Heathers

Before this class I had never seen or really heard anything about the film Heathers. I had heard of the film, but had no idea what it was about and figured it would be a typical 1980’s film concerning teenagers growing up in a cliquey high school. While Heathers was without a doubt filled with these temporal and Hughes-like narrative elements, the film was definitely not what I was expecting. While I did like the film for it’s often clever satire regarding the topic of teen suicide, I couldn’t get over the unbelievable nature of the story, the corny dialogue and, more than anything else, Winona Ryder. Those somewhat biased judgments aside, I did think that Heathers was an interesting film and was, like many films we’ve watched this semester, a unique and entertaining experience.

The film opens with three girls, all named Heather, playing croquet in someone’s backyard. As the three girls play their game, it is eventually revealed to the audience that they are aiming at another girl, Veronica, who is buried up to her neck in the yard. From the very start, the film establishes itself aesthetically, stylistically and thematically. The images are filled with vibrant reds, yellows and greens (the colors of the girls’ clothes which curiously match their croquet equipment). The color pallet does not appear to be cohesive. Rather it simply bursts with vibrancy for the sake of being colorful and flashy, much like a lot of 1980’s fashion. The film also establishes itself as being comedic, its first scene ending in a way that we would never have expected. More than anything else, the theme of the film is introduced to us through the way the girls behave, particularly the way they treat Veronica. Although we soon find out that Veronica is part of the group, she is in a way being initiated, often being forced into doing things that she doesn’t want to do. We soon see that this is a film that concerns itself with popularity and where teenagers find themselves fitting in throughout high school, whether it is their choice or not.

As the film progresses, it attempts to bring us into this exaggerated portrayal of high school life by including stereotypical groups of people. In a scene early on in the film, as the three Heathers and Veronica walk around the cafeteria, we are introduced to the unattractive outsider, Martha “Dumptruck”, the sexually charged jocks, Kurt and Ram, the nerds, the proactive preppy students trying to raise money for different foundations, and the rebel, Jason Dean (played by Christian Slater and an obvious reference to the 1950’s “rebel” James Dean). It is the character of Jason Dean that completely changes Heathers and is the most intriguing aspect of the film to me.

In Nick Burns article “Heathers: Scent of Dominance”, he mentions the similarities between Christian Slater and Jack Nicholson. “…Christian Slater’s performance as J.D. easily can be seen merely as a parody/ pastiche of many early Jack Nicholson roles: the tilt of his head, the eyebrows, and even the nasal voice….” With not only his name being referential, but his character as well (for Nicholson, in roles like Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces, was often a symbol of rebellious and dominating behavior), we begin to see that the character is nothing more than a recycling of previous figures, now slightly turned on its head by making him completely psychotic. The fact that Slater’s character is being recycled brings up the idea that we discussed of Post Modernism.

At one point, Burns mentions in his article that, “Heathers is clearly the bastard child of Hollywood Cinema,” and is “full of empty references to pop culture.” As we watch Heathers, we realize that it is not a film meant to transport us to another place or time. Rather it attempts to bring us into this exaggerated version of our own world, filling it with as many cultural references as possible (previous films, musicians, societal issues and historical events) in order to make it seem like the absurdity of the film can actually be found in our everyday lives.