The Breakfast Club star Molly Ringwald told The Times of London that it's only recently that she rewatched the iconic '80s classic and felt that some of the themes the movie glossed over were jarring.

In the 1985 film, Ringwald played Claire Standish, the Princess, one of the five students in detention for the weekend. John Hughes wrote and directed the movie.

The Breakfast Club: An '80s icon

The other four students were Judd Nelson (John Bender, the stoner), Emilio Estevez (Andrew Clark, the jock), Ally Sheedy (Allison Reynolds, the misfit) and Anthony Michael Hall (Brian Johnson, the nerd). Paul Gleason played the vice-principal Richard Vernon).

The actress said she watched the movie with her 21-year-old daughter, Mathilda Gianopoulos, also an actress.

“I only rewatched The Breakfast Club, which came out in 1985, because Mathilda wanted to see it with me. There is a lot that I really love about the movie but there are elements that haven't aged well — like Judd Nelson's character, John Bender, who essentially sexually harasses my character,” she said.

“I'm glad we're able to look at that and say things are truly different now,” Ringwald added.

The Breakfast Club was one of the biggest movies in the '80s. It made $51 million with a $1 million budget. This also made the Brat Pack even more popular. These were the actors who collaborated regularly with John Hughes as well as other directors.

Ringwald also starred in other Hughes movies Sixteen Candles released a year before Breakfast and Pretty in Pink a year after. She was recently in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans where she played Joanne Carson.

I was three years old when the movie came out so I saw it when I was older, in the '90s. At that time, I didn't think about the tropes present. Only when I watched later movies did I realize that they all followed the standard pattern that, to me, seemed to have been set by The Breakfast Club.
Movie friend groups always seemed to have one of each: the jock (usually a football quarterback), the nerd (this was the character I usually identified with), the weirdo (yes, this one, too) and the popular girl (to match the QB, it usually was the head cheerleader).
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And while I do remember being completely flummoxed at the thought of having to go to school during the weekend for punishment, Ringwald is right in saying that the film glosses over many things, not just Bender's sexual harassment of Claire, but also the seemingly casual homophobia.
I know that this film was a product of its time, and it may deserve a little grace when viewed from a contemporary lens. However, any reasonable person knows that sexual assault and homophobia are never acceptable in any era.
So it does bring up the question on how we can watch a film of its time which has elements that are offensive now, but were deemed acceptable. Maybe it's an issue of awareness. What do you think?