THE BREAKFAST CLUB(1985)
“You think you see a lot with your eyes, but you don’t, not really,”
I remember watching The Breakfast Club during my 3rd semester’s break, around November-December 2021. I had never heard of this movie before and was just looking for some “high school” feel-good movies to watch, something like the High School Musical series or Love, Simon or To All the Boys series or D.U.F.F or — you get it; comfort movies. But thank heavens I stumbled upon this because it truly is one of a kind.
Now, to convince you why this movie could be so nice, I’ll tell you who the director of this movie is — It’s none another than our favorite John Hughes. The man who gave us the Home Alone series, Baby’s Day Out, and 101 Dalmatians to name a few popular ones.
There are so many other things I can write about this movie — the runtime, the environment it is set in, the very idea of it, and what not! But I’m doing us all a favor and sticking to this particular assignment’s requirement — the mental health aspect connected to it.
On its surface, one might not quite say for sure that this movie has anything to do with mental health at all, but if you ask yourself, is there anything that is not connected to your mental state/health? (Quite philosophical, is it?) But it indeed is. And how do I say this? Keep reading and you’ll find out in a few.
The storyline is quite simple. Five students come to their school on a Saturday morning for day-long detention. They are Allison, Claire, Andrew, Brian, and John. They are all quite the usual set of characters that you can find in any American high-school film; Allison is introverted (like so much), Claire is very popular, Andrew is a jock, Brain is a nerd, and John, the troublemaker. Now that all of these people are poles apart in their personalities, things are bound to turn chaotic when they are put in the same room for an entire day, and that’s exactly what happens!
As it is not a bit surprising, John starts causing troubles the very first chance he gets, and our popular diva shows her superior attitude, and of course, the jock guy tries to be the knight in shining armor and one thing leads to another and before you know it, a day that was supposed to go very silent doesn’t remain so silent anymore.
In midst of it all, these people who usually don’t give two hoots about one another, start talking! Not petty stories, not gossip, but actual conversations! The one scene where they all do something *pretty* dangerous and end up talking their hearts out is the defining moment of the movie. One doesn’t like their lifestyle, one is a compulsive liar, one has an abusive household, one’s parents simply don’t care and one’s parents demand too much, and everything in between.
This is when they (and also us) realize that regardless of their own lives and circumstances, we can find a bit of ourselves in all their problems. This is where we find that everyone has countless issues, things that they don’t say out loud, things that might not seem so serious, but are problems nonetheless and are things that hurt you deep down.
The film subtly captures how your traumas shape your life — what does mental pressure do to you, how living in an abusive household could possibly make you an abusive person, how much power words carry, how much being present matters, and how everything affects everything.
I won’t quite reveal whether or not they find in themselves a group of friends, but I have revealed quite enough to know that they’ve found in themselves a group of confidants.
We leave our seats with some lessons — We all have problems, oftentimes very similar ones. We are never alone. There are always people who can sympathize and relate to your story. A person who seems to have everything might have nothing at all. A person who doesn’t seem to care probably cares too much. You can find comfort and support in the most unexpected places.
I hope everyone finds their Breakfast Clubs.
Signing off,
Karthik
