The Breakfast Club Turns 40—A Little Worse for the Wear

When I first saw The Breakfast Club at my local theater in 1985, I sat through two back-to-back screenings. My companion didn’t want to be seen in the lobby crying after the first show.

That was the effect this film had on many of us Gen X-ers.

Looking back now, it’s clear why—honest movies about teen life were rare back then. But today, I’m also a little embarrassed by how we were seen. When my teenage daughter first watched The Breakfast Club and predecessor Sixteen Candles, she was shocked at what we had accepted as “normal” when we were her age.

Ch-Ch-Changes

Molly Ringwald, co-star of both iconic films, dropped a bomb in 2018 when she described those beloved artifacts as “racist, misogynistic, and, at times, homophobic.” Ringwald’s reassessment raised a question we’re still wrestling with—how to honor the cultural touchstones of our youth without ignoring what they got wrong. Forty years later, the film feels like a time capsule of everything we’ve outgrown—and everything we still haven’t.

On the occasion of The Breakfast Club turning 40 this year, I took one of my best friends from high school to see it again in theaters. We were reminded of what we’d forgotten about those days, what this movie pioneered, and what its shortcomings reveal about a culture desperately due for change. One welcome difference: We were old enough to sip wine while watching this time.

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Image courtesy of Universal Pictures