My top 30 films - No.25

25. The Breakfast Club (1985) - "They only met once, but it changed their lives forever."

Teen genre movies have been around since the mid 1950s and early 1960s, similar to rock 'n' roll. In that time, they were rebellious (James Dean, 1955) with quirky music in them. That was when teenagers first came into existence. It focused on the stereotypical image of teenagers at the time, as epitomized by their portrayal in A Hard Day's Night (screaming at The Beatles). During the 70s, teenagers got more involved in horror movies featuring blood, slaughter and violence; these included The Last House On The Left, Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. They wanted to be scared. This continued into the 80s with Friday The 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street, but that decade saw the revolution of the genre. The man responsible started this in 1984 with Sixteen Candles, but it is his work the following year which is in my opinion the definitive work of the genre. The guy understands teenagers and how they think and speak. I give you John Hughes and The Breakfast Club.

The Breakfast Club concentrates on five kids who represent the typical stereotypes you would find in any school: the brain - Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall), the beauty - Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald), the jock - Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez), the rebel - John Bender (Judd Nelson) and the reckless - Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy). They have nothing in common, but are all forced to report for Saturday detention by vice-principal Richard Vernon (John Gleason). He tells them to write a 1000 word essay about who each of them think they are in eight hours, fifty-four minutes. As you can guess, they don't. I want give away too much of the plot, but at the beginning they have nothing to say to each other. However by the end, they have become friends and reveal their secrets and why they are in detention, even though they may never talk to each other again.

John Hughes gives these characters real personalities. They are so much more than just individuals who represent each social group. They come to learn that each of them is similar in the sense that they have strained relationships with their parents. At the end of it, they realize that they impressions of each has changed. That's why the film starts and ends with a letter, as it shows how the characters have changed. The actors brilliantly represent each stereotype, especially Judd Nelson as the criminal that is John Bender. You do feel at the beginning that he seems to be a complete arse, but he does show his human side later. Supposedly he stayed in character off screen as well. His best moment has to be the closing scene with him walking across the football pitch and punching the air.

In my opinion, this is no only the definitive teen movie but it is also the definitive high school movie. Others would say Heathers, Election starring Matthew Broderick or Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused. My dad remembers watching If...., starring Malcolm McDowell, when he was younger and does have a copy of Bill Forsyth's Gregory's Girl at home. Gregory's Girl has some classic moments in it, especially the opening scene (which sums up all teenage boys), two of the characters trying to hitchhike to Caracas to find love and the main character weaving across the playground like an idiot, with the teachers watching him. Anything modern is rubbish, especially High School Musical. Honestly, put those people in the real world and they'd be dead within 12 hours. The only good modern high school movie has to be School Of Rock. Teen movies since the 90s seen to concentrated mostly on image, drugs, booze, sex and all those related themes. Most of them are a bit crass and not as funny as they make out to be. To all those fans of American Pie and Superbad, those films would never have existed if it wasn't for The Breakfast Club. You would not get this quote in any of those - "Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?" It is the genre-defining movie and always will be.

P.S. The main theme for this film was Don't You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds and that works perfectly for this movie. It is Simple Minds' greatest song and is the definitive 80s song for the the definitive 80s movie.