The late John Hughes made some of the most important films of the 1980s for almost everyone who grew up in that decade, including me. There was a time when I was a teenager that I must have watched The Breakfast Club every weekend for a year, and while David Bowie’s music doesn’t appear in The Breakfast Club, a quote from his song “Changes” introduces the film. I always assumed it was Hughes, who wrote and directed the film, who was responsible for including it. I was wrong. It was actor Ally Sheedy who gave him the idea to use it.
There are a lot of reasons why Hughes’ movies resonated with me and continue to resonate with Gen Xers all these years later, and one big one is the music he used in his movies. Not only did he pick great songs from current artists, like Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” in The Breakfast Club, but he also had a knack for great needle drops from older artists, like “Young Americans” by Bowie in Sixteen Candles. I just always assumed it was Hughes who was inspired by the quote from another Bowie song and included it on a title card in the beginning.
It turns out that it was the actor who played Allison in the movie, Ally Sheedy, who came up with the quote. In a behind-the-scenes special on The Breakfast Club Special Edition DVD, Sheedy explains what happened:
My proudest thing about The Breakfast Club. More than anything [about the] performance or characters or anything else. That David Bowie quote is mine. I found that David Bowie quote in the beginning of the movie, and I showed it to John, and he thought it was great, and then he never said another word about it.
Hughes might have reacted at the time, but that doesn't mean he forgot the interaction. She goes on to explain how cool it was to see the movie for the first time, with the quote at the beginning:
I saw the movie for the first time, and there it is, right in the front. That’s my proudest moment.
It’s easy to see from the quote why both Sheedy and Hughes latched onto it; it’s pretty much a perfect encapsulation of what the movie is trying to say about being a teenager:
…And these children that you spit on As they try to change their worlds Are immune to your consultations They're quite aware of what they're goin' through…
That is exactly what Hughes was trying to say, said in just one verse of one of the most celebrated Bowie songs of all time.
There have been very few filmmakers who have tapped into the real emotions of teenagers the way Hughes did, and I have to think that a lot of that came from him talking to his young actors and listening to what they were saying, as they were the teenagers (or 20-somethings) who were going through those emotions for real.
The Breakfast Club, which you can watch with a Netflix subscription (without the DVD extras), continues to get quoted often by people my age, as does Bowie. This was the perfect combination for us.
