Better Late Than Never on "Heathers"

As a kid I used to hear a ton about the movie "Heathers". I'm pretty sure it is/was one of my brothers favorite movies. But I used to hear all three of my older brothers talk about it incessantly. They would go on and on, quote it a ton and rewatch it constantly. But I never got around to it. I don't know if I was too young or deemed myself too cool at the time, but I never saw the movie until last night.

One of my brother's, the one who lives in town, kept telling me that I had to see it. He told me how much he thought I would like it. He gives me recommendations all the time, and for the most part, he is right on the money. But "Heathers" never found its way to my tv. But with my wife being out of town on a work trip, and my kids being too cool to hang out with me at night now, I decided that last night was a perfect time to watch.

From what I knew about the movie, as mentioned above, I figured I was in for your typical late 80's comedy. I thought it would be goofy and I would have some fun with the movie. But what I saw was the exact opposite, and I am here to say, "Heathers" is a classic for a reason. This movie more than lived up to the hype for me.

What blew me away the most was how absolutely dark the movie ended up being. I did not expect this to be a story of suicide and murder and friendship and cliques all wrapped up in a movie that clocks in under two hours. Sure, "Heathers" has some high school movie trademarks, but it goes so much further beyond all of that. For instance, the opening scene to the movie centers around the lunchroom. The popular girls are all ther, the "Heathers", and they decide to play a prank on another girl. They give her a fake love note to entice her to talk to the star QB. All the while, Veronica, played by Winona Ryder, keeps checking in on JD, played by Christian Slater. I don't think they know one another, but they keep making eyes at each other. When the other girl approaches the QB, he laughs in her face and she storms out of the lunchroom. But then the football players head over to JD's table to mess with him. Sure, this may all seem like typical high school movie drama, but here is where it veers into a whole different direction. When the football players begin to bully JD, he makes some quips back at them, and then pulls out a humongous gun. I was shocked when I saw it. He fires the gun, but we quickly learn it was filled with blanks and JD gets suspended. Everyone is okay on the surface. But the movie just ramps it up from there. This is the lightest take they have on suicide, murder and death in this whole movie.

One of the Heather's bullies Veronica to go to a party, where a college guy tries to prey on Veronica. When she deflects his advances, Heather makes fun of her and makes her leave the party. She confides this to JD, and they decide to prank Heather, only JD is not in the mood for pranks anymore. They accidentally kill Heather by making her drink poison. And instead of confessing, they make it look like suicide. They do a similar thing to the football players. But during all of this, Veronica thinks no one will actually get hurt. JD, on the other hand, wants to, as he puts it, "cleanse" the school of cliques and bullies. He clearly takes it way too far. And this is the theme of the entire movie. I couldn't believe a movie from the 80's went to these lengths. It shocked me that they did, but shocked me in a good way.

Winona Ryder and Christian Slater are at the absolute top of their game. I was telling my brother about the movie this morning, and how awesome I thought it was, and he asked me about the chemistry with Ryder and Slater. It was off the charts. You could tell they enjoyed acting with one another. I read afterward that they supposedly were dating while on set, and that makes total sense to me.

I also finally got some context for some of the stuff my brothers used to say. My oldest brother always used to say, "F>$k me gently with a chainsaw" when I was younger. That's from this movie. When one of the football players dies, his dad exclaims, "I love my dead gay son". I have heard that used over and over again in movies and tv shows. I finally got some of the quotes. I wish that Big Fun was a real band, because the song that plays throughout the movie is cool as hell. The adults in this movie were so aloof and disinterested in their kids' lives, as I'm sure they were directed to be, and it worked.

I really liked "Heathers" quite a bit. I get why my brothers have been on me for so long to watch it. It was so good and I am so happy that I finally watched it. I definitely recommend checking it out if you've never seen it. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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