Film Review - Heathers

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I've known about this movie for quite a while but I had never actually seen it. I'm glad I finally did though! For those who have not seen it, Heathers is a dark comedy about Veronica Sawyer, a popular girl whose clique is called "The Heathers" (three out of four girls in the group are named Heather). The clique basically runs the school through intimidation, contempt, and sex appeal. Veronica realizes that she doesn't really like her friends and fantasizes in her diary about killing them. She thinks that if only the Heather Chandler (the leader of The Heathers) were dead, her high school would be a much more tolerable place. Veronica then meets and falls in love with J.D., a rebellious new boy at school who tricks her into feeding Heather Chandler drain cleaner, which kills her, and then forging a suicide note. J.D. gave Veronica what she was hoping for, the death of the head Heather. But as soon as one Heather dies another assumes the role. J.D tricks Veronica into killing two more popular kids at school and again leaving suicide notes. With the popular kids dropping like flies, teen suicide becomes all the rage at Westerberg High. Instead of making the popular kids look weak and lame for killing themselves, their "suicides" made them martyrs. One of the unpopular girls tried to commit suicide by walking in front of traffic and when she failed she was mocked for trying to "act popular". Veronica finally realizes that the killings haven't changed anything, but J.D. doesn't feel the same. He decides to blow up the school during a pep rally and forges a mass suicide note by getting everyone to sign a petition for a band to play at prom. In the end, Veronica stops J.D. from blowing up the school but she is unable to stop him from blowing himself up. The first real suicide of the movie.
While this movie is pretty outrageous, I think it really shed light on some of the things that real girls go through in high school. In particular, Veronicas relationship with the head Heather, Heather Chandler. I think this line sums it up extremely well:
Veronica: "I just killed my best friend"
J.D.: "And your worst enemy"
Veronica: "Same difference"
I think that in cliques, your best friends can really be your worst enemies, but sometimes girls crave that popularity so much that they will hang out with people they don't like and do things that they wouldn't normally do. Veronica stopped hanging out with her real friends and did mean things to other girls simply because The Heathers told her too. This is not true friendship, but for some girls in high school its hard to break free from it. Another thing that this movie dealt with that I think real girls go through is peer pressure. I'm reminded of the old saying "If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?" Sadly for some girls, yes. In this movie, if the popular kids did it then it was cool, even killing themselves!! I realize that this is an exaggeration of what most high schools are like but it really does make you think. I'm sure that most if not all of us have done something that we didn't want to do or something knew we shouldn't just because our friends were doing it. Peer pressure is an incredibly hard thing to deal with sometimes. Overall, I think that while this is obviously a satire about high school drama, and while it is definitely an exaggeration, I think that Heathers really makes a point about how hard it can be to deal with high school.

Comments

Brandon said…
This movie really sheds light on the social aspects that young girls are involved in. Some girls will do anything to become "popular" and this social structure is so strong that teen suicides in this movie become all the rage. Something as blatantly obvious as suicide being wrong is taken to be the exact opposite when the populars in "Heathers" are giving martyr status and suicide becomes cool. These are the realities of what girls are exposed to, and parents need to be aware of the powers that this social structure commands. Good post and interesting (yet bizarre) movie choice.
November 27, 2009 at 3:29 PM
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