MYST #5: Heathers: My Lack of Trust for the 80's

If you have ever wanted to know anything about the 80's from a girl that didn't experience those years, it's that the movies were either a complete hit or miss. The mesh of teenage slang, "quirky" (but actually horrid) attire, and big hair aside, a few movies in particular highlight an era of the confused teen. Director Michael Lehmann's 1988 crime-comedy teen movie, Heathers, exemplifies this teenage struggle to first to fit in with the famed or esteemed "popular kids" and that subsequent departure to find oneself through the hilarious means of murder a la Winona Ryder (Veronica) and Christian Slater (J.D.).

To relate this film to the John Hughes' of the era (you know, Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, blah, blah, blah), isn't technically a compliment. A Hollywood outlook for the John Hughes' is implemented tenfold - an outcast from society (even if popular) changed the self in order to fit in, get the cool/popular/edgy guy, and for some reason, "finds" themselves along the way. This complex of oneself presented adds a sexist and offensive theme to each film, as in, a female (or male) may change how they view themselves in order to get what they want. Yet, this stigma is almost completely turned on its head in Heathers: Veronica, emigrating from that popular clique, finds a dark intruder in herself and kills the vermin that altered her persona and means of life: Heather (the main one, not the ones that don't matter).

As a huge and awful spoiler alert, after a copious amount of plot lines thereafter, her nasally and edgy boyfriend, J.D., kills himself via homemade bomb in the end, expecting to kill Heather as well. There stands Veronica - after succeeding in the death of what bit her the most (Heather) and almost finishing taking out what's still haunting her (J.D.), she stands outside of the school as we see a wide-angled shot displaying what is a symbol for high schools everywhere- the American flag, perfect red steps leading into a student's safe haven. J.D. asks Veronica what she's to do now that she's dead, as he has just activated the random bomb strapped to him. After her exit from a clique, a toxic relationship, and multiple deaths, a scorched and bloody Veronica lights a cigarette of acceptance. Our camera displays her in front of the clouds of the smokey school, her face, dripping of (fake) blood, stands out to conceive her rebirth into a found woman. We pan out again, as J.D.'s bomb explodes, killing him and alerting the students at the school's assembly they both missed. Veronica takes a drag of her now lit cigarette, and walks into the school to display her new found scars of endearment to the students.

It's not that this movie as no clichés (all of those high school cliques almost made me gag), yet it's displayed in an ironic way, as to highlight their falsities and, hopefully, break them down. Almost any teenager, in the eighties or now, will tell you they've struggled with fitting in before, but (hopefully) not to this perfect, cookie-cutter extent. As well, the film's extremities to break these stereotypes down prove extreme, yet we still obtain the message of originality in the end.

FOUR OF FIVE JAMES FRANCO'S IN OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL (2013)