Heathers: Personal Response (B grade)

‘Heathers’ is possibly one of the darkest teen movies ever written, as it mocks the American school system’s dismissal of deep psychological issues most teenagers face, whether they are the bullies or the bullied. In the film, main character Veronica (Winona Ryder) accidentally kills the height of popularity, Heather Chandler (Kim Walker) and makes it look like a suicide, therefore setting up a strange kind of trend. The dark humour and strange characters make it so different from all the rest, and the perfect display of mob psychology in schools across America leaves viewers wondering whether they should laugh or cry.

One of the most memorable scenes is Heather C’s funeral. The scene begins with a low angled shot on the priest which shows the dominance of religion, this could be mocking the idea of religion, and how little it manages to help the young people in the film. The priest then explains how “video games” and “MTV” were the cause of Heather’s “suicide” providing a humorous example of the generic teen movie, one where the adults have absolutely no idea about young people or what is going on with their lives. In addition to this, the whole time the teens are thinking up their very offensive and some non-religious soliloquys the priest stands solemnly behind them which also shows the ignorance of adults and parents. Then come the internal monologues of the people Heather was “friends” with, the monologues show the heartlessness of the teenagers and also emphasises how many people actually cared for Heather Chandler. Heather D (Shannen Doherty) says that she thanks God for answering her prayers and killing Heather C, this shows that to be popular in high school is to sacrifice having real friends for temporary power. There is also a lot of irony in Ram’s (Patrick Labyorteaux) speech as he refers to Heather C as “hot snatch” when she is but a corpse in front of him, the disrespectful nature towards the dead from the teen shows the lack of integrity from the “jock” type and emphasises the relatively fresh discovery of girls being more important than anything else. Noticeably, most of the inner speeches from the teens are actually about themselves and it is quite darkly comedic that young people can still be wildly self-centred at the funeral of a deceased classmate.

Another interesting scene is when Veronica first meets Jason Dean’s (Christian Slater) father. The adult characters in ‘Heathers’ are intriguing as they seem to be the exact image of how they see their kids: clueless. Jason’s dad drew me in the most in this scene because of his crazy nature and strange relationship with J.D. Firstly when he comes in the father and son speak in sarcastic tones toward each other and Kirk Scott who plays Jason’s father skilfully makes the viewer hate him as soon as he appears on screen. This also perfectly explains J.D’s “bad boy” nature and plays at the contentious idea that the way children turn out is due to the way they are brought up. We see this in all of the parents in the film however it is magnified in J.D’s father. When Jason’s dad begins to talk about his day at work we notice his destructive and republican views. He talks heartlessly of demolishing the “Memorial Oak Tree Foundation” and we also see a sexist side as he refuses to shake veronica’s hand. This is also made obvious by the fact that veronica spends most of the scene sat down and when she tries to stand up and leave she is dominated by the males in the room. In addition to this for most of the scene Jason’s dad is shot from a downward angle, and Jason is shot from and upward one. This also shows the power his father has over him. Jason’s father also appears to have a lot of anger within him and seems to enjoy crushing buildings even with people in them. He talks of how he “put a Norwegian” in the basement of a building he demolished with a menacing grin. Veronica seems slightly horrified by this however notably, J.D seems used to it and almost treats it like normal behaviour. There are also hints that Jason’s dad knocked down a library Jason’s mother was in, as J.D talks about the last time he saw her “in a library window”. A close up of veronica’s bewildered face followed by Jason’s amused expression shows the contrast in the two people and more importantly their upbringings. The expressions show how impressionable young people are by their parents and adults in general because of the way that society conditions them to believe all adults are cleverer than them.

Overall “Heathers” as a film is very disputable and many critics have disagreed on its morals and meaning, some actors even backed out due to the offensive nature of the film. However there has never been a teen movie quite like it.