20 Somethings Series - Film #3 St. Elmo's Fire

If you don't know what this is film #3 of, please refer here.



St. Elmo's Fire (1985) - Dir. Joel Schumacher

A group of university graduates struggle with the transition to adult life; finding their place in the world; and adapting to the realities of capitalist society.  All while trying to uphold the bonds of friendship that got them through school.  I think this is a glimpse at what happens to John Hughes characters after they get out of school (this film however, is not written by Hughes).  Warning, this blog will include spoilers.

As if to echo the original sentiments that gave me the idea for this whole movie series, I overhead a conversation as we were exciting the theatre.  A man was saying to his female companion how those characters were assholes, how they lie, cheat, sleep with each other, etc. The latter part of his observations have become foggy now but I think his overall point was that they did all this bad stuff, but in the end it was somehow still ok.  I guess that is a reflection on the type of people they are?


When we're young our views of good and bad seem much more clearly defined, the evils you battle have distinguishable sides and it's easy to identify what's good and stand on that side.  Things get a little more complex though.  Rob Lowe's character Billy won't grant his wife a divorce, this is a little different than your average break up -- They have a child together, she's had an offer of marriage from an ex-boyfriend who will be able to properly support her and the baby, but he is the father and he doesn't want to get divorced because he wants to do the right thing and support them as a father should.  Should he be blamed for not willing to separate and let his wife have a chance at a happier life?

There's still your quintessential "good" guys though - Wendy (Mare Winningham) and Kevin (Andrew McCarthy) are you good-hearted lovesick puppies who just get crushed and crushed again but their devotion prevails.  They don't have memorable names like 'Duckie' or 'Watts' but they will always be there for the misguided bad boy (Rob Lowe) and self-doubting nice girl (Ally Sheedy).

As for Alec (Judd Nelson) and Kirby (Emilio Estavez), where are they on the good vs bad scale?  Both are obsessive, forceful, and intimidating... but are they also not determined, well-meaning, and motivated by love?  Ok, fine, maybe that describes Kirby moreso than Alec, but Alec is by no means a completely bad person.  His desire for more money and ability to provide overshadows his political alliances but he has some 'good friend' moments too, how many people would you crawl out of bed in the middle of the night for?  To rescue them from a self-inflicted, drug-induced situation (that is probably just a plea for attention) no less?

Perhaps some people "grow-up" adhering better to the laws of good and evil better than others. I've certainly found myself flailing in a whole lot of grey area over the years.  And through all this my friends have loved me, hated me, fought with me, consoled me and everything in between.  Our relationships have seen a lot fluctuations, flirtations, slights, scares, and even a bit of back-stabbing, but in the grand scheme of things, these are still the people I'm going to turn to.  Though we're no saints, we understand and know each other, and we prevail through it all. (I mean, would you rather have someone who loves you blindly or someone who knows your flaws but stands by you anyway?)  I really think this is one of the main points of St. Elmo's Fire.

Though the film took place in the 80's, a vastly different world from what we live in now.  I see some similarities in that these people lives individually interesting lives, with budding careers, lofty goals, and yet in some way, they're still lost.  Kriby flip flops from law school to med school to any way to make lots of money.  Wendy's in social work which is not the most overtly rewarding, yet it's what distinguishes from her cardboard cutout (literally as they're in the greeting card business) family and their stogy values.  Jule's life is a fine line between drug-addled divity and utter disaster.  It's a fast moving world and everyone's cramming in as much as they can so they don't miss anything, but when you look at the picture, where are they really going?  Does this sound familiar?

I don't think St. Elmo's is a film that's asking to be liked.  Again it's one of those movies like Reality Bites or Saturday Night Fever, it speaks most to its targeted demographic and you won't derive much meaning from it until you've reached a certain stage in life.  One observes and finds meaning through observation of these lives from point A to point B rather than being explicitly told a story from start to finish.  Well, ok, maybe they do tell you one thing:

You can always count on your friends. Don't ever let the fire go out.

20 Somethings Series - Film #2 REALITY BITES

If you don't know what this is film #2 of, please refer here.

Reality Bites (1994) - Dir. Ben Stiller

Follows 4 classic Gen-X-ers as they face life's trials and tribulations after college, all recorded by the amateur documentation amongst them.  Lelaina's gotta choose between yuppie but caring Michael and the intense, but confusing and sometimes hurtful, musician Troy.  She's also got to decide whether she wants to make a badly needed buck by compromising her documentary or stay true to her art.  Vicky wants excitement and passion, but at the risk of an AIDS scare?  Sammy struggles with revealing his sexuality to his parents.  Troy needs to shit or get off the can in regards to much of his life.    Warning, this blog will include spoilers.

So much of this movie exemplifies "Generation X" as we know it.  Though these characters are older than me, there's MTV soundbites programed into them that were also programmed into me.  Some of their lines while mostly pointless when analyzed on their own is really evidence of their programming and surroundings.  About the only lines they don't quote are the Simpsons (copyright infringement maybe?)  When Troy jokes that Lelaina is "cuckoo for cocoa puffs" they are neither conversing about cereal but making a media reference symbolizing fanaticism.  There are a number of lines, loosely related to the topic at hand, stolen from commercials and the like, scattered through this movie.  Does this not scream Douglas Coupland to anyone else?

The soundbites don't even begin to scratch the surface of how I relate to this movie.  In Lelaina's valedictorian speech, she speaks of the societal and environment damages that our generation has inherited and how to undo them.  She closes with "Fellow graduates, the answer is... the answer is... I don't know."  I never grasped the true meaning of that line until pretty recently, having never realized that "I don't know" is a phrase that exemplifies my generation.  From episodes of 'You Can't Do That On Television' which dumped neon green slime onto the head of anyone who said that magic phrase, to my piano teacher when I was 16, tsk-tsk-ing how kids my age tended to say "I don't know" and "I guess so" a lot instead of giving more absolute answers.

On the rooftop scene, Vicky makes a comment about dodging her student loan officer for the rest of her life (what do you think was one of the first reasons I stopped answering my phone?) and Sammy tells Troy he can still go back and get his B.F.A. (the same pretty, but largely useless piece of paper that hangs on my wall).  I have vague recollections of getting asked to leave a store because I was singing too loudly or dancing with friends in the mall.  Lelaina gets her required daily nutrients from a Big Gulp, I survived off Slurpees.  Their apartment included much typical 90's whimsical bohemian decor, I've since packed up my alphabet fridge magnets (which was what we had on our fridges before Magnetic Poetry became the rage btw) but my lava lamp still sits on my desk.  I even worked at The Gap for pete sakes!

What I'm saying is that I don't know if I can really review this film objectively.  When it comes to judging the characters - their personalities, morals, priorities, etc.... On some level I know they're obnoxious, pretentious and self-important, but aren't those also traits of the generation itself?  Plus I can't help but romanticize and forgive them for their flaws.  I see the logic in their wordy, urgently delivered philosophies.  I am still in love with the artists with their eternal self-discovery, brooding indifference, and medium length hair that brush my face when they lean down to kiss me.

So clearly this movie review has gone all to hell, feel free to regard it as a claptrap of 90's nostalgia (which some might consider this movie to be).  What happened in the two years between Singles and Reality Bites that has me blindly in love with one, but not the other?  Though Singles in some way captured a snapshot of the Seattle grunge scene, Reality Bites encapsulated the shortened attention span and media-driven edge that came to shape youth in years to come, even beyond the confines of "Generation X".  This is accomplished not just through the dialogue, but also in the metatextual (one of my FAVOURITE words in the late 90's) editing -- movie within a movie all encapsulated in a TV show... LOL!  Even the soundtrack is eclectic, and there were still a few good cameos (I caught Dave Pirner from Soul Asylum, Rene Zellweiger, and Evan Dando from The Lemonheads)

Whiny, wordy, what-have-you, Reality Bites still plunges forward with vigor you can't deny -- which is also one way to describe my friends and I!

[For those who are interested, here is an article on Reality Bites written by folks not wearing rose-coloured glasses... I found myself saying 'humph' a few times over but it's interesting to see how some champion the Michael Grates character whereas he still tends to make me think "vanilla" (no racist innuendos intended).  The writers here also reference St Elmo's Fire and Ghost World when making comparisons to characters and themes.]