Director John Hughes utilises his film, The Breakfast Club, to explore several teenage themes through the use of film techniques. Hughes explores the way that teenagers are affected by pressure from their parents and peers, and furthermore explores the creation and destruction of stereotypes in a school environment. The film follows five protagonists through an experience that displays these themes clearly to audiences.
Throughout the film, each character is faced with different pressures from the people around them. Brian, nicknamed ‘The Brain’, is shown to deal mostly with pressure from his parents to succeed in his schooling. In the first scene that Brian appears he is shown being lectured by his mother, the camera uses a close up shot …show more content…
John is shown throughout the film to be seen as a troublemaker amongst the teachers. John’s costume, which consists of red, black and denim, is an obvious way in which the director can give audiences a strong first impression, giving them the opportunity to stereotype him before any interaction or dialogue. The use of the colour red is to convey that John is passionate and full of emotion, particularly fury. Furthermore, Hughes also employs the colour black to give the impression of power and strength, paired with a denim jacket, John has a stereotypical rebellious teenager appearance. In the first scene where John is shown, he jaywalks directly in front of a moving car; the camera angle is a medium shot that shows John walking towards the camera appearing larger with each step. Hughes uses this shot to display the recklessness of this character as he steps in front of a moving car, along with his infallible personality as he does not fear being hit. Moreover, when John is shown yelling or getting agitated, non-diegetic heavy rock music plays over his dialogue to further display the anger behind his words. Whilst the film progresses, this music that plays behind John’s dialogue changes and begins to soften. Hughes changed the aggressive tone of the non-diegetic music as the film progresses to convey the destruction of the stereotype surrounding John. Furthermore, as the audience understands more of his story the music changes and the assumptions that were made based upon his appearance are disproved. Hughes gives audiences the opportunity to make assumptions that stereotype the characters throughout his film, but as the film progresses he challenges the stereotypes that audiences have
Throughout the film, each character is faced with different pressures from the people around them. Brian, nicknamed ‘The Brain’, is shown to deal mostly with pressure from his parents to succeed in his schooling. In the first scene that Brian appears he is shown being lectured by his mother, the camera uses a close up shot …show more content…
John is shown throughout the film to be seen as a troublemaker amongst the teachers. John’s costume, which consists of red, black and denim, is an obvious way in which the director can give audiences a strong first impression, giving them the opportunity to stereotype him before any interaction or dialogue. The use of the colour red is to convey that John is passionate and full of emotion, particularly fury. Furthermore, Hughes also employs the colour black to give the impression of power and strength, paired with a denim jacket, John has a stereotypical rebellious teenager appearance. In the first scene where John is shown, he jaywalks directly in front of a moving car; the camera angle is a medium shot that shows John walking towards the camera appearing larger with each step. Hughes uses this shot to display the recklessness of this character as he steps in front of a moving car, along with his infallible personality as he does not fear being hit. Moreover, when John is shown yelling or getting agitated, non-diegetic heavy rock music plays over his dialogue to further display the anger behind his words. Whilst the film progresses, this music that plays behind John’s dialogue changes and begins to soften. Hughes changed the aggressive tone of the non-diegetic music as the film progresses to convey the destruction of the stereotype surrounding John. Furthermore, as the audience understands more of his story the music changes and the assumptions that were made based upon his appearance are disproved. Hughes gives audiences the opportunity to make assumptions that stereotype the characters throughout his film, but as the film progresses he challenges the stereotypes that audiences have