Since my movie will focus on its dialogues, I recalled the movie I had to watch for my cinema studies class last year, The Breakfast Club which was also a pretty dialogue-heavy movie.

The Breakfast Club was a movie written, produced, and directed by John Hughes, released in Los Angeles, USA in 1985. It stars Emilio Estevez , Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy as teenagers from different high school cliques who spend a Saturday in detention with their strict assistant principal (Paul Gleason).

First of all, I really like from this movie is the fact that the setting is very simple. The movie is mainly set in the high school’s library, and at times, in other parts of the school. Despite the fact that almost the whole movie is set in the library, Hughes did a great job in actually making use of the space by having different scenes acted in a different part of the library.

But of course, the highlight of the movie are the dialogues themselves. The fact that this movie didn’t include high-pace action, amazing locations, nor are there lots of post-production effects, the dialogue in this movie has to be pretty damn good to engage an audience. And by watching it, a movie made in the 80s, in 2017 and again in 2018, I have to say that Hughes did a great job writing the script, as I find myself highly immersed in the movie from the beginning to the end. The dialogues are always cleverly written as the lines are natural and plays important roles in building the narrative and showcasing emotions.

According to Hubbard’s study (1996), one of the major problem encountered by the 80s teens was “class struggle”. John Hughes succeed in portraying this problem in this film transparently through the characters. Stuever (as cited in Driscoll, 2012, pg. 47), stated Hughes’ films “simply felt like perfect timing”, and The Breakfast Club is one of the most influential films for the X generations of the time.

Therefore, in reflection to my own work, the movie inspired me to make the most out of a space or setting, in my case a house, as Hughes did on the library. Since the door is a part of a setting but also a character, I did my best in capturing the door in different ways and angles to create a personality out of it and i just tried to make things interesting with the help of lights, which was a big part of my movie. Also, in regards to dialogues, I tried to create natural but also engaging dialogues that showcases emotions, just like this movie did. And similar to the movie, I’d like to explore real life problems, thus I’m trying to portray that well on the topic of suicide, which is one of the biggest struggles that teenagers and young adults have.

The Breakfast Club is one of the best movies out there. It’s cleverly written, wonderfully acted, and has a deep meaning while being fun at the same time. This movie is available on Netflix, and I highly recommend this movie.

Below is the trailer!

 

 

 

references:

Hubbard, C. K. R. (1996). Rebellion and reconciliation: Social, psychology, genre, and     the teen film 1980-1989. (Doctoral Dissertation). Retrieved from: https://search-        proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/docview/304269863

Driscoll, C. (2011). Teen Film: A Critical Introduction. Oxford, England: Berg Publishers.