HEATHERS [1988]

Heathers (1988)
Directed by: Michael Lehmann
Written by: Daniel Waters
Starring: Christian Slater, Lisanne Falk, Shannen Doherty, Winona Ryder

USA

AVAILABLE ON ARROW PLAYER AND LIMITED EDITION 4K UHD

RUNNING TIME: 103 mins

REVIEWED BY: Dr Lenera

Veronica Sawyer is a teenager trying to participate in the clique at the Westerburg High School of her schoolmates Heathers Duke, McNamara and Chandler the leader, though she’s not really sure about their controlling, shallow and at times even nasty behaviour. Then Veronica takes a shine to the newcomer in town Jason Dean who questions further her relationship with the Heathers. Rising tension between Veronica and Chandler climaxes with an attempt by Veronica and Jason to teach her a lesson going wrong and they accidentally killing her. They forge a suicide note and the deceased Chandler becomes more popular among the students. However, that’s definitely not it for Chandler, who has a rather strange attitude to killing….

I’ve never really liked it when people use the fact that a film is dated as a criticism. Things were different 20 years ago, things were even more different 40 years, and so on. Therefore saying that a movie is of less quality because it’s of its time seems to me to be narrow minded and arrogant, though that’s not to say that one can’t chuckle at, for example, all those historical epics of the ’50s and ’60s where the ladies usually sport typical hair styles of the period. And every now and again something comes along which tries not be something that will date much, if at all, in the future. Heathers has a good stab at this; it was made in 1989, and we may get the odd period hairdo [it’s odd that hair, especially women’s hair, is often the thing that filmmakers seem to focus less on], but other than that its details and the fashion that it presents don’t place the characters into any historical context. There’s hardly even any music. The film almost omits anything that places significance on the time and place in which the story unfolds, even though it’s basically a biting pastiche of the teen movie. Ah, the teen movie. This is a kind of film which really used to be a big thing, and especially in the ’80s and ’90s [yes I admit to getting excited when BBC2 were showing a season of Bratpack movies] – but which is barely around now, at least not to any sort of iconic degree. But Heathers could very well have been made today, except perhaps for a few moments that might have the PC lot getting all uptight. The sharp dark comedy, dripping with hyperbolic satire about high school life, is absolutely spot on and almost outrageously entertaining for an hour, after which the edge gets blunted and more conventional melodrama and suspense virtually take over. But then this was intended as a commercial product.

Daniel Waters began writing the screenplay in 1986, while he was working in a video shop. He wanted the film to be directed by Stanley Kubrick; the cafeteria scene near the start was written as a homage to the barracks scene which opens Full Metal Jacket. After a number of failed attempts to get the script to Kubrick, Waters approached director Michael Lehmann, who agreed to helm the film with producer Denise di Novi, though New World Pictures would only finance it if the script’s dark ending was changed. Early choices for Jason and Veronica were Justine Bateman and Jennifer Connelly who turned it down. 16-year old Winona Ryder wanted the part so much that she begged Waters to cast her as Veronica, even offering to work for free. Waters at first didn’t think Ryder was pretty enough, and Ryder’s agent was so opposed to her pursuing the role that she got down on her hands and knees to beg Ryder not to take it, warning her that it would ruin her career. Eventually, she was given the role. Brad Pitt read for the role of Jason but was rejected. Christian Slater reports throwing a “big tantrum” and tossing his script in the bin after assuming he’d failed his audition. Shannen Doherty wanted the role of Veronica, but Ryder had been cast, so the producers asked her to audition for Heather Chandler, but Doherty was more interested in playing Heather Duke and gave such a good audition that she was. It was only after Lisanne Falk was cast as Heather McNamara that she admitted she was 23 years old, not in her late teens. Although set in Ohio, filming was done entirely in Los Angeles. The film’s first scene was actually the last one to be shot. By that time, Falk had cut her hair and had to wear a wig. Doherty took things a bit too seriously and refused to say some of the more expletives in the script. When the cast first viewed the film, she ran out crying because she realised it was a dark comedy and not the serious drama she was expecting. Heathers was a flop upon release, but gained great popularity on video and even became a musical.

We do open with a song, and the film finishes with the very same song, though both are cover versions because Doris Day, the song being her “Que Sera Sera”, didn’t want to be involved with a movie that contained so much profanity – though it doesn’t seem excessive in that respect today. The first shot is on a ribbon being tied on the back of a girl’s head; the film will conclude with a similar shot. Three girls are sitting on a bench in a public [well, it could very well be private] garden before they trample over some flowers and go to play crochet, though it’s a very strange form of crochet, it being eventually revealed that one of the girls is buried standing up so her face can be hit by the balls. It’s not mentioned, but I assume that this is some kind of initiation ritual that Veronica has to undergo so she can become part of this clique. Her writing her diary, a device that sometimes interrupts the action but which does help the power of one particular moment, takes us into the school where she’s busy sitting on the steps scribbling until found by one of the three Heathers which make up the rest of the clique. She’s summoned before leader Heather Chandler, who wants her to forge a letter so it seems like it’s from one of the jocks, and give it to the large, friendless Martha. Veronica isn’t sure about this. “I don’t have anything against Martha” she pleads. “You don’t have anything for her either” is the answer. In what is actually one of the best scenes of the film, the group, clearly in control of the room, to the point where they’re no doubt aware of the lust they inspire from some of the guys there, go around the canteen asking “the scum” in there the same question. “You have five million dollars. The same day aliens land on Earth and say they’re going to blow it up in two days. What do you do?” Only one person has the gall to say “what a stupid question” and give a sensible answer.

That person is, of course, Jason – or rather J. D. – an archetypal outsider character, to whom Veronica is drawn and goes and chats him up, though two jocks don’t like his seemingly arrogant manner and try to scare hun, whereupon he pulls out a gun and fires blanks at them. Veronica is soon off to a fraternity party, but bumps into J. D. in a shop, where she admits “I don’t really like my friends”, though it’s in her diary where she really admits her feelings, writing that “a world without Heather Chandler is a world where I’m free”. At the party Veronica refuses to have sex with one fraternity member , unlike Chandler, who is coerced into performing oral sex, showing how, actually, she’s not always in control at all. When Veronica drunkenly vomits on Chandler, Chandler vows to destroy Veronica’s reputation in retaliation. Later, J.D. shows up at Veronica’s house and breaks in through Veronica’s bedroom window, something she doesn’t seem to be annoyed about considering that soon after this they have sex. They express to each other their mutual hatred of Chandler’s tyranny. The next morning, Veronica and J.D. break into Chandler’s house, equipped with a fake hangover cure which is intended to make Chandler vomit, but it all goes wrong and Chandler promptly falls down dead. J.D. urges Veronica to forge a dramatic suicide note in Chandler’s handwriting, though they can’t decide whether Chandler would use the word “myriad”. Cut to a bit which truly made me chuckle. There’s a meeting of the teachers staff about the issue and one of them says “I must say I was proper impressed to see that she made proper use of the word “myriad” in her suicide note”. Well, it made me chuckle anyway.

Later on, the same teacher holds a class where she wants to “share the feeling that this suicide has spurred in all of us”. An ex says how she said he was boring but really she was bored with her life. The subject of suicide tends to be looked on more seriously these days, so there may be some viewers who’ll find Heathers’ handling of the subject crass, and it becomes a major part of the narrative, with further deaths giving people popularity that they didn’t have while alive, but, despite a lot of jokery, it’s all in the cause of mocking the crazy allure of suicide, especially for young people, even when one dad finally expresses his love for his “dead gay son”, a scene which might seem homophobic today but is really more about showing the homophobia of people even though it’ll probably be presented with more sensitivity today – which of course would not necessarily be the right way to present it. The funeral scenes are some of the funniest, especially the supposedly “down with the kids” priest who uses the opportunity to mention the danger of MTV games but then the person who can help, who is of course “that righteous dude, his name Jesus Christ – and he’s in the book”. The final revelation of what J. D.’s father is really like will probably cause an especially large nervous laugh, and then there’s the scene when a double date first of all results in the two guys cow-tipping [pushing over cows so they poo]. As Veronica walks off to J.D. who’s parked on the hill, in the background you see her own date passed out in a mud puddle and Heather being date-rapped by her date. Neither Veronica nor J.D. see anything wrong with the picture – and Veronica is the film’s heroine!

Of course it won’t be any surprise for the reader who hasn’t even seen Heathers to learn that J.D. isn’t at all a hero, though he thinks he’s one, a rebel without a cause, or rather s cause that’s rather stupid. Does the film to far with how cruel these people are? Well, most films are a heightening after all. A viewing of a few John Hughes films, where high school students may have problems but are essentially nice, might be recommended to understand more what Waters and Lehmann [both major talents whose careers failed to hit the peaks expected] were doing with Heathers. But, as the deliberately exaggerated characters keep crossing each other, mocking typical high school obsessions but at times also allowing most of these characters to show some vulnerability or at least insecurity which gives them some relatability, the edge begins to dissipate, and when we climax in a very conventional manner, one’s mind thinks of more interesting ways in which things could be turning out. And this is a great shame seeing how great things were before. Nonetheless the cast remain perfect throughout. Ryder presents her character’s perfectly and Slater is both slimy and charismatic. He’s given many of the best lines i.e. “The only place different social types can genuinely get along with each other is in Heaven” – or is that Doherty? Cleverly designed and photographed in largely bright colours which lessen as the film goes on, Heathers is brittle and cruel but most certainly does have a heart. Throughout it’s suggested that, actually, it’s best to just be nice, something which comes to the fore in the final scene, a final scene which may strike some as being sentimental but which I think we’ve earned.

Rating:

4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

New restoration from a 4K scan of the original camera negative by Arrow Films

4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)

Original 1.0 mono, and optional stereo 2.0 and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio sound

Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

Audio commentary by director Michael Lehmann, producer Denise Di Novi and writer Daniel Waters

Lehmann’s Terms, an interview with director Michael Lehmann

Pizzicato Croquet, composer David Newman and director Michael Lehmann discuss the music of Heathers

How Very: The Art and Design of Heathers, production designer Jon Hutman, art director Kara Lindstrom and director Michael Lehmann discuss the look of Heathers

Casting Westerberg High, casting director Julie Selzer discusses the casting process for Heathers

Poor Little Heather, an interview with actress Lisanne Falk

Scott and Larry and Dan and Heathers, an interview between screenwriting team Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood, The People vs Larry Flint), and Heathers screenwriter Daniel Waters

The Big Bowie Theory, an appreciation by the writer, actor and comedian John Ross Bowie

Return to Westerberg High, an archival featurette providing further insight into the film’s production

Swatch Dogs and Diet Coke Heads, an archival featurette with the cast and crew featuring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and writer Daniel Waters

The Beaver Gets a Boner, Michael Lehmann’s student film from 1985 made at the USC School of Cinematic Arts

Original trailers

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Robert Sammelin