The Breakfast Club and a Quasi-Tribute

The Breakfast Club, 1985

Plato once said, "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a difficult battle." I think that no film embraces this message as well as The Breakfast Club, John Hughes' story about "Five strangers with nothing in common, except each other." 

It's the story of five teenagers forced to spend a whole Saturday in detention together. They couldn't be any more different. There's Brian 'The Brain', Andy, 'The Athlete', Allison, 'The Basket Case', Claire, 'The Princess', and John, 'The Criminal'. They don't know each other, but they don't like each other.

As the day goes on however, they realize that they have more in common than they know. They share their heartbreak, rage, fears and anxieties with each other and grow closer than they ever could have imagined.

The Breakfast Club illustrates the hardships, frustrations, and pressures associated with being in high school. I don't think anybody has ever captured exactly what it's like being a teenager better than John Hughes. He always had the most perfect understanding of what teens went through, and how difficult, frightening, and glorious it is. His greatest films show this talent time and again: along with The Breakfast Club there was Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, even Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

John Hughes truly was the voice of a generation and continues to inspire.

John Hughes

February 18, 1950

August 6, 2009

P.S. I realized that this was supposed to be about The Breakfast Club, but somehow it segued into John Hughes. Oh well, what do you want me to do?

Buon giorno, Principessa!

La Vita e Bella (Life is Beautiful), 1997

I first watched this movie in my 10th grade film class. We were doing a unit on foreign films, and someone recommended we watch this one as our example. Before I had watched this movie, I had never seen a foreign film. 

I think I had the same attitude that a lot of Americans have. Kind of an "I don't want to read a movie, I want to watch it." And so I had never had any kind of interest in foreign films, and I can't remember, but I must have come to class that day with a hint of reservation about seeing this Italian film.

But from the word go, all reservations went out the window. I was surprised by how natural it was for me to read the subtitles and still  be able to pay attention to the action of the film. I didn't miss a beat, and I was so drawn into the story. I laughed so hard, and cried even harder.

Life is Beautiful is a truly genius piece of cinema. Not since Charlie Chaplin made fun of the Nazi party in the Great Dictator had somebody dared to ridicule Hitler. And not since Sophie's Choice was revealed was a concentration camp so heartbreaking. Roberto Benigni did just that in Life is Beautiful. His character turns the experience of a concentration camp into a game to devastating results.

But for all its heartbreak, and there is plenty, you walk away from the movie feeling glad to be alive and agreeing that, in spite of everything, life truly is beautiful.

Oh Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars.

Now, Voyager 1942

Now, Voyager is probably my favorite weepy romance film ever. There are a lot of really great tearjerker romances out there, but I think that Now, Voyager takes the cake. The story, the cast, their acting, and especially the teaming of Bette Davis and Paul Henried give it that little bonus that gives it that win by a nose.

 Bette Davis plays Charlotte Vale, the daughter of the most famous and wealthy families in Boston. At first glance, you'd think she's middle-aged, but surprisingly, she's quite a young woman. Years of miserable living under her tyrannical mother's reign have led her to become totally spinsterish. She finally cracks under all her unhappiness and goes through a nervous breakdown. Fortunately, kind and sympathetic Dr. Jasquith (Claude Rains) takes Charlotte to his sanitarium where she can recover, and then sends her on a South American cruise to learn how to socialize and give her a shot at making friends with people who have no idea who she is. While on the boat, she meets Jerry Durrance, a man who is unhappily married and staying with his wife for the sake of their daughters. He helps coax her out of her shell and the two end up falling in love. But how long can it last?


Aside from being supremely romantic and wonderfully gushy, Now, Voyager is the perfect example of Bette
Davis's incredible glamor. Never conventionally pretty, Bette Davis was living, breathing, glamor incarnate. And in this film, her transformation from ugly duckling to swan is just as amazing as The Wizard of Oz going from sepia to Technicolor, and just as astounding each time it's seen.

Now, Voyager is one of those sentimental romance films that you really cannot watch without a box of tissues on hand. I think everything about it is great, and side-by-side with Casablanca it leads the way of great romance films of the World War II years.

What is it you want, Mary? You want the moon?

It's a Wonderful Life, 1946

Being that yesterday was Christmas, I'm going to attempt to keep a kind of theme going on around here. And so I'm going to make this entry about not only one of my favorite Christmas (sorry, holiday) movie, but one of my favorite movies in general- It's a Wonderful Life.

Directed by Frank Capra, It's a Wonderful Life tells the story of George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) a man with big dreams and high hopes. However, none of these big dreams are ever fulfilled because he always puts everybody else before him. While his brother goes to college and becomes a famous war hero, George (who always had aspirations of seeing the world) stays home in the small town of Bedford Falls to take over his father's business. He marries Mary (Donna Reed), the town nice-girl, and has a family, but after the business falls apart, George, distraught, seriously contemplates suicide. Luckily for him, his guardian angel, Clarence, shows up to save his life. George wishes he'd never been born, and Clarence shows him exactly what the world would have been like had he not been born. And it really opens up George's eyes and he learns that his life really is significant. 

I can't watch this movie without crying. I'm far too sentimental for my own good and am rather inclined to cry at the smallest thing. And this movie always does the trick. Especially the message from Clarence that George gets inside a book: "Remember George, nobody is a failure who has friends."

This is one of those movies that everyone really needs to see. It's to me, the ultimate feel-good film and it always helps to remind you that, as lame as it sounds, you really do matter, and you really have made a difference. It's so beautiful, and I think that it should be shown year round, not just around Christmas time.

It was nice to meet you, even if you are my least favorite vegetable

Howl's Moving Castle, 2004

I was extremely hesitant about watching this movie. I never really cared for Japanese animation, and so I thought that this was going to be just a typical, run-of-the-mill film. How wrong I was. What I didn't know was that this was a film by Miyazaki, and so would be anything but average or run of the mill.

The thing about Miyazaki is that he manages to make his drawings seem alive. You almost forget that  you're watching an animated film- everything looks so real, from the backgrounds and landscapes, to the character's faces. What I really appreciated was that their expressions aren't exaggerated as they usually are in a lot of Japanese animation. 

What's really cool about Miyazaki is that pretty much anyone who is anyone has voiced a character in one of his movies. Howl's Moving Castle features the voices of Christian Bale, Lauren Bacall, Billy Crystal, Blythe Danner, and Jean Simmons. 

Other filims of interest include Spirited Away (which won the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2002, I think), Nausica of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service, and most recently, Ponyo. Seriously, check out his work. It's excellent. 

I'm not the one who's confused, you don't even know who you are!

 The Lion King, 1994

I think that The Lion King is probably Disney's best film. Everything about it is perfect, from the hand-drawn
 animation, to the incredibly lifelike images of the African plains (remember how they drew the sun rising over 
the Savannah?) to Elton John's songs, and the great cast of voice actors (Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Whoopi Goldberg, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, and Cheech Marin)- The Lion King is good, old fashioned Disney at its best, when the animation department was untouched by any other studio, and the company had something that it seems to have lost now- pride.

I think that the Lion King has got to be the saddest movie I have ever watched in my entire life. Remember how hard you cried when Mufasa died? I'm not sure I've ever cried harder watching a movie before or since. I've seen this movie so many times, and that scene is still totally heartbreaking. I would say it's the saddest thing in moves ever. The only other scene I can think that would run a close second would probably be when Old Yeller gets shot.

The best part of the movie to me though, is the ending. It is so epic, and so Disney in its heyday. With the animation, and the gorgeous Hans Zimmer score, I still get goosebumps to this day whenever I see it. It's such the perfect ending- Simba ascending Pride Rock as the rain washes everything away for a fresh start. It's so beautiful.








Now that's how to end a movie!

Apologies- I can't understand why there's like 18 of the video clip posted, and I can't get any of them off. Forgive me!

Heathcliff, fill my arms with heather

Image courtesy vivandlarry.com

Wuthering Heights, 1939

Before I do anything else, I really need to give Wuthering Heights credit for introducing me to Laurence Olivier in all his glory. Before I had seen this movie, I only really knew that Laurence Olivier was married to Vivien Leigh. And I really didn't get him. Maybe I just wasn't as interested in getting to know about him as much as her, but after I saw Wuthering Heights, that all changed.

Now I'd be lying if  I wasn't absolutely floored by how gorgeous he was in this movie. It's ridiculous. Really, it is. Just look.

Courtesy vivandlarry.com

Of course, the gushy, melodramatic love story didn't hurt matters either. Being a girl, I do like an occasional weepy romance film, and Wuthering Heights is one of my favorites.

Although Merle Oberon is not one of my favorite actresses in the least, I do have to admit that she is really beautiful in this film.

This is also a really important film in that it taught Laurence Olivier how to act on camera. (Before this, he was still kind of green, and still really stagey and hammy). The director of the film, William Wyler, really deserves the credit for bringing him down and really getting an incredible performance out of him. (Wyler's directed some of my favorite actors/actresses in some of my favorite movies...Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of our Lives, Roman Holiday, ect).

Since I watched this movie, Laurence Olivier has become my favorite actor, and I haven't been able to stop talking about this film in general.

If you don't like Laurence Olivier, or want to get to know his work better, watch this movie, because it's excellent.