905 The Breakfast Club

[knives]

This issue of class depiction in the films of John Hughes makes me think about the privilege of many acclaimed filmmakers in America. What modern American filmmakers could say they grew up with a working class/lower background?

Charles Burnett grew up in the most impoverished American community to be situated west of the Mississippi River.

That this seems to be the only living example has actually been genuinely bothering me. It probably doesn't help I also watched recently I Think You're Totally Wrong which deals with this issue somewhat in a way that just reminds me of why I dislike most academics (good film though). Are Burnett and Scorsese seriously the only living examples? Everyone I would have assumed this to be counter to like Debra Granik or Barbara Kopple turns out to have come from pretty wealthy backgrounds.

[Gregory]

There are many living examples, though I imagine it depends on what level of prominence we're talking about and how candidly a given filmmaker has spoken about their background. Michael Mann grew up in the working-class Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago. I believe Joel Schumacher and Kevin Smith also came from humble origins, though I'm hardly an expert on their biographies.

[knives]

George Lucas too now that I think of it. It's still a surprising degree of leaning.

[Dead or Deader]

Didn't Tarantino grew up in a trailer park? I always got the sense he grew up lower income from the autobiographical elements of his screenplays such as True Romance.

[knives]

For about six months. He actually spent most of his youth in a relatively upscale LA neighborhood of Torrance.

[Dead or Deader]

Now that makes the white trash schtick of his ring a false note.


Talking with you guys about the representation of class on screen is welcoming, as this has been bothers me on a personal level, as I sense a level of class could only be attainable if you want to break into film. American cinema has a lacking grip on the concerns of the working class, both in the indie/arthouse scene and the blockbuster/mainstream scene. For media experts who want to further looked into how the working class are dismissed, watch the documentary Class Dismissed that looks into tv portrayal into classism.

[soundchaser]

Now that makes the white trash schtick of his ring a false note.


Talking with you guys about the representation of class on screen is welcoming, as this has been bothers me on a personal level, as I sense a level of class could only be attainable if you want to break into film. American cinema has a lacking grip on the concerns of the working class, both in the indie/arthouse scene and the blockbuster/mainstream scene. For media experts who want to further looked into how the working class are dismissed, watch the documentary Class Dismissed that looks into tv portrayal into classism.

In some sense, I agree. America does not want to talk about class outright, because it cuts against our founding narrative terribly. This isn't just our film, either - recent American literary trends have been smotheringly upper-middle-class.

I suspect we're coming from the same area on this, but to play devil's advocate here - would a short about shopping at a chain supermarket be working-class representation? What markers can we use to define a character as "working class" as opposed to "middle class"? I'm mostly curious as to how you'd define "concerns of the working class," and how specifically we can represent them more clearly on screen. There's the I, Daniel Blake route, of course, which is an avenue not well-explored in America, but are there other paths?

Class Dismissed looks fascinating, by the way. Anywhere we can check it out that isn't hideously expensive? (The company that produced it is charging upwards of $200.)

EDIT: Apologies if there are too many rhetorical questions here...

[colinr0380]

Its like the teen drama version of a prison drama in some ways, which is why the Principal is a rather larger than life monstrously cruel jailer figure, patrolling the halls and halting break-out attempts! (Who of course, like the majority of adults in a John Hughes film, is jealous of his own lost youth being thrown back into his face by all these young punks!)

I was thinking a bit more about this and wonder if this is why all of John Hughes's films have a slightly conservative Peter Pan-like quality about them. Most of the adult figures in his films seem manic, comic figures, struggling to survive (or just get back home!) and often criminals. Or they are slightly abstract figures usually motivating the younger characters through fear of some sort of punishment, whether its a real threat or just something like the ticking clock of what will happen once your parents get home, as in Ferris Bueller's Day Off or Weird Science!

The kids in the films are all wanting to take on adult responsibilities (romances, even running the family home in the case of Kevin in Home Alone!), yet don't really want to be like their parents. They want to be responsible whilst still being able to have fun without worrying about the consequences (even the threat to life!), just like teens!

The 'mid-tier' adults are the ones that get turned into the biggest Captain Hook-like baddies - the principals in The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, gleefully wielding their position like a weapon (though with a suggestion underneath that they've been driven vindictively insane by kids like Ferris running roughshod over them!); Bill Paxton's older brother in Weird Science (literally transformed into a giant pile of faeces!); the bumbling criminal duo in Home Alone, and so on.

John Belushi's terrible role model father figure in Curly Sue perhaps straddles the line, starting off as someone fully deserving of whatever slapstick punishment he gets and then becomes the 'parental figure' more fully by the end, though it takes the title child character's intercession to make him into a 'more rounded' character (a bit like the interactions between Kevin and the Robert Blossom old man character in Home Alone, that starts off scary and turns more sweetly sentimental).

But for all of the rebelliousness against authority and need to playact being adults, in the end there's still that submission to actual parental figures or need for the adult authorities to come in, arrest the criminals and restore the order that the kids secretly crave in their hearts. To provide that structure that the kids need to cathartically rebel against, and learn about themselves in opposition to. That's why Ferris is the main character rather than Cameron (who'll have a really bad parental confrontation in his future) in Ferris Bueller's Day Off - he still has a way back into parental love. Its why the freezer-packed grandparents get thawed out without consequence in Weird Science! Its why there's the somewhat comforting scene of all the kids getting picked up by their (various tempered, like little visions of the kids when they are actually adults) parents after the detention in The Breakfast Club (while the rebel has no-one). And why we get the ending of Home Alone of Kevin back in the arms of his mother and ready to celebrate a family Christmas after all.

[Black Hat]

The Faculty is my favorite version of the omnipresent Body Snatchers story, I'll heartily second the recommendation

I'll third this, I saw The Faculty once in the theater and still bring it up to people all these years later.

[flyonthewall2983]

Another great thing this lead to, is the caricature of Judd Nelson on that SNL sketch where he's on a game show with fellow contestants Tammy Faye Bakker and Frank Booth (played no less by Dennis Hopper himself).

[Toddles177]

Hey everyone,

I'm really excited for the re-release of The Breakfast Club and very keen to see the 50 minutes of deleted/extended scenes. John Kapelos (who played Carl The Janitor in the movie) said in an interview that we may also be getting deleted scenes and bonus footage for Ferris Bueller's Day Off from Criterion. If this is true, it means 2018 will be a very exciting year.

[dwk]

The Beaver Club

[tenia]

The Beaver Club

With a beautiful typical-Gary screencapture.

[domino harvey]

I've seen this movie countless times and forgot all about that shot

[tenia]

I've seen this movie countless times and forgot all about that shot

I totally forgot about it too, but I suppose Gary probably was eagerly waiting for his disc just to get it in full 4K glory.

[CSM126]

Gary Tooze is just plain creepy.

[jazzo]

And if they ever do release Sixteen Candles, there’s always the shower scene near the beginning for Gary to grab.

[djproject]

Gary Tooze is just plain creepy.

So says the one who has Tommy "I did naaaaat" Wiseau as his avatar =D

[Aunt Peg]

Just goes to prove how aptly titled DVD Beaver is.

[movielocke]

We have the today show on, and they just teased an upcoming segment featuring breakfast club deleted scenes, I think it’s safe to say this one is definitely a different demographic than the usual stalker esque release

[flyonthewall2983]

Blu-ray.com

[hearthesilence]

A New Yorker article by Molly Ringwald where she revisits her films with John Hughes with a new perspective (as both a parent and a woman in the age of #MeToo).

[mfunk9786]

Maybe the best piece on Hughes’ work I’ve ever read, thank you for sharing it.

[bdsweeney]

Yes, thank you for the link. It was refreshing to read something that acknowledged the all-too-obvious fact that people (and issues) are not black and white and can encompass both good and bad points.