| Heathers | | Cast : | Winona Ryder, Christian Slater | | Director : | Michael Lehmann | | Studio : | Anchor Bay Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, THX, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | March 31, 1989 | | DVD Released Date : | September 25, 2001 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 05, 2005 | | Summary | For all the Heathers AND the freaks and geeks | Content
 | I didn't have a great sense of humor in high school so I probably wouldn't have appreciated HEATHERS even if it had hit the theatres in my freshman year. The other night,though, I watched Michael Lehman's film with an open mind. Having read a lot of great reviews for it here on Amazon, I hoped for the best, though I try not to begin a movie with huge expectations.
For the most part HEATHERS did not disappoint me. I'm not a big Christian Slater fan and found his Jack Nicholson imitation distracting at first, but once his character's true nature unraveled, I began to appreciate his warped sense of humor. J.D. is a horrible manipulator and his means to an end (as well as what he wants his end to be) are creepy in our post-Columbine world. But the scary, sad, darkly comic aspects of HEATHERS come from the truths we don't want to hear about our lives and others'. For better or worse, high school IS its own society, full of cliques (some cruel, some kind) and unspoken rules that have harsher penalties than the legal ones.
I like the fact that HEATHERS is uncompromising in its harsh take on high school life and the school administration's patronizing attitude toward the "supposed" suicides. Life is not always according to John Hughes (though he does capture angst nicely in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off.") Even though the frequent use of "fag" bothered me, I got to thinking that perhaps the homophobia was being made fun of as much as anything else in HEATHERS is.
Given our current worried culture and its obsession with "family values," I seriously doubt this movie would be made today. In a way that's a shame because underneath all the violence and discontent, there is actually a positive message in Lehman's film about how lightweight the self-important Heathers of this world actually are in the grand scheme of things. Instead of being swept up in the cyclehood of eternal loser, the Martha "Dumptrucks" of the world come out winners (of sorts.)
After all, as any former (or current) geek can you tell you, life does get better after high school!
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| Rating | | | Date | July 09, 2005 | | Summary | Good for a few laughs, but the sparkle's gone... | Content
| I first saw 'Heathers' when I was sixteen years old, and it spoke directly to my nihilistic and careless malaise that's at the heart of any good period of teen angst. I loved it.
Now, some years later, I've come back to it with nothing but the fondest of memories, and I find that while it's still the same movie, it hasn't aged at all well.
The basic plot premise consists of Bored Popular Girl (Winona Ryder) meets Edgy Ne'er-Do-Well (Christian Slater) and begins to inadvertently act out her rebellious fantasies of murdering those who cross her. If you could cross 'Degrassi Junior High' with 'Bowling for Columbine' you'd have sort of an idea of what I mean.
The movie is laden with self-conscious performances from its leads, and the supporting cast is a blacker-minded sort of stock eighties teen, but homogenous nonetheless. It's difficult to watch Slater shamelessly plaigarise Jack Nicholson (in that it's not a particularly good impression, nor is it a likeable one), and Winona Ryder does try her best, but she's just not very convincing as a Murderess. It's sort of like watching an Olsen twin trying Shakespeare, but not as literate.
Direction is similarly overstated, it's a post-Molly Ringwald excessiveness that strips away creative ambiguity and spells everything out for the audience - except when the plot devices (Ich Luge bullets and Beaker mix-ups) are so blatantly hokey, this works against the movie, in that we end up wondering how Veronica could have been so stupid in the first place.
But maybe that's not the point - maybe Slater's speech about how her subconscious really wanted to commit murder is the whole point of the story. If that's the case, however, the unsuredness and inexperience of the two leading actors makes for performances with zero depth or subtlety - in short, one-dimensional characters trying (and failing) to give their collective raison d'etre some hidden depths.
It's not all bad news, though. Some of the scenes are amusing to watch (particularly the Homosexual Artifacts one, a curious and almost quaint look back at how attitudes have since changed) and some of the pranks played by the Heathers themselves are still blacker-than-pitch (poor Martha Dumptruck!). All in all, though, 'Heathers' is a movie that hasn't aged well. Be prepared to make major allowances for time and talent if ou choose to watch it again! |
| Rating | | | Date | May 27, 2005 | | Summary | Classic Dark Comedy | Content
| A cutting edge film that was way ahead of it's time for 1989. Before high school shootings became a monthly occurance in the US, this film masterfully captured the horror that is the American high school experience. Brilliant acting from Winona Ryder and Christian Slater captured the angst of the outsider and the unhappy insider of the popular cliques in a large high school setting. This movie also attacks divorce and its effect on the kid, and the remorse that comes with doing something irreperable to someone else. Witty writing and real characters made this film one of my favorites. With many Literary references from Charlottes Web to Huck Fin. Its a brilliant well thought out film. The script is void of flaws in my opinion and the films soundtrack and art direction in colors is wonderful. If for some reason you haven't seen this film yet, I recommend it. Its hillarious. Highly recommended.
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| Rating | | | Date | May 09, 2005 | | Summary | great and interesting movie about teen agnst | Content
| who would of thought that a movie dealing with the issue involving teen anxiety would turn out to be actually decent? i sure didn't but after seeing this movie not only was a forced to admit some movies can be good even if the theme is stupid, i actually ended up loving how they protrayed the theme in this movie!
for a movie origionally released in 1989, its kind of interesting and disturbing to see Christian Slater's character wear a black trench coat and go around shooting other kids, but there is so much more to this movie than just murder and violence.
this movie is categorized as a dark comedy, but there are some very heart touching moments of seriousness that really stand out to the viewer. All the stereotypes that are given to highschool cliques of various sorts (cheerleaders, jocks, stoners, etc..) are incorporated in a way that not only makes it look funny, but makes us realize how shallow we all were in high school. then there are examples of how parents can be very ignorant and apathetic towards their kids, as seen with christian slater's dad and both of wynona rider's parents. and also we get to see examples of irony and the sickness of human nature when the person's reputation is at stake, like when the girl's were going out with the jocks on a cow tipping run only because rider's 'friend' needed to have a double date with the jocks, and when rider and the first Heather go to the frat party even though rider doesn't want to go and ends up having a horrible time.
but by far the best part of the movie is the last (at least) 1/3 of the movie, the plot is on a very fast track with no intent on stopping, it is full of many interesting twists and turns until it comes to the very end. The ending to this movie is probobly the best ending ive ever seen for a movie (at least it is off the top of my head right now anyway) and really presents to the viewer the futility of all our stupid barriers we set up against other people just because they're not cool and are different, and we also see what happens when these actions take their toles on the unfortunate people that are cast out.
id consider this a timeless classic that should get more recognition, expecially with all the stupid new teen movies like Euro trip. what we have to keep in mind though is, even though this is supposed to be a comedy (dark comedy, but still...) there are many people out in the world that embody the traits of these characters, and this alone should make us sad. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 01, 2005 | | Summary | Winona Ryder plays herself | Content
| Veronica wants to be associated with the most powerful clique in school called The Heathers; however she is persuaded that there are more fun ways to get ahead by a mysterious young man JD who helps even the odds. JD's methods may be a tad extreme but not by today's standards.
Winona, who plays Veronica, says this is a comedy about a serious matter. And she is probably correct. However I was watching the surface action and it did not take the time to think about any underlying meanings. I had no idea that Moby Dick does not contain the word "Eskimo." I was surprised as the different events took shape and can see myself in that situation. I had fun watching this movie.
I did not relate this film, to my high-school days as with C rations. C Rations before 1955 contained only one box meal with fruit. That was the ham and Lima beans box. During high school and 60's, we were lucky to have one "Heather" to a class. Now in the time of MRE's, Heathers abound. This requires the JD's of the world to once again bringing natural balance the high-school society by eliminating excess Heathers.
Bring your popcorn and beware of what you drink.
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