St. Elmo’s Fire (1985)
St. Elmo’s Fire (1985) IMDB link
Directed By: Joel Schumacher
Written By: Joel Schumacher & Carl Kurlander
Starring: Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Mare Winningham
I can’t believe I almost missed out on this 80’s classic. The film contains the brat pack minus two actors but it fulfills all the expectations of an 80’s movie. Before I get into it, I’m letting you know that I’m going to try my hardest not to sound like one of those chucks on “I Love The…” making snarky remarks that are neither relevant or funny. In fact, “I Love The…” is the setting for one of my reoccurring nightmares. I’m sitting there torturing myself by watching the show when a 18 year old girl who isn’t hot but extremely average says something like “Oh my god, when ‘The Godfather’ came out it was all like crazy you know? Cause he was like so sheik and like everyone was like ‘Dude keep friend’s close and enemies farther’ and it was just so badass you know? Definitely awesome” followed by a cheerleader smile and a spinning graphic of ‘The Godfather’ poster coming at the screen with Nelly’s “Country Grammer” playing in the background.
Anyways, oh right, “St. Elmo’s Fire”. It’s got everything you could want from an 80’s movie, it has members of the Brat Pack, a clearly 80’s soundtrack, beautiful people caught in extremely “dramatic” dilemmas upon which they can go emo and an instruction manual for all the nerds out there on how to act cool. I know I bought a diamond encrusted cross earring after I watched it.
One of the greatest things about the flick is for some reason Emilio Estevez’s character turns out being sort of the “nerd” character in the sense that for the whole flick he’s sort of detached from everyone just trying to get a girl he clearly can’t get even though we all know it’s Emelio Esteves and he probably raked in like 12 STD’s a night back then. Why it suceeds however is the characters, that’s usually the strongest suit for 80’s movies; that they have these rediculous archetypes that aren’t even archetypes and somehow people watching these fake archetypes say something like “lolz my buddy Bob is so much like Rob Lowe’s character!” when they aren’t even remotely close.
*spoiler*My favorite scene was probably the dramatic pinnacle where upon Demi Moore’s character, who is irresponsible, a slut and a bad friend brings them all back together by threatening to kill herself. How does she threaten this? Well she sits in front of an open window on a cold day with a big T-Shirt on, I’m serious. Why is she killing herself? Well I thought it was because she turned to prostitution to keep up with her spending habbits and it would also explain why she was lead to suicide but it ended up being some really lame and tame reason like her cat died. Because they all come toegether again they all realized they were being petty and upon that single action they all get on with their lives, they accept that they aren’t in college anymore.*spoiler*
Shit was rad, highly recommended for anyone who loves 80’s flicks.
Filed under: Classic/Old, Comedy, Drama | 2 Comments
Tags: 80's, brat pack, review, teen movie
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you forgot to mention the inexplicable group chant they bust out three or four times. it’s pretty impossible to explain if you haven’t seen the movie, but all the characters basically crowd around each other and yell out something to the effect of “boogety boogety boogety – ah ah ah!!!” or something like that. they do this in public too. i really can’t do these scenes justice – you really have to see it for yourself. let’s just say that you’ll be staring at the screen in complete disbelief every time they do it.
I liked St. Elmo’s Fire. But it wasn’t my favorite 80’s film. I dislike it due to the fact that this is the film that inspired the title “The Brat Pack”. Which is extremely harsh. It sends out a bad message. Making it appear as if the actors in these movies are immature, and are not professional. I remember reading a quote from Judd Nelson who played “Alec” he said if he could do it all over again, He wouldn’t have done St. Elmo’s Fire. I have to say that I can understand that. Alot actually. The actors were fantastic with the scripts they were given. It had great music and great characters. But, The plot didn’t really catch my eye. I think they could have done alot more with it. I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I wish I did. I love all of the actors in the movie. I just think some of the characters could have been created better. For instance, Emilio Estevez’ character bugged the crap out of me. The whole him being obsessed with Andy McDowell’s character was just a waste of time and filming. I think the movie would have been better without those scenes. Also, As much as I love Judd Nelson as an actor, I found myself disliking his character the movie I watched the movie. It wasn’t just b/c his character was somewhat of a selfish ass. But, There seemed to be something missing.
I don’t HATE this movie. But the plot could have been alot better. I was really disapointed.