As crazy as this sounds, it’s only been less than a couple years since I legitimately watched this quintessential 80’s teen comedy for the first time. Once I finished with my first viewing, I knew that I had to come back for another go, which eventually turned out to be countless times throughout that time span. The main reasons that I kept coming back to this aren’t just because of this film’s killer soundtrack front to back, but also showcasing the different cliques and how each of them have something going for them.

My favorite of the bunch is Mr. John Bender (Judd Nelson), who despite having conflicts with his own abusive father and even the school’s strict principal (Paul Gleason), is a fearless leader who’s willing to stop at nothing until things are settled just the way he imagined them. The same can also be said for the Brain (Anthony Michael Hall), the Athlete (Eilio Estevez), the Princess (Molly Ringwald), and the Basket Case (Allison Reynolds), who also had their fair share of interesting personalities and special abilities.

Most of this however isn’t revealed until much later on, and when they settled their differences and became the best of friends, that’s when I discovered how much of an impact this movie had when it was first released back 35 years ago. If there was one word to describe how the comedy and drama matches together perfectly.