HIGH SCHOOL LIFE

The Breakfast Club - John Hughes, 1985

In this 'Brat Pack' movie, five high school students with nothing in common are forced to spend an entire Saturday together in detention. At seven a.m. they had nothing to say, but by four p.m. they had bared their souls to each other and become good friends - the Jock, the Brain, the Criminal, the Princess, and the Kook. The enforced intimacy enables them to talk about themselves. An interesting ensemble piece which, although criticised for its social clichés was, and is, very popular.

Pretty in Pink - Howard Deutch, 1986

Pretty in Pink looks at the central dilemma of adolescence where one's dreams are much larger than one's confidence. Molly Ringwald plays Andie Walsh, a poor girl living with her father and working in a downtown record store. The school she attends is full of wealthy snobs and she likes rich kid Blane. There is nothing new about the plot - rich boy and poor girl love each other and snobbery nearly wrecks the romance. The film is full of small truths such as the quiet scene where nothing is said as a boy plucks up the courage to ask a girl out on a date.

Clueless - Amy Heckerling, 1995

Beverly Hills high school teens of the 90s based on Jane Austen's Emma. Cher, played by Alicia Silverstone, is one of the most popular girls at Beverly Hills High School where rich kids hang out, talk to each other on cellular phones and occasionally attend classes. At 15 going on 16 Cher has it all - a white Jeep (driven badly on a learner's permit), an extensive wardrobe with a computer to help select the perfect outfit, and an uncanny ability to charm, cajole and whine until others do her bidding. The dialogue is witty and entertaining. A dissection of high school life.

TASKS AND ACTIVITIES

'Translate' one or two of the incidents into scenes which would fit your own school environment. Would you need to make any changes for a British teenage audience?

Write a dialogue between three or four different characters who find themselves kept behind after school one day for a variety of reasons and who end up learning a lot about each other.

Gang life - two members of opposing gangs are attracted to each other. How do they overcome this? Write a synopsis for a film which tells their story.