John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club’s setting is so perfect, it can’t
be improved. The majority of the film is set in Shermer High School in Chicago
and was filmed in North High School in Des Plaines, Illinois. It looks so
normal that it could be anyone’s high school, fitting in with the whole idea of
the events of the film being a part of an experience. Anyone that has seen the
film, especially while they were in school, would consider this as a part of
their own high school experience because the characters are so easy to identify
with and identify as people they would know. John W. Corso’s setting is so
perfect that it feels both timeless and so completely 80s all at once.
The props and costumes express the character’s personalities
expertly, and the costume designer Marilyn Vance has thought through each
character’s experiences in order to create their look. Each character gets one
costume as the film takes place over one day, with each piece of clothing
creating a layer that recognises a little part of their personality. As the
characters start to get to know each other and let their guards down they start
to take off some of the layers, effectively taking away aspects of their look
or personality they have constructed as a barrier to other people.
At the end of the film one of Claire’s earrings is given to
Bender, and Allison takes a patch from Andrew’s jacket, showing that each
member of the group aren’t really that different at all. These moments of
recognition and solidarity show that they will remember their time together and
their similarities. The set pulls them together into this one group, and
although they seem to be different at first their shared surroundings unite
them.
Georgia x
