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Has it really been forty years since director John Hughes performed the cinematic equivalent of a mic-drop with The Breakfast Club, stunning audiences and critics alike with his unflinching – and yet fun! – look at a day in the life of a group of high schoolers forced into an all-day suspension with one another? The cast, and their respective roles, were spot-on in their portrayals of the awkwardness of adolescence: Anthony Michael Hall (“The Brain”), Molly Ringwald (“The Princess”) Judd Nelson (“The Criminal”), Emilio Estevez (“The Athlete”), and Ally Sheedy (“The Basket Case”) all delivered career-defining performances, ably backed by veteran character actors Paul Gleason (as the principal) and John Kapelos (the janitor). Of course, the real secret behind the longevity of this 1985 masterpiece was that Hughes obviously had his finger on the pulse of what teens of any era are concerned with – fitting in, being accepted for who we are and, perhaps most importantly, the dangers of conformity. This very timelessness of The Breakfast Club has endeared it to multiple generations; John Hughes may no longer be with us, but his magnum opus about the teenage years continues to flourish and grow, each year adding even more fans to its already massive fanbase. And speaking of that fanbase, these aficionados of all things Breakfast Club had reason to celebrate this past weekend when, according to our Porky’s admirers over at The Hollywood Reporter, the entire principal cast – Estevez, Ringwald, Hall, Sheedy, and Nelson – staged the first official reunion they’d had since ‘85. The location of the reunion was even perfect for the Illinois-set film: The vaunted C2E2 convention in Chicago.
During the reunion panel, the Breakfast Club alum waxed nostalgic for this cultural touchstone of a film, with Ringwald noting that she felt “very emotional and moved to have us all together.” This was a good-natured dig at Emilio Estevez who, up until this Saturday, had been the lone holdout as far as participating in similar reunions among the cast over the last few years. Estevez quipped that it was nothing personal; he’d even been a no-show at his real-life high school reunions.
So what finally brought Estevez back for this emotional weekend reunion? Timing, according to the Young Guns star: “This one felt special, it’s here in Chicago where we made the film. It’s obviously the 40th anniversary, and it just felt like it was time. Somebody told me that Molly said, ‘Well, does Emilio just not like us?’ And that broke my heart. And I went, ‘No of course I love all of them.’ And that just made sense, so here I am.”
The audience in attendance also got the skinny on what an alternate Breakfast Club movie would have looked like if original acting choices such as John and Joan Cusack had been tapped to play two of the principals. Adn the icing on the already rich cake for that day’s reunion? John Hughes’ family members being in attendance to cheer on the cast as they ruminated about the film which changed their lives. It’s almost like a plot twist in a John Hughes movie, isn’t it?
The Breakfast Club is a film masterpiece. Haven’t checked it out yet? What are you waiting for? Criterion released a beautiful Blu-ray edition not too long back, and the film is always streaming in one place or another. Check it out and tell ‘em Vents sent you!
