Director: John Hughes
Screenplay: John Hughes
Starring: Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, John Kapelos, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy
Country: USA
Running Time: 97 min
Year: 1985
BBFC Certificate: 15
I have a soft spot for films from the 1980s. Perhaps it’s because it was the decade in which I was born or, more likely, it’s because so many classics and personal favourites were released.
My favourite film of all-time has long been Ghostbusters (1984), and the decade brought us not only that gem but also its sequel (I have a lot of time for that one, too), as well as the likes of Back to the Future (1985) and its first sequel, Gremlins (1984), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the Indiana Jones trilogy, The Terminator (1984), Batman (1989), and An American Werewolf in London (1981). That’s before mentioning some of the other masterpieces by the likes of Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Akira Kurosawa, others by Steven Spielberg and much more. The above small list really is just the tip of the iceberg.
The 1980s are also fondly remembered as being the era of writer-director John Hughes. The late, great Hughes would write and direct the likes of Sixteen Candles (1984), Weird Science (1985), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), and Uncle Buck (1989), as well as writing other classics like Pretty in Pink (1986), National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) and, just outside of the Eighties, another Christmas favourite, Home Alone (1990).
One film I’ve not mentioned that stands alongside Ferris Bueller and Planes, Trains and Automobiles as perhaps the most popular of Hughes’ films, and arguably the most quintessential Hughes movie, is 1985’s The Breakfast Club, which is getting a new lease of life thanks to a new 4K UHD edition from The Criterion Collection.
The film follows a group of five high schoolers who don’t really know each other, who end up together in Saturday detention at Shermer High School, Illinois. The quintet are all adolescent archetypes from different backgrounds and include the uptight popular girl Claire (Molly Ringwald), the jock Andrew (Emilio Estevez), the foulmouthed rebel John (Judd Nelson), the bookworm Brian (Anthony Michael Hall), and the kooky recluse Allison (Ally Sheedy).
After a perceptive lyric from David Bowie, some stills and narration from Brian provide us all we need to ease us into the film before we see each of the characters dropped off at detention by their parents. It’s an excellent and economical way to bring us into the film.
We then spend the rest of our time with the characters at the school as the group go about their detention; riling each other up, getting to know each other, thinking about their lot in life, and occasionally getting an additional telling off from vice principal Mr Vernon (Paul Gleason).
We also learn about why they’re in detention – Andrew for taping a fellow student’s buttocks together, Brian for taking a flare gun to school, John for setting off the fire alarm, Claire for skipping class, and Allison who isn’t actually meant to be in detention but decides to go anyway.
The two best elements of the film are the script and the cast. Firstly, the script. It’s an incredibly perceptive, raw, honest and funny piece of screenwriting, full of wit and candidness. It’s easy to see why it spoke to the audience of the times, and still speaks to new generations of late teens some 30 years or so later.
It’s full of hilarious scenarios and zingers of dialogue – including John saying “eat my shorts” four years before TV behemoth The Simpsons would debut and Bart Simpson would make it one of his catchphrases. Highlights include the reaction of the vice principal and fellow students when John steals a screw from a door, Allison loudly making a sandwich, and pretty much every escapade that raises the attention of the vice principal. The section where the group bonds and lowers their armour is also wonderful – not least the monologue by Estevez’s Andrew explaining why he did what he did to get into detention, whilst the camera pans around him. It’s a really emotional and heartfelt moment.
The late Hughes is well regarded as a talented screenwriter but this film really showcases that skill, as he penned it in his mid-30s – much older than the characters that form the centre of the film – yet it feels as though it was written by someone their age. It is written with a realness that provides some big profound elements amidst minor character moments and all of the humour.
The characters are all relatable and easy to empathise with, and they’re brought to life through some quite marvellous performances. The seven core characters – the five students, the vice principal and janitor Carl (John Kapelos) – are each wonderfully performed by gifted actors, some at the start of their careers. It’s difficult to imagine anyone else playing the roles; the actors’ performances make each character feel very real and they are pitch perfect.
Over the course of the film the students realise that despite the different walks of life they come from and their overall differences, they all have similar things to deal with in their lives – be it complex relationships with parents or struggles with rites of passages. At its core, the film is about the struggle of a teenager to be understood by adults. The students form a strong bond – even though it is one they realise will probably not last after the detention ends – but one that results in Brian being encouraged by the other students to complete an honest essay on behalf of them all (the task set for detention) that’s a wake-up call to the vice principal about making assumptions.
Special mention, too, for the soundtrack. Music is used sporadically but effectively throughout, and it all starts in an iconic way with a track by Scottish band Simple Minds called Don’t You (Forget About Me).
The film concludes with one of cinema’s big punch the air moments (quite literally) that raises a big smile and brings to a close a wonderful, warm, hilarious, perceptive, emotional and simply great piece of cinema.
The Breakfast Club is a fantastic film three decades after its release thanks to an outstanding script and direction by John Hughes, and the wonderful performances of its excellent cast. The club of the title are a pleasure to spend time with during their detention and the film itself continues to prove an inspiration.
Film: 
The Breakfast Club is released on dual format 4K UHD and Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection on 9th March 2026. The new 4K digital restoration is a revelation for the film. It looks fantastic, with rich, fine detail, a naturalistic filmic quality and a natural colour scheme. The audio also sounds fantastic.
4K UHD and Blu-ray special edition features:
New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Alternate 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
Audio commentary featuring actors Anthony Michael Hall and Judd Nelson
Interviews with actors Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy and other members of the cast and crew
Video essay featuring director John Hughes’s production notes, read by Nelson
Fifty minutes of deleted and extended scenes
Promotional and archival interviews
Excerpts from a 1985 American Film Institute seminar with Hughes
Radio interview with Hughes
Audio interview with Ringwald from an episode of This American Life
Trailer
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by author and critic David Kamp
The 4K disc only contains the film and the archival commentary, with the Blu-ray containing both of these plus the rest of the archival extras. Disclaimer, I was only provided with the 4K check disc for the purposes of this review, so I’ve used my Blu-ray copy of the previous Criterion release, which seems to be the same as the second disc in the new release, for the purposes of reviewing the extra features, though one extra is not listed in the pre-publicity material. I’ve reviewed that one anyway but made it clear that it may not be on this release.
The audio commentary features actors Anthony Michael Hall and Judd Nelson and dates from 2008. The pair share some excellent recollections in an energetic chat track which is full of warmth and features plenty of insightful snippets of knowledge. It’s a really enjoyable listen.
Next we have 50 minutes of deleted and extended scenes taken from the 150-minute rough cut of the film and presented from an archival video tape. It’s wonderful to see all of these sequences, which were long thought lost, with some real gems throughout.
A cast and crew section opens with a 2017 interview with actors Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy. Ringwald covers her first films, working with Hughes and her recollections of The Breakfast Club in her sections of the 19-minute piece. Sheedy covers getting into film and her memories, too. Both are very warm and informative. It’s a lovely piece.
The other interviews were recorded on the set of the film in 1984 and include actors Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Paul Gleason and on-set studio teacher Irene Brafstein all talking about the story, the characters and their thoughts on elements like the themes and inner workings of the minds of the characters. Shot on video, they feature some perceptive insights, more so than is usually the case for this type of interview. The interviews total around 47 minutes.
A 47-minute audio interview with John Hughes from 1985 at the American Film Institute is excellent, with him covering loads of ground, and equally good is another audio interview with the director recorded for Sound Opinions in 1999. The latter runs for 16-minutes.
The electronic press kit runs for 24 minutes and includes a variety of promotional pieces, a trailer, a featurette and interview snippets.
Next we have an excerpt from a 1985 episode of NBC’s Today programme featuring host Jane Pauley interviewing actors Ringwald, Nelson, Hall, Estevez and Sheedy. Running for 10 minutes it’s a typical news promotional piece but is good to see and a welcome inclusion.
Describe the ruckus is a 12-minute piece in which actor Judd Nelson reads the notebooks of John Hughes from The Breakfast Club. It’s great to hear some of the elements of the film in the words of the director and read by one of the actors.
An episode of This American Life, a Chicago Public Media radio programme, sees host Ira Glass interview actor Molly Ringwald about watching the film for the first time with her daughter. The 15-minute piece is wonderful and very different to the other extras, seeing the actor watch the film years after its release with her young daughter. It’s a great little interview.
Finally, the extra I mentioned that may not be on this new release. Sincerely Yours is a 51-minute archival documentary dating from 2008, which features a fantastic array of interviews with actors John Kapelos, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson and Anthony Michael Hall, as well as costume designer Marilyn Vance plus filmmakers Amy Heckerling and Michael Lehmann, writer Diablo Cody and journalist Hank Stuever. It launches by reminiscing about John Hughes before moving onto how relatable the characters are, what makes the film so successful, some of its most memorable moments and plenty more. NB the press release for the new edition doesn’t list this extra, all the others are listed, so it’s possible that it has not been ported over.
I wasn’t provided with the booklet/ leaflet but assume it’s the same as the one included with the earlier Criterion Blu-ray edition, as both are written by David Kamp. It’s a brilliant essay, which can be read on the Criterion website. Kamp looks at the film’s place in Hughes’ cycle of teen films and how he, who at the time of making the film was in his mid-30s, was able to so astutely capture adolescence.
The Criterion Collection have provided a wonderful new release of the perennial 80s favourite The Breakfast Club. John Hughes’ brilliant film is presented with a stellar 4K restoration and great audio, plus a fabulous array of extras that have been ported over from the label’s original Blu-ray release. That means we get some marvellous interviews with members of the cast and crew, 50 minutes of deleted and extended scenes and a cracking audio commentary.
Disc/package: 