It is 3:20 a.m. It is a hot as hell night here in Mayberry, NC. It would be a great time to watch a movie like "The Breakfast Club" on cable, which brings me to this entry.
The 1985 teeange angst melodrama, directed by John Hughes, is now the subject of an essay collection entitled "Don't You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes." The book is edited by Jaime Clarke, and was published by Simon Spotlight. It retails for $14.
I read about this book in the latest issue of "Film Comment." Coincidentally, there is an 80's cover band called The Breakfast Club which will perform in Raleigh and Greensboro next weekend. For those of you in my hometown of Roanoke, Va., this means road trip, right? Well, I suppose the answer to that is, 'maybe not.'
The book features the five stars of the film, Molly Ringwald, Emilion Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Alley Sheedy ...........and (I have to look his name up!) oh, Judd Nelson, standing beside Hughes. Fyi, Robert Downey Jr. wasn't in this one. And, neither was Jon Cryer. Or, Rob Lowe.
The film deals with five students who get sent to detention for various reasons. Each of them talks about themselves and their problems. Leonard Maltin calls the film 'self-indulgent,' but, hey, he wasn't a teenager in the 80's like we were.
The title song "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds remains to be one of the most endearing pop songs of the era though I'm not sure it quite has the impact it did when I was 15 (in '85) when I could relate to the song all too well. I recall stunning my friend Brian Woodward, who now resides in Richmond, Va., when I told him how strongly I felt about the song. Brian, who went by Woody, wasn't really into The Simple Minds, U2, Rush, The Talking Heads or any of the good bands. I think he prefered the likes of Madonna and Wham. He's now in the radio business!
Laura Kern, of "Film Comment," said Clarke's book discusses how Hughes' films had a profound effect on those of us who grew up then. Some of the essays deal with the brutalities of teenage love (and those were the ones who were lucky to get dates!), and the high school class welfare system. One essay has Moon Unit Zappa professing her lust for Jake Ryan's character in "Sixteen Candles." The book also features a forward by Sheedy, which is certainly worth $14 in itself......Kern also has this quote from Stanely Kubrick who actually said that the colloborations between Hall and Hughes were 'the best since Jimmy Stewart and Frank Capra!'
I actually made the following comment about "The Breakfast Club" on the IMDB on Nov. 14, 2004, after reading a Kevin Smith aritcle about why he considered Hughes to be an influence while he was growing up:
"Assuredly, if I became a film director, I would want to cite Akira Kurosawa as a mian influence as opposed to John Hughes, but like Kevin Smith, I would have to give credit for the impact Hughes' films had on my adolescence."
I later went on to compare the film to "Rashomon," Kurosawa's most famous film (ok, I forgot about "The Seven Samurai," it''s very, very late!). I think I was simply in an awkward state of mind since I wrote all that jibberish less than two weeks after el presidente's 'dubious' reelection.
Other Hughes' films include "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "National Lampoon's Vacation," "Pretty in Pink" and the aforementioned "Sixteen Candles." But, I consider "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" with Steve Martin to be his very best film. Hughes has strangely disappeared. We don't know why.
About the band The Breakfast Club, they are based in Atlanta and they strictly cover '80s music. They will perform at the Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh on June 1, and will return there later this summer. They will be at the Club House in Greensboro on June 2. The Brekafast Club was formed by Jerry Finley, the band's drummer. Finley had, according to the band's web site, performed with 80's 'legends' The Hooters and The Romantics ("I hear the secrets that you keep.........when you're talking in your sleep.' It's enough to make me wish I could sleep right now! The band's lead singer is Steve Campbell. He is originally from Scotland, as were The Simple Minds!
Useful links for the band at least:
http://www.thebreakfastclub.com
http://www.myspace.com/thebreakfastclubrocks
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