The scene Molly Ringwald was desperate to have removed from ‘The Breakfast Club’
There are many films from the past that have not aged well, with the 1980s in particular producing a crop of movies that have grown more offensive and cringeworthy over the years. Both comedies and dramas from this era have soured in their reputations, often containing jokes and plot tropes that were normalised back then but are now seen in a different light.
Whether it be Friends, American Pie or Wild Things, there are too many cases to choose from in which the writers either include racist or misogynistic jokes and the directors portray certain characters using problematic narratives, permanently tainting an otherwise entertaining film.
This is most definitely the case for John Hughes, who became known as the definitive high-school comedy director and face of the ‘80s, realising classic stories such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. But while there is no denying the iconicity of his work, one former collaborator of his objected to his often-insulting sense of humour, and even asked him to cut one scene from his most famous film.
Molly Ringwald was a powerhouse of the coming-of-age genre, starring in some of the most beloved films of the decade and building a reputation for playing ‘popular cheerleader’ type characters and the high school sweetheart. She became an unofficial muse for Hughes, starring in both Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club.
Hughes’ films contain many moments that have defined pop culture as we know it, from Ferris Bueller’s commandeering of the Chicago street parade, the red Ferrari that crashes through Cameron’s house and the dancing scene during the longest detention of all time. However, after reflecting on these films, audiences have discussed and critiqued his problematic jokes and crude humour, something that Ringwald was all too familiar with after working with him on two occasions.
Ringwald’s character is subject to sexual harassment from Judd Nelson’s character in The Breakfast Club, but somehow, he ends up winning her affection, and they leave detention as a couple. The actor has since objected to this storyline and the questionable implication that men will be rewarded for this behaviour and ‘win the girl’.
But alongside this, there were many other questionable moments in the film, whether it be Nelson peeking up Ringwald’s skirt or the so-called ‘glow up’ of Allison, in which all the girls end up in relationships, despite being objectified and sexualised by the boys. But there was one scene that didn’t make it in the final cut of the film due to Ringwald’s insistence that it be scrapped, describing a moment in the script where the teacher, Mr Vernon, spies on another teacher who is swimming naked in the school pool.
It is one of those moments that bears absolutely no relevance to the plot and does not need to be included, with Hughes sprinkling it in as another nod to his immature and boyish sense of humour. Thankfully, the director agreed to take the scene out of the script, despite the fact that there were many other moments that could probably have also been cut.
