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John Hughes' first cut of Breakfast Club was 2 hours and 45 minutes. However, many of the scenes were cut out and the negatives possibly destroyed. John Hughes said in a Premiere magazine interview in December 1999 that he had the only complete copy of The Breakfast Club on film.
"The rough cut was about two hours and 45 minutes, but Dede Allen [the editor] said, "I want you to see your whole film before it gets disassembled and shortened." I loved it and had no idea how we were going to shorten it. Whole sections had to go. I think all the negatives were destroyed. I have the only copy."
Thanks to the Criterion Collection Blu-ray released in 2017, some of the deleted scenes that would have made up that longer version did eventually turn up in the form of special features. The Blu-ray showcases some 50 minutes of alternate, extended and deleted scenes, although the scenes are in a very rough, analog format. This may explain why that this longer cut was never really feasible for any kind of release. That is, until now.
This is probably the closest you'll ever get to see Hughes' original cut of the movie before the studio forced him to cut it down to 97 minutes, a normal length for the type of film it was, at the time it was produced. John Hughes said getting the film greenlit by Universal wasn't easy because the executives complained there were no bare breasts, no party scene, no guys drinking beer, or other things they thought a teenage picture needed at that time.
"KIDS WON'T SIT THROUGH IT, "'DIRECTOR JOHN Hughes recalls studio executives telling him about his detention-as-group-therapy drama, The Breakfast Club. "'There's no action, no party, no nudity.' But what they'd forgotten is that at that age, it often feels just as good to feel bad as it does to feel good."
This longer version presented to you is a fascinating insight into what Hughes had in mind.