Heathers

            Heathers was one movie this semester I had not seen that I was very much looking forward to. I've only known that it's a teenage 80's cult classic, but I didn't realize how dark and sharp it really was. I absolutely loved it and it's brand of dark and disturbing subject matter portrayed in such a black humor.  I thought the cast was excellent, Winona Ryder was hilarious and a good protagonist to root for, even though she was setting up suicides.  I also really enjoyed Christian Slater and the way he introduced chaos to the school and Veronica's life.  It's definitely not a film that could be made today, because it would be far too controversial in a post-Columbine and Sandy Hook America.
           The article makes a good point about Heathers never being made today, so for that reason it's safe from the remake trend in Hollywood.  It takes the stereotypical high school tropes and tosses out the rule book.  J.D. even pulls a gun in school and fires blanks with practically no repercussions.  Over and over as the teens start dying off in supposed suicides, each funeral is portrayed with camp and humor, until it gets to the football players sister crying and Veronica realizes she's not the only one hurt, she is causing pain.  The way the film transitions from being laugh out loud at how shocking some scenes were and being able to make you feel sorrow for the little sister, or Martha when she gets to the point of attempting suicide herself, it is able to balance the dark humor with the dark subject in a though provoking manner.
            One thing I noticed I agreed with the article was it's mentioning of the football players funeral and how the father declared that he loved his gay son.  It's definitely something that I think carries more weight today when you watch that scene.  Given all that has happened in recent years with gay rights, bullying, and it's portrayed in more serious ways in shows like Glee.  Here it's humorous, darkly like the rest of the movies jokes, but it makes one think more on it now I would imagine than movie goers would have back when the film was released.
             The film could work nowadays like it mentions in the cyber age, but it would hit too close to home for many, and would have so many organizations protesting it I would imagine.  Heathers is a movie that belongs to the 80's.  It was a time when bullying wasn't as big a problem or maybe as serious as it is today.  It's portrayal is a topic that is universal and everyone can put themselves back in the high school days, and laugh at the morbid idea of blowing up the school in the name of a suicide pact.

Aliens

            Aliens is definitely my favorite of the franchise.  I love how, like the article points out, that Ripley is the ultimate action heroine.  She demonstrates motherly instincts in her protection of Newt, and when it comes to facing off against the queen, she spits an awesome one liner, "get away from her you bitch!"and proceeds to kick some xenomorph ass! That's the kind of thing we'd expect from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, and Ripley and Sarah Connor as well, show that transition of women occupying these kind of roles now.  It's because of badass female characters like them that there is an all female version Expendables style movie now in the works.  The 1980's really introduced this idea of a great heroine with Aliens, The Terminator, and really took off in the 90's.  Not only did it pave the way for great female action stars in empowering roles, but even Oscar winners like the article points out titles like Thelma and Louise and Silence of the Lambs.  Before that, in the 1970's it was occupied by men in those roles like Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, and you'd have that lone hero fighting the good fight then getting the girl.  Ripley really brings out not only the final girl scenario, but rises above that in the sequels to be the only one who really knows how to fight the aliens.  As the series progresses, in the fourth one she's putting to shame a team of mercenaries and emasculating them.
         Where the article points out that women in these roles could come off as being symbolically male as they are shown muscular, wielding guns, there are other aspects of their characters that set them apart.  Their heroism is created by transition, they don't start out at badasses.  Ripley is a woman who was put into an extraordinary situation in Ridley Scott's Alien, and while being haunted by it in the beginning of the sequel, she doesn't just hide away, she wants to see them eliminated because she knows just what they're capable of, and by the end we see what she is capable of.  Her actions become driven by motherly instincts as she protects Newt.  There is a lot of female imagery in the Alien series, from the Queen Alien, the aliens being developed inside a human host, the eggs. The film stands out not as a woman trying to be a badass hero in the image of a man, but a woman who adapts and rises about the threats around her to protect herself and those around her.

And here is a clip of Ripley in all her awesomeness telling off the Queen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnOIvn8hMS4

Blue Velvet

              First off I wanna say I've wanted to see Blue Velvet for several years, and heard so much about it from one of my friends since high school.  I finally got to see it, and I loved it.  The only other David Lynch film I have seen is Wild at Heart, so I was able to recognize some of his themes and visual style that he carries across his films.  I definitely need to see more from his filmography, but I can definitely recommend Wild at Heart for anyone else who loved Blue Velvet.
             The opening part of the article intrigued me about Nietzche's view on art and illusion, that art's only truth is illusion, and that art is only true as a lie.  Taking that into account when looking at Blue Velvet and the images it shows, it can be really thought provoking.  The illusion that is presented through the film I think is that the suburban life is an illusion, and merely the top layer to a much darker world underneath.  Not too far from the perfect white suburban home of Jeffery Beaumont, Dorothy lives trapped in a dark and violent world.  A world where men like Frank Booth run rampant with his gang of followers.  Beneath the Norman Rockwell suburbia, is violence, sexual assault, and corruption that provides some scenes that feature very picturesque moments.  With the background of David Lynch as a writer, many of his shots take on the idea of his signature.  The lingering on lights flickering, the television, and that excellent shot and set design of Dorothy's apartment at the end with the corrupt cop standing there with a bullet in the head, and her husband tied to the chair and dead.  Those two statues in what someone in class mentioned as an uncomfortable room design, makes for such a really great scene.
           Jeffery Beaumont himself is kinda an illusion.  There are two sides to him, the detective and the pervert.  To each side, there is the different woman for whichever role he is playing.  The wholesome suburban side has Sandy, the girl next door type, and then the very troubled Dorothy.  Even Frank Booth tells him you're like me, as he kisses him with lip stick on in a rather unsettlingly great scene. Like the article states, this is an ambiguous film.  The characters, images, story, there is a lot of ambiguity to it.  There are things we are not given that are left to the viewers to make up, that make the film even better.  Lynch presents his images, the performances he captured and we are treated to a hell of a movie unlike most anything, unless another Lynch movie.

The Breakfast Club

               I've always really liked The Breakfast Club and considered it a favorite of mine.  Looking at it under these different class and feminist lenses offered a different perspective.  The most obvious one I believe is the depiction of the different classes and social stereotypes.  Each character, the nerd, jock, criminal, princess, and basket case represent the variety of common high school stereotypes and cliques.  It doesn't really feel like a real depiction of high school, but more an exaggerated version of high school stereotypes.  It doesn't have to be accurate, it's the stereotypical characters and their interactions that make it a classic.  The ragtag group of strangers from different cliques coming together in a rebellion bond, and understanding that all of their lives are similar.  Despite their social class differences and different upbringings, they all were discontent with their home lives.  They realized they had nearly as much in common as they differed.
              Looking at Molly Ringwald's role as a positive feminist role like the article says seemed more pointed toward Sixteen Candles than The Breakfast Club, but I do see various aspects through The Breakfast Club that the article stated as "the same “individualist, acquisitive, and transformative” values of postfeminism" (Bleach 28).  I've never seen Sixteen Candles or Pretty in Pink, so I can't reference those in the sense of feminism.  In The Breakfast Club, she's the stereotypical princess who's spoiled by her father, and used as a pawn between her parents.  Like the others, she too rebels against her home life, although by shopping.  She's the popular girl, but finds the pressures of her social role and her friends too much.  By the end, she's more positively represented, but I agree with Anthony Michael Hall's character when he asks what will happen Monday, and she responds that they'll end up ignoring of making fun of each other, that's a shitty thing to do as he pointed out.  It's tough to say if by the end she, or any have changed enough.  Will the kiss at the end between the two couples lead to anything real? That's something that can be debated, but by the end they all seemed to have grown and discovered something about themselves and those around them.

Purple Rain

          I had never seen this movie before, and never really knew too much Prince before.  I listen to all kinds of music, but I just never really delved into Prince that much before.  I liked the music of the film, and took it for what it was meant to be like we had discussed in class, one long music video.  Instead of trying to analyze the film on plot structure, or lack there of, or on the acting, I just enjoyed the 80's vibe and style that it showcased.  I enjoyed the music, so in turn I enjoyed it as the promotional sky rocket it was for Prince and his career.
         It has a formula we have all seen done many times like mentioned in class. Footloose, Saturday Night Fever, An Officer and A Gentleman was another with the similar structure, no music of course. The idea of the tough masculine guy with issues, and the girl who changes him.  The protagonist struggle is there, but who cares, that's not the point of the movie.  The point of it though was successful in it's use of synergy to promote Prince, like mentioned in the article.  The soundtrack was a huge hit, and the movie went on to become a cult classic and created a worldwide icon of Prince.  I wasn't around in the 80's to experience his rise, but now after watching Purple Rain, I'd be lying if I said I haven't listened to the soundtrack and other Prince songs now, so the effect is still there.  Nowadays there are still examples of artists using films to promote their music, but now they are done with much more substance, and in cases like Eminem's 8 mile, or 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin', not only were they promoting their music and their image, they also told their personal stories and struggles, something Purple Rain didn't do, which was mentioned in class.  Purple Rain wasn't meant to be like that though, the purpose wasn't to show his struggle as the same struggle as the Kid, but to string together the music.  I saw online that there is a sequel to Purple Rain, Graffiti Bridge, but I assume that it was not nearly as successful as Purple Rain, being that if you say Prince, likelihood is people are going to instantly associate Purple Rain, not Graffiti Bridge. I may look into it though at some point just out of curiosity.

Blade Runner

           This was my second time watching Blade Runner.  The first time I was it was several years ago, and at the time I didn't like it that much.  This time around I enjoyed it much more. I was able to appreciate aspects like the film noir inspiration more, and the christian symbolism at the end.  Harrison Ford was great as Deckard, and he was able to recapture the detective noir from older detective films.  I think Rutger Hauer was the best though, and had the most powerful screen presence.  His goal to find his creator and get the other replicants to live past their four year life span shows a being who has more humanity than those on Earth.  The dystopian society that Earth has become has diminished the humanity left on Earth, and those left are bombarded with advertisements of a better life off world.  It's a dystopian world with the dream of a utopian life that most will never reach.  That idea was also used recently in the Neil Blomkamp film Elysium.  The off world was shown, but those left on Earth are lower class, in a broken, totalitarian life.  That's just one of many examples of the inspiration that Ridley Scott's film has had.
           Ridley Scott's Blade Runner was ahead of it's time, with ideas and great effects for the time to create the a postmodernist and brilliant depiction of a futuristic Los Angeles.  Klein's article states how there were enthusiasts of the film who after its release wanted a Los Angeles built in the same fashion.  That idea in itself is odd to me, because the city is overpopulated it seems, grimy, and doesn't seem like a desirable place to live.  Aesthetically it's a very cool city and has some really good designs, but it would not be a good place to actually live in.  As far as the claims of style over substance, I do get what critics meant by that.  There is a heavy, and awesome style to the film, but there is still a good deal of substance, especially in analysis like we had in class.  The religious symbolism, the idea of the replicants being more human than the actual humans.  Also Ridley Scott's films pretty much always have some great substance to it, and Blade Runner doesn't fail in that aspect to me, and that's something I didn't appreciate as much when I had seen it when I was younger.
         I also want to mention, I really like the point that was made in class about the possible connection between Scott's Blade Runner and Alien and how the Tyrell Corporation may have been a competitor for the Weyland-Yutani corporation.  It's interesting because both corporation created organic beings that were essentially slaves.