Thematic Points and Supporting Film Elements Used

Rating: Null/10 (29 October 2011)

John Hughes has written and directed several good movies dating back to Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club in 1984 and 1985. Both movies feature high school student life. As we all know, the main characters were the "jock" Andrew Clark played by Emilio Estevez; the "brain" Brian Johnson played by Anthony Michael Hall, the "criminal" John Bender played by Judd Nelson, the "princess" Clare Standish played by Molly Ringwald; and the "basket case" Claire Standish played by Ally Sheedy. Let us not forget principal Richard "Dick" Vernon played by Paul Gleason either.
The Breakfast Club is a movie about five kids that thought they lived completely different lives and wouldn't have had anything to do with each other if they weren't in a Saturday detention. At the beginning of the dentition all the kids were quiet expect for Bender who annoyed everyone by being so critical. However, by the end of the detention they had become close friends with open discussions around their life problems, realizing that they all had more in common than their initial stereotypical thoughts. This leads to the main theme of the movie: don't pass judgment on someone or something based off stereotypes. In simpler terms: you can't judge a book by its cover.
John Hughes' Sixteen Candles is similar in the fact that stereotypical judgment is passed and it revolves around the problems of teenage life. The themes can somewhat be linked in the two films around not passing stereotypical judgment. The teenage girl in Sixteen Candles crushed on the popular guy in school while a nerd crushed on her. In the end after getting to know the nerd, the girl likes him. Essentially, people have to give others a chance before deciding to write them off in life. This is also portrayed through principal Vernon throughout The Breakfast Club. Dick didn't give those kids, especially Bender, a fighting chance at success. All he cared about was his career and making the lives of those kids difficult. Dick was passing stereotypical judgment on the kids without even trying to get to know them or help them through their teenage struggles.
John Hughes used dialogue and motif to support the theme of sixteen candles. The entire film revolved around the kids getting to know each other through conversation or dialogue. There were blurbs or action in the film, but most of the time it was nothing short of a round table discussion. Motif plays into the theme of the film through doubt. The kids would just start to settle in and have good conversation and somebody would say something to upset someone else or the entire group. Everyone would go back to passing stereotypical judgment at these parts in the film. In the end, everyone realized that they could no longer relate everyone to the standard stereotype. They had all become friends through dialogue; "the breakfast club".