The Breakfast Club was first released in theaters on February 7, 1985, and 40 years later, it’s seen as a treasured classic with some pretty big flaws. There are some wild details behind the making of The Breakfast Club, so it isn’t entirely shocking that some of the material that made it to the big screen has been viewed as problematic. The Breakfast Club followed Sixteen Candles (1984), another John Hughes and Molly Ringwald movie. Though The Breakfast Club is generally regarded as less controversial than Sixteen Candles, it doesn’t mean it’s without its issues.

The Breakfast Club tells the story of five high school students from varying cliques and popularity levels who spend the day together in Saturday detention and realize they aren’t so different. The Breakfast Club has some great messages and lessons, reminding people not to judge someone by what they see on the outside or what they’ve heard from others. The best Breakfast Club quotes that are still remembered fondly highlight its legacy and importance. Yet, it’s also a product of its time, meaning much of the film doesn’t work well today.

10

The Use Of Slurs & Derogatory Terms Didn’t Age Well

Multiple John Hughes Movies Have This Problem

As shown in the harsh realities of rewatching Sixteen Candles, the use of slurs in John Hughes’ 1980s coming-of-age movies hasn’t aged well. However, this wasn’t just a problem with his films. Hughes is a highly-celebrated writer and director, and he should be, as he’s the mastermind behind films like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes Trains and Automobiles, and Home Alone. With his premature death in 2009, audiences will never get to see the films Hughes might have made if he were alive in this more modern and progressive society.

Hughes was 35 years old when he made The Breakfast Club, and he took his coming-of-age high school films very seriously. He had The Breakfast Club cast go undercover in a high school to ensure accuracy in his script and their performances. Unfortunately, some of that accuracy included the casual use of homophobic slurs, typically when one student was bullying another. Today, this can make viewers uncomfortable, but in the 1980s, it was generally accepted behavior.

9

The Nine-Hour Detention Didn’t Make Sense

The Detention Was Longer Than A Typical School Day

The students in The Breakfast Club receive detention for various reasons. Bender (Judd Nelson) pulled the fire alarm; Claire (Ringwald) skipped class to go shopping; Brian (Anthony Michael Hall) brought a flare gun to school; and Andrew (Emilio Estevez) duct-taped a student’s ʙuтт cheeks together, which led to some of his skin being ripped off. Only Allison (Ally Sheedy) didn’t earn detention, later confessing she showed up because she had nothing better to do.

The strict Vice Principal Vernon ran the detention, locking the school doors from the inside and instructing them to stay in the library and write essays. This might not have been so bad if the detention wasn’t 9 hours. As many viewers have noted, a typical Saturday detention is around 2 hours long, and a typical school day is only around 6 or 7 hours long. The excessive detention may be unrealistic, but it allowed for many antics and deep bonding.

8

Bender Sєxually Harᴀssed Claire

Bender Crossed A Line Too Many Times

Throughout The Breakfast Club, Bender Sєxually harᴀssed Claire. His behavior was frequently criticized by the other students, namely Andrew, who protected his fellow popular classmate whenever possible. Bender wasn’t nice to the other students until the end, and even that could be seen as a generous interpretation. However, Bender treated Claire the worst of all The Breakfast Club members.

He frequently judged her, ᴀssuming she had a perfect life because she was pretty and popular. This might have been forgivable, or even justified, given his own home life and Claire’s somewhat stuck-up atтιтude, but he crossed a line into Sєxual harᴀssment far too many times. One of Bender’s first lines is him making a “joke” about “[impregnating] the prom queen” against her will. His worst offense is when he puts his head under her skirt while hiding under the desk. Bender is an interesting character, but his behavior towards Claire is deplorable.

7

Bender’s Backstory Shouldn’t Excuse His Actions

Bender’s Backstory Just Explained His Behavior

Despite Bender’s Sєxual harᴀssment of Claire and his general bullying towards everyone else in The Breakfast Club, his behavior is often excused because of his home life. When the other students finally had enough of his treatment of them, they started to give him a taste of his own medicine. Then, Bender revealed his parents were always fighting and his father abused him.

Almost instantly, everyone feels bad for Bender, which is understandable, as nobody should be abused, no matter how awful they can be to others. However, The Breakfast Club scene frames it as though they should feel guilty for their ᴀssumptions. Yet, there isn’t a scene where Bender seems to express true remorse for his behavior. While Bender’s The Breakfast Club backstory may explain why he acts the way he does, it should never justify or excuse it.

6

The Adult Storylines Are Underrated

The Breakfast Club Isn’t Just About Teenagers

There are two main adult characters in The Breakfast Club: Carl Reed, the janitor, and Richard Vernon, the vice principal. Vice Principal Vernon is remembered as a cruel and bitter man who always had it out for Bender, which is a fair description. Carl is a minor character, but his monologue about being a janitor is well-remembered.

Bender tries to make fun of Carl, telling him he wants to learn more about becoming a janitor because Andrew was “interested in pursuing a career in the custodial arts.” Bender wanted to embarrᴀss and shame Carl for his profession, but Carl didn’t take the bait. Instead, he reminded them that what he does is important, and it makes him “the eyes and ears of [the] insтιтution.”

However, there’s one underrated scene in The Breakfast Club that makes the adult storyline so well done and important. Vernon and Carl talked about getting older, and Vernon said he felt the kids were getting “more and more arrogant” after teaching for 22 years. Carl keeps Vernon, who believes the kids “turned on him,” in line by telling him:

“The kids haven’t changed, you have. You took a teaching position because you thought it’d be fun right? … Then you found out it was actually work. That really bummed you out.”

Carl tries to make Vernon put himself in his students’ shoes, but Vernon lies and says he doesn’t care what they think. This reminds viewers and Vernon that they were once teenagers too. It’s also a sad commentary on what can happen when people’s lives don’t go as expected. When Vernon says he’s kept awake in the middle of the night thinking about these students one day running the country and taking care of him when he’s older, Carl says he “wouldn’t count on it.” Carl believes you must show respect and care to earn it, regardless of age, which is an important lesson.

5

The Breakfast Club Features A Controversial Flag

The Confederate Flag Is Hanging In The Library

One of the most famous scenes in The Breakfast Club is when Andrew unexpectedly and wildly dances in the library to “We Are Not Alone” by Karla DeVito. It’s a very fun scene that sees the students let loose, with the other students eventually joining him. When Andrew runs through the library, he pᴀsses a bunch of flags, including the controversial Confederate flag, which has been seen as racist against African Americans.

Technically, it’s not a true Confederate flag, as it was the Georgia state flag. According to New Georgia Encyclopedia, Georgia added the Confederate flag to their state flag in 1956, in protest of the Brown v. Board of Education decision to integrate schools. Thus, the school in The Breakfast Club was simply hanging up the flags of all the states with no intention of being controversial. In 2001, after a long campaign by African Americans in Georgia, the state flag removed the Confederate flag portion.

4

Allison’s Lie Was Considered Rape

Allison Claims It Wasn’t Rape In The Breakfast Club

One of the most heartbreaking moments in a John Hughes movie is when the students confess their secrets to each other in The Breakfast Club. They talk about how they ended up in detention, and Allison confesses she never got detained but showed up because she doesn’t have any friends or anything better to do on a Saturday. Allison also shares that she’s a pathological liar.

Before this, she makes up a fake scenario about her seeing a therapist for Sєx addiction and then having Sєx with her therapist. She comments that it can’t be rape because she paid for the sessions. Claire is indignant, arguing that he’s still a grown man taking advantage of her. It ends up being a lie, and The Breakfast Club frames it as Claire being upset over nothing. Yet, she was right and rightfully upset at Allison’s story.

3

Brian Shouldn’t Have Been In Detention

Brian Should’ve Been Receiving Treatment

During The Breakfast Club’s library confession scene, also known as the “group therapy” scene, Brian shares he’s in detention because he took a gun to school intending to die by suicide. Brian is a stereotypical nice-guy nerd in The Breakfast Club. He’s an easy target to pick on because he won’t fight back, and the boy that Andrew bullied to land himself in detention was one of Brian’s friends.

Being a “nerd” comes with good grades and the pressure to keep them up. When Brian received an F in shop class, he feared what his parents and others would think of him, and tried to take his own life. However, he had a flare gun, not a handgun. This made the other students laugh, and Brian eventually laughed too, but he should have been receiving treatment, not detention. Mental health awareness has grown greatly since the 1980s, and if The Breakfast Club was remade today, Brian’s storyline might have been different.

2

The Romance Undermines The Breakfast Club’s Message

The Breakfast Club Should Have Just Stayed Friends

One of the biggest questions The Breakfast Club characters ask each other is if they’ll stay friends after their detention. After all, they’re in different cliques. Outside Andrew and Claire, who are both popular, without getting detention, they’d probably never have spoken to each other, let alone started to bond. Yet, the main question and the message about not letting your presumptions about people stop you from befriending them is somewhat hampered by the movie’s romances.

The Breakfast Club has two love stories within the five-student group. Allison and Andrew kiss, as do Bender and Claire, at the end of The Breakfast Club. Andrew and Allison’s kiss came after a controversial makeover scene where Allison was transformed into a stereotypical ’80s prom queen. Claire then kisses Bender, despite his Sєxual harᴀssment of her. While this is problematic enough, having them get together while Brian is alone undermines the story of friendship.

1

The Breakfast Club Probably Aren’t Going To Stay Friends

The Breakfast Club Ended When It Needed To

The Breakfast Club has one of the most famous endings in film history. After Claire kisses Bender and gives him one of her earrings, he walks across the football field. With “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds playing in the background, Bender pumps his fist for the iconic final sH๏τ. A voiceover of Brian’s essay to Vice Principal Vernon also plays, where he claims they were “brainwashed” to see each other as simple stereotypes.

Everyone in The Breakfast Club learns important lessons, but that doesn’t mean they’ll stay friends after the film’s end. Not only are they in different cliques, but they’re teenagers who struggle with pressure from their peers and parents. They may see past the stereotypes, but they know not everyone around them will. The Breakfast Club never had a sequel, which was for the best, as a subsequent film may have proven their tentative friendship was only temporary.

What The Cast Members Have Said About The Breakfast Club Not Aging Well

Obviously, while there are some outdated aspects of The Breakfast Club that might have tarnished the movie in the eyes of some audiences, there are plenty who still see it as a classic. However, it is not just fans who have picked up on things that have not aged well, as some of the cast members have spoken out on aspects of the movie they are now uncomfortable with. Molly Ringwald even wrote an article in The New Yorker on the subject.

Following the early days of the #MeToo movement, Ringwald publicly addressed one of her most famous movies with a new perspective. In a very thought-provoking examination of the movie, Ringwald spoke about being nervous about watching the movie with her young daughter only to discover that she herself was shocked by how badly some aspects aged, like Bender’s ᴀssault, and questioned its impact on audiences:

I kept thinking about that scene. I thought about it again this past fall, after a number of women came forward with Sєxual-ᴀssault accusations against the producer Harvey Weinstein, and the #MeToo movement gathered steam. If atтιтudes toward female subjugation are systemic, and I believe that they are, it stands to reason that the art we consume and sanction plays some part in reinforcing those same atтιтudes.

Likewise, Ally Sheedy reflected on The Breakfast Club years later, and some of the details about her character that no longer feel right. Specifically, Sheedy spoke about the controversial makeover that Allison receives in the movie, transforming her outcast character into someone who is more acceptable and immediately earning Andrew’s interest (via Behind the Velvet Rope podcast):

“It is one of the things that surprises me about people still loving it, even now. That is actually an aspect of the movie that’s problematic. It’s a mixed bag.”

Source: New Georgia Encyclopedia