SEATTLE — The assignment was simple: In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the release of “The Breakfast Club” and its limited theatrical rerelease, take a couple of local teenagers and see how it holds up. One large bucket of buttered popcorn and lots of cringing later, I have my answer. It’s like the character John Bender says: The world is an imperfect place," and in the 40 years since the classic movie was released, that’s not the only thing that hasn’t changed.

None of the three teens I corralled into watching the film with me — sisters Kira (16) and Lilian (14) Andrews, and friend Mireya Williams (14) — had seen the movie before, but they had a loose idea that it was a group of teenagers meeting for detention at high school on a weekend.

And since spoilers are long expired when it comes to a 40-year-old movie, here is the gist. Five teenagers — a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal — are forced to spend an entire Saturday in detention. They’ve pulled fire alarms, skipped class to go shopping, duct taped another student’s buns together in a horrific hazing prank, brought a flare gun to school and just didn’t have anything better to do. Their task for the day is to write a 1,000-word essay on who they think they are.

The film was writer-director John Hughes’ second feature, following "Sixteen Candles." Released in February 1985, the movie became one of the highest-grossing films of the year and firmly launched the “Brat Pack” era and the careers of actors Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Anthony Michael Hall (he and Molly Ringwald the only actual teenagers during filming).

Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three stars upon its release and noted that while the truths exchanged between characters were “more or less predictable,” it didn’t need “earthshaking revelations” — it was just important that the movie created teenagers who seemed realistic to other teenagers.

Four decades later, the film is considered a coming-of-age masterpiece where the five teens discover that stereotypes and archetypes don't reveal the entire picture of a person. But do these on-screen teens still seem relatable? Here’s what Kira, Lilian and Mireya had to say.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Seattle Times: Do you think the same archetypes portrayed in the movie still exist in high school today?

Kira Andrews: There’s the idea that you don’t talk to people in other friend groups very much and you are who people think you are, but I think there’s a lot less clear bullying. The things (John Bender, played by Nelson) did to be mean are just not really something that happens as much now.

Lilian Andrews: That seems like a view of high school that’s common in movies and stuff, especially old movies

KA: I think it’s hard to portray on films because of phones. It’s such a new dynamic.

Mireya Williams: There was one piece that I didn’t particularly love, the girl who was wearing all the black (Allison Reynolds, played by Sheedy), when Claire (Ringwald) gave her a makeover. It was like she needed to be like that to be accepted into society. Especially in this day and age, that’s a much more uncommon thing. It’s still that underlying stereotype is there, but people don’t need to follow that all the time.

KA: The other thing I noticed was there’s a lot of homophobia in the movie. I was not expecting it in the first scene.

ST: Yes, and John Bender’s character really goes from zero to 100 at many different points, yelling at all the other characters.

LA: I was confused by his entire personality.

KA: I think he was saying that we’re going to be like our parents and we have no choice. He was describing what his parents were like and then he was acting like how he described them to be.

MW: I think it is a valid point that you can’t stop becoming your parents to a certain point. One of my friends told me "you are the people you surround yourself with," which is true because you kind of shape your behavior based off your experience and your environment and that does come a lot from your parents. I can see how that could reflect Bender’s character a little bit.

ST: Are there more recent movies that more accurately portray the high school or teen experience?

KA: It’s not so much media about high school, but the ones where they leave high school are the places it’s portrayed well.

ST: You mean it’s not so much about actual school but it’s about being a teenager?

LA: Yes. I feel like the bullying is less obvious, less direct. In movies they do that to make the viewer understand it more, make it extra obvious.

KA: More times bullying isn’t this random person you don’t know being mean to you for no reason, it’s your friend gaslighting you or telling you you’re doing something wrong or that you’re not smart. Other people don’t care about you.

MW: A lot of times the most realistic bullying is the bullying that comes from the people you’re closest to, but in movies it’s more portrayed by some random, known bully like Regina George (from the movie "Mean Girls) or something.

ST: Like in movies there’s one central bullying figure and every other friend group functions perfectly?

KA: Yes, the person who is bullying mostly is the one, notorious bully.

MW: One thing I did like was we got the first initial idea of these characters, but when they have the heart-to-hearts, we got to see that people can hide things that are truly much deeper. You can’t judge a book by its cover. Everyone had their own things to deal with that were very personal, but they made sure it didn’t show in their personality, and I thought that was a very interesting social aspect.

ST: Do you think that’s true to real life?

MW: For sure.

ST: Do we think this is a good movie that you would recommend to a friend?

KA: I feel like it has some themes that are important, but there’s also some movies with similar themes that don’t have as much homophobia.

ST: What are those themes?

KA: The pressure to be who people expect you to be.

MW: Shaping yourself around other people’s ideas.

KA: And then also things you’re struggling with that nobody else can see. That one kid (Brian Johnson, played by Hall) got an F and that was a huge deal but the other kids didn’t care. Different things are really hard for different people.

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