The High School Experience The high school experience is something that will forever dominate the psyche of most American adults. It was an unforgettable time of fun, rebel-rousing, summer loves and parties. It was a time of warm summer days at the pool and chilly autumn nights, watching the football team and wondering were the party was going to be that night. School dances and hotel parties. Seems like all I can remember are the good times. High School is a very emotional time for many teens and everything matters. The insidious problems that I had to face are but a smudge on my memory, things like too much homework, zits, mean people, gossip, and algebra. The social atmosphere that permeated every aspect of high school could make or break your popularity. In the movie, “The Breakfast Club”, five young adults are portrayed to a tee, representing a cross cultural view of the teens attending high school in suburban Chicago in 1985. The year in which the movie is set is immaterial, because the game is the same, whether it is 1955 or 1995. The opening scene of this “classic” movie shows the five students arriving to school at approximately seven thirty in the morning, Saturday, to serve their punishment, the dreaded Saturday detention that many of us had to submit to. This grievous application of student torture was utilized by school administrators to punish, reform and deter schoolboys and schoolgirls from breaking any rules and regulations. The scene is narrated by the brain of the group, the know it all, dorky, goofy, nerd whose idea of fun was to grow fungus and compete in the academic decathlon. In a dry and sardonic voice he leads you into the movie and their day in Saturday d-hall. Stereo-types abound ... ... middle of paper ... ...vie scenes in cinematic history take place in the high school’s library. This movie came out before I attended high school, yet I envisioned my experience to be similar. Now, I watch the movie and I get that nostalgic feeling and realize that high school was exactly that way. In today’s world the names and faces may have changed, but all in all kids stay the same. The rules and parameters of this game called, high school, may have changed in order to stay current with the nineties, teenagers coming of age in society have stayed practically the same. You hear a lot of teachers say that the kids are different and that “things just aren’t the same”, it is the teacher who has failed to adapt and modify themselves. High School is a paradox. A beautiful and painful experience that will stay with someone for the rest of their life, whether enjoyed it or hated it.
The representation of cliques in this movie were defined partly on the basis of socioeconomic status (Bleach, 2010)
Movies often don’t grasp this concept of teenagers struggling to fit in with their own group of friends. Denby states “lost in the eternal swoon of late adolescence, they’re (teenagers) thinking about their identity, their friends, and their clothes” (426). The most important thing too many teenagers in high school are fitting in. They idolize the idea of having a group of friends who are well known around school that other looks up too. The movie Never Been Kissed shows how teenagers often try to hard to gain and maintain friends. The main character who is a newspaper reporter goes back to school pretending to be a high school student. She tries to befriend a group of good looking rich kids and tries her best to impress them and she embarrasses herself in the process. The movie shows of allot of the average teenagers basic
This movie portrays the happier side of the 70s when bell bottoms and marijuana were the fashion and drinking and driving had yet to become unthinkable,. Dazed and Confused follows the lives of various groups of teenagers, during the last day of school in 1976, in their hometown. The movie is all about their philosophies on life, work, love and especially their futures, that we never hear about. Among the characters, there is Randall Floyd a young football player, pressured into choosing between being drug-free or authority-free. Then there is Mitch, an upcoming high school freshman trying to fit in, who spends the day running away from the senior hazing team, while attempting to hang out with the older crowd. It’s a time when everyone wastes their lives away in the carefree high school years. The message of the movie is to stand up for what you believe and resist all
In this film we see many typical high school behaviors such as cliques, cattiness, and popularity (or lack there of) issues. Many scenes in this movie have an array of stereotypes. Sometimes they are clearly stated and others just seen through attitudes of the actors/actresses character. Also through out we follow the main clique “the plastics” and they have this image they have to uphold. Be perfect, skinny, the best at everything, and in sync with everything they do; or they wont uphold their status. I chose this film because I think it shows a lot of what we have learned in this course and how it is in real life. Clearly the film is exaggerated but much of
The film, The Breakfast Club, introduces five students, each perceived with a different stereotype which is commonly found in American high schools.
In the film The Breakfast Club, five students attending Shermer High School are placed in Saturday detention by Vice Principal Vernon. Gradually, the teenagers learn that they are more similar than previously thought. The students have different backgrounds, creating the labels and stereotypes assumed of them.
The 1985 film The Breakfast Club examines the cases of five individuals during their experiences in a Saturday morning high school detention session; each is bound by unique characteristics and circumstances, yet their shared experience allows them to form a group— an assortment of people who interact with one another and who feel as if they have reason to belong together— and socialize, or gain knowledge of group traits as well as the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, norms, and actions thought appropriate for each member. Notwithstanding the fact that each of these young scholars possesses wildly different attributes, they are all able to overlook such factors in favor of attainment of personal progress as well as propagation and fortification
The Breakfast Club is a movie made in nineteen eighty-five, directed by John Hughes. The plot follows five students at Shermer High School, as they attend for Saturday detention on March 24 on nineteen eighty-four. The students are not complete strangers to each other, but the five of them are from completely different cliques or social groups. John Bender “The Criminal” is one of the worst behaved kids in school, does drugs and is always involved in some kind of trouble, Claire Standish “The Princess” is one of the most popular girls in school, all the guys want to date her. Brian Johnson “The Brain” is the typical nerd, he is really smart in school, but has no idea about relationships, parties or drugs. Andy Clark “The Athlete” is a really popular kid in Shermer High, he is the varsity letterman, captain of wrestling team and a ladies man. Finally the last student in the detention is Allison Reynolds “The basket Case” she barely talks to anyone in the school and act really weird when approached.
The movie The Breakfast Club is a perfect example of peer relationships in the adolescent society. It shows the viewer some of the main stereotypes of students in high school you have a jock, a nerd, the weirdo, a rebel, and a prep. Over the course of a Saturday detention the different types of peers learn a lot about one another by hearing what each one has done to get into Saturday detention as well as why they chose to do it.
High school was, well, I guess you could say normal, but what is normal? I went to class, complained about the food, teachers, projects, you know, the “normal stuff”. In high school, looking back, I guess you could say that I was the one who had all the answers and always knew what was going on. As my one classmate put it one day “Holly’s like the New York Times; she always knows what’s going on.” I was the one that knew what the homework was, what the test would be on, if you needed notes you could copy mine because I had them all, and this was a big one; need help with your homework? Ask Holly. I’m not trying to say that I was an over-achiever, I too slacked off just as much as the next person, I guess my point is, is that I wouldn’t have been that girl if it hadn’t been for my friends.
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.
Despite an inappropriate music-video sequence and a phony up-tempo finale, The Breakfast Club offers a breakthrough portrait of the pain and misunderstanding which result from the social hierarchy created by youth themselves. The lookers and the jocks are popular and can do whatever they want — except relate to those outside their social circle of winners.
In "The Breakfast Club" five disparate personalities, each secure in his identity and yet filled with insecurities, spend a lazy Saturday confined to Detention at Shermer High School in Shermer, Illinois, for various and sundry school violations. Yet each character has a troubled life as foreshadowed by his very presence in Detention.
Almost everyone in America today has seen one of John Hughes’ iconic 1980’s teen movies. From Pretty in Pink, to Ferris Buellers Day Off, these iconic 80’s hits are still viewed as pop culture even two decades after their release. None of John Hughes movies has had as great an impact on society in America as The Breakfast Club. The 1980’s in America were filled with nuclear threats from the Cold War, President Reagan’s war on drugs and an increasing gap in wealth distribution. Even with America experiencing these heightened tensions, American teenagers were able to be more carefree, in a large part due to the draft being over, and worry about “teenage” problems. The Breakfast Club was able to capture this newfound freedom among teenagers as well as the feelings of anxiety, fear, and drama that came with high school. The film showed that one’s parents don’t determine your life, that breaking out of a label is possible, and that the emotions and issues that take place during this period of life aren’t any less important than the ones you face later on. The Breakfast Club by John Hughes was so impactful on 1980’s American culture because it gave hope for social class mobility, fought against the conservative politics of the era, and was one of the first movies to be shot from an accurate teenage perspective.
Time flies so fast. Looking back, my high school is just like a movie, a lot of things happened. High School is four years of growing up and probably a time in your life where you go through the most changes. In high school you are able to discover yourself and find out who you are as a person. Each year is special and unique in their own way. My journey through high school was a tough one, especially because I decided to not only focus on academic work but also to invest quality time in extra curriculum activities. I wanted more than just academic excellence; I wanted to be a leader, I wanted to add value to every aspect of my life, I wanted a rounded education and not just mere schooling. My success story is what I will like to share with you; how I really made it and how this defines my personality. My journey in High School was scary, exciting, and successful.