Best of the Brat Pack movies......

Rating: 7/10 (14 November 2004)

It has been almost 20 years since I first saw this film as a 15 year old kid in 1985. Since then I've developed interests in directors far more intellectual than John Hughes. Assuredly, if I became a film director I would want to cite Akira Kurosawa as a main influence as opposed to John Hughes, but like Kevin Smith, I would have to give credit for the impact Hughes' films had on my adolescence. He was one of the few directors who focused on mostly teen films, though "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" and "Natl. Lampoon's Vacation" drew larger audiences. Among his films about teens, "Breakfast Club" is by far the best. It's central characters, played by Molly Ringwald and company, represented a cross section of teenage America. In an odd way, it resembles the Turkish film "Yol" by director Yilmaz Guney which came out in 1982, in this regard. "The Breakfast Club" fully examines the plight of these characters during the Reagan years which were difficult for many of us who grew up then. This film may not stand up to "Rebel Without a Clause," perhaps the best teen film ever made, but it captures its' generation, its' period, and the secluded isolation which was teenage America in the 80s. I am not surprised it has become popular with teens today. It may not be "Rahsomon," but it is a crowning achievement for commerical films of this period, and its' title song "Don't You Forget About Me" still hauntingly helps this film capture the loneliness and fear of rejection which always seems to loom over teeangers whichever generations hey find themselves in.