The Breakfast Club

Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall both starred in Hughes's 1984 film Sixteen Candles. Towards the end of filming, Hughes asked them both to be in The Breakfast Club. Hall became the first to be cast, agreeing to the role of Brian Johnson; his real life mother and sister playing the same roles in the film. Ringwald was originally approached to play the character of Allison Reynolds, but she was "really upset" because she wanted to play Claire Standish (then named "Cathy" in the first draft of the script), which saw the auditions of Robin Wright, Jodie Foster, and Laura Dern. She eventually convinced Hughes and the studio to give her the part.[7] The role of Allison ultimately went to Ally Sheedy.

Emilio Estevez originally auditioned for the role of John Bender. However, when Hughes was unable to find someone to play Andrew Clark, Estevez was recast. Nicolas Cage was considered for the role of John Bender, which was the last role to be cast, though the role was narrowed down to John Cusack and Judd Nelson. Hughes originally cast Cusack, but decided to replace him with Nelson before shooting began, because Cusack did not look threatening enough for the role. At one point, Hughes was disappointed in Nelson because he stayed in character and harassed Ringwald off-camera, with the other actors having to convince Hughes not to fire him.[7][8]

Rick Moranis was originally cast as the janitor but left due to creative differences and was replaced by John Kapelos.[9]

In 1999, Hughes said that his request to direct the film met with resistance and skepticism because he lacked filmmaking experience.[10] Hughes ultimately convinced the film's investors that due to the modest $1 million budget and its single location shoot, he could greatly minimize their risk. Hughes originally thought that The Breakfast Club would be his directorial debut. Hughes opted for an insular, largely one-room set and wrote about high school students, who would be played by younger actors.[11]

Principal photography began on March 28, 1984, and ended in May. Filming took place at Maine North High School in Des Plaines, Illinois, which had closed in 1981. The same setting was used for interior scenes of Hughes's 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which featured exterior shots from nearby Glenbrook North High School. The library at Maine North High School, considered too small for the film, prompted the crew to build the set in the school's gymnasium.[12] The actors rehearsed for three weeks and then shot the film in sequence.[13] On the Ferris Bueller's Day Off DVD commentary (featured on the 2004 DVD version), Hughes revealed that he shot the two films concurrently to save time and money, and some outtakes of both films feature elements of the film crews working on the other film. The first print was 150 minutes in length.[14]

During a cast reunion in honor of the film's 25th anniversary, Ally Sheedy revealed that a Director's Cut existed but Hughes's widow did not disclose any details concerning its whereabouts.[8]

In 2015 the first draft of the film's script was discovered in a Maine South High School cabinet as district employees were moving offices to a new building.[15]

The film's poster, featuring the five characters huddled together, was photographed by Annie Leibovitz toward the end of shooting. The shot of five actors gazing at the camera influenced the way teen films were marketed from that point on.[16] The poster refers to the five "types" of the story using slightly different terms than those used in the film, and in a different sequence, stating "They were five total strangers with nothing in common, meeting for the first time. A brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse".

The Breakfast Club was first released on VHS[20] and Laserdisc.[21]

In 2003, the film was released on DVD as part of the "High School Reunion Collection".[22] In 2008, a "Flashback Edition" DVD was released with several special features, including an audio commentary with Anthony Michael Hall and Judd Nelson.[23] A 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray was released in 2010,[24] and the same disc was re-released with a DVD and digital copy in 2012 as part of Universal's 100th Anniversary series.[25][26] On March 10, 2015, the 30th Anniversary Edition was released. This release was digitally remastered and restored from the original 35mm film negatives for better picture quality on DVD, Digital HD and Blu-ray.[27]

The Criterion Collection released a special edition 2-disc DVD set and a Blu-ray disc on January 2, 2018. The transfer was the same as the previous release but included new features such as fifty-minutes of new deleted and extended scenes, an Electronic Press Kit, new and archival interviews, a 1985 excerpt of the Today program, a new video essay and an episode of This American Life.[28][29]

Roger Ebert awarded three stars out of four and called the performances "wonderful," adding that the film was "more or less predictable" but "doesn't need earthshaking revelations; it's about kids who grow willing to talk to one another, and it has a surprisingly good ear for the way they speak."[30]

Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote,

”This confessional formula has worked in films as different as 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' 'The Big Chill' and 'My Dinner with Andre,' and it works here too. It works especially well in 'The Breakfast Club' because we keep waiting for the film to break out of its claustrophobic set and give us a typical teenage movie sex-or-violence scene. That doesn't happen, much to our delight."[31]

Kathleen Carroll from the New York Daily News stated, "Hughes has a wonderful knack for communicating the feelings of teenagers, as well as an obvious rapport with his exceptional cast–who deserve top grades".[32]

Other reviews were less positive. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote,

”There are some good young actors in 'The Breakfast Club,' though a couple of them have been given unplayable roles," namely Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson, adding, "The five young stars would have mixed well even without the fraudulent encounter-group candor towards which 'The Breakfast Club' forces them. Mr. Hughes, having thought up the characters and simply flung them together, should have left well enough alone."[33]

James Harwood of Variety panned the film as a movie that

"will probably pass as deeply profound among today's teenage audience, meaning the youngsters in the film spend most of their time talking to each other instead of dancing, dropping their drawers and throwing food. This, on the other hand, should not suggest they have anything intelligent to say."[34]

Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker,

"When the kids are just killing time and being funny—when they're not being challenged by the rebel's probing—the dialogue has an easy, buggy rhythm ... But the scenes involving the snotty, callous dean ring false right from the start, and though Paul Gleason seems miscast, maybe anybody playing this villain would seem miscast."[35]

Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times praised Estevez for "a practically perfect performance" but wrote that

"'The Breakfast Club' tries to have it two ways: It borrows the O'Neill-Williams-Albee structure, but it's also a teen-age sex comedy, wherein the kids revolt and make asses of their teachers. It's not really a teen-age 'No Exit,' but an attempt to fuse something like 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' with something like 'Animal House.' The movie is too crafty for its own good; its mixed ambitions often self-destruct."[36]

Paul Attanasio of The Washington Post stated,

"As the kids yammer at each other, 'The Breakfast Club' becomes as static and uninvolving as most filmed plays; there's none of the ingenious virtuosity that, for example, Robert Altman used in shooting David Rabe's 'Streamers.'"[37]

Among retrospective reviews, James Berardinelli wrote in 1998:

"Few will argue that The Breakfast Club is a great film, but it has a candor that is unexpected and refreshing in a sea of too-often generic teen-themed films. The material is a little talky (albeit not in a way that will cause anyone to confuse it with something by Eric Rohmer), but it's hard not to be drawn into the world of these characters."[38]

Writing in 2015, P. J. O'Rourke called The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off "Hughes's masterwork[s]". He described the former film as an example of Hughes's politics, in that the students do not organize a protest but, "like good conservatives do, as individuals and place the highest value, like this conservative does, on goofing off. Otherwise known as individual liberty".[39]

As of December 2019, review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an 89% approval rating based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "The Breakfast Club is a warm, insightful, and very funny look into the inner lives of teenagers".[40] Review aggregator Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 62% based on 11 reviews from mainstream critics, considered to be "generally favorable reviews".[41]

In February 1985, the film debuted at #3 at the box office (behind blockbuster film Beverly Hills Cop and Witness starring Harrison Ford).[42] Grossing $45,875,171 domestically and $51,525,171 worldwide, the film is a box office success, given its $1 million budget.[43]

Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Paul Gleason and Ally Sheedy all won a Silver Bucket of Excellence Award at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards in 2005.

The album contains ten songs that are played partially throughout the movie, performed by bands and singers of the rock and new wave genre, including three instrumental songs by record producer Keith Forsey.[51]

Simple Minds's international hit "Don't You (Forget About Me)" is played in the opening and closing credits. A music video was made for this song and for Wang Chung's "Fire in the Twilight" (reached No 110 on the US Billboard Hot 100). [52]

The soundtrack received generally negative reviews. In a June 25, 1985 review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau gave the album a "D−" and said that it has "utterly negligible" songs, and he commended Simple Minds for trying to distance themselves from their song, "Don't You (Forget About Me)", best known for being played during the film's opening and closing credits.[53] In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the soundtrack three out of five stars and wrote that, apart from Simple Minds' "undisputed masterpiece," the album is largely "disposable" and marred by "'80s artifacts" and "forgettable instrumentals".[51]