Heathers is once again a movie that surprised me immensely.
I had picked it up mostly because it was The Lamb’s movie of the month two months ago, and it had Christian Slater in it. I put it on finally because I wanted
a change from the continuous cycle, of James Bond, B-movie, horror movie that I
had fallen into that last week or so. I thought hey, let’s get a high school romance
movie to lighten the mood, and relive the good old days of cliques and bullies.
Instead, I learned just why this had been picked as movie of the month.
I used to wonder a lot about what it would be like to watch
a movie without having the slightest clue about what was going to happen.
Through word of mouth, trailers that give it all away, and simple plot synopsis’,
it seems to be harder and harder to find a movie that surprised me. This
summer however, without the internet at my hand, and only a large pile of
movies to watch, I’m am finally learning how much a movie can surprise you when
you go in blind. The pile of movies I speak of, is the one I accumulated over
the winter, picking them up for this or that reason as I became backlogged with
things to watch. This summer, I have stopped acquiring so many new movies, and
am instead watching all those movies that I picked up, and for one reason or
another, didn’t watch when I picked them up. So how big of a backlog do you
have?
Heathers marks, I would say about a third of the 150 or so
movies I had to watch this summer. While I’ll admit, I’m still tending to pick
out the ones that interest me the most, I do tend to throw on a couple of
random things. I mean, there was a reason I wanted to watch it in the first
place no? Anyways, while I didn’t get around to watching Heathers when it was TMOTM
at The Lamb, I finally got around to watching it. I thought, hey, I’ll put on
this high school flick and take a trip down memory lane, as I watch a bunch of
bullying popular girls terrorize a school, and our slightly quirky heroine
fight them off and fall in love with the misunderstood bad boy. Not like I
haven’t seen that movie before right? (I can’t actually think of a movie
matching that exact description, but I’m sure it exists, comment if you can
name it.)
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| I lived in the country my entire childhood and never once met anyone who actually did this. |
So, expecting a rather stereotypical movie, Heathers
surprised me. I mean, I kinda prided myself on the ability to go from watching
Cannibal Holocaust one night, and then Heathers the next, yet if you want to
really stretch and draw some similarities, you could say they are both social
commentaries on society. I see now why this was movie of the month. I want to
point out at this point, feel free to stop reading, and just go watch the movie
without me spoiling it for you. I wouldn’t say it is everyone’s cup of tea, but
I think that, considering it was made in 1988, it still hold some significance
today. Jeeze, will things ever change? Someone find me a movie which doesn’t
hold up today.
Anyway, what Heathers actually is, beside my stereotyped
above description guess, is in fact a rather dark tale of troubled teenagers. At
first, we are introduced to a pretty standard story. An unpopular girl has
somehow gotten in with the trio of girls (all named Heather, therefore the
title), and together they rule the school. We get our typical bullying and cafeteria
scene. My first surprise was actually, just some of the rather suggestive
sexual references. This wasn’t exactly PG rating it seemed, although let’s face
it, everyone did hear much more than that in high school, regardless of what
the ratings board may think. Then again, I am very curious what the rating was
on Heathers in 1988. Apparently R. However, the movie quickly moves into a surprisingly dark
and yet very complex and well done plotline. When Veronica and J.D. stage their
first suicide, intentional or not, I could see this movie was going to take an
interesting turn.
However, as much as I knew this movie wasn’t going where I
thought it would, I still couldn’t figure out exactly where it was heading. I
know it should have been pretty cut and dry, but even once Veronica’s teenage
angst racks up a body count I wasn’t sure exactly who I was supposed to be
supporting, and who was the bad guys. I mean personally, I was all down to
watch Veronica and J.D. get revenge on some old high school enemies. (Now you
know where I fit in the high school puzzle.) Personally, I think any movie that
can take that plot and make me see shades of grey is impressive. If the story
had been told poorly, things would have been very black and white (not always a
bad thing), but I think it speaks volumes about how well done a movie is if you
can blur what is usually so cut and dry.
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| Be careful, Jesus is watching. |
Most of that ability of course comes from our stars. While,
Winona Ryder is our confused and mislead heroine, Christian Slater stands out
as the typical misunderstood teenager who might just be a much darker raging psychopath.
Personally, I think Christian Slater is a great actor, and while Heathers may
have been one of his first roles, he already shines here. Unfortunately, beyond
True Romance a few years later, his career never seemed to take off
accordingly. Winona Ryder of course, is also a very recognisable name, if not
exactly one I can place as the star of too many other movies. Either way, Heathers
shows just how good these two could and would be. The rest of the cast, is
decent, although none really stood out or had their names jump out at me.
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| Don't look so down, it will only give you lung cancer. |
I’ve really run on know about all of my favourite aspects of
the movie without giving away to much. For a movie I didn’t expect much of in
the way of depth it surprised me immensely and the directing and acting in it
were impressive as well. Heathers without a doubt deserved its place as movie
of the month, and might just be my pick for next month as well. It will undoubtedly
be a movie I will recommend to, while maybe not everybody, I certainly won’t
have to hesitate to much. Hopefully it will surprise them as much as it did me.
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