I watched 'The Breakfast Club' 3 times in a row the other night. Don’t ask. What I gained from this was much more of an understanding about the film than I had before.
I used to think it was a good film, but it was a shame some of the characters were dickheads, and it was a shame that the freaky girl got a makeover and become generic.
The film is not about the characters changing who they are, and it’s not about them finding their correct label. It’s not about ‘being comfortable with who they are’ because that would involve a definition, and because they’re teenagers and they don’t know who they are yet.
It’s about the intense self-loathing that is innate in everyone. The idea that life is easy for everyone else, but for you it’s a struggle because you’re fundamentally shit. If this secret is revealed then your whole world will explode. This is a fantastic theme for a film, because it’s a subject rarely spoken about, and in fact it is not spoken about in the film, but alluded to.
What the characters of ‘The Breakfast Club’ discover is that everyone is scared, and hates themselves. No one knows who ‘they are’, and everyone is just trying to get on with their lives as best they can. If everyone tried harder to understand other people, then there would be much less conflict. Unrealistic expectations and stereotypes are destructive, and these are the two problems that specifically affect teenagers, but continue into adulthood.
These are interesting concepts, and dissecting them more gave me even more love for this film than ever. Awesome.
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