St. Elmo’s Fire is a terrible movie with terrible characters

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mare Winneham’s character is how I picture that author of posts in the fashion forum about summer sandals, or recommending LL Bean or Lands End clothing.

Lol. Spot on. But you forgot Talbot's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that Ally Sheedy and Mare Winningham were dressed in typical preppy girl attire of the mid 80s.

Yep. +1 They are wearing exactly what was worn a lot then by people in their position.

They were 22.

22.

[Anonymous]

It was a pretty terrible movie, I watched it a few years back and cringed a lot.

But the soundtrack was really good.

[Anonymous]

It is not very productive to judge a 1985 film with 2024 eyes.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I realized this even when I was a teen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not very productive to judge a 1985 film with 2024 eyes.

The guy who made the film was hamstrung by the studio.

He wanted to make a movie about super privileged kids after graduating from a fancy college (Georgetown) whose primary goal was to get rich…and marry rich.

It was intentionally white.

The characters were intentionally jerky a-holes.

In fact, he wanted them to be even more jerky and screwed up.

It was a very 80s film in terms of capturing the self-centeredness and materialism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And the theme song was atrocious but played on the radio all the time.

Gasp - blasphemy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It was a great theme song!

And gd I miss movies where people can be awful and messy, and we're allowed to still be interested in their lives.

+1

They were supposed to be terrible and messy.

[Anonymous]

I think many people that age are awful and messy. (Have you been on TikTok recently?) Stumbling through life trying to figure how how to manage post-college. We don't see this in movies anymore because you can't be anything now but progressively correct. But as I mentioned, we see it daily on TikTok and the 1000s of crazy videos people post thinking somehow it's a good idea.

[Anonymous]

Well, I personally loved this movie. Haven't done a rewatch because I prefer to remember it as a teen. I was so in awe of these slightly older *college* kids, living on their own, dealing with their messy, somewhat grownup lives. And I loved the soundtrack.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that Ally Sheedy and Mare Winningham were dressed in typical preppy girl attire of the mid 80s.

Yep. +1 They are wearing exactly what was worn a lot then by people in their position.

They were 22.

22.

yes, but we all wore baggy middle aged clothes. Even middle schoolers. It was crazy but it was reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not very productive to judge a 1985 film with 2024 eyes.

The guy who made the film was hamstrung by the studio.

He wanted to make a movie about super privileged kids after graduating from a fancy college (Georgetown) whose primary goal was to get rich…and marry rich.

It was intentionally white.

The characters were intentionally jerky a-holes.

In fact, he wanted them to be even more jerky and screwed up.

It was a very 80s film in terms of capturing the self-centeredness and materialism.

Why did he want to make a movie about such a boring demographic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I loved this movie as a young teen and just rewatched it…and boy was it terrible.

All the characters are terrible people. Like, really terrible. No redeeming qualities.

And whoever did costumes for the film really missed the mark for Ally Sheedy and Mare Winningham.

I agree the characters were terrible people, with perhaps the exception of Ally Sheedy’s character. But I still think it’s a great movie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not very productive to judge a 1985 film with 2024 eyes.

The guy who made the film was hamstrung by the studio.

He wanted to make a movie about super privileged kids after graduating from a fancy college (Georgetown) whose primary goal was to get rich…and marry rich.

It was intentionally white.

The characters were intentionally jerky a-holes.

In fact, he wanted them to be even more jerky and screwed up.

It was a very 80s film in terms of capturing the self-centeredness and materialism.

Why did he want to make a movie about such a boring demographic?

Why is that a boring demographic?

[Anonymous]

All I remember about this movie is Demi Moore’s character trying to commit suicide by like…just leaving the windows open when it was cold outside.