The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club is one of the most popular and influential films of the 80’s and has created some stars that went on to do even bigger things. Most notably Molly Ringwald, who went on to star in many films from the same director. The film is famous for making a long, engaging story out of a normal boring activity, but how do the micro elements of this film allow for a creative spin on the concept of detentions?
Starting with sound, the film is famous for its cheesy 80’s OST. But my favourite use of sound in this film is where there is none. Non-diegetic sound is completely cut out for one of the only scenes in the film when the principal brings Bender into the utility closet and threatens him. Not only is this scene powerful for showing Bender’s personality to be a façade, but also is one of the most unexpected scenes in the film. To emphasize this, all you can hear is the hum of a boiler, shuffling of clothes, dialogue, some other foley and an uncomfortable silence. This grounds it in reality and makes it hit a lot harder.
The cinematography of this scene also makes it an iconic moment in movie history. It’s the first time you ever see Bender from a high angle shot and every time the principal is seen it’s from a low angle. This reinforces his position of power and for the first time Bender sees him as above his himself. Also, when the principal starts becoming aggressive and threatening Bender he bends down to eye level with Bender, making the shots become eye level shots, which may represent the principal “stooping down” to his level, making us wonder whether he’s really any better than Bender.
The editing is a very slow-paced minimalist approach, with nothing but shot reverse shot being put to use. It is purely a character based seen so being super flashy with zooms and pans would distract from it.
Another factor that runs throughout the entire film is the detail put into the mise-en-scene. In that specific scene the setting is a dirty utility closet, the transition from a very nice library to a dirty closet could represent the devolution of the Bender’s façade, especially since he was making fun of the janitor earlier in the film. The lighting is a very important choice for making this scene uncomfortable and hard-hitting, no studio lights, no big ring lights and no flattering lighting. It's purely an orange glow from an old lightbulb in the closet and helps make a more intimate uncomfortable scene. The character’s costumes are very representative of their character, much like everyone in the film. His rugged ripped clothes represent his edgy personality and how he’s a broken person, whereas the smart suit the principal wears represents the front he puts up, before it’s taken off in the closet scene to reveal a pure black shirt, which enforces the switch up in revealing his true colours. Bender’s expression throughout this whole scene is a look of confusion and terror, because he knows nobody will believe him, whereas the principal’s face feels like built up anger being released.
That pretty much covers the specific scene, but there are themes running throughout the entire film – take for example the idea of the Male Gaze, a theory thought up by Laura Mulvey suggesting that most women in films are there for men to gawk at. This theory has faced a lot of criticism as some argue that it could be applied right back on to men. An example of this is prevalent in The Breakfast Club with the two lead actresses Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy, however you could argue the same thing goes for Judd Nelson and Anthony Michael Hall. In my opinion, that was the intention of John Hughes. The whole film is about digging underneath the “pretty girl” or the “jock” trope you may see on first look.
This concept can be backed up by Henry Jenkin’s theory on genre. This film misleads you in to thinking it’s a cheesy 80’s comedy with its upbeat synth-filled soundtrack but ends up becoming a character-based drama with rich social commentary.
