Movies - Heathers

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	Movies - Heathers

Heathers is a black comedy film released in 1989 starring Winona Ryder, Shannen Doherty, and Christian Slater. It is widely viewed as a classic teenage comedy of the 1980s, considered revolutionary at the time because of its high levels of violence, cruelty, black humor and absurdity, especially for a movie set in high school. It was written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann. On its release, the film was seen as a stiff response to the gentler and more romanticized view of high school and teenage culture put forth in the movies of John Hughes.

In the film three out of the four girls in a trend-setting clique at Westerberg High are called Heather. They play croquet with each other and rule the school through intimidation, contempt and sex appeal. One of the central themes of the movie is that people who want their high schools to be kinder places are deluded -- high school is not a safe haven from the world, it is the world in microcosm; and "kids who complain they want to be treated like grownups usually are being treated like grownups."

Because Heathers portrays alienated teenagers who solve their problems with murder and terrorism, audiences in 1989 found it far-fetched and therefore safe to enjoy as a dark wish-fulfillment fantasy. But in the post-Columbine era the movie hits a different nerve and now appears prescient and unsettling in a new and even darker way.

In 1993 fans of the film set up #heathers, an IRC channel on EFNet which focuses on the movie and its mythology.

Plot description

Heathers centers on a high school student named Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder). Veronica is part of a clique of popular, pretty and wealthy girls called The Heathers. Other than Veronica, they all share that first name. Heather Duke (Shannen Doherty), Heather McNamara (Lisanne Falk) and Heather Chandler (Kim Walker), Veronica's best friend, are the prettiest and most popular girls in school. They are also the most vacant, shallow, self-centered and vicious. Veronica finds their 'friendship' both tempting and repellent.

Veronica wasn't always so popular. Although it is never fully explained how she ascended to popularity, it is made clear that she used to be good friends with one of the school's biggest nerds, Betty Finn. She is also clearly smarter and far more compassionate than any of her Heather cohorts. When a new, dark boy named Jason Dean (Christian Slater), or J.D. for short, pulls a gun on school bullies Kurt (Lance Fenton) and Ram (Patrick Labyorteaux), and fires blanks at them, Veronica is intrigued.

Soon Veronica and J.D. are dating, and he accompanies her on an early morning visit to Heather Chandler's home. Veronica is furious with Heather Chandler's behaviour at a frat party and the two of them jokingly prepare a cup full of drain cleaner to bring her as a morning wake-up drink. They later decide on milk and orange juice as a vomit-inducing prank, but Veronica accidentally mixes up the cups (J.D. notices, but doesn't tell her) and to her horror Heather Chandler downs the drain cleaner and begins to heave and spasm, eventually collapsing face first into a glass table and dying.

Realizing that she is the unintentional perpetrator of her best friend's murder, J.D. urges Veronica to forge a suicide note in Heather Chandler's handwriting. Veronica does so only to protect herself from prosecution. The entire school and community looks on Heather Chandler's death as a hip, if dramatic, decision in the life of a popular but troubled teenager, and everyone accepts the suicide note as authentic. Soon Heather's death becomes yesterday's news.

Weeks later J.D. concocts a plan to punish bullies Ram and Kurt for spreading gossip about Veronica. He tells her that they will lure the two guys into the forest with the promise of a three-way with Veronica, only once the bullies have stripped down to their boxer shorts, Veronica and J.D. will shoot them with "Ich Lüge" bullets; fake bullets that will stun them unconscious long enough for Veronica and J.D. to flee. They will leave behind homosexually-oriented materials including pornographic magazines and the somewhat questionable bottled-water as well as a fake suicide note that will make it look like the two killed each other in a gay suicide pact. When they awaken, they will be humiliated.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Heathers ]

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Movies - Heathers

Plot description

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