it was, it was satirized in the poster for a comedy horror film called the Texas chainsaw massacre two.
MoMm hmm.
JonMm hmm.
JonYes, yes.
JonReally?
GeorgeSo they did a very similar thing, including Bender’s fist being raised on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre poster.
JonYeah, yeah, yeah.
MoOh, that’s funny.
GeorgeNot not like not like a severed hand, but you know.
JonYeah, right, right, yeah.
GeorgeAnd ah you know then to top it all off with awards. Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwell, Paul Galison, and Ella Sheedy all won the Silver Bucket of Excellence Award at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards.
GeorgeNow the interesting thing is Judd Nelson, who was in that show that night on that award show, ah he did a segment earlier in the evening and then left
JonYeah.
GeorgeSo he wasn’t on stage to receive the award and Anthony Michael Hall made a joke at his expense.
JonOh.
GeorgeSo it kind of goes to that whole thing of Judd Nelson wasn’t really a well regarded member of that group amongst the other actors and people involved in that film.
MoHmm.
JonHmm. I see.
GeorgeUh, I hope they’ve made them in since then because it’s such a great movie.
JonYeah.
GeorgeI hate to think they all don’t like each other, but just because the characters were good friends doesn’t mean they were.
JonThat’s right, yeah, yeah.
MoYeah.
JonAnd you’re really, we talked before about wouldn’t it be nice to have seen some sort of a sequel of the five and 10 years later?
GeorgeMm hmm.
MoYeah.
JonDid they stay friends? Did they, whatever, but that that ship has sailed. I saw another award that it received, New York Times put it on the best 1000 movies ever list, which is, I don’t know where it was on that list, but I’m gonna i’m gonna say in the top half would be my expectation.
MoYeah.
MoYeah.
JonYeah, it’s it’s it’s just it’s on people’s list.
MoThat’s good.
JonYou said, George, it’s on your top five. You know, it makes top hundreds, top fifties, top tens all the time.
Georgeyeah
JonYou said the top ever high school movie. It just it earns that because of what a polished and your perfect movie it is.
MoYeah, absolutely. I think we should just skip this last fact.
JonYou think so?
MoDoesn’t really seem to fit, doesn’t even seem to fit anything.
JonYeah, maybe out of place.
GeorgeYeah, it was just one I found.
MoYeah.
JonOK, that’s cool.
Georgei was I was trying to fill up the last section a little bit.
JonLet’s go.
MoNo, you did a good job already.
JonI think we did. We did fine. Yeah. We did it. Yeah. Okay. All right. So I’ll just do the outro then.
JonEven though I never realized now sat down and watched it from beginning to end, heads to tails, I can tell you, I know.
Moso many movies you do that with.
JonI don’t know how that happens to me. This won’t be the last time I sit down and watch this movie from beginning to end because I found such a greater, like I liked it. I thought, oh, that’s movies like a, that’s a solid seven, seven and a half.
JonIt’s pretty good. Now it’s like a nine. Like, ah oh my God. When you look at it as the art piece that it is going from beginning to end, man, really good. I don’t know how long this show has run probably over.
JonI don’t care. This is its iss a topic that has earned what we’ve said about it and more.
MoOh, we could keep talking about, you know, we could have spent an hour just on the circle scene.
JonYeah, we certainly could. We were talking before we recorded. No kidding.
Georgeoh yeah
JonYeah, we could. Yeah. That, I think that’s a good place at least to put a pin in it in case we go back and revisit the breakfast club at a later time. Fourth Lister, be sure to let us know what you think about the breakfast club, your thoughts on it right in the Let Us Know podcast at genexgrownup.com.
JonBefore I let you go though, I want to thank, you know, we always talk about our pod, You know, we always talk about our Patreon supporters, the folks that have headed over to genexgrownup.com slash Patreon and open their hearts and their wallets to help support what we do here.
GeorgeOh yeah.
JonI wanna thank a brand new patron, ah Kendrick H. He headed over to patreon.com slash genexgrownup, signed up for that regular monthly pledge, but he also dropped us a line.
JonAs soon as he signed up, I always try to, as people become patrons, I usually drop them along, hey, thank you for your support.
MoOh.
MoHmm.
JonAnd he wrote back right away. And I wanted to share his message with you here. ah He said, I missed the podcast altogether until recently. So I’m doing a major catch up. I listen to the back tracks every day at work.
JonI just turned 54, so I understand everything you guys chat about. I wanted to give more than a dollar because I produce podcasts and I know how much work it entails. So thank you for all you do.
JonLastly, I have to say that John and Mo, you guys are great, but it’s all about George.
MoOh my God.
JonHe is a gem.
GeorgeThat took a twist.
JonHe and I would have been odd, right?
GeorgeImnite Shyamalan.
JonHe and I would have
MoWhat a twist.
JonHe says he and I would have been odd besties in school. The athlete to my music guy vibe, keep him forever. Thanks again for all you do, Kendrick.
Moah So, John, that discussion we had earlier, I guess we got to forget it.
GeorgeI was about to get fired, but thank God.
JonYep.
MoYeah.
GeorgeNow, now you can’t fire me.
Moi’s say Yeah.
JonNow we know you gotta stick around.
MoYeah.
Jonah Thank you, Kendrick, for signing up. You’re joining a roster of amazing people that do support us regularly, help pay the bills, keep us producing this show. Thank you, thank you, thank you to you and everyone else. That is gonna wrap it up for this backtrack edition of the show.
JonDon’t worry, we’ll have another one coming your way in a couple of weeks. Next week is the standard edition of our show, hitting your feed on Thursday. Until then, I am John George. Thank you so much for being here.
GeorgeYes, sir.
JonMo, you know, I appreciate you.
MoAlways fun, man.
JonFourth listener. It’s you. All three of us appreciate most of all, though, and we cannot wait to talk to you again next time. by Bye bye.
GeorgeSee you guys.
MoTake care, everybody.

(Visited 59 times, 1 visits today)

About The Author

Mo As someone who barely manages to squeeze in as a GenXer my memories include more of the 70's than those younger GenXers. Reading and movies are my passions with some video gaming thrown in there for good measure!

You might be interested in

LEAVE YOUR COMMENT

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

© GenXGrownUp LLC 2018-2024
CLOSE