The Breakfast Club
I'm watching the Breakfast Club. The TIVO recorded it for us, as suggested viewing based on our general viewing tastes. I suppose it is looking more at my viewing tastes on this one, but then again, Luis is WAAAY too forgiving about what kind of drek he'll watch on the telly. It's perfectly disgusting.
This is a unique movie. Maybe it is also a scream to see Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Anthony Hall, Ally Sheedy and Emilio Estevez when they were practically kids. Talk about "where are they now?"... I have seen Molly and Judd show up in guest parts on different shows. Emilio has fallen off the planet. Anthony Michael Hall turned out to be a wholly different guy - big and bulky and in a television show about seeing dead people (or something like that). Ally Sheedy was very recently in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Paul Gleason and what's-his-name still show up in shows on guest spots, too. (What's-his-head is John Kapelos - I couldn't think of his name.)
Anyway, this was a good movie that profoundly affected me as a teenager. I was 16 or 17 when this came out. After several years of being serverely abused by most students in my school, this came out. And the first words on the screen were:
"And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're going through"
I was one of those children, but really, I wasn't worried about the adults. Them I looked at as unhelpful and completely not capable of understanding me, but the other kids were a source of worry. Those kids could be worse than simply verbally abusive. I had to be careful. I hated them for the way they treated me and the funny thing is, I'm sure that were any of them to run into me, they'd say, "Hey, I remember you! How are you?" I would not know what to say. I mean honestly, how is that I remember all the injustices done to me (I'm not being melodramatic; life in middle and high school was misery - more so for me than most); but they don't recall doing it? I guess if you are doing it to many, or you had the highest point of your life then, maybe you recall life a bit differently. I know I've mentioned this before, but I ran into one of those morons (in a different grade) years later when he delivered something to the house and I opened the door. I definitely put him on the spot and I felt great about it. I still do.
And so those words really are profound. David Bowie summed up almost any teenager's life with those words. Even the popular ones suffered during those times. They may have gotten to be vile and make fun of others and boost their egos at the time with that, but they got the abuse, too. Maybe not in the school, but somewhere. We all take our lumps at some point.
But I remember that when I talk to people.
I could not really identify with Molly's or Emilio's lives and backgrounds, but I certainly could identify with Ally's situation. An artist, not getting along with anyone, the bullshit in school. All of it. And I was very much like her. Weird, an outcast. I dressed in black all the time and had frumpy hair and that was life. Life is different now. (Well, except for the hair...)
And the adults. These people were never kids. I still feel that way. I know better, but they have conveniently forgotten what it was like to be a teenager, and so don't have any sympathy.
So the movie is interesting to watch. Twenty-two years later, when I know who am, feel good about who I am, relive those feelings momentarily and then smile, because my life is charmed. It's one of the best lives in the world to have. I see things clearly and live every day as though it's my first and last. And this makes me happy. I'm not that person anymore from 1985; but I am a product of that person in 1985.
This is a unique movie. Maybe it is also a scream to see Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Anthony Hall, Ally Sheedy and Emilio Estevez when they were practically kids. Talk about "where are they now?"... I have seen Molly and Judd show up in guest parts on different shows. Emilio has fallen off the planet. Anthony Michael Hall turned out to be a wholly different guy - big and bulky and in a television show about seeing dead people (or something like that). Ally Sheedy was very recently in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Paul Gleason and what's-his-name still show up in shows on guest spots, too. (What's-his-head is John Kapelos - I couldn't think of his name.)
Anyway, this was a good movie that profoundly affected me as a teenager. I was 16 or 17 when this came out. After several years of being serverely abused by most students in my school, this came out. And the first words on the screen were:
"And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're going through"
I was one of those children, but really, I wasn't worried about the adults. Them I looked at as unhelpful and completely not capable of understanding me, but the other kids were a source of worry. Those kids could be worse than simply verbally abusive. I had to be careful. I hated them for the way they treated me and the funny thing is, I'm sure that were any of them to run into me, they'd say, "Hey, I remember you! How are you?" I would not know what to say. I mean honestly, how is that I remember all the injustices done to me (I'm not being melodramatic; life in middle and high school was misery - more so for me than most); but they don't recall doing it? I guess if you are doing it to many, or you had the highest point of your life then, maybe you recall life a bit differently. I know I've mentioned this before, but I ran into one of those morons (in a different grade) years later when he delivered something to the house and I opened the door. I definitely put him on the spot and I felt great about it. I still do.
And so those words really are profound. David Bowie summed up almost any teenager's life with those words. Even the popular ones suffered during those times. They may have gotten to be vile and make fun of others and boost their egos at the time with that, but they got the abuse, too. Maybe not in the school, but somewhere. We all take our lumps at some point.
But I remember that when I talk to people.
I could not really identify with Molly's or Emilio's lives and backgrounds, but I certainly could identify with Ally's situation. An artist, not getting along with anyone, the bullshit in school. All of it. And I was very much like her. Weird, an outcast. I dressed in black all the time and had frumpy hair and that was life. Life is different now. (Well, except for the hair...)
And the adults. These people were never kids. I still feel that way. I know better, but they have conveniently forgotten what it was like to be a teenager, and so don't have any sympathy.
So the movie is interesting to watch. Twenty-two years later, when I know who am, feel good about who I am, relive those feelings momentarily and then smile, because my life is charmed. It's one of the best lives in the world to have. I see things clearly and live every day as though it's my first and last. And this makes me happy. I'm not that person anymore from 1985; but I am a product of that person in 1985.
"Dear Mr. Vernon:
We accept that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was you think we had done wrong. But we think you're cray to make us write an essay to tell you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us; in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question?
Sincerely yours,
The Breakfast Club"
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