Film Analysis: The Breakfast Club - Emotion, Behavior, Genre

This presentation analyzes the 1985 film "The Breakfast Club," focusing on its genre (comedy/drama) and cultural origins. It examines the emotions triggered, such as sadness and anger, particularly through characters like Bender and Claire, and how these emotions evolve. The presentation discusses the behaviors depicted, including identity struggles, peer pressure, and the clash between individual and social identities. It references the film's impact on adolescent culture and the lasting messages about self-perception and social dynamics within a high school detention setting. The analysis draws on research to support the points made about the film's themes, characters and lasting impact on viewers.

Choose one film or TV program: The Breakfast Club (1985)
Genre (type): Comedy/Drama
Discuss and give examples of the following items listed in the table below.
1. Emotion
An adolescent experiences sudden emotions of sadness and anger. These emotions are
widely displayed in the movie especially through the characters of Bender and Claire. The
emotion of anger at the earlier stages of the text is shown, although it changes at the end
of the movie when the characters get united, and they now feel happy and excited. The
anger at the start of the text is because the students find themselves detained, and they
realize that they do not recognize each other to make it worse. However, when they know
they have much in common, they become happy and excited (Caster, 2019).
Environments must be such that they do not encourage the development of negative
emotions. Brian is depicted as someone who dislikes himself comparing himself to others.
He didn’t want Claire to know he was a virgin because he thought it was not cool. In the
movie, when Bender removes a packet of cigarettes to smoke, all the others follow him
and smoke with him due to peer pressure.
2. Behavior
One of the most influential discussions made in the film is that of identity. The struggle
between being a part of the collective, in contrast to the assertion of individualism is one
of the overall themes of the film that show how different characters behave. The character
John Bender serves as an antagonist through which the other characters eventually break
down and reveal truths about their experiences and the pressures under which they have
found themselves in that detention hall. One of the clear messages of the film is that social
identity is not the same as individual identity (Kiger, 2010). While all learn this lesson, it
is clear that some will advance through it while others will remain at the same stage
because of the pressures that they are under from outside influences. The struggle forms a
long term kind of behaviour.

References
Caster, Y. (2019, March 25). The Breakfast Club: 10 things the 80s film taught us about life |
Metro News. Retrieved March 26, 2020, from https://metro.co.uk/2014/03/25/10-
things-the-breakfast-club-taught-us-about-life-4677823/
Kiger, P. (2010, October 18). 25 Years After The Breakfast Club—Reuters. Retrieved March
26, 2020, from Reuters website:
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUS163777672620101008