Alyssa Lee

Dr. Billie Dzeitch, Prof. Sue Bourke

Kids Who Kill

6 April 2020

The Breakfast Club Response

The Breakfast Club is one of many films from the 1980’s that are considered absolute

classics and get you severely judged if you admit you have never seen them. Beloved as it may

be, there are certain aspects of the film that did not age well at all. Andy and Bender use gay

slurs casually. Bender sexually harasses Claire the entire film and tries to stick his face up her

skirt while he is hiding under her desk. Molly Ringwald, who played Claire, wrote a column for

the New Yorker in 2018 (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/what-about-

the- breakfast-club-molly-ringwald-metoo-john-hughes-pretty-in-pink) about when she

rewatched the film with her daughter. She discusses how horrified she was with the “upskirt”

shot (even though it was not Molly in the scene as she was a minor at the time), and the way

Bender verbally abused her character the entire movie and yet “gets the girl.” While I have

watched The Breakfast Club before, I never really enjoyed it, mostly for the reasons listed.

The other main issue I have with the film is Assistant Principal Vernon. The man is

verbally abusive to the students the entire movie and is clearly on a power trip. I realize things

were a lot different in the ‘80s, but I can’t imagine the school board would continue to employ

him after hearing about him manhandling a student, threatening him, and locking him in a

supply closet for half a day. Honestly, Vernon is the one I nominate as Most Likely to be a

Closeted Serial Killer. It’s difficult to fully articulate but there is just something about the man
that gives me some seriously bad vibes. I don’t think the man is fully sane. What rational person

locks one of the students they are responsible for in a random storage closet? Why was he just

casually looking through the confidential student files in the basement? What does he gain

from that information? Why does he get bent out of shape and take it so personally when

Bender challenges his authority in the library? If you can’t handle teenagers trying their best to

get under your skin, you shouldn’t be a teacher. None of us would ever admit it at the time but

teenagers are pretty much hardwired to challenge authority. Also, who is the adult here? He’s

in charge and he needs to act like it. He didn’t have to engage in that argument with Bender.

All the members of the Breakfast Club seem like normal kids to me. Being an Honors

student, I unsurprisingly relate the most to Brian. His line about needing a fake ID in order to

vote was something my friends and I used to say all the time in high school. I can see parts of

Claire, Andy, Allison, Brian, and Bender in all of them, which made this assignment kind of hard.

I think of the Breakfast Club kids as normal kids, not unlike my friends and I, and it's terrifying

trying to sit down and consider which of us would be most likely to snap and kill somebody. If I

had to choose, I think Brian would be the most likely to commit murder in the future. He did

bring a gun to school, even if it was only capable of shooting a flare. His confessions about the

pressure of academia, his parents’ high expectations, and how he never had a girlfriend were

an almost eerie reminder of what we learned in class about Dylan Klebold. I could easily see

Brian being manipulated (just like Eric did to Dylan) into bringing another gun to school and

using it on his classmates. He has the sort of “loner” personality that seems to be present in a

lot of the school shooters we have had in recent years. It sounds horrible to say, but I absolutely

believe Brian could be a school shooter someday.