Heathers had a really, really well-timed appearance in my life. It came out when I was halfway through my first year of junior high at the end of the 1980s, and feeling utterly bewildered by these outlandish creatures around me: the eighties trendsetters. Their alien styles and feral egotism was captured perfectly in Heathers, depicting the way high school seems when seen through the eyes of a meek, unpretentious beginner. Veronica Sawyer (played by Ryder) is a girl like you, me and pretty much anyone that was ever a junior student, desperate to fit in. But not THAT desperate!
The garish style of the characters in Heathers was never meant to be realistic... a fact that seems to have been lost on almost all viewers that were born after 1985. It was a brutal and massive send-up of everything that was hateful about the 1980s - and there was loads! But despite all the exaggeration, Heathers served up a very accurate reflection of way that the secondary school environment really seemed to my dazed, adolescent eyes.
And yet shoulder pads were never *that* big, hippies were never THAT f*cked up in class and the bad boy never carried a gun (this was back in the days before the real high school shootings began). We all knew that Heathers wasn't meant to be realistic, at least not on a factual level. It was meant to be realistic on an emotional one, though, and it fully succeeded at that. It was a revenge fantasy flick with a heart: a satirical and strangely sensitive depiction of the awe and shame that all teens feel about their high school experience.
Just when Heathers starts to seem like it's turning into a cartoonish, late-night stoner special, the murders begin. And then it gets dark... and awesome. Anyone who's been to a high school where they met their own 'Heathers' will feel alternately euphoric and disturbed about the events that follow. And that's what they should feel: it's a tale that's meant to make you reflect, and question your easy assumptions about the way 'everybody else' is. Even the "Heathers" in your life.
It's a shame that Americans have stopped making films that really delve into the ugliest, funniest parts of being a teen the way that Heathers did. Subsequent generations of juniors could have really benefited from seeing more stuff like this. Teens generally have very few chances to really reflect upon their attitudes, and maybe even change them before setting off on a destructive (or self-destructive) warpath. Heathers gave me that chance and I was glad that I had it.
Whatever your age, watch this film and you'll learn something that no school can ever teach you about being a teen... and have a laugh doing it.
The garish style of the characters in Heathers was never meant to be realistic... a fact that seems to have been lost on almost all viewers that were born after 1985. It was a brutal and massive send-up of everything that was hateful about the 1980s - and there was loads! But despite all the exaggeration, Heathers served up a very accurate reflection of way that the secondary school environment really seemed to my dazed, adolescent eyes.
And yet shoulder pads were never *that* big, hippies were never THAT f*cked up in class and the bad boy never carried a gun (this was back in the days before the real high school shootings began). We all knew that Heathers wasn't meant to be realistic, at least not on a factual level. It was meant to be realistic on an emotional one, though, and it fully succeeded at that. It was a revenge fantasy flick with a heart: a satirical and strangely sensitive depiction of the awe and shame that all teens feel about their high school experience.
Just when Heathers starts to seem like it's turning into a cartoonish, late-night stoner special, the murders begin. And then it gets dark... and awesome. Anyone who's been to a high school where they met their own 'Heathers' will feel alternately euphoric and disturbed about the events that follow. And that's what they should feel: it's a tale that's meant to make you reflect, and question your easy assumptions about the way 'everybody else' is. Even the "Heathers" in your life.
It's a shame that Americans have stopped making films that really delve into the ugliest, funniest parts of being a teen the way that Heathers did. Subsequent generations of juniors could have really benefited from seeing more stuff like this. Teens generally have very few chances to really reflect upon their attitudes, and maybe even change them before setting off on a destructive (or self-destructive) warpath. Heathers gave me that chance and I was glad that I had it.
Whatever your age, watch this film and you'll learn something that no school can ever teach you about being a teen... and have a laugh doing it.