Stereotypes In The Breakfast Club

The film being analysed is the Breakfast Club, directed by John Hughes. Trapped in Saturday detention are 5 stereotyped teens. Claire, the princess, Andrew, the jock, John, the criminal, Brian, the brain, and Allison, the basket case. At 7 am, they had nothing to say, but by 4 pm; they had uncovered everything to each other. The students bond together when faced with the their principal, and realise that they have more in common than they think, including a hatred for adult society. They begin to see each other as equal people and even though they were stereotyped they would always be The Breakfast Club. The Breakfast Club highlights a variety of pressures that are placed upon teenagers through out high school. One of the most challenging aspects of screenwriting is creating characters that an audience can identify with, relate to, and be entertained by.

In the breakfast club they all begin to see each other as equal people and even though they were stereotyped they would always be The Breakfast Club.

This is seen as a subculture. Subcultures form by a transition from childhood to adult hood (coming of age), self-discovery, social rejection, and social change; all of these are present during the movie. A subculture is pretty much any group of people that do not precisely conform with the larger culture in which they live but instead conform to their own group. The outcome of these subcultures are stereotyping, social pressure, altered definitions of social norms, and transition. Subcultures in people are seen mainly as stereotypes. The use of stereotypes is used frequently because it enables people who watch them to form an opinion of the characters and their beliefs just from seeing them before they may have even spoken and sometimes just from the way they walk and are spoken to by other people. In this movie there was a jock, the brain, the rebel, the princess, and the basket case. This was how the director conveyed sub cultures across the

movie.

The Breakfast Club highlights a variety of pressures that are placed upon teenagers through out high school. Peer Pressure is the main one as it affects different people in different ways. The breakfast club highlights a variety of pressures that are placed upon teenagers throughout high school. Peer pressure is clearly shown multiple times through out the movie, on various occasions it is also talked about between characters. In the movie everyone also has some form of family issues or pressures, which affects how each character acts. A major theme throughout this movie is the social ranking in a high school society. Their stereotyped groups separate each character. Each character in this movie has also rebelled and this brought them closer and formed relationships as they realised they aren’t that different.

One of the most challenging aspects of screenwriting is creating characters that an audience can identify with, relate to, and be entertained by. To do these things a director has to choose not only they’re cast correctly, but their cinematic techniques as well. The camera angles and shots in each scene give insight into each character’s feelings even when they are not talking or being spoken to. When the camera is focused on each character it is an eye level shot, implying that every character is actually on the same level even though they have different social standings. Allison acts as a bystander in many scenes and does not communicate in many discussions; the camera is only on her when she is talking or making a noise. The camera remains on Andrew when he says his lines to show what he is saying and that he is feeling conflicted about his views. For Claire’s lines, the camera doesn’t focus on her, but instead on the reactions of the other characters. However, when she brings up a new argument the camera returns to her as a close up shot to show her full emotions. In a scene where John is yelling at Claire, the camera moves to a wider shot of her so her full body language is shown to the audience who can recognise her anger.

The lighting remains the same for the length of the movie. It is artificial lighting from inside the library, not sunlight. This could be a representation of the way that the characters hide their true identities and conform to typical social standards in an artificial way. The lighting is kept plain so the setting is shown as a regular school library. The sound throughout this scene is all diegetic; there is no music or sound effects that have been added. This is so the audience can focus on the dialogue. There are so many different emotions present; there is no piece of music that would suit how everybody is feeling. This allows the viewer to sympathise with whomever they want. At the end of the movie, when they got to know one another, the students realised that each of the 5 stereotypes exists in each student and that they were equal. Earlier in the movie they talked about school on Monday and if they were going to go back to normal. No one ever found out what really happened on that Monday morning, but the song at the end “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” symbolises that they don’t want to forget about each other. Clothing is used to portray stereotypes as well. Andrew wears a jacket, which identifies it as something to do with sport. Bender wears ripped jeans and a denim jacket showing he’s a tough person, Claire comes from a wealthy family and dresses very well, whereas Alison wears dark clothes and her hair is messy and full of dandruff.