Thursday, March 26, 2009

Breakfast Club Identification


Do you guys remember the movie Breakfast Club? Anyone of my generation must remember. It was one of the biggest movies of our generation, and is STILL one of the big movies of our generation.

I was just mentioning to a blogging friend what character I always identified with. My boyfriend and I were recently sitting around and discussing who we identified with, and who other friends would "be". (We've also done this with the show "The Office".) Here's a refresher course on the cast of the Breakfast Club, as outlined on Wikipedia:

Andy Clark: (Emilio Estévez) Andrew is the film's athlete, in detention for beating a fellow student and taping his buttocks together. Andrew, like Claire, is ashamed of being in detention and is used to the better end of social life at school. Andrew hates his father for pushing him so hard to succeed and even wants his bum knee to give so his father could not drive him to be the best athlete.
Claire Standish: (Molly Ringwald) The princess of the group, in detention for skipping class to go to the mall. She is used to being sheltered by her group of friends and doting parents who only pamper her in order to spite each other, a fact of which she is painfully aware. Claire is caught between her parents who seem to use her to get back at each other. Claire eats sushi for lunch. She shares a kiss with Bender at the end of the film, after much conflict between the two.
John Bender: (Judd Nelson) The criminal of the group, in detention for pulling a false fire alarm. John Bender starts many of the events throughout the film. While he is hostile at first towards the others in the room with him, he defends Allison against Principal Vernon ("She doesn't speak, sir."). Despite Bender's constant needling of the others in detention, they lie to Vernon to protect John after he escaped his solitary confinement (exacted when he allowed himself to get caught in the gymnasium while the others ran for it) and snuck back into the library through a ceiling vent. At home, John is a victim of child abuse, particularly by his father, who administered a cigar burn to his arm for spilling paint in the garage. His antics and smart mouth wind up earning him an extra eight weeks of detention.
Allison Reynolds: (Ally Sheedy) The basket case of the group, in detention apparently because she had nothing better to do. She is the most socially isolated and claims to have no friends. She hides her face under her hair and the hood of her parka when frightened, and amuses herself by using her flakes of dandruff as snow on a picture she draws. For the first half of the film she is quiet, save for occasional squeaks of fear and a few random outbursts, but later on she opens up, particularly to Andrew. Allison's lunch consists of a sandwich made with Pixy Stix powder and Cap'n Crunch cereal. She disgusts the others while making and eating it. She is the least hesitant to talk openly about her home life and is not afraid of being different. At home, Allison is a victim of child neglect by her workaholic parents, and as a result carries a large bag with her to school every day in case she feels like running away. She claims to be in therapy, but because of her compulsive lying it is unknown if her claim is true (considering that she had previously convinced Claire that she was a nymphomaniac who was sleeping with said therapist).
Brian Johnson: (Anthony Michael Hall) The group's brain, in detention for bringing a flare gun to school. He tries to keep the peace. At home, Brian is pressured by his parents to be a perfect academic. Brian's younger sister is being raised to be exactly like her mother. Every grade has to be an A, regardless of what the subject is. In an effort to get some relief, he takes shop on the mistaken assumption it will be easy. Brian, assigned to create a ceramic elephant lamp that will light when the trunk is pulled, receives an F when the lamp fails to light. In despair, he brings a gun to school with suicidal intent. It turns out to be a flare gun, which goes off in Brian's locker, destroying the locker and the elephant, and landing Brian in Saturday detention. Brian uses the standard 'girl from Canada' story to escape ridicule for being a virgin.

So what role did you play in high school? Who do you identify most with? My boyfriend identifies most with the braniac Brian Johnson.

Who do I identify with? Why the Basket Case, Allison Reynolds! Not that I was as weird as her. I didn't have neglectful or abusive parents, wasn't a compulsive liar, and didn't entertain myself with dandruff snow art. However I was quiet and different, and embraced those differences and didn't fear them. In fact, I relished them! I was telling a fellow blogger about my fingerless gloves and oversized jean jacket that I used to wear. I also wore these funky white shoes that had snaps on the side, and rolled down at the ankles to reveal Chinese writing. Even though I would occasionally get detention for smoking in the girl's bathroom or outside the science building, or for skipping class or being late, I was always respectful and polite, and a favorite among my teachers. They knew that I was sensitive and harmless and shy, and forgave me my little trespasses.

And I hung out with the bad boys like John Bender. "Different" enough for you? Do I qualify as an Allison Reynolds?

Who did you most identify with? Which character were you in high school?

4 comments:

Libby's Library said...

Heck - I don't even remember high school;( Brain Damage can suck sometimes!

nfmgirl said...

I had a computer issue earlier that crashed my computer evidently before I had saved my latest changes to this post. I just realized it was missing where I reveal who I most identified with. Shoot! Durn computer!

The Big Burbs said...

OOOHHHH, you had to do this!!! I can already feel the angst rising up again--- oooo, and I love it. ;)
Okay, I identify most with Claire probably because I had people call me "princess" all the time, because they thought I was a spoiled goody-goody. But really, my single-parent family couldn't afford very much and I got expensive hand-me-across's from a family friend with an only child who actually WAS spoiled. They'd give me the stuff they bought her that she didn't like.
But I was a goody-goody... who had secret crushes on bad-boys like John. ;)
Oh man, I love that movie.
Thanks, Heather--- I might start calling you Ally now.

Jennifer Juniper said...

I was more like Allison up to 11th grade (kind of artsy and dark, but not the gross dandruff part) but I moved before my senior year and suddenly I became Claire, through no fault of my own.

I hate to admit it, but I kind of liked being popular, even if it was only for my last year.