Five teenagers, star wrestler Andrew Clark (Emilo Estevez), whiz-kid Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall), popular rich girl Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald), resident bad boy John Bender (Judd Nelson) and strange outsider Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy), are forced to spend the day together in Saturday detention. Lorded over by their cranky Principal Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason), as the day progresses the quintet soon begins to discover they’re all not as different and their problems nowhere near as dissimilar as they originally thought.

CRITIQUE

I was 8 when I first saw John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club, and to say it didn’t do all that much for me at that age would be an understatement. But as I grew older it was a film that kept catching my eye for one reason or another, and by the time I was myself exiting High School I could safely say the picture was very, very close to being one of my personal favorites.

Now that I’m in my 30’s this movie feels maybe more resonant than ever. While its central story isn’t that original or profound, the way it presents its teenage protagonist still feels as new and as fresh and as alive as it did to so many way back in 1985. These are real kids with real problems who understand more about the world around them then the adults caring for and teaching them care to believe. They are real people, characters I knew – in some respects still know – and could relate to, and the older I get the more all five of them begin to reflect my feelings on the world and my outlook on life than I should probably openly admit.

Yes some parts of this film can be a bit overly melodramatic and silly. And sure, as much as I love my some Paul Gleason some of his early scenes (especially between he and Judd Nelson) go way more over the top than they actually need to. As for the debate about Allison’s transformation goes, I don’t have a problem with that whatsoever, her penultimate choices coming from a place of kindness then they are from some sort of deep rooted need to change. In other words, she isn’t selling out, and when she returns to school on Monday I’d be surprised if the black eyeliner doesn’t return right along with her.

I think the best thing about The Breakfast Club is that no matter who you are now or what clique you felt like you belonged to back in High School everyone everywhere can relate to these five characters at least in some simple, basic way. I was all of these kids, and while a case could be made I floated more in Andrew and Claire’s worlds than I did the others I know for certain pieces of Bender, Brian and especially Allison all made up the adolescent I was in the day. This is a universal film touching on universal themes, Hughes doing arguably his best job ever to make them feel personal and real.

It is sad in a way that this is probably the best work any of the five have ever turned in as actors. I think you could make a case that Sheedy elevated her game in High Art, and Hall certainly had some moments during his run on “The Dead Zone,” but as far as the others are concerned I’m not sure you can find a performance in the quarter century since this film’s release that equals what there were able to do in this. All of them inhabit their respective characters body and soul, each going places so intimate and emotionally honest it’s almost kind of scary. They tapped into something here, went to places they’ve had trouble reaching since, and as such all five ended up creating indelible, maybe even classic teenage heroes similar films have been trying to somehow equal ever since.

There’s a lot more that could be said about both Hughes and his movie then I’m going to get into now. The only thing that really matters is that this is a really, really good film that only seems to get better with age. It plays just as well now as it did 25 years ago, and like all modern classics it just keeps picking up new viewers as each tick of the clock goes by. As Simple Minds tells us to do in the now legendary title track, we’re not about to forget about The Breakfast Club, the film just too damn good for that to happen.

THE VIDEO

The Breakfast Club is presented with a VC-1 encoded 1080p transfer in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. While a definite improvement over all past presentations of the film, do not expect perfection from this hi-def presentation. This was a cheap, low budget film and it clearly shows visually, and while the colors are as strong as they every could be expected to be I’ve go 480p DVDs in my collection that look every bit as good as this film does. Do not misunderstand, a lot of this has to do with the source material itself, but at the same time it is also fairly obvious Universal did not spend a lot of time or money making the image look as good or as sharp as it could have.

Heck, Criterion took an almost completely destroyed Technicolor print for The Red Shoes, restored it frame-by-frame and made it look every bit as good as the majority of big budget Hollywood fare released today. To say Universal couldn’t have put even a tiny bit of the same love and care into one of their most treasured catalog titles is a wee bit sad (and even more of a bit offensive to fans), The Breakfast Club definitely deserving of a better treatment from a visual standpoint than it has sadly received here.

THE AUDIO

Available audio tracks include English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, English Dolby Digital 2.0 and French 2.0 DTS-HD with optional English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles. This is where this disc truly excels, and even though there isn’t a lot to the audio here the Blu-ray still presents it extremely well. The balance between the pop soundtrack and the dialogue is really solid making me for the most part very pleased. This is, without question, the best this film has ever sounded.

THE EXTRAS

So they only new thing here (other than the obvious upgrades in both picture and sound) is the fact that this Blu-ray comes BD-Live enabled. Other than that, the rest of the special features are all retreads from the last standard definition DVD release.

Now, that doesn’t mean the Moderated Audio Commentary with stars Judd Nelson and Anthony Michael Hall or that the 12-part Documentary Sincerely Yours are bad (just the opposite – both are actually kind of great), it just means I’ve already experienced everything they have to offer.

Same with the short (just over five minutes) featurette The Most Convenient Definitions: The Origins of the Brat Pack. Sure it’s a fun watch, but so what? Been there. Done that. Not interested in going back to that well again.

Okay, so those who didn’t pick up The Breakfast Club in any of its previous incarnations are going to love these extras, while first time viewers are going to probably feel just the same. I just wish that if you’re going to put out a 25th anniversary edition of a title you actually take the time to include something new, that’s all, because the absence of anything fresh (like, say, I don’t know, maybe a Hughes retrospective considering his untimely and tragic death) is sadly nothing short of a major letdown.

The disc also include the Original Theatrical Trailer.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Breakfast Club is a movie that just gets better, more resonant and far more important to me as the years go by. It is a movie that somehow, even with all its eccentricities and occasional silliness, got what it is like to be a teenager in High School absolutely spot-on. As far as the film’s of John Hughes are concerned, this is his one bona fide timeless achievement, and while this 25th Anniversary Blu-ray certainly could have been better in my mind it’s still just strong enough that I think fans should strongly consider picking it up for their collections.