Grease v. The Breakfast Club: Finding Yourself
“Grease” v. “The Breakfast Club”: Finding Yourself The films “Grease” and “The Breakfast Club” feature the same strong theme: finding your identity. This theme is universal through many books, movies and even real life. The fact that these two films were filmed so far apart, “Grease” being filmed in 1959 and directed by Randal Kleiser and “The Breakfast Club” in 1985 directed by John Hughes, shows that this is a strong theme that sticks throughout the industry. These films have many characters that can be compared to one another. The main characters are Claire Standish (played by Molly Ringwald) and Sandy Olsson (played by Olivia Newton-John) and John Bender (played by Judd Nelson) and Danny Zuko (played by John Travolta). The girls are your typical high school “girlie-girls” and the guys are your typical high school “macho men”. There is also a couple of less important characters in the films that can be compared such as Andy Clark (played by Emilio Estevez) and Kenickie (played by Jeff Conaway). They’re the kids who think they’re the big man on campus and better than everyone else. The first obvious comparison is the leading ladies of the film. Sandy Olsson was a sweet, quiet girl when she first arrived at Ridell High. She felt pretty sure of herself entering the school, but when she joined a new group of friends and realized Danny Zuko’s real personality, she realized that she was not really the type of person that she wanted to be. With the help of her new friends, Sandy changed herself completely. On this path of discovery she was totally transformed in her looks and personality. She went from shy and unnoticed to sexy and confident. After the transformation, there was an occurrence that made her realize that she was just fine the way she was and didn’t need to change for anyone. In that time, she lost her true self trying to be something she wasn’t and then discovered at the end that she was always who she really wanted to be and no one could change