St. Elmo's Fire (1985)

Just like Rob Lowes speech at the end to try and sum up the movie- about St Elmos Fire not really being there and nothing really matters etc - I don't think my review will make sense...However I find St Elmos Fire very watchable. I have nothing in common with any of the characters, but isn't a movie a kind of escapism? I'm English and this is a time and place in America that I like to think existed, but know really didn't. So now and again I whack it in the DVD player and transport myself to a time you could run off to New York with just your sax and a head full of dreams while your gaggle of quirky friends cry and wave you goodbye... ah the 80s. Such a film would not be made now. If I could however I would find a way to cut Emilio Estevez out of the film. Like completely. The character creeps me out and don't understand the point of him or his ridiculous celebration following his awful pouncing on poor Andie McDowell.Other than that the other characters and their various intertwining stories are interesting enough and are made better by the brat pack themselves. I really can't explain why but I hated this film back in the day... maybe I realise that sometimes you need that earnest type of film only the 80s can deliver. And St Elmos does that. See? Total nonsense.

I have seen this definitive 80s brat pack movie many, many times and it never ceases to fascinate me. I believe the film has a power and magic all on its own - the characters and their stories stay on the mind long after the credits roll. Last night, I saw Elmo's as if I had seen it for the very first time. I tried to forget all previous viewings (difficult as I know so many lines of dialogue) and after sipping two glasses of wine saw the film with a fresh perspective. It helps to have a slightly altered state of consciousness when watching this flick in keeping with the youthful euphoria of the film. Did I say euphoria? Yes. Very few films manage to capture the euphoria of youth - that fleeting feeling of joy that people coming out of adolescence feel most days, believing that only good things are AHEAD of them. Critics (and this film has many) never understand the popular appeal of this movie. This is not a once-you-see-it-then- forget-it flick this film has a profound impact on the public zeitgeist, so many people relate to the individual stories. This is the definitive 'brat pack' movie of the mid 80s and the vehicle that launched many young acting careers - actors with great on-screen charm and charisma.There is rough road ahead for most people and most of us settle for Thoreau's quiet life of desperation. Being an adult is about being a serious human being (as Billy alludes to on the roof with a quiet gesture - and no words) and ready to face the everyday mundane reality of work, keeping a roof over your head, many bills to be paid, raising a family, juggling all those balls in the air and hoping and praying not to sink in the process. Billy Hicks knows this and his fake attempt at suicide on the roof of Wendy's house betrays deeper feelings of despair and a sense that adult life may not be all it's cracked up to be - and certainly nothing to do with the content of the textbooks he studied (hard to imagine him reading a book let alone revising before finals) before exams at Georgetown. This is why Schumacher has Billy comfort Jules during her 'cry of the heart' hour, her dark moment. Jules and Billy are party people but damaged people; and they are party people for a reason; to escape from personal demons and also they're aged 22 they want to have a good time. They want to escape from themselves, if only momentarily.On the surface the movie seems supremely shallow; the lives of recent Georgetown graduates in a glossy Hollywood flick negotiating jobs, new apartments, infidelity, major credit card debt, out-of-reach dreams and ambitions and as such the characters represent a lot of dreams of 80s youth. Yet, below this glossy surface (and the oh-so-glossy David Foster soundtrack) we witness the frailties of the human condition: close friendship and its potential/inevitable loss, self-delusion and obsession; relationships and their inherent dysfunction; the questioning of one's very existence with suicidal thoughts and a suicide attempt - this is deep stuff. Perhaps St. Elmo's Fire isn't as shallow as its critics seem to think it is. The critics want to see the PERFECT screenplay with PERFECT characters spouting PERFECT dialogue in a perfect story line, but the critics needs to wake up. Life isn't PERFECT and we shouldn't be watching movies about PERFECT people living PERFECT lives - they don't exist. In Elmo's Fire all the characters are flawed in their own way: Jules has deep rooted abandonment issues as a child of divorce/remarriage; Kirby Keager is clearly a stalker with mental health issues; Kevin is obsessed with Leslie and has naive expectations about their future (more delusion); Alec Newberry (brilliantly played by Judd Nelson) is an obnoxious, irascible arrogant young man with anger issues who has an exaggerated sense of entitlement and seems to want to control Leslie's life to the point of being chauvinistic and overbearing; Wendy, is way too innocent for her own good and Leslie is quietly deluded (trying to ignore Alec's extra-curricular activities) about Alec and their future together, naively thinking he'll stick around while she gets her career as a young architect together.I remember the first time I watched this movie and it went over my head, I just found too much going on. But now I relish the busyness of it all - each frame seems to capture a moment so well and there is choice dialogue in nearly every scene. My own view is that nearly all the scenes are 'classic' in their own way and the movie may not be the whole sum of its 'classic' parts but it certainly is classic enough for me. I'll always want to see it again and again.We return to this 'flawed' movie, with its flawed characters and its flawed story because in a bizarre way it captures real life in an artificial way. This is not a movie to forget and Schumacher was insightful to make a movie that people want to watch over and over again - there's a genius to this type of film-making.In the same way the late Derek Jarman caught the moment of punk with his finger-on-the-pulse movie 'Jubilee' (a must-see if you want to know the roots of the punk movement in the UK in the mid 70s); Schumacher manages to capture the mood of young people in this mid 80s zeitgeist - Elmo's is a touchstone for that yuppie culture celebrated 30 years ago. St Elmo's Fire is so FAKE it is real!

I had seen bits and pieces of this movie over the years and had heard about it but never really seen the whole movie. Also I don't think I really understood it fully in the 80s being so young.Seeing it recently now that Im an adult I fully grasp the realities of life it was portraying in the 80s. The characters are so finely tuned and precise it looks as though they had a lot of time to rehearse and discuss their roles together as a cast. This is really rare in film production where some actors come together on day 1 and start shooting. Nevertheless it is a beautiful coherent and concise cast all performing as one.The story is very well crafted and precise as well. The result is a great film with intense and real emotions that are fresh and striking. I fell completely into their world in the 80s.The movie is a real Icon of its time and real artistic expression of life and survival in the world in the 80s.

I once asked my gay friend why this movie spoke so much to the homosexual community. His response was that it was unapologetically 80's crass mixed with colorful disasters. Apparently he's spent his whole life living down day-glo characters like Jules, neighbor Ron, or Hollywood from "Mannequinn."So here you have some straight out of college friends, who use to congregate at a local bar and wax about life, love and the pursuit of adulthood. A lot of this, when scratch below the surface is pretty appropriate today as it was in the 80's. A lot of people who were "promised" one thing but given another. A lot of overspending. A lot of poor relationship choices, psycho love forlorn stalking, and love unrequited. Friends banging other friend's girls. And a carousel of other oddities that come with an age group that is often times overlooked. Much like I am closer to my 40's now. No one cares. Not only that no one cares, you should stop whining. And I believe this may turn a lot of people off to these characters. They're self-absorbed entitled jerks. Surprisingly with a Georgetown education. They haven't made much of themselves, but as young and inexperience, there is also the changing tides as they venture into the world. What the world offers them, they aren't prepared for. It's harsh. And they have to find a way to cope. Not to give anything away (as it is from '87). One gets the feeling that when Rob Lowe gets to NY, he will likely be robbed, raped and left for dead. Probably with his saxophone jammed up his rear. That is the reality of life.