Heathers

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Heathers

Heathers movie poster
Directed by Michael Lehmann
Produced by Denise Di Novi
Written by Daniel Waters
Starring Winona Ryder,
Christian Slater,
Shannen Doherty
Music by David Newman
Cinematography Francis Kenny
Editing by Norman Hollyn
Distributed by New World Pictures
Release date(s) US March 31, 1989
UK 17 November 1989
Australia 19 April 1990
Running time 102 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $2,000,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Heathers is a 1989 black comedy film starring Winona Ryder, Shannen Doherty, and Christian Slater. It is widely viewed as a classic teen film 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, and is widely described as one of the finest black comedies ever made[citation needed]. 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 of the four girls in a trend-setting clique at a suburban midwestern high school are named 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 high school is not a safe haven from the world, it is the world in microcosm; and "when children complain that they want to be treated like human beings, it's usually because they ARE being treated like human beings."

Heathers brought Lehmann and producer Denise Di Novi the 1990 Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, and screenwriter Waters received a 1990 Edgar Award for his work. The film was a US box office failure, but has since become a cult classic film thanks to high sales and rentals on DVD and VHS.

Contents

[edit] Plot description

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The protagonist of Heathers is a high school student named Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder). Veronica is part of the most popular clique in Westerburg High School in Sherwood, a fictional suburb of Columbus, Ohio. In addition to Veronica, the clique is composed of three pretty and wealthy girls with the same first name: Heather Chandler (Kim Walker), Heather Duke (Shannen Doherty) and Heather McNamara (Lisanne Falk). The girls play croquet with each other, are mean-spirited, use their own unique slang, and play cruel pranks on people. Even though they are worshiped and adored, the Heathers despise everyone who isn't in their clique, and continuously bully socially awkward classmates such as the overweight Martha "Dumptruck" Dunnstock. Veronica finds her "friendship" with the tyrannical Heathers both tempting and repellent, as it is mostly based on peer pressure, domination and vanity. She even says that they're not really her friends, just people she hangs out with because being popular is her "job".

Veronica wasn't always in the Heathers clique. 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 student, a rebellious 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 treatment of her at a frat party the night before and the two of them jokingly prepare a cup full of drain cleaner to bring her as a morning wake-up drink. Veronica vetoes the drain cleaner plan, and decides on milk and orange juice as a vomit-inducing prank, but J.D. distracts her with a kiss and gives her the wrong glass. As a result, Heather Chandler downs the drain cleaner and promptly dies in front of them.

Realizing that she is the unintentional perpetrator of her best friend's murder, Veronica succumbs to J.D.'s urging and forges a suicide note in Heather Chandler's handwriting to deflect any investigation. 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, and Heather Duke steps into her role as clique leader.

Weeks later, J.D. concocts a plan to punish bullies Ram and Kurt for spreading an untrue story about Veronica having sex with both of them. He proposes that they lure the two into the woods behind the school with the promise to "make the rumors true". Once the bullies have undressed, 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 "gay" materials including a male porn magazine and bottled mineral water, as well as a fake suicide note saying the two were lovers in a suicide pact. When they awaken, they will be humiliated.

Veronica goes along with it, thinking the plan is hilarious, but when her gunshot misses one of them and he tries to escape, J.D. runs after him desperately. Veronica instantly realizes that the bullets were real ("Ich lüge" means "I'm lying" in German) and J.D. had intended to kill the two boys all along. J.D. manages to chase the unshot boy back to where they started, and Veronica, in a panic, shoots him dead. The plan goes off without a hitch when the boys' bodies are discovered and the two school football stars are "revealed" to be gay lovers. (In one of the more memorable moments of the film, one boy's father is seen at their funeral with a football in his hand crying out "I love my dead gay son!")

Veronica realizes that she has become involved in something that she never intended to be a part of. Although the people they are killing were not particularly good or nice (in fact they could be downright awful and nasty), she feels guilt for their murders. Additionally, because they were popular, other students are mimicking their behavior and attempting suicides. Most notably, Martha "Dumptruck" Dunnstock (Carrie Lynn) pins a suicide note to her chest and walks into traffic. (She survives but is badly injured.)

Veronica tells J.D. that she won't participate in any more killings, but he goes nuts. He reveals his plan to kill Heather Duke next, and subtly threatens to do the same to Veronica if she doesn't cooperate. Instead she tricks J.D., using a harness to make it look like she has hanged herself. Heartbroken, he reveals his plan to blow up the entire school during a pep rally. A petition he has been circulating to get the fictional band "Big Fun" (whose anti-suicide pop song is all the rage at school) to play was actually a disguised suicide note that almost the entire school has signed.

The next day Veronica confronts J.D. in the boiler room where he is rigging timed explosives. He refuses to stop the bomb, and she apparently kills him. As he collapses he accidentally stops the timer. She then walks out through the pep rally with everyone cheering, unware of their narrowly-missed demise. The severely injured J.D. follows her outside and detonates a bomb that is strapped to his chest. The final scene of the film is of Veronica, ash-covered and bleeding slightly, walking through the halls of the school. She confronts Heather Duke, telling her "There's a new sheriff in town," removing the red hair bow Heather Duke had inherited from Heather Chandler and putting it in her own hair, and walking over to Martha Dunnstock to start a friendly conversation.

[edit] Production history

Daniel Waters wrote the film for Stanley Kubrick, but struggled greatly to get the script sent to him, partly because according to Waters "Kubrick was the only person that could get away with a three-hour film" and also because he was a fan of Kubrick and his work (the cafeteria scene was even a homage to the barracks scene in Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket). When realizing that Kubrick was almost impossible to contact, he sent the script to Michael Lehmann, who took on the project along with Denise Di Novi. Many actors and actresses turned down the project because of its dark subject matter, and Brad Pitt as JD and Jennifer Connelly was an early choice for Veronica, Pitt auditioned, however was turned down because Di Novi, Lehmann and Waters thought he was not dark enough and "too nice" to play a character like JD. Winona Ryder - who was 16 at the time of filming -, and badly wanted the part, begged Waters to cast her, and she was eventually given the role, and Christian Slater was signed on after. Filming began in 1988, and ended later that year. The film took 32 days to complete.

[edit] DVD, Laserdisc and VHS releases

Heathers was first released onto VHS in the late 1980s, where it received strong sales and rentals, and is where it first became well known after failing at the box office, and on laserdisc on September 16, 1996 with restored stereo sound. This widescreen edition was digitally transferred from Trans Atlantic Pictures interpositive print under the supervision of cinematographer Francis Kenny. The sound was mastered from the magnetic sound elements. The film was first released onto DVD on March 30, 1999, in a barebones edition.

However, in 2001, a Multi Region Special Edition DVD was released from Anchor Bay in Dolby Digital 5.1., the DVD was released in the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe to high sales. In 2004 a Limited Edition DVD set was released, and only 15,000 were produced. The set contained an Audio Commentary with Director Michael Lehmann, Producer Denise Di Novi and writer Daniel Waters, a 30-minute documentary titled Swatch Dogs And Diet Cokeheads, featuring interviews with Stars Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Director Michael Lehmann, Writer Daniel Waters, Producer Denise Di Novi, Director of Photography Francis Kenny and Editor Norman Hollyn, a theatrical Trailer, screenplay Excerpt: Original Ending, biographies, 10 Page Full-Color Fold-Out with Photos and Liner Notes, a 8cm "Heathers Rules!" Ruler, 48-Page Full-Color "Yearbook Style" Booklet with Rare Photos and more.

[edit] Alternate Ending

On the DVD edition of Heathers, the "special features" section contains the script for a different ending which was considered too dark for teen audiences and nixed by New World Pictures, the distributor. It reflects back on a comment by J.D. earlier in the film, saying to Veronica, in defense of his actions, that "the only place different social types can genuinely get along is in Heaven."

In this version, J.D. dies in the boiler room, and Veronica is shown walking through the school, though only from the back. This is interrupted by shots of the bomb counting down, showing that Veronica had not shut it off. When she reaches the front of the school, Veronica turns around, allowing the viewer to see that the bomb was strapped to her chest. It hits zero, the screen turns black, and Veronica says "Boom."

The next scene is the school prom. A banner says "WHAT A WASTE, OH THE HUMANITY". The students begin to dance, at first sticking with those of the same or similar social cliques. But when it is time for prom pictures, people from different cliques are couples. A geek and a stoner pose together, then "hippy" teacher Pauline Fleming (Penelope Milford) and stern Principal Gowan (John Ingle). Kurt (previously killed) has his picture taken with the cow he had tipped. Mismatched couples continue to appear, and other dead characters make appearances: J.D. plays a "smoking hot" guitar solo, then rushes to the dance floor to dance with Heather Duke, Kurt, and finally Heather Chandler. The Heathers do a ring-around-the-rosey. The camera is moved up to reveal Martha Dunnstock, wailing beautifully. The viewpoint is then lifted even higher to show a smiling Veronica in a "striking pose".

Despite the change of the endings, the movie failed at the box-office when released. (The Swatch Dogs And Diet Cokeheads documentary blames the box-office failure on poor marketing due to the studio's financial problems.) However, since then it has developed into a very strong and prominent cult classic and has made a significant impact on teenage films.

[edit] Trivia

  • The croquet games have a large significance in the movie, as the characters mostly dress in clothes and inhabit surroundings of their ball color. When the three Heathers and Veronica play, red, yellow, green, and blue are played by Heathers Chandler, McNamara, and Duke, and Veronica Sawyer, respectively. When J.D. and Veronica play "strip croquet" you can see that Veronica was, as always, playing blue, and J.D. was playing black. During her brief croquet stint, Betty Finn plays orange, though she never wear orange in the film. Significantly, after Heather Chandler's death, Heather Duke starts wearing and playing red. There is even something to be said of their affinity for these colors: Heather Chandler is vibrant and powerful (red), Heather McNamara is cowardly (yellow), Veronica is depressed and introspective (blue), Heather Duke is envious of Heather Chandler (green), and J.D. is dark and mysterious (black).
  • Nancy Marchand, best known as Livia on The Sopranos, appears as a teacher but is uncredited.
  • The fictional Westerberg High School is named for musician Paul Westerberg.
  • In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Heathers the 32nd greatest comedy film of all time.
  • Filmed in 32 days.
  • Westerberg High in reality is John Adams Middle School.
  • Brad Pitt auditioned for the role of J.D., but was rejected because he was considered "too nice" for the part.
  • Two stars of this movie died at an early age: Jeremy Applegate, who played Peter Dawson, committed suicide using a shotgun on March 23, 2000. Peter's character in the film talks to God during Heather Chandler's funeral and says, "Please don't let this happen to me, I don't think I could handle suicide". Kim Walker, who starred as Heather Chandler, died of a brain tumor on March 6, 2001. Morbidly, one of Kim's memorable lines from Heathers was "Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?"
  • The role of Veronica was intended for Jennifer Connelly, who declined the opportunity to play the role.
  • Producer Denise Di Novi mentions on the DVD commentary that the filmmakers wanted to use the original Doris Day version of "Que Sera Sera" for the film's soundtrack. Day wouldn't participate in a project that used profanity, and Di Novi stated when her father was a session musician for Day, he and the other musicians had to put money in a 'swear jar'.
  • There are two actual Sherwood, Ohios; one is outside Cincinnati, Ohio, the other outside Defiance, Ohio
  • Heather Duke's copy of Moby Dick was originally intended to be The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. The reason for the swap was because the producers of the film were unable to get legal permission to use references to J.D. Salinger's novel.[citation needed]
  • This movie ranked number 5 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.)

trivia taken from the DVD comentary

  • Australian pop/rock duo, The Veronicas, said in various interviews that their band name was partly inspired by this movie because they want to be associated with the image of the "cool, attitude chick" like the character, Veronica.

[edit] Spoofs, Influences and References

The status of Heathers as a classic black comedy has inspired various spoofs, references and influences:

  • The obscure 1976 film Massacre at Central High has a similar plot, and almost certainly influenced Heathers, although the oppressive clique in that film consists of four boys rather than four girls.
  • Veronica and her not-so-popular friend have combination first and last names that go together (Betty and Veronica, from Archie Comics, and Sawyer and Finn, from Tom Sawyer)
  • Tina Fey, the writer of Mean Girls, considers Heathers "the hardcore version of Mean Girls."
  • Jawbreaker has similar plot elements, including a mean popular girl clique involved in murder.
  • Post-hardcore band From First to Last took the title of their album Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has a Body Count from a quote by Veronica in Heathers ("Dear diary, my teen-angst bullshit has a body count.").
  • The concept of cliques of popular adolescent girls who share the same name appears in the Casper Saturday morning cartoon and in The Oblongs (The "Debbies") and the ABC cartoon Recess with 'The Ashleys' (although The Ashleys are supposed to be pre-adolescents).
  • In the season 4 finale of Gilmore Girls, Lorelai Gilmore shoves Rory Gilmore down some steps, prompting her to say "What's your damage, Heather?", a line uttered numerous times in the film.
  • In an episode of Will & Grace, Will says, "what’s your damage, Heather?" to Grace.
  • In 1998, Shannen Doherty became one of the three leads on the WB series Charmed, and Jennifer Rhodes (who played Veronica's mother in Heathers) had a recurring role as her grandmother.
  • In an episode of Will & Grace, Will says, “OK, I’ll let you two Heather girls get back to your Heathering”, after Jack and Karen start complaining about Will.
  • In the novel Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Norah wiggles her index finger at Nick and sing-songs, "A True friend's work is never done," only to be shocked by Nick's knowledge of the film when he responds "Bulimia is so '87, Heather"
  • The song "Death Toll Confirmed" by Index for a Potential Suicide features an audio clip from Heathers ("We students of Westerburg High will die. Today, our burning bodies will be the ultimate protest to a society that degrades us. Fuck you all.")
  • In an episode of Veronica Mars, while investigating a series of bomb threats, Veronica poses a "lunchtime poll" to two potential suspects.
  • In an episode of Will and Grace, Karen says, "I love my big, gay horse!" Obviously a reference to - "I love my dead, gay son!"
  • In an episode of Frasier (Juvenilia), the lines "Why don't we discuss it over a cheesebuger or some such," followed by "I'd like that very much" are uttered twice referencing the final lines in Heathers.

[edit] External links

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