‘Heathers’ At 35, How Very

In any market, there can be an oversaturation, which tires the public out. There have been teen movies around for decades. Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello danced on the beach angering the stiff shirts of the time. Then, James Dean and Natalie Woods up the drama on teen angst in Rebel Without a Cause. But John Hughes seemed to combine the wackiness of beach movies with the real-life problems American youth faced.

However, all good things shall pass. Only five years passed between Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Some Kind of Wonderful that it seemed like more time had passed as both movies seem polar opposites. As Ferris Bueller says, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.” I think Hughes realized his own words and by 1987, he was trying to move away from the teen movies he had made and focus more on adult-themed movies (Planes, Trains and Automobiles and She’s Having a Baby).

As most people have noted, The Great Outdoors seemed to focus more on the conflicts between John Candy and Dan Aykroyd’s characters whereas a few years earlier, it would focused more on the crush between teens Chris Young and Lucy Deakins. The two teens who meet and have a fling almost seem to have a subplot you can totally take out of the movie and it doesn’t matter at all. So, it was only a matter of time a movie like Heathers would be made. Roger Ebert wrote in his review of Spaceballs, he wished someone would do more of a parody of the teen movies that were popular. Ask and you shall receive. However, he gave it the same two-and-a-half star dismissal review he gave Spaceballs.

Well, in retrospect, it’s actually a far better movie. I think too many people in the spring of 1989 when the movie opened on March 31 were more concerned about the dark humor of the movie. Beetlejuice was still fresh on everyone’s mind so the movie takes a more Meh! view of teen chic that had sprung up in the Reaganeighties. The Cold War was ending before our eyes and Gen Xers were a few years away from officially being recognized. Yet the optimism of the Hughes movies as well as which opened two weeks later didn’t sit well with a lot of young people. And when Hughes’ Uncle Buck opened in the summer of 1989, it seemed more of a family-friendly comedy than a teen angst movie.

Personally, I think Hiding Out, released around the same time as Some Kind of Wonderful had a more accurate approach to teen life in the 1980s as Jon Cryer plays a much older stock broker on the run from a hitman trying to fit in a world that was totally different. He was part of the Dazed and Confused crowd only to realize that even though a decade may have passed since he was in school, it actually seemed more like a whole century. The characters in Heathers represent that same bleaker world as in Hiding Out where the faculty/staff seem not to care as much about the students and the parents seem to be very ignorant and even apathetic to their kids.

This was the latchkey generation where most young people either rode the bus or walked home if they didn’t live to far away from school and spent so many hours afterwards to their own devices. They had sex. They did drugs. They raided the liquor cabinets. And they did just about anything else as the parents didn’t care as long as they were back at the house at dusk for supper. Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) is a precocious intelligent student at the fictional Westburg High in fictional Sherwood, Ohio, which is obviously a parody of Shermer, Ill., the setting for many Hughes’ movies.

Veronica has found herself part of the Mean Girls clique Heathers, which include three white teenagers who dress the best and are sex fantasies of all boys. They’re also hated by the same number of people but because of their prestige, as leader Heather Chandler (Kim Walker) says, “They all want me as a friend or a fuck.” There’s also Heather McNamara (Lisanne Falk), who is a cheerleader and the most sensitive of them. The third is Heather Duke (Shannon Doherty) who is often the source of criticism by Heather C. Heather D. seems to be constantly trying to be her best around Heather C., even resorting to bulimia to look her best for some needed approval.

It’s never explained why or how Veronica became part of the clique. However, she does live in an affluent house with a nice croquet set up in the back yard. My guess is that Heather C. realized that once Veronica started puberty and changing her appearance in high school, she soon became someone they want to have around. However, Veronica is more open to associate with the other students regardless of social class and status. She gets the hots for a new student, Jason Dean (Christian Slater) or otherwise called J.D. He’s obviously a reference to James Dean. He drives a motorcycle and talks in a Jack Nicholson-like tone. I think it’s part of his image. I think Slater is doing a Jack impersonation because that’s the way he sees J.D.

Heather C. invites Veronica to a Remington University party which she says is a great honor since they are both just juniors. Of course, going to a party means they have to perform sexual acts for the college frat boys. While Heather C. goes down on a guy, Veronica refuses to have sex with another guy leading to a fight with Heather C. She also gets sick from the alcoholic drinks and vomits in front of everyone further embarrassing Heather C. who tells her she will let everyone at Westerburg know what happened come Monday morning.

Yet, J.D., who has been suspended for bringing a real gun to school and scaring senior jocks Kurt Kelly (Lance Felton) and Ram Sweeney (Patrick Labyorteaux), attracts her attention. They decide to go visit Heather C. the next morning to give her a gross cocktail that will make her throw-up herself. J.D. jokes they should give her some drain cleaner pouring it into a ceramic white cup, so she can’t see what it is. Through a mix-up, Veronica mistakes it for the one she poured milk and orange juice in.

They convince Heather C. to drink it telling her it’s a hangover remedy. Unfortunately, it poisons her causing her to fall head first into a glass coffee table in her room as she dies. Panicked because they thought it would just make her sick, J.D. talks Veronica into staging it like a suicide after seeing a magazine with a cover story on American youth. Veronica writes a fake suicide letter as she has a knack for copying people’s handwriting.

However, things at Westerburg change. With Heather C. gone, Heather D. lets her guard down and seems almost happy that Heather C. is gone. She goes on all the local news stations giving interviews. One of the teachers, Pauline Fleming (Penelope Milford), wants to capitalize on it by having the students do more positive things. On the other hand, Principal Gowan (John Ingle), refuses to dismiss classes for the day out of fear parents will get mad at him. Yet, he says if Heather M. did it, he would’ve let them go for half a day since she’s a cheerleader.

Other people at the school want to use Heather C.’s death for their own advantage. One of the more affluent students who didn’t like her talks to the news people about how they were the best of friends. And the editor of the yearbook, Dennis (Phill Lewis), wants to do a two-page spread because he says they finally got one of these and he doesn’t want to blow it. Twenty years later, World’s Greatest Dad, with Robin Williams written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait would touch on the same idea that people act differently toward the memory of people once they die.

Things get worse as when Veronica helps Heather M. out on a double date with Ram and Kurt. The two jocks get drunk. Veronica ditches Kurt who tries to hit on her mere feet away from where it looks like Ram is basically having sex with Heather M. against her will, when she sees J.D. However, the next day, Kurt and Ram tell everyone Veronica both went down on them.

Angry, J.D. and Veronica decide to stage it that Kurt and Ram were closeted homosexual lovers. J.D. talks Veronica into believing they’re actually just shooting them with special tranquilizer bullets. However, the next morning, she realizes when J.D. shoots Ram, he’s really dead. She unwillingly shoots Kurt dead and they leave the guns behind as well as items gay porn magazines, a suicide letter and even mineral water. Part of the humor is that the cops who respond to hearing shots fired notice the mineral water and assume automatically Kurt and Ram were gay.

However, Veronica begins to wonder about herself and if J.D. is right for him. His father owns a demolition company and they’re often having to move. They also talk in a very odd way to each other, where J.D. refers to his father as “son” and his father refers to him as “pop.” It’s clear there is something off about J.D. and his father. Despite the criticism for the Jack Nicholson impersonation, it’s a very complex role. J.D.’s mother committed suicide when they lived in Dallas by going into a building before his father’s company demolished it. Since then, he and his father’s role play seems to be a coping mechanism.

Following the deaths of Kurt and Ram, Gowan agrees to let Fleming do more with the students. But in the end, it’s just for her own glory. She stages an impromptu event during the lunch period where she encourages all students to hold hands and cheer. If this seems familiar, some people following the Stoneman Douglass High School massacre in 2018 did the foolish “Walk Up” in opposition to the students walking out of class in support of gun control. Walk Up was encourage at my alma matter as well as others but it was heavily criticized on social media and by other professions as putting the blame on the introverted students and not-so-popular ones. Worse, Fleming invites the TV news crews down and gives an interview like she’s an authority figure on the matter of teen suicide, when in fact, she’s just seeking attention.

The lunchroom sees causes an obese, shy introverted student Martha Dunnstock (Carrie Lynn) to hide from the mania where she meets J.D. and tells him of her past friendship with Heather D. Martha is nicknamed “Dumptruck” because of her size and appearance. In the beginning of the movie, Heather C. talks Veronica into forging a love letter to Martha making her think it was from Kurt. This leads to her being even more shamed and embarrassed when she tries to communicate with Kurt who laughs at her along with the other students.

Martha is the one true student at Westerburg who would likely kill herself for real. In fact, she even attempts suicide by trying to walk into traffic, but gets injured. This leads her being criticized by Heather D. who says it’s another attempt by the “losers” of the school trying to copy the popular students and failing. The irony of this scene is that making it appear the students committed suicide it brings them more popular and more sympathy.

There’s also another funny moment during this scene as Veronica’s parents (William Cort and Jennifer Rhodes) watch the news broadcast about Fleming’s “Happy Happy Joy Joy” projects. They see Heather D. and act stunned and happy to see her on TV. Then they ask where Veronica is. This undercuts the significance of what Fleming’s intentions were to show that everyone sees it just as another attempt to hog spotlight from a more serious issue. And this is played intercut with images of Martha attempting to walk into heavy traffic.

And now, Heather D. begins to copy Heather C.’s malicious attitude by mocking Heather M. for calling a radio hotline for teens. This leads Veronica to re-evaluate the impact of Ram’s “suicide” as Heather M. feels conflicted by it. Heather M. also attempts suicide by swallowing many OTC pain pills, but Veronica stops her, comforting her. But it shows that Heather M. is really just a scared teen now who doesn’t know how to deal with all the events.

Despite it’s macabre tone, Heathers shows the serious of many teens during the era as they were facing an uncertain future. And no one seemed to care. Veronica’s parents don’t know how to communicate with her and undermine her concerns. J.D.’s father, Bud (Jamie Kaler), is a bitter man who despises anyone who stands in the way of his work. What’s so crazy is that the moving boxes are lining the house where J.D. and Bud live probably because it’s easier that way. No bother unpacking much if it’s just going to go back in the boxes very soon. J.D. is being moved around during his childhood with a father who could care less about him.

At the same time, Veronica tries to rekindle old friendships with Betty Finn (Renee Estevez) whose geeky appearance is the only thing that keeps her from being one of the “popular” kids. Ironically, Ryder was more like Betty Finn and other students than the Heathers in real life. She has talked about how she was bullied and even assaulted by other students only to expelled. She ended up doing a makeover to audition for the role. In many ways, Ryder, who was 16 at the time of filming, is getting back at all the Mean Girls.

What’s crazy is that Heather D. was just like Betty Finn or Martha before Heather C. accepted her at the “Cool Kids Table.” And she takes the throne as the “Mega Bitch” as she tells Veronica, “Because I can be.” However, she’s gullible still to be tempted by J.D. to get signatures for petitions for a popular band. Yet J.D. has real intentions to stage a mass suicide by blowing up the gymnasium during a pep rally with all the teachers and students there.

However, after being confronted by Veronica, he is the only one who really officially commits suicide by strapping the bomb to himself. Yet, the end has a cartoonish end as Veronica puts a cigarette in her mouth as J.D. explodes. In real life, it would be far more graphic with Veronica covered in J.D.’s body parts rather than soot. But it just adds to the more outrageousness of the movie. Kurt’s father cries at the funeral proclaiming, “My son’s a homosexual and I love him! I love my dead gay son!” as he sobs. And I can see some high school jocks being buried with their helmets on and a football placed on their hands.

Glenn Shadix, Ryder’s co-star in Beetlejuice, plays Father Ripper who gives theatrical eulogies at the funerals of Heather C., Kurt and Ram and even during a nightmare sequence where Veronica dreams of J.D. killing Heather D. Sadly, Shadix would become one of the many cast members who have since died since the movie was released. Shadix died on Sept. 7, 2010 at his Birmingham, Ala. condo from blunt force trauma. The fact that he died in a condo while his character mentioned them in Beetlejuice adds to the oddities.

On March 6, 2001, Walker died of brain tumor. She berates Heather D. during a scene by asking her if she had a “brain tumor for breakfast.” Doherty, herself, has been given a grim notice as the breast cancer diagnosed with in 2015 has come back in 2020 spread to her bones. She has recently been in the news with reports she’s preparing for her death. Another actor, Jeremy Applegate, who played the student Peter Dawson committed suicide by self-inflicted gunshot in 2000. There’s a line of him praying at Heather C.’s funeral talking about how he wouldn’t be able to handle suicide himself.

Heathers got mixed reviews on its initial release. The budget was only $3 million and it barely made $1.1 million at the box office as it was released through the since-defunct independent movie company New World Pictures. It found its popularity on home video and cable markets among many Gen Xers of the era who have seen it as a deconstruction to the teen movies of the era.

It spawned an Off-Broadway musical in the mid-2010s and then a TV series adaptation which was delayed from broadcast following the Stoneman Douglass massacre. The 10-episode series was shown in its entirety in the United Kingdom during mid-July of 2018 but an edited nine-episode version was scheduled to be shown over a few nights in late October 2018 but two episodes were pulled from broadcast following the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. The series was aired as a “burn off” when networks basically show many episodes at once over a short period to fulfill legal and contractual obligations. The premise was supposed to be a reverse of the cliques in the 1989 movie but many critics and audiences saw it more as an attack on “woke” culture.

What do you think? Please comment.