Heathers: Difference between revisions
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''Heathers'' is an ''extremely'' [[Black Comedy|dark]] [[Deconstruction]] of the then massively popular wave of teen movies. The protagonist, Veronica Sawyer, is an unhappy member of [[Girl Posse|the most popular and powerful clique]] at Westerberg High -- the "Heathers", so named because the other three members all share the same first name. At least, until a mysterious new guy named Jason "J.D." Dean enters Veronica's life. They end up poisoning the [[Alpha Bitch]] and making it look like a suicide. Pretty soon the bodies start piling up as Veronica realizes that J.D. is a psychopath with ambitions tied into his nihilistic views of human behavior.
This was one of the most cynical (albeit funny) films of the era, and a cult
The history of the film's release added to its cult status: the studio that produced ''Heathers'' went out of business within weeks of its release, ensuring that it only had a brief run in theaters. However, critics loved the film and it would become popular with its home video release (and countless [[Vindicated by Cable|airings on cable]], granted in [[Bowdlerise|Bowdlerised]] form). That said, the film's influence can be seen in later [[Black Comedy]] high school movies, like ''[[Jawbreaker]]'' (1999) and ''[[Mean Girls]]'' (2004), the latter being considered to be a PG-13 [[Spiritual Successor]] to this film.
The sad fate of Kimberly Walker (who died of a brain
{{tropelist}}
* [[Action Survivor]]: Veronica.
* [[Adults Are Useless]]: The parents are shown to be self-absorbed and oblivious to their children's problems until they are dead, and the teachers are cynical towards their handling of the dead kids (for instance, the [[Hippie Teacher]] who wants to exploit the deaths for group bonding rituals).
* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: Heavily deconstructed. In this case the bad boy is a complete psycho, murdering three of the popular kids and intending to
* [[All of the Other Reindeer]]: Subverted and played with. Heather Chandler says to Veronica "No one at Westerberg's gonna play your reindeer games." Most of the goings-on, including Veronica's heroic save, happen without the rest of the school knowing who's behind it.
* [[Alpha Bitch]]: Three of them, actually.
* [[Antagonist in Mourning]]: J.D. when
* [[Asshole Victim]]: The [[Alpha Bitch]] and two jocks who ruined Veronica's reputation by claiming she gave them blow jobs.
* [[Ax Crazy]]: J.D.
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* [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: JD isn't ''evil'' per se, he just operates on a completely different set of morals from normal people - primarily because he's [[Ax Crazy|terrifyingly insane]].
* [[Bury Your Gays]]: Subverted. Everyone thinks the two football players killed themselves because they were gay lovers who were convinced that they would never be accepted. Everyone, that is, except Veronica and J.D., who forged the suicide note that led everyone to believe that the two ''heterosexual'' football players were secretly gay lovers.
* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: All three Heathers, Veronica, and J.D. wear their own color of clothing -- Chandler is red, McNamara is yellow, Duke is green, Veronica is blue and J.D. is black, though this isn't noticeable at first. Chandler's red hair bow becomes a symbol of power, as after her death, Duke claims it for herself, symbolizing her replacement of the original Heather.
* [[The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much]]: Some of these suicides are a little too on the nose. Who brings gay porn with them on a suicide pact?
** It's made pretty clear that the cops didn't give a shit.
* [[Couldn't Find a Lighter]]: Veronica lights her cigarette off {{spoiler|of the explosion that just killed her ex-boyfriend J.D.}} Also, when Veronica burns the palm of her hand with a car's cigarette lighter (intentionally), and JD lights a cigarette from the burn-scar's residual heat. This scene is also one of a few incidents of Veronica's [[Self-Harm]] (noted on the DVD commentary).
* [[Crapsack World]]
* [[Crucified Hero Shot]]: [[Subverted]] in the film's climax:
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Veronica, Heather Duke, Heather Chandler, and J.D., mainly.
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: Darkly subverted, in that all the deaths by "suicide" are actually murders, and all the attempted suicides
** {{spoiler|[[Bungled Suicide]]}}: Martha Dunnstock.
** {{spoiler|[[Interrupted Suicide]]}}: Heather
** {{spoiler|[[Faking the Dead]]}}: Near the end of the movie,
* [[The Eighties]]
* [[Fingore]]: {{spoiler|Veronica shoots off J.D.'s middle finger during their confrontation in the boiler room}}.
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* [[In with the In Crowd]]
* [[Jerk Jock]]: Ram and Kurt.
* [[Laser-Guided Karma]]:
* [[Leitmotif]]: JD has one. Although most of the score is technopop-inspired synths, there's a harmonica playing in any scene that scene features or is about him.
* [[Lovable Alpha Bitch]]: About halfway through, Heather
* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: J.D.
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: No one knows why Christian Slater decided to play J.D. as a teenage Jack Nicholson (probably because Nicholson is famous for playing psychos...), but he did do Nicholson quite well (well enough that one viewer was convinced the two actors were related).
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* [[Odd Name Out]]: Veronica is the only member of the title clique not named Heather.
* [[One Steve Limit]]: Averted. There are three characters named "Heather" in all.
* [[Popular Is Dumb]]
* [[Precision F-Strike]]: Weirdly subverted, due to Executive Meddling, according to the DVD commentary. In the alley scene, when Heather calls out Veronica ("You stupid Fuck!" "You Goddamn Bitch!"), they were supposed to use the word "cunt," as "fuck" had already been used several times. But censors thought this was too much (!).
* [[Shout Out]]: According to the DVD commentary, the first lunch room scene is an homage to Full Metal Jacket, in its lighting and framing. The writer originally wanted Kubrick to direct "the ultimate high school movie."
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* [[Stylistic Suck]]: ''Teenage Suicide... don't do it!''
* [["Take That!" Kiss]]: Veronica to Heather 3.
* [[Talking to the Dead]]: J.D. to
* [[Teens Are Monsters]]
* [[Troubled but Cute]]: Emphasis on the "[[Serial Killer|troubled]]".
* [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist]]: Veronica ([[Only Sane Man|Blackadder-type]])
* [[Villain Protagonist]]: J.D.
* [[Vitriolic Best Buds]]: Veronica and her dad.
* [[Vomit Discretion Shot]]: Veronica, the "drop under screen" variety.
* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]: J.D. again. For starters, his father is [[Abusive Parents|a sociopathic bastard who doesn't care for him]] (when asked if he even likes his father he responds that he ("[hasn't] given the matter much thought"), and his mother killed herself in front of her son's eyes to get away from her husband. His entire life has been spent moving around from town to town and school to school wherever his father's demolition job took him, where it is implied he saw the same scenario of clique groups bullying other students at every high school he's attended. He starts out by murdering [[Jerk Jock|JerkJocks]] and [[Alpha Bitch|Alpha Bitches]] and making their deaths appear as suicides (also implied as something he's done before), but he ultimately resorts {{spoiler|to trying to blow up the entire school. He explains his intentions are such because he believes nobody loves him, and that "the only place different social types can genuinely get along with each other is in heaven", somehow seeing the school as a representation of society itself.}}
* [[Worthy Opponent]]:
{{quote|'''JD:''' You got power - power I didn't think you had.}}
* [[Would Hit a Girl]]: J.D. knees Veronica in the head while in the boiler room.
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