I have long been a fan of This American Life. An episode aired at the end of the May that I missed and as I have been catching up with some podcasts here and there, I listened to it this morning. It was called: “Is That What I Look Like?”. In the third act, entitled the “Blunder Years”, Ira Glass talks to Molly Ringwald and what it was like to sit down with her 10 year old daughter and watch The Breakfast Club together for the first time.
I was still a little kid when this movie came out. It wasn’t until my early teens that I saw it. And, I got it! That was the magic, one of the many magic things about John Hughes, he got it. I think that there is a piece of us that identifies with each of the characters. There was always something in one of this films that you could identify with, you knew these characters, they were believable. They were your family, your friends, your neighbours. He understood teen angst and not in the whiny way that is mostly portrayed like today, but the real angst, where you are just trying to make it and you know there has to be something better out there than High School. It is a movie that I think all teenagers should see.
I remember a few years ago, Mr. Michie showed it to one of his Media classes and they had never seen it! I was shocked! This is a move that should be in your film viewing repertoire! I was an 80’s girl, to this day, that collection of John Hughes films are some of my favorite. If they are on TV, I have to stop and watch it.
Growing up, The Breakfast Club, somehow always seemed to be on TBS at least once a month. I would get home late from babysitting, my sister would get in from waitressing and we would sit down, get a snack to unwind, talk about our evenings and watch The Breakfast Club. To this day, we still randomly yell lines out to each other. Sometimes, all we need is one line, one word to sum up a situation, we get the rest, we have the unspoken language of sisters to fill in the blanks.
I can’t imagine how nerve-wracking and awkward and scary and slightly exciting, it must have been for Molly Ringwald to sit next to her daughter and watch this film. A little girl on the cusp of becoming a teen, the things you wonder if she knows about, if she doesn’t you would like to keep it that way, for as long as possible. It was insightful for Molly Ringwald, her daughter’s take on it and to which character she identifies with. The styles may have changed, the hair, the clothes, the time period, but to this day, I think that this is not a dated film, it is still poignant today.
I enjoyed listening to it, while cleaning the kitchen and I thought you might too:
