“You want to fuck with the eagles you have to learn how to fly”

“So you teach people how to spread their wings and fly?”
“Yes”
“You’re beautiful.”

The first time I saw Heathers I instantly loved it. I loved its dark sense of humor and the way it broke all expectations of every other 80’s John Hughes teen movie. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink just as much as everyone else, but this movie was just a head above the rest for me.

Right away it veers away from the Hollywood norm because there is no rationale for JD’s desire to kill. So his dad blows up buildings and his life is a little off kilter, but there really is no motive behind the slew of murders besides being annoyed with the popular kids. Most movies tell you what’s going on right off the bat, but this movie never really explains it to you.

I guess this is where the whole postmodern thing comes into play. This movie deconstructs the normal teen movie of its time and puts it back together in a twisted way. The extreme lack of emotion is the opposite of every other John Hughes movie. Usually a wacky teen stumbles their way into a higher place of knowing themselves or learns a valuable life lesson. All Veronica learns by the end is to not sleep with insane dudes. I think this is kind of poking fun at movie goers desire to find some deeper meaning within the fake lives of teenagers. The movie is trying to be shallow and succeeds time and time again with “the Heathers” and JD’s lack of motivation behind anything.

This is sort of mirrored in the strange staff at the high school who brood over the suicides of the students. They try to make the students into deep, wounded human beings who couldn’t deal with the harsh realities of the world; when really they were just jocks and popular girls who didn’t give a damn about anyone else.

As with a lot of other postmodern films I’m not sure there is a greater meaning behind the plot. Just like the students in this school don’t really learn any lessons or become better people by the end, I don’t think the viewer is supposed to reach any sort of conclusion by the end either. I think it’s simply a John Hughes film gone dark and it’s meant to play with the expectations that we’ve created for ourselves as viewers.