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John Hughes’ 1985 movie “The Breakfast Club” is famous for many reasons, including its final shot. Why is this movie so powerful and so well-remembered even 35 years later?

I’ll help you understand why by analyzing the opening of the movie, which creates five major characters in just 100 seconds. The opening is so powerful, efficient, clear, ambiguous, and provoking that it propels the movie forward very quickly.

Along the way, we’ll talk about compositions of shots, including the left versus the right side of the frame. Also mentioned: social class analysis, status hierarchies, parents versus children, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Emilio Estevez, and Ally Sheedy!

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