(Image source: /Film)
John Hughes' The Breakfast Club is revered by many as the ultimate 80's cult classic. It tells the story of five very different high school students serving a whole-day Saturday detention with nothing in common, each getting the chance to reveal themselves to each other and in the end, questioning if anything will ever be the same. It defined the teen-film genre for the years to come, paving the way for many others such as Clueless, High School Musical and Lemonade Mouth.
Stereotypes
Right from the opening monologue, the film shows a certain sense of self awareness in its use of stereotypes and tropes, even saying in the opening monologue
...You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct?...
Right there and then, we know exactly what are the stereotypes we're dealing with in this movie. Additionally, we have the stereotypical apathetic parents, power-hungry, unable-to-understand-and-relate-to-students principal, and the surprisingly wise janitor.
Cookie-Cutter Storytelling
With the setting given, five misfits being forced to spend a whole day together, we have a sort of set idea of how we might expect these types of stories to end. In the Jumanji reboot, the main characters end up together as friends, same goes with Lemonade Mouth. The Breakfast Club presents us with a sort of mixed bag, the whole squad not necessarily being all together in the end, but having formed connections and relationships that weren't present before. That being said, we can't really count the film as exhibiting cookie-cutter storytelling.
Cardboard Characterization
The characterization present in the film is far from cardboard, with each of the main characters breaking away from their respective stereotypes. Claire and Bender, somewhat unexpectedly ending up together, Allison being capable of changing, Brian showing a deeper meaning for his behavior, and Andrew showing vulnerability.
Negative Media Affecting Positive Life
While many view the use of narcotics and vices (cigarettes) as well as the multiple sexual innuendos present in the film to be "standard" for any teen movie and "not too overboard" this really shouldn't be the case. Any person who embodies these things in real life would be looked down upon in society, and should therefore go against this media present in the film
Conclusion
The film does a good job of taking stereotypical characters and combining them with an unpredictable plot and character development to produce an excellent example of the teen-comedy film genre. With themes on authority and self-discovery, The Breakfast Club is a quintessential cult-classic that remains relevant to this very day.
