St. Elmo's Fire is much under-rated and should be considered a CLASSIC
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — St. Elmo's Fire
rossmcfarlen — 9 years ago(August 11, 2016 12:16 PM)
I have seen this definitive 80s brat pack movie many, many times and it never ceases to fascinate me. I believe the film has a power and magic all on its own - the characters and their stories stay on the mind long after the credits roll. The
eternity
of this movie is personified in John Parr's '
Man In Motion
' a song/video which is still popular today as it was in 1985. It's the clarion call for us to return to this movie over and over again - a chance to feel
young and innocent
all over again.
Last night, I saw Elmo's as if I had seen it for the very first time.
I tried to forget all previous viewings (difficult as I know so many lines of dialogue) and after sipping two glasses of wine saw the film with a fresh perspective. It helps to have a slightly altered state of consciousness when watching this flick in keeping with the youthful euphoria of the film.
Did I say euphoria? Yes. Very few films manage to capture the euphoria of youth - that fleeting feeling of joy that people coming out of adolescence feel most days, believing that only good things are AHEAD of them. Critics (and this film has many) never understand the popular appeal of this movie. This is not a once-you-see-it-then-forget-it flick this film has a profound impact on the public zeitgeist, so many people relate to the individual stories. This is the definitive 'brat pack' movie of the mid 80s and the vehicle that launched many young acting careers - actors with great on-screen charm and charisma.
We watch over and over again because we relate to the characters. With foresight and genius Carl Kurlander and Joel Schumacher wrote a story (I love the subtext of the story relating to lobbying in Washington - so well-researched re. Senator Hodges
etc), whose characters have flaws and quirks that most people relate to. In the characters we see what we use to be when we were young. Youthful euphoria, that sense that the world is your oyster aged 20, 21, 22 is a beautiful feeling and of course doesn't last.
There is rough road ahead for most people and most of us settle for Thoreau's quiet life of desperation. Being an adult is about being a serious human being (as Billy alludes to on the roof with a quiet gesture - and no words) and ready to face the everyday mundane reality of work, keeping a roof over your head, many bills to be paid, raising a family, juggling all those balls in the air and hoping and praying not to sink in the process.
Billy Hicks knows this and his fake attempt at suicide on the roof of Wendy's house betrays deeper feelings of despair and a sense that adult life may not be all it's cracked up to be - and certainly nothing to do with the content of the textbooks he studied (hard to imagine him reading a book let alone revising before finals) before exams at Georgetown.
This is why Schumacher has Billy comfort Jules during her 'crie de coeur', her dark moment. Jules and Billy are party people but damaged people; and they are party people for a reason; to escape from personal demons and also they're aged 22 they want to have a good time. They want to escape from themselves, if only momentarily.
On the surface the movie seems supremely shallow; the lives of recent Georgetown graduates in a glossy Hollywood flick negotiating jobs, new apartments, infidelity, major credit card debt, out-of-reach dreams and ambitions and as such the characters represent a lot of dreams of 80s youth. Yet, below this glossy surface (and the oh-so-glossy David Foster soundtrack) we witness the frailties of the human condition: close friendship and its potential/innevitable loss, self-delusion and obsession; relationships and their inherent dysfunction; the questioning of one's very existence with suicidal thoughts and a suicide attempt - this is
deep stuff.
Perhaps St. Elmo's Fire isn't as shallow as its critics seem to think it is.
The critics want to see the PERFECT screenplay with PERFECT characters spouting PERFECT dialogue but life isn't PERFECT and we shouldn't be watching movies about PERFECT people - they don't exist.
In Elmo's all the characters are flawed in their own way: Jules with deep rooted abandonment issues as a child of divorce/remarriage; Kirby Keager is clearly a stalker with mental health issues; Kevin is obsessed with Leslie and has naive expectations about their future (more delusion); Alec Newberry (brilliantly played by Judd Nelson) is an obnoxious, irascible arrogant young man who has an exaggerated sense of entitlement and seems to want to control Leslie's life to the point of being chauvinistic and overbearing; Wendy, is way too innocent for her own good and Leslie is quietly deluded (trying to ignore Alec's extra-curricular activities) about Alec and their future together.
I remember the first time I watched this movie and it went over my head, I just found too much going on. But now I relish the busy-ness of it all - each frame seems to capture a moment so well and there is choice dialogue in nearly every scene.