The Breakfast Club 4K 1985 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

Five schoolchildren, as punishment for misbehavior, are forced to come to school on their day off and write an essay on the topic "Who do you imagine yourself to be?" The young people have great difficulty in sorting out their problems.

Review 4K Movie

Five students from Shermer High School were punished for their misbehavior by being forced to spend Saturday at school, specifically in the school library, where they had to write essays on the topic of who they see themselves as in the future. The group was as diverse as possible: Brian the nerd, Claire the beauty, Andrew the jock, Allison the weirdo, and John the bully. The teacher who was supervising them was not at all happy to be sitting and watching the students on a Saturday, so he threatened them with punishment if they made any noise and left for another classroom. Without direct supervision, the teenagers began to chat instead of writing essays and gradually moved from mutual taunts and insults to deeper and more candid social topics that concerned them all, regardless of their status and position at school.

John Hughes is best known as the screenwriter of such highly successful family franchises as Home Alone, 101 Dalmatians, and Beethoven, as well as the director of Curly Sue and several good comedies starring John Candy. However, at the dawn of his hazy youth, Hughes did not shy away from addressing more subtle and socially significant issues. These themes were realized in the film The Breakfast Club, which, if not an anthem for the youth of the 1980s, at least raised many questions that had previously remained unanswered.

Historically, high school students have always had difficulty finding common ground with their elders. Many feel that they are not understood, that their interests and goals are not taken into account, etc. Sometimes this is indeed the case, and the characters in the film are just like that. Andrew cannot decide for himself how to live his life; he is oppressed by his domineering father, who tells him what to do and how to do it. Brian's parents will not understand if he brings home a bad grade from school, driving him to the heights of stress. Elison's parents fundamentally ignore their daughter, and she goes out of her way to get their attention in any way she can. And the worst thing is that they have no one to share this burden with. It seems that their friends would just laugh at them, and strangers on the street wouldn't care at all. Therefore, when the situation allowed, the characters in the film opened up to the people who happened to be nearby. Moreover, they reasoned that this day would eventually end, they would return to their usual social groups, and perhaps never see those with whom they spent this Saturday again. And even if they did see them, it was not certain that they would speak again. As they say, what happens at the Breakfast Club stays at the Breakfast Club.
Perhaps if I had watched this film at the age of 16-18, when I was preoccupied with these issues myself, the impression it made on me would have been much stronger. Now, I notice some banality in the dialogues, weak acting, inexperienced directing, sudden musical accompaniment at some moments, an overly idealized ending, and the promotion of soft drugs (sorry). But at the same time, the film has a youthful liveliness and sincerity, and you can feel the filmmakers' desire to convey their ideas to the audience.
Two things depress me in this film, which cannot be blamed on the film crew. First, these guys spent the whole day in the library, the best room in the school. And none of the characters even thought about reading something out of boredom. I understand that the film would not have been very interesting in that case, but it is still a little sad. Second, there were blessed times without smartphones, when people, even if out of desperation, talked to each other in person. Now everyone would just spend their time staring at their phone screens and might not even know the names of their fellow sufferers. And that's sad.