St. Elmo's Fire
Dir: Joel Schumacher
1985
*
St. Elmo's Fire is the epitome of what I dislike about the 'Brat pack' films of the 1980's. I actually like the majority of these films and I like the main players (Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy) but there is a conceited smugness about the film, it is contrived and fairly loathsome. Indeed, Joel Schumacher had great difficulty finding a studio to release the film, one big producer commenting that the characters were "the most loathsome humans I have ever read on a page". The characters are ridiculously exaggerated stereotypes of people who really don't exist in the real world. Some characters express deeply psychotic behavior and act in a way that would have most people either arrested or institutionalized. Hard drug use, infidelity among friends, suicide attempts...all can be laughed off in the end to beat of a drum machine and a bit of Jazz funk. I remember the transition from university life to work life being a little tough but never quite as absurd. The story is stupid and the characters vacuous, it's a one-sided view of an unreal world through the eyes of the most vile of self-absorbed brats but without ever trying to be. It's a talentless piece of writing from Schumacher and Carl Kurlander and quite an unbearable film to watch. The 80's spawned many a film that wasn't really any good but was somewhat protected and loved because of the decades unique style. This is not one of those films.