26 July 2006

The Breakfast Club: a movie review

First, a 500-peso update.

If there's one thing I learned this week, it's that I cannot stretch 500 pesos into a week. I barely have 30 pesos left in my pocket today. Oh well, I have to get funding from my coin bank and chase those who owe me. Salary day seems so far, far away ...

I think my wife hasn't been reading my blog lately ... I'd better alert her :-).

***

"They were five students with nothing in common, faced with spending a Saturday detention together in their high school library. At 7AM, they had nothing to do, but by 4PM, they had bared their souls to each other and become good friends. John Hughes, creator of the critically acclaimed Sixteen Candles, wrote, directed, and produced this hilarious and often touching comedy starring Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy. To the outside world they were simply the Jock, the Brain, the Criminal, the Princess and the Kook, but to each other, they would always be The Breakfast Club."

So runs the introduction to the story at the back of the CD. Don't check the current movie listings, for this one came from the jolly old 80s, 1984 to be exact. I have never watched this movie before so when I saw it last Friday while browsing through a video store, I simply had to buy it (along with Some Kind of Wonderful which a friend was looking for).

I wondered: why Breakfast Club? There was no scene of them having breakfast together (duh). They did have lunch though, each bag reflecting their lifestyle and character. The entire movie happens in the library on that fateful day where they all meet. Strangers at first with diverse family backgrounds, they display animosity towards each other. They question each other's beliefs and convictions.

Eight hours is quite a long time to just sit still. The professor monitoring them eventually found that he had his hands full with these rowdy students. But while in conflict, they stood for each other against this professor who was trying to catch who loosened the screw on the hallway door to his office, making it difficult to keep watch from his chair. Later on, they finally had an opportunity to sit down and share the reason for their detention and its even deeper cause. No cheesy dialogues. Just a batch of people looking for acceptance from their family, their friends, and questioning why they are who they are, and what if they meet each other in the corridors come Monday, will they still greet each other like friends? What will their other friends say about it? It surely hits the spot when it comes to stereotyping people based on how they dress, their family background, and the people they get along with.

I enjoyed watching this movie. No special effects, no guns blaring, no bombs going off. Just plain watching a bunch of kids spending detention and getting on with their lives. It was actually like sitting in detention with them too.

The movie even starts with the song "Dont you forget about me" by Simple Minds, taking me back to the fun 80s. There was even dancing, 80s style. What a treat!

Catch The Breakfast Club on HBO, or buy your copy (VCD format only, no DVD available) from your favorite video shop for only P100.00.

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:30 pm

    dude, kasama yan "brat pack" movies ni Howard Hughes...The other 3 are two of our favorites...St. Elmo's Fire and Pretty in Pink...The fourth movie is 18 candles...lahat ng movies kasama si Molly...=)

    Arnold Z

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  2. i haven't seen that! i loved some kind of wonderful though..... yey may vcd na! sana dvd though. will be on the lookout for both na!

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  3. hanep.. 80's era...the best!!!!

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  4. I saw that in the movie theaters about 22 years ago!

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  5. Wait a minute... may lumabas noon na VCD pack ah kasama mga movies with molly... mukhang I will be looking doe more 80s movies. Thanks Nold.

    Toni, yun nga eh. mahirap maghanap ng dvd nya. mas maganda sana ano?

    Princess Em, 80s girl ka rin di ba? Yehey!

    Wow Ed. Really? I guess if I saw it when it was shown in the cinemas, it would have been around that time too. Or more, I guess?

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  6. Anonymous2:41 pm

    I also get excited when I get to watch those 80s movies. :)

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  7. arnold,
    you mean 'john' hughes, not 'howard' hughes. si howard hughes yung ginanapan ni leo di caprio sa the aviator. :)

    anyways, also loved the breakfast club. didn't like st. elmo's much. i also liked the one with mary stuart masterson na mejo tomboy sya, some kind of wondeful 'ata.

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  8. The 80s is really a wonderful time, isn't it Niceheart?

    Meowok, may aviator hangover si Arnold hehehe. Yeah, some kind of wonderful yun!

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  9. A notable "cliche" of that movie is the "clique." American high school culture is rife with them, just as shown in the movie. When I was coming up about 10 years before that movie came out, we had cliques, some of which included jocks, academics, rockers, druggies, and hippies, to name a few.

    I've noticed from my few years in the Philippines that school cliques here are not nearly so clearly demarcated. As a Filipino, it's no wonder then that you didn't mention what was clearly the primary theme of that movie... The fact that you equated their "lifestyles" to their family backgrounds is interesting Wat.

    Believe me when I tell you that economic class and background of students often has only marginal influnce on what clique a student is in. For some reason, American high schoolers insist on striating themselves into these limited little "subcultures." As for me, I disdained all of them and was quite contented to be a "lone wolf." I did well academically, I earned my varsity letter 6 times in two sports, and didn't attend a single dance or party. In my opinion, I didn't miss a thing!

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  10. Oh wow Phil. I also didn't attend our prom and graduation parties. I'm just not into those things.

    I correlated it into the family because their detention seemed to stem from a family problem; most of them had problems with their father, most especially.

    Oh yes, now that you mention it, teen American films do define this cliques. The cafeteria scene is a classic. Cheerleaders band together, the rich ones, the Asian people, the nerds. Back in high school, I'm quite sure I would have fitted in the nerd category, but then again I had two close friends and we kept to ourselves most of the time.

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