Character Analysis: Brian Johnson
By: Brian Cotnoir
Well it’s almost that
time of year again. Another school year
has come and gone. Many students are
looking forward to graduation, while others are looking forward to Summer
vacation. So I decided that in honor of
the end of another school year, I would write a Character Analysis on a student
character in film. Very few films stand
the test of time and hold as much relevance today as they did back then as John
Hughes 1985 cult classic “The Breakfast
Club”. The story of a group of 5
students from different social groups and backgrounds who are forced to spend
their Saturday in detention. Instead of
working on the essay their Principal assigned them to write, they spend most of
the day talking, arguing, sharing stories about their home lives, smoking pot,
dancing, and just trying not to get caught by Mr. Vernon. Anyone of the characters from “The Breakfast Club” would have been a
great choice for me to write a Character Analysis on, but the one I have chosen
to write one on is Brian Johnson: The Geek.
CHARACTER: Brian
Johnson from “The Breakfast Club”
(1985)
 |
| Brian Johnson from "The Breakfast Club" |
Brian Johnson is one of 5 students at Shermer High School forced
to spend their Saturday in detention.
Early on we see Brian has come to the detention prepared to study and
work on various class assignments. As
his day progresses we view him desperately trying to seek the approval of the
others. When questioned by student John
Bender, if he’s still a virgin, Brian makes up a lie saying that he lost his
virginity to a girl he met at Niagara Falls, and then lies and said he also had
sex with Claire—a popular girl in the Saturday detention with them. Brian
is in detention because his flare gun went off in his locker. Brian admits that this is the reason why he
is in detention when he’s sitting around the library with the other students. When asked by Andrew why he had a gun in his
locker, Brian replied “I can’t have an F”.
Brian tells his classmates that he failed his Shop Class earlier this
year; it was the first time he ever received an F. Brian goes on to tell the others about how
strict his parents are with his grades, and how he’s devastated at the loss of
his perfect Grade Point Average. This
confession makes Brian appear somewhat mentally unstable and anal
retentive. Brian’s stress over his
grades is most likely brought on by the pressure from his parents to achieve
academic perfection. He says that “I can’t
have an F. And I know my parents can have it”, so by that we can accurately
assume that his parents hold him to the highest standard (academically). It is unclear if Brian brought the flare gun to
school mistaking it for a real gun, but it is heavily implied that he was
having suicidal thoughts over receiving an F.
Claire tells Brian that “killing yourself is not an option” to which he
snaps back “Well I didn’t do it!”. Why a
student deserves a Saturday detention rather than psychological help for
contemplating suicide is beyond me, and I’m just going to chock that one into
the “it was a different time back then”
scenario.
THE ACTOR:
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| Anthony Michael Hall |
Brian is played by actor Anthony Michael Hall. This wasn’t the first time Hall has played
the Geek character in a film. In fact,
he’s the actor who revolutionized the Geek character in film and made him the
everyman that people like and root for.
Before Anthony Michael Hall, most film characters who played geeks were
neurotic and panned up for comedic relief like Jerry Lewis’s character in “The Nutty Professor”. Anthony Michael Hall’s geek character
archetype led to many successful and beloved acting performances in films like “Sixteen Candles”, “Weird Science”, and “The
Breakfast Club”.
THE
CHARACTER IS SIMILAR TO OR INSPIRED BY:
As I mentioned above, Anthony Michael Hall has set the standard
for how to play a geek character in film. Every other geek character in film
pretty much takes direct inspiration from Anthony Michael Hall, everyone form
Ducky in “Pretty in Pink” (another John
Hughes film), to McLovin in “Superbad”,
and Columbus in “Zombieland”. All
share many distinctive similarities to all of Hall’s performances. Their characters are socially-awkward,
(usually) intelligent, they have unique but distinguishable quirks, and they
fail time after time at trying to pick up women.
Ducky from "Pretty in Pink"
McLovin from "Superbad"
FATE OF THE
CHARACTER:
After spending the whole day talking to the others and sharing
in some friendly bonding and experiences that may last a lifetime, Brian has to
come to a sad—but inevitable—realization.
When school resumes on Monday morning, they will most likely go back to
their own social groups, and will not remain friends. Even with this devastating news from his
newest friends, Brian tells the
others that he would never shun or ignore any of them if they approached him in
the hallway; even though they all told him that they would most likely turn
away from him if he approached them. As
the detention draws to an end, all the others approach Brian and convince him
to write the essay that they were all supposed to be working on during their
detention, since they consider him to be the smartest. Brian agrees to do this favor for his new friends and composes a letter roughly
1/10th the size that their Principal instructed them to write at the
beginning of the detention setting. The essay
that Brian wrote is read out loud as the film ends, and he signs it “Sincerely
Yours, The Breakfast Club”.
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