For my teen movie I picked the classic, The Breakfast Club. (Mostly because I was too lazy to watch anything I hadn’t seen yet, and this is the easiest movie to write about for this assignment). For those of you who haven’t seen it, which I believe is approximately none of you, the movie is about 5 high school kids serving their Saturday at school in detention. These 5 characters consist of: Andrew Clark (an athlete), Claire Standish (a princess), Allison Reynolds (a basket case), Brian Johnson (a brain), and John Bender (a criminal). Those characteristics are the ones given to them during Brian’s monologue in the opening and end of the movie. This movie is basically a love letter to all the popular cliques of the 80s. Since the movie is split between these 5 distinct stereotypes, I thought it would be best to go through each one and analyze them through how realistic they are and if they withstand the test of time.
Let’s first start with Andrew Clark and Claire Standish as a pair. Normally any other high school movie who put these two together but this is not the case for the Breakfast club. Andrew being the bully jock and Claire being the posh popular girl. However, the movie addresses this by showing that things aren’t always what they seem at first. Andrew is actually forced into wrestling because his father makes him do it. He actually has no idea what he wants to do with his life and is still coming to terms with his place in the world. With Claire it's a little different, while she seems happy and content with her life is actually depressed and is also confused with her place in the world. The script shows that the writers didn’t want to show the superficial side of each clique. These two characters definitely stood the test of time. High school is a very difficult time of self-realization and coming of age. Even though this is set in the 80s, even in 2017 kids still don’t know what they’re doing in life.
Now let’s look at Allison Reynolds and John Bender. These two are the outcasts but in different ways. Allison is simply weird. She never even had to be in detention, she just had nothing better to do on a Saturday. John is the tough guy. He couldn’t care less about what others think of him, so he figures he should just be rude all the time instead of being kind. The two characters seem to be a little exaggerated. While there are definitely rude and weird people in the world, everyone else seems to have some kind of motivation. These two characters do not. However, when we consider that they may be a product of hyperbole, these characters definitely still exist today.
Finally we look at Brian Johnson. He’s the most judgemental of the group. He believes that he has everyone figured out and everything is superficial. I think this is the screenwriter’s way of addressing their vision to the audience. The writers want the audience to understand that no matter what they may think they know about someone, there is always more to understand. Brian, being the smart guy, thinks the world is black and white, like academics. However, he realizes by the end of the movie that not everything is how it seems. His character arc is meant to symbolize how the audience should grow throughout the movie. However, his stereotype is still alive today. There are still people who see the world in black and white, and it simply isn’t.
Overall, The Breakfast Club serves the screenwriters’ visions of breaking down stereotypical boundaries between people. It truly holds up against time as society is still struggling to accept how similar we all are.
Vin, I like how you analyzed this and set it up. I appreciated the short background you gave and I thought your statistic ("approximately none of you") was funny. I think you wrote this very well and it actually held my attention for the whole time it took me to read. However, I wish you had a bit more plot background before you went right into writing just so people like me (who are included in your statistic) have a bit more of an understanding of the movie.
ReplyDeleteThe aspects of your blog that I like are also the parts I dislike. You did a good job analyzing the characters. However, maybe it was too analytical and lacked creativity. You wrote your blog a lot like I imagine Brian would write a blog. Very black and white. I am curious about what you think about stereotypes and if they are shown in your "average" high school. I want to know how this movie makes you feel. While you may argue that wasn't the prompt, since it is a blog I feel like it was implied.
ReplyDeleteYour blog post was decent compared to your past work. You managed to evaluate the movie "Breakfast Club" and used your analysis to evaluate the stock roles given to the cast of the film. For instance, you explained how Andrew Clark and Claire Standish are seen as the jock bully and popular girl duo, which is a prime example of these stereotyped high school roles. Aside from this, I would have liked to see some visuals throughout your post since they add to the reading experience. In addition, I would have also liked to see you address the prompt more thoroughly, since you seemed to have left out some answers to important questions. Overall, your post was decent, and you could have done much better with addressing the prompt in its entirety.
ReplyDeleteYou had a rather well-developed grasp of the characters in this movie, but I wish you would've other than just stating "the bad boy actually had a good heart" and other such remedial, simplistic statements, but you actually delved more so into how it is presented in the movie and how they broke out of these stereotypical bounds they were boxed into. I, as well, did The Breakfast Club and I must say I completely disagree that Brian was the most judgmental. When everyone else was asked if on Monday they would say "hi" to each other, they all said "no" in fear of judgement from their friends, but Brian was the only one who said he would. These such as this are what break these intricate characters out of their stereotypical walls. You barely scratched the surface of these ideas and I wish you would've gone more in depth into this character progression because that was the true message behind this movie. Overall, I think you answered the prompt sufficiently but there is still room for improvement and a deeper analysis.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you broke up the blog into the different characters and how that relates to the typical stereotypes. I wish you would have tied that into what the filmmakers thought more than just adding it in the last paragraph. Although I still really enjoyed reading this.
ReplyDeleteYour blog had very good organization which added to your style. I wish you added a little more detail and went in depth more about the characters and whether or not they exist today as well as examples.
ReplyDeleteYou definitely had a good start, but it didn't wind up going anywhere. Your essay was made up almost entirely of summaries of what stereotypes were in the movie, summaries which were brief at best. For the wealth of material regarding stereotypes the movie dishes out, you barely even scratched the surface. This was particularly evident when you lumped the Athlete and the Princess together, and again when you did the same with Bender and the Basket Case. Your post had very little voice, which makes it seem almost robotic. The kind of un-humanness that makes it feel far less like a blog post and more like a wikipedia article. Your post was significantly lacking in analysis. There's no discussion of how the characters' images, both to the audience and each other, change over the course of the film, or of the relationships between them.
ReplyDeleteThanks babe
DeleteYou have a very good understanding of the characters and what stereotype they fit into but I feel like you could have gone into more detail. I think you focused more on how they broke out of their stereotypes than you did on actually applying the stereotypes to them. I don't think you answered the prompt in its entirety but your blog is still very well written.
ReplyDeleteVincent, you have a very smooth writing style that does a good job of masking its short comings. Other than a rudimentary break down/plot summary of the movie you do in the first paragraph the only character you truly define in a stereotype is Brian. Most of what is written explains that the characters belong to some stereotype but little is shown to define those stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteThorough analysis. Decent writing. However, no more Breakfast Club!!! JEsus ChHrist how many of these things do I have to read about the Breakfast Club?? I get it, the filmmakers describe the stereotypes for you. It's easier. But really??? This is like the 10th one????? Maybe if you were Jenna I'd like it more. But you're not. You'll never be Jenna.
ReplyDeleteIf I had a dollar for every comment I have made to discuss how realistic the stereotypes are and if they are up to date? who's the pleb now? good start though.
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