Individual XMAS homework task 20: Watch, research into and answer questions on a Teen film of your choice (The Breakfast Club)

Individual XMAS homework task: Watch, research into and answer questions on a Teen film of your choice (The Breakfast Club)

Plot: They were five students with nothing in common, faced with spending a Saturday detention together in their high school library. At 7 a.m., they had nothing to say, but by 4 p.m.; they had bared their souls to each other and become good friends. To the outside world they were simply a Brain, an Athlete, a Basket Case, a Princess, and a Criminal, but to each other, they would always be the Breakfast Club.

Cast:

·      Emilio Estevez. = Andrew Clark.

·      Paul Gleason. = Richard Vernon.

·      Anthony Michael Hall. = Brian Johnson.

·      John Kapelos. = Carl.

·      Judd Nelson. = John Bender.

·      Molly Ringwald. = Claire Standish.

·      Ally Sheedy. = Allison Reynolds.

Country: USA.

Budget: $1 Million.

Box office: $51,525,171.

Box office Gross: $38,100,000.

Genre: Teen movie, Drama, Comedy.

Themes: The main theme of the film is the constant struggle of the American teenager to be understood, by adults and by themselves. It explores the pressure put on teenagers to fit into their own realms of high school social constructs, as well as the lofty expectations of their parents, teachers, and other authority figures. On the surface, the students have little in common with each other. However, as the day rolls on, they eventually bond over a common disdain for the aforementioned issues of peer pressure and parental expectations. The main adult character, Mr. Vernon, is not portrayed in a positive light. He consistently talks down to the students and flaunts his authority throughout the film. Bender is the only one who stands up to Vernon.

Stereotyping is another theme. Once the obvious stereotypes are broken down, the characters "empathize with each other's struggles, dismiss some of the inaccuracies of their first impressions, and discover that they are more similar than different.

Target Audience: The target audience of The Breakfast Club is based around the teenage market (ages 13-18). This illustrates the social classes of high school and parent pressures to succeed. Teenagers could identify with the characters because they are in different stereotype groups.

Stereotypes: Adolescence is the time of transition between childhood and adulthood-biological development leads to psychological, social and economic changes, toward ever-increasing independence. Adolescence involves the development of a sense of identity; it is a time of questioning of relationships to parents and to peers, and of roles in society.

Relationships with others dwell at the core of the adolescent experience. As teenagers move away from their parents, peer groups play an integral role. Adolescents "place a lot of importance on belonging, on being included, and on being part of a group; group affiliation not only supplies emotional security, but also is a source of status and reputation with motivational properties" (Cotterell 1). The cliques and crowds formed by adolescents define them within in their own social world and to (or against) the adult world as well. The boundaries between these groups can be ambiguous and flexible or extremely rigid and unforgiving. The five students assembled for Saturday detention in The Breakfast Club represent five different groups, stereotyped both by their fellow students and the school administrator who is their warden for the day.

•    Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald) is the princess, the Prom Queen, Miss Popularity.

•    Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall) is the brain, the geek, and the "neo-maxie zoom deebie."

•    Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez) is the athlete, the jock, "Sporto."

•    John Bender (Judd Nelson) is the criminal, the rebel, the punk.

•    Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy) is the basket case, the loner, and the weirdo.

The strict confines of high school status groups separate the characters. Claire and Andrew might know each other, they might even end up at the same big parents-are-out-of-town party, but they do not "hang out." None of the others would even speak to one another under normal circumstances. But Saturday detention is like a parallel universe-it creates a separate sphere where these divisions can eventually be set aside. In the "other world" their punishment creates, the members of the Breakfast Club are allowed to move beyond these social norms and distinctions. They interact with each other, learning the details of the lives beneath the stereotypes, and find common ground.