905 The Breakfast Club

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swo17
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905 The Breakfast Club

#1 Post by swo17 » Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:31 pm

The Breakfast Club

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What happens when you put five strangers in Saturday detention? Badass posturing, gleeful misbehavior, and a potent dose of angst. With this exuberant film, writer-director John Hughes established himself as the bard of American youth, vividly and empathetically capturing how teenagers hang out, act up, and goof off. The Breakfast Club brings together an assortment of adolescent archetypes—the uptight prom queen (Molly Ringwald), the stoic jock (Emilio Estevez), the foul-mouthed rebel (Judd Nelson), the virginal bookworm (Anthony Michael Hall), and the kooky recluse (Ally Sheedy)—and watches them shed their personae and emerge into unlikely friendships. With its highly quotable dialogue and star-making performances, this film is an era-defining pop-culture phenomenon, a disarmingly candid exploration of the trials of adolescence whose influence now spans generations.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, presented in DTS‑HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary from 2015 featuring actors Anthony Michael Hall and Judd Nelson
• New interviews with actors Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy
• New video essay featuring director John Hughes's production notes, read by Nelson
• Documentary from 2015 featuring interviews with cast and crew
• 50 minutes of never-before-seen deleted and extended scenes
• Rare promotional and archival interviews and footage
• Excerpts from a 1985 American Film Institute seminar with Hughes
• 1999 radio interview with Hughes
• Segment from a 1995 episode of NBC's Today show featuring the film's cast
• Audio interview with Molly Ringwald from a 2014 episode of This American Life
• PLUS: An essay by critic David Kamp

Costa
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#2 Post by Costa » Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:36 pm

Since 16 Candles is also coming, I'll wait in case there is a box set down the road.

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Luke M
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#3 Post by Luke M » Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:40 pm

The never-before-seen deleted/extended scenes has piqued my interest.

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domino harvey
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#4 Post by domino harvey » Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:34 pm

This does look like a great release for a great film. Can't wait to see those deleted scenes!

beamish13
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#5 Post by beamish13 » Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:44 pm

Those deleted scenes have long been a cinematic holy grail. Supposedly, Hughes was pushed to make them because Universal knew the film would get an R-rating based solely on language, so he was urged to inject some nudity into it as a means of enticing teen viewers. I'm guessing they're from a VHS/Betamax copy of the rough cut, as the negatives were apparently destroyed.

Emilio Estevez is once again a no-show. There's some mutual hostility between him and Alex Cox, which is why he was M.I.A. on Repo Man, but I'm surprised they couldn't get a sit down for this.

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oldsheperd
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#6 Post by oldsheperd » Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:52 pm

I've always been tepid about this film and most of Hughes' work due to his films being seen through the lens of white upper-middle-class teen angst. It makes it hard for me to sympathize with any of the characters. That being said, I do love 16 Candles and Weird Science for their comedy.

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HistoryProf
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#7 Post by HistoryProf » Mon Oct 16, 2017 7:01 pm

domino harvey wrote:This does look like a great release for a great film. Can't wait to see those deleted scenes!
I had no idea such a thing existed! Considering I was 15 when this came out and I know it word for word, this is a no brainer. My teenaged self would easily tap it as the best film of the 1980s \:D/

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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#8 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Oct 16, 2017 7:15 pm

It's a little funny watching Twitter right now, some people are pretty shocked.

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CSM126
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#9 Post by CSM126 » Mon Oct 16, 2017 7:37 pm

Really happy to see those deleted scenes on here - for me, they were always the biggest argument in favor of Criterion releasing this, since Uni seemed to have no interest in them. All the other extras look good too and this is, of course, a great film, so this will be a must-buy.

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hearthesilence
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#10 Post by hearthesilence » Mon Oct 16, 2017 10:10 pm

oldsheperd wrote:I've always been tepid about this film and most of Hughes' work due to his films being seen through the lens of white upper-middle-class teen angst. It makes it hard for me to sympathize with any of the characters.
Spot on. I actually lived in Hughes’s hometown for some time (he references it in every film he’s made) and it has a large upper and upper middle class population. I recall some kids worshipping his movies but to me most of them spoke for the more fortunate ones. I haven’t seen PRETTY IN PINK since grade school but at least he meant well and was trying. But he’s a shit for coming up with that Asian caricature in another of his films.

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domino harvey
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#11 Post by domino harvey » Mon Oct 16, 2017 10:25 pm

I taught this and Metropolitan to high schoolers in Baltimore and both were rapturously received and connected with by an audience that was not reflected in skin tone or social class in the films. It is entirely possible to connect to a film like this as a fellow human being

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manicsounds
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#12 Post by manicsounds » Tue Oct 17, 2017 1:19 am

Wasn't the commentary and documentary on the 2010 Blu-ray?

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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#13 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Oct 17, 2017 1:40 am

beamish13 wrote:Emilio Estevez is once again a no-show. There's some mutual hostility between him and Alex Cox, which is why he was M.I.A. on Repo Man, but I'm surprised they couldn't get a sit down for this.
He's seemingly (to me, anyway) reclusive. Not to a Malickian degree by any stretch but I've only ever seen him interviewed lately when the last two movies he directed came out. He made a funny comment about feeling like Charlie was the Fredo to his Michael when the whole tiger-blood thing was in full effect.

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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#14 Post by John Shade » Tue Oct 17, 2017 5:55 am

I'm not sure why the social class represented in a film makes it worthwhile or not. I've also never understood the correlation between realism and grittiness, or the need to watch things that seem only relatable to the viewer, which would end up a narrow viewing list. That being said I rewatched this a few months ago and simply couldn't finish it. By now it's become so ingrained in the culture that it's sort of a cliche, even if it wasn't when it came out. Grouping these kids based on a specific identity they relate to--then again kids still do this and probably still would like this movie. For me it just wasn't clicking--could be the amount of times it's been on tv in my life too. Maybe I'll give this disc a try for the deleted scenes. I am happy to see Hughes in the collection and am holding out some hope that Ferris might make it...

Mostly I came here because I'm impressed domino got students to watch and like Metropolitan. That's usually a film people can hate right off the bat for the same social class animosity. But when I tried to show it to students, I think they struggled with it because it takes a little bit of time for them to figure out the characters and how the dialogue creates the story. Still a huge favorite of mine.

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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#15 Post by Zot! » Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:34 am

Man am I tired of the whole too woke to engage with caucasian thought thing. The milieu depicted here may be privileged, but certainly not as privileged as a million golden Hollywood fantasies, or stories about aristocracy and gangsters from around the world. Hughes is a product of his time, but the underdog stories seem to have their heart in the right place. I respect peoples tolerance for such things may vary however. I find Sofia Coppola's poor little rich girl scenarios to try my personal limit.

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hearthesilence
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#16 Post by hearthesilence » Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:30 am

Zot! wrote:The milieu depicted here may be privileged, but certainly not as privileged as a million golden Hollywood fantasies, or stories about aristocracy and gangsters from around the world. Hughes is a product of his time, but the underdog stories seem to have their heart in the right place. I respect peoples tolerance for such things may vary however. I find Sofia Coppola's poor little rich girl scenarios to try my personal limit.
This actually occurred to me before I went to bad last night - "what about Ernst Lubitsch or Wes Anderson? Why don't I have a problem with those filmmakers? But then again I don't really care for Sofia Coppola's films either." It really depends on what they do with the material. Hughes's films often seem smug, narcissistic and corny, or at least embrace those qualities in its main characters. And that's perfect for an age group that's prone to at least two of those things, and moreso for the era from whence they come.

(And as for the first part of that post - I couldn't care less that these people were white. But honestly that Asian caricature always rubbed me the wrong way. Always has, always will.)

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oldsheperd
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#17 Post by oldsheperd » Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:46 am

Like I said, I do like Weird Science and 16 Candles for the sheer comedic elements. Breakfast Club is decent, I don't hate it, but there's not really a character there that I can connect with. I'm not sure Zot! is reading me correctly: I'm not trying to engage in a "woke" thing. It's obvious Hughes grew up with privilege, and he demonstrates that through his stories. There's nothing wrong with that. I just can't connect with it in Breakfast Club. In addition, I find it misleading that the group seems to have bonded, when in fact, as Anthony Michael Hall's character points out, the hierarchy will be preserved come Monday. I would have like to see that fleshed out a bit more. Even though Hughes is trying to show the common bond between teens across the socioeconomic spectrum, I think he fails, as Ali Sheedy and Anthony Michael Hall's characters are treated somewhat dismissively in comparison to the other characters. A great example is when AMH talks about committing suicide, a really serious issue, and then when they find out he brought a flare gun, the story is dispatched. Everyone laughs at him and AMH's character never gets a chance to share his pain with the others like Estevez, Nelson or Ringwald's characters do. Finally, I find the school administrator character to be too one-dimensional. He has valid criticisms of the teens, but instead of giving him a deeper character, he is awash in cliche by being cast as the "evil" administrator.

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tenia
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#18 Post by tenia » Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:04 am

I quite liked the movie and certainly would be more positive as a whole than oldsheperd but I understand his complaints and would have the same overall. However, I didn't feel these limitations were enough to reduce my enjoyment of the movie, but I certainly was surprised by AMH's character not being allowed by the movie to share his issues in the same way than other characters were. I'm however less surprised by the school administrator being one-dimensional. We're not in Freaks & Geeks in this regard.

Like in 16 Candles, these are obvious flaws but I wouldn't find them as weighing overly on the movies.

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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#19 Post by dda1996a » Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:08 am

I always found it lacking that Sheedy goes from "weirdo" into another regular good looking girl, and only then is noticed. This isn't a bad film, but is a far cry from actual deep coming of age movies (Stand By Me, American Graffiti etc)

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oldsheperd
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#20 Post by oldsheperd » Tue Oct 17, 2017 12:07 pm

dda1996a wrote:I always found it lacking that Sheedy goes from "weirdo" into another regular good looking girl, and only then is noticed. This isn't a bad film, but is a far cry from actual deep coming of age movies (Stand By Me, American Graffiti etc)
I forgot this part, but Ali Sheedy's transformation was another issue I had. It's the suggestion that conformity is successful which, I guess, was a wider trope used during the Reagan era.

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dda1996a
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#21 Post by dda1996a » Tue Oct 17, 2017 12:20 pm

To be honest the only Hughes film I really like is the great Planes Trains and Automobiles. I'm also a bit fond of Weird Science and Ferris, but I've never liked his three Ringwald films (Pretty in Pink is the best of the three).
Each of them has aspects I'm not fond of (let's not talk about sixteen candles and Long Don, ew) so I've always been surprised at their high stature in the annals of coming of age films.

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xoconostle
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#22 Post by xoconostle » Tue Oct 17, 2017 12:38 pm

John Shade wrote:I'm not sure why the social class represented in a film makes it worthwhile or not. I've also never understood the correlation between realism and grittiness, or the need to watch things that seem only relatable to the viewer, which would end up a narrow viewing list.
Indeed, I'm reminded of an old interview with Woody Allen during which the interviewer offered the criticism that his films all seem to take place in the milieu of upper middle class East coast caucasian intellectuals. Allen's response was, yes, you're right. That's the world I live in and know.

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oldsheperd
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#23 Post by oldsheperd » Tue Oct 17, 2017 1:59 pm

xoconostle wrote:
John Shade wrote:I'm not sure why the social class represented in a film makes it worthwhile or not. I've also never understood the correlation between realism and grittiness, or the need to watch things that seem only relatable to the viewer, which would end up a narrow viewing list.
Indeed, I'm reminded of an old interview with Woody Allen during which the interviewer offered the criticism that his films all seem to take place in the milieu of upper middle class East coast caucasian intellectuals. Allen's response was, yes, you're right. That's the world I live in and know.
They may be, but there's a difference between having that come through you pov versus everything in your work. It's not a criticism of Hughes work necessarily, just an opinion about why I find a good majority of his films hard to relate to. I grew up in a lower middle class family in a culturally diverse city. Hughes grew up in Grosse Point and is clearly influenced by his white, upper class upbringing. I think, for me, the universal messages he seems to espouse, particularly about teenagers, gets muddied by the privileges in which they are surrounded. That, in my opinion, gives a very shallow impression of what these teens are going through.

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kcota17
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#24 Post by kcota17 » Tue Oct 17, 2017 2:28 pm

For anyone who cares, the original trailer will also be included here.

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The Elegant Dandy Fop
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Re: 905 The Breakfast Club

#25 Post by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Tue Oct 17, 2017 2:48 pm

I grew up in a working class, 100% blue-collar part of Los Angeles and went to a school with some of the highest drop-out rates in the entire city. To give you an impression, my old school was in an early-nineties Cannon film called Crackhouse where a crack addict teenage sleeps with her teacher for drugs and a kid is stabbed in a restroom that beautifully captures the layers of paint covering up graffiti. That said, my time in high school during the early-2000s, John Hughes films were loved by the mostly Latino students of my school despite being as far away as possible from the class structures depicted in his films. I do sense that American cinema of the 80s started to eliminate people below the middle-class and revert them into criminals and thugs and that we've yet to escape from that, but John Hughes' sympathetic portraits of teenage life and feeling like an outcast still resonate with young people as always as he carefully avoids the cynicism that could really bring an audience member to question their economic privilege. Where's the criticisms for The Graduate, which if viewed from a reductionist standpoint can be whittled down to a story about a rich young man and his insecurities? It was only three years ago where I helped put together a screening of Ferris Bueller's Day Off for an audience of about 4,000+ people and just seeing the level of enthusiasm the film built up in people culminating with everyone singing and dancing along to the "Twist and Shout" sequence was proof of the effect John Hughes has on popular culture. It seems John Hughes transcends class and from my perspective through the people I've met, a director people love: from burnt-out cinephiles to a casual viewer.

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