It was the movie of the day when I was coming of age. I wasn't a Molly Ringwald fan but did think Ally Sheedy was a great actor. Everyone my age at the time was all about Molly (and then all about a different kind of Molly 20 years later...), but the movie was a fad frenzy that I never saw until it came out on VHS (I grew up on a ranch). I was in 5th grade in 1985 when it originally came out. The local video rental place in town finally got the tape a few years later.
When I watched it, I identified halfway between the nerd (Anthony Michael Hall) and the social reject (Judd Nelson). I had the brain and the bad home, so I didn't exactly fit neatly into John Hugh's little compartments.
I still don't at 52 and it shows.
But I'm sure plenty of people from younger generations have seen the movie. Maybe they were forced to watch it via parents reminiscing about the "great 80's", or stayed in some hotel where they had cable and it was the only thing to watch besides Supermarket Sweep, or -- just said "hell with it" and streamed the damn thing.
So please, I'm looking for more than opinions (or God forbid, political BS) -- I want perspective. I want your thoughts and emotions and I'll go first:
I really thought it sucked that the "nerd" left alone. Everyone left with a soulmate but him. I also thought the movie completely avoided the whole rumor mill of "Brian's dad is the JANITOR!!!". Coming from a bad home, I really never wanted to introduce "badness" into anyone's home. I wanted an escape from my own home, albeit not with Molly. The whole weed thing -- actually -- was probably one of the most honest takes on the film.
That's my take. What's yours? And thank you!
90s baby/2000s child. It was good, some heartfelt moments, but I didn't really resonate with it as a teen. You've got to understand that when I was a teen, we had the tv show Glee. If you're not familiar, it's about a group of outcasts who learn to accept their social differences and come together as friends in glee club. It's a lot more "on the nose" than The Breakfast Club and it better reflected the social reality I was in.
I was alive and working in the 90's and 00's -- Please excuse me if I laugh, when I was a kid I thought people older than me didn't experience the 70's or 80's either!
But yes, I wasn't "growing up" in your coming-of-age times. My culture in school was a lot different than my Boomer parents had when they were in school (and likely different than what you had, although I'd say not as much as you think). My generation was the first generation to realize we wouldn't make it past our economic class no matter what we did. My own father doesn't speak to me, because I didn't "bust my ass" as "hard as he did" and own two houses before I turned 30 (I'm 52 now -- a loser even by your generation's account!). He knows nothing of how the middle class no longer captures 25% of GDP like they did in the 60's and 70's (we now capture 7% with two incomes), how real estate has skyrocketed because the politicians that own all the land keep utility companies from expanding the grid to perfectly habitable land outside the grid (if you buy land out in the sticks, there's zero utilities for you -- it's $20k per electrical pole installed and I won't even mention the water/sewer supply that was provided by the government back in their day when they bought their land "in the sticks"). So my generation was 100% raised and judged on "you gotta do better than us, like we did to the Silent Generation" while they stole the utilities and prevented us from recycling the very recipe they used for success. And then tossed us all in the garbage because they took away the very mechanism they used for "success".
And I want to say thanks for your reply. Seriously.
I, myself, told my father to go F himself a very long time ago. Haven't spoken in over 25 years. I hope he's dead. And hope the people like him die as well.
That being said, in school it was a very new thing to treat people of different skin colors as equal. It was huge. The "N" word was used frequently in the house I grew up in. At my grandfather's house, it was the de facto adjective for anything bad. I grew up split. Found out many years later we're all just a bunch of people trying to survive, most are good, some are bad. True with every color or occupation.
I think you and I would agree on some of the heartfelt moments. To be honest, those are the only saving qualities of the movie in my opinion. There are a few. Wishing you the best, sorry for my rant!
At the same time -- Food and shelter are obviously important. Never put your vote or money on anything that jeopardizes either. My 2 cents...