I have to be honest. As I was
thinking about my predictions for The
Breakfast Club I made in my last blog post, I realized that my comment
about the musical score for the film stemmed from the movie Pitch Perfect that came out this Fall.
An aspiring DJ, Beca discovers the power of music in film after finally
watching The Breakfast Club. After
watching the movie all the way through, I have to say that I agree with her.
Renowned screenwriter, Gerald
DiPego, argued that a good script should be just as entertaining on its own in
the book Tales from the Script. While I agree that the writing largely
contributed to the movie’s success, the combination of good dialogue, good
acting, and good music really made this film unforgettable. Yes, the writing
successfully conveyed the gist of the movie, and was compelling in its own
right. But as Beca realizes in Pitch
Perfect, the final scene with “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds
makes John Hughes’ incredible script hit home.
Not only did the music enhance my
movie-watching experience, but also the lack there of in extremely tense
moments. When reading the script, I would read the word “beat” and think, okay,
so this would be an awkward pause. However, watching the actors interpret these
“beats” made me feel the awkwardness that Hughes was trying to describe with
words on a page. This made me side more with writer John D. Brancato (who wrote
Terminator 3) who was quoted in Tales
from the Script saying that, “A screenplay is a blueprint… its okay to be a
means of bringing something alive onscreen.”
With this in mind, I have to applaud
Hughes for mapping out such clear characters that the actors seemed to portray
their respective roles with ease. His set up, which I’m assuming was
deliberate, was brilliant. First, he created a setting that creates conflict in
itself: detention. Just by a choice of scene, Hughes is able to pull an entire
story out of a single room. Which most likely pleased the big-shot Hollywood
Executives reading his script; shooting in one place is pretty cheap.
Then, Hughes begins the movie with a
snapshot image of each of the “detainees” families. At first, the cars pull up
to the school and we can’t really tell the difference. As each car pulls up, we
think, “These kids aren’t that different. They’re all high school students. They
all (minus Bender) start their day in a car, pull up to school, and they all
have Saturday detention.” But then we zoom in and hear very different
conversations occurring in each car, or no conversation at all. In one moment,
Hughes links these kids together, while simultaneously distinguishing each of
them.
The dialogue in this film starts off
as fairly light, and then their conversations gradually escalade until the BIG
crescendo, when everyone finally admits why they were sent to Saturday
detention. As this happens, the differences between the five slowly
disintegrate, and by the end we’re left with a handful of teenagers all dealing
with the same issues: outside pressure, “unsatisfying home lives”. The natural
flow of this movie makes The Breakfast
Club easy to watch, keeping our attention the whole way through. For me,
the film confirmed what his script already suggested: John Hughes has a great
command over story structure.
The movie ends as it begins, and as
the cars pull up again, we wonder if anything really changed. Normally, endings
like this bug me. I’m that nosy movie-watcher who wants to know what happened
to them after the credits rolled. Did the snob or the jock acknowledge the
nerd? Did the criminal ever kiss the snob again? What ever happened to the
psycho? Although I find myself asking these questions, I’m glad that the movie
ended before we got to find out. This cyclical ending made me realize that in
one day, everything can change and nothing can change, all in the same moment.
And I think that’s a much more powerful note to end on. However, I do have one question that I really wish I could come up with an answer to. Why is it called The Breakfast Club? Food for thought.
MOVIES WATCHED: 10
SCREENPLAY PAGES WRITTEN: 35
NOVEL PAGES WRITTEN: 65
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