Etai Shuchatowitz speculates for the Yeshiva University newspaper The Commentator on why everyone loves the 80s classic film- The Breakfast Club despite the fact that he hates it.
The Breakfast Club is “often touted as one of ‘the quintessential 80’s movies’. Its Rotten Tomatoes consensus reads, ‘The Breakfast Club is a warm, insightful, and very funny look into the inner lives of teenagers,'” Shuchatowitz says.
“However, the one thing that everybody seems to overlook in their glowing nostalgia of a time with nylon and when people thought Duran Duran was cool for some reason is that the movie doesn’t make any sense.”
Are those fighting words?
Shuchatowitz holds big issues with the Breakfast Club for several reasons: reinforcing stereotypes despite trying to do the opposite, having a lack of a story line, and including far too many “meaningless moments,” he says.
But though his initial criticism may seriously perturb you, he tries to back up his resentment towards the movie by speculating as to why seemingly everyone else around him disagrees:
I think that the Breakfast Club is a symbol. It’s what people believe the 80’s were. A lot of people who talk about the Breakfast Club either (a) were in high school when it came out(b) are younger and not alive when it came out. For group (a) The Breakfast Club represents a time when they thought they could change. It was the after school special in which everybody learns their lesson quickly and becomes better for it.
But, for people of group (b) it’s a little more complicated. I could argue that this is some romanticizing of a zeitgeist we never were a part of. As if that time had to be better simply for the reason that it’s not now.
But while Shuchatowitz might still think the movie sucks (he gives it a 2/5), he recognizes the cross-generational effect the decades-old movie still has.
What do you guys think about Shuchatowitz’s critique of people who love the Breakfast Club?
