For anyone who never fitted in... (Heathers (DVD))

Member Name: glitter_princess

Product:	Heathers (DVD)
Date:	11/10/08 (119 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great sadistic viewing; great performances from Ryder and Slater; witty, biting script

Disadvantages: Not for the easily offended; no special features; maybe not quite so funny after Columbine

It's widely acknowledged that there is nothing in the world more cruel or more vicious than a teenage high school girl. Establishing your place in the 'in crowd' is a cut-throat business - a business that the Heathers are all too familiar with. The Heathers are Westerburg High's most exclusive clique - a group made up of three girls all called Heather (the school's queen bitch Heather Chandler, Heather Duke, and Heather McNamara), and Veronica (Winona Ryder). Veronica is a new addition to the Heather's social circle and, while she wants to be a part of their group, she often feels uncomfortable with their nastiness. The Heathers' favourite past-time is to make everyone else's life a misery by picking on those less socially fortunate than themselves.

When Veronica meets rebellious new boy in school, JD (Christian Slater), she finally finds someone else who is able to see the Heathers for what the really are. After a disastrous college party at which Veronica and Heather Chandler have a big row, Heather declares Veronica'' social life at Westerburg officially dead. In revenge, Veronica plots with JD to teach Heather a lesson: a hangover cure she'll never forget. Unbeknown to Veronica, JD has laced Heather's drink with something rather more lethal than milk and orange juice. All of a sudden, it's Heather who's officially dead. Faced with the thought that "I'm gonna have to send my SAT scores to San Quentin instead of Stanford", the two decide to cover up the murder, staging a fake suicide. After all, Veronica just wants her high school to be a nice place and with the queen bee gone, it looks like that might just happen.
But Heather's apparent suicide seems to change people's view of her: as one student says, "We thought she was just your usual airhead bitch. I guess we were wrong." Suddenly, Heather is more popular than ever! And it seems that another Heather is looking to take Heather Chandler's place as Westerburg High's uber-bitch. And of course, there's still the bullying dumb jocks to take care of - after all, they've got nothing to offer the school except date rapes and AIDS jokes! It looks like Veronica and JD have got their work cut out...

If you hadn't guessed by now, Heathers isn't your usual bubbly teen movie - it's got a very dark side and a biting, sarcastic wit. It's very much a black comedy rather than a perky, mindless teen drivel and it takes a certain sick sense of humour to appreciate it - it's really not for the easily offended! Director Michael Lehmann seems to have no fear of holding back for the sake of good taste and quite often goes too far with things. But this is one of the best things about the film: it does things other films would never touch on. In Lehmann's eyes, no-one is safe from ridicule - the popular, the geeky, the intelligent, the homophobics, gays - everyone is a legitimate target. Heathers plays on the cruel cliques that form in every school, not just in America but all over the world, and this is was makes the film such a success. I absolutely defy anyone who was ever bullied in school or who had trouble fitting in not to take sadistic pleasure in watching the twisted antics of Veronica and JD. The film does have a slightly fantastic, surreal slant to it, making the violence less shocking and more comedic. The script (by Daniel Waters) is very well written, filled with biting remarks and put-downs and the writing has a real wit and intelligence to it. Like so many other films, it plays on small town America's narrow-mindedness and stupidity, portraying the town's inhabitants as shallow and self obsessed.
The casting and acting in this film is absolutely spot on. Winona Ryder was the perfect choice to play Veronica and she plays her with a sarcastic intelligence but also a degree of naïveté. She is very much how I was in school - hanging around the popular crowd but always on the edge; tormented and filled with teen angst; pretty but quirky looking and intelligent. Her frenzied narrated diary entries are delivered with exactly the right amount of self-deprecation and her (very) slow realisation that JD might not be the sexy guy she thought but a psychopathic killer is riveting and chilling to watch. Christian Slater gives a less than subtle nod to Jack Nicholson in his performance as JD, providing a lethal combination of sex appeal and insanity. A very young Shannon Doherty plays the quiet, bulimic Heather Duke and is, as you might expect, fairly unmemorable.

Despite the fact that the film was made in 1989, it's managed not to age too badly (it's interesting to note the presence of the ra-ra skirt - whoever had the bright idea to bring that unflattering garment back into fashion should be shot!), mainly due to the fact that high school cliques are something that's never going to go away. But what does slightly put a damper on the film's humour is that fact that violence in high schools is no longer a fantasy --with the shootings at Columbine and others, walking into school and shooting your classmates is a reality (albeit an uncommon one).
If you're into your DVD special features you'll be pretty disappointed here - it doesn't have any! Not a single one! But, having said that, you can get the DVD so cheaply now you can't really complain (my copy cost £4.99 from amazon).

This certainly isn't one to watch if you're after light entertainment, or if you're easily offended, and with scenes of fairly graphic violence it's definitely not suitable for children, but if you like your humour dark and biting this is a must-see!

Summary: Fantastic black comedy