Story of movie Heathers :
Heathers is a 1988 American black comedy film written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann. It stars Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, and Shannen Doherty. The film portrays four teenage girls—three of whom are named Heather—in a clique at an Ohio high school.
| Heathers | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Michael Lehmann |
| Produced by | Denise Di Novi |
| Written by | Daniel Waters |
| Starring |
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| Music by | David Newman |
| Cinematography | Francis Kenny |
| Edited by | Norman Hollyn |
Production company | Cinemarque Entertainment |
| Distributed by | New World Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$3 million |
| Box office | US$1.1 million |
The film brought director Michael Lehmann and producer Denise Di Novi the 1990 Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. Daniel Waters also gained recognition for his screenplay, which won a 1990 Edgar Award. Despite high critical praise, the film was not a big box office hit; it later became a cult film with high rentals and sales. In 2015, it was ranked number 5 on the Entertainment Weekly list of the "50 Best High School Movies". It was ranked number 412 on Empire's list of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time".
The film has been adapted into a musical and a television show.
Screenplay
Seventeen-year-old Veronica Sawyer is one of the most popular girls at Westerburg High School in Sherwood, Ohio, and a member of a clique of three wealthy and beautiful girls with the same first name: Heather Chandler, Heather Duke, and Heather McNamara. Though they are the most popular students, the Heathers are loathed and feared by most of the student body. After the Heathers use her skill at forging others' handwriting to play a cruel joke on Martha "Dumptruck" Dunnstock, an overweight, unpopular classmate, Veronica begins to question whether the cost of popularity is too steep.
When a new student, a rebellious outsider named Jason "J.D." Dean, brandishes a gun and fires blanks at jocks Kurt Kelly and Ram Sweeney for bullying him, Veronica finds herself fascinated with him. Heather Chandler vows to destroy Veronica's reputation after they quarrel at a fraternity party. The next morning, Veronica and J.D. break into Heather's house. J.D. serves Heather a liquid he claims is a hangover cure but is actually drain cleaner, killing her. To conceal the crime, J.D. convinces Veronica to forge a dramatic suicide note in Heather's handwriting.
Pauline Fleming, the high school guidance counselor, suggests providing grief counseling to students and teachers en masse, but is rebuffed and dismissed as a New Age flake by the principal. Interviewed by local media, several former classmates of Heather romanticize her life while avoiding mention of her cruel and vicious nature. J.D. ironically remarks that Heather is more popular dead than alive, a fact confirmed by her well-attended funeral. Heather Duke assumes Heather Chandler's role as clique leader and begins wearing Chandler's trademark red scrunchie.
Angry about being rejected by Veronica, Kurt spreads a rumor that he and Ram received oral sex from Veronica simultaneously, severely damaging her image at school. J.D. persuades Veronica to lure the jocks into the woods by promising to engage in a threesome with them, then shoot them with non-fatal Ich lüge ("I lie") bullets. When the jocks arrive in the woods, J.D. shoots and kills Ram but Veronica misses Kurt, who flees. Veronica suspects the bullets are real when she is unable to rouse Ram, but when J.D. chases Kurt toward her, she panics and fatally shoots him. Two police officers smoking marijuana in an enclosed car hear the shots and find the bodies; Veronica and J.D. barely escape by fleeing and faking sex in their car when one of the officers appears. J.D. plants items such as a Joan Crawford postcard and a gay pornographic magazine near the boys, along with a forged note stating the two are lovers involved in a suicide pact. While the suicide ruse works, J.D.'s plan to humiliate Kurt and Ram backfires when the boys are eulogized as martyrs against homophobia at their funeral.
Newly empowered by the apparent suicides of two more students, Pauline Fleming persuades the principal to let her lead a touchy-feely grief rally. However, this fails to prevent Martha Dunnstock from pinning a suicide note to her chest and walking into traffic. She survives, but is badly injured and mocked by Heather Duke for imitating the popular kids' suicides. Heather McNamara calls a radio show one night while Veronica and Heather Duke are listening and talks candidly about her personal problems; the next day, Duke tells the entire class about McNamara's radio call. McNamara attempts suicide by overdosing on pills in the girls' bathroom, but is saved by Veronica.
Veronica tells J.D. that she will not participate in any more murders. He climbs into her room to kill her with a revolver, but Veronica uses a harness to stage a fake suicide by hanging. Assuming she is dead, J.D. confesses to having fallen in love with Veronica and he proceeds to ramble about his plan to blow up the school during a pep rally. J.D. blackmails Heather Duke to circulate a petition, ostensibly to get the band Big Fun to perform on campus; most of the students sign the petition, which is actually a mass suicide note.
During the pep rally, Veronica confronts J.D. in the boiler room, where he is rigging explosives. She shoots him when he refuses to stop the bomb, with one bullet severing his middle finger when he curses at her. As J.D. collapses, he stabs the timer and it stops. Veronica walks out through the pep rally where students are cheering, oblivious to sticks of dynamite taped underneath the bleachers. The severely injured J.D. follows her outside with a bomb strapped to his chest, offers a personal eulogy, and detonates the bomb. Since her prom date, J.D., is dead, Veronica invites Martha Dunnstock to watch movies with her on prom night. Martha, who is recuperating from her suicide attempt in a wheelchair, shows her delight by spinning around Veronica.
- Winona Ryder as Veronica Sawyer
- Christian Slater as Jason "J.D." Dean
- Shannen Doherty as Heather Duke
- Lisanne Falk as Heather McNamara
- Kim Walker as Heather Chandler
- Lance Fenton as Kurt Kelly
- Patrick Labyorteaux as Ram Sweeney
- Penelope Milford as Pauline Fleming
- Renée Estevez as Betty Finn
- Carrie Lynn as Martha "Dumptruck" Dunnstock
Development
Daniel Waters wanted his screenplay to be directed by Stanley Kubrick, not only out of admiration for him, but also from a perception that "Kubrick was the only person that could get away with a three-hour film". (The cafeteria scene near the start of Heathers was written as an homage to the barracks scene which opens Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.) After a number of failed attempts to get the script to Kubrick, Waters approached director Michael Lehmann, who agreed to helm the film with producer Denise Di Novi.
Casting
Many actors and actresses turned down the project because of its dark subject matter. Early choices for Veronica were Drew Barrymore, Justine Bateman, and Jennifer Connelly, who turned down the role. Brad Pitt auditioned for the role of J.D., but the filmmakers rejected him because they thought he came across as "too nice" and thus would not be credible. Winona Ryder, who was sixteen at the time of filming and badly wanted the part, begged Waters to cast her as Veronica. Eventually, she was given the role, with Christian Slater being signed to play J.D. shortly thereafter. Heather Graham, then seventeen, was offered the part of Heather Chandler, but turned it down. Kim Walker, who was dating Slater at the time, was offered the role instead. Graham was then cast as Heather McNamara, but her mother refused to allow her to accept the role, so Lisanne Falk was given the role instead.
Filming
Principal photography took place over 32 days in July and August 1988. Although set in Ohio, filming was done entirely in Los Angeles. "Westerburg High School" is an amalgam of Corvallis High School (now Bridges Academy) in Studio City, Verdugo Hills High School in Tujunga, and John Adams Middle School in Santa Monica. The auditorium scenes were shot at Verdugo Hills High, while the climactic scene on the stairs was filmed outside John Adams Middle School. The funeral scenes were filmed at Church of the Angels in Pasadena, a location used in other media including Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Just Married.
The film uses two versions of the song "Que Sera, Sera", the first by singer Syd Straw and another over the end credits by Sly and the Family Stone. On the film's DVD commentary, Di Novi mentions that the filmmakers wanted to use the original Doris Day version of the song, but Day would not lend her name to any project using profanity.
The song "Teenage Suicide (Don't Do It)" by the fictional band Big Fun was written and produced for the film by musician Don Dixon, and performed by the ad hoc group "Big Fun", which consisted of Dixon, Mitch Easter, Angie Carlson and Marti Jones. The song is included on Dixon's 1992 greatest hits album (If) I'm A Ham, Well You're A Sausage.
The film's electronic score was composed and performed by David Newman and a soundtrack CD was subsequently released.
Box office
The film earned $177,247 in its opening weekend and, over five weeks, grossed $1.1 million in the United States.
Critical reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 94% of critics gave the film a positive review based on a sample of 51 reviews and an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Dark, cynical, and subversive, Heathers gently applies a chainsaw to the conventions of the high school movie – changing the game for teen comedies to follow." At the website Metacritic, the film earned a rating of 73/100 based on 19 reviews by mainstream critics.
Academics have likened Heathers to other films popular during the 1980s and early '90s which characterized domestic youth narratives as part and parcel of the "culture war". According to Clare Connors' scathing rebuke, Heathers reveals that conflict as arising within the heart of the American high school:
| “ | On one hand, the high school serves as an icon of American democracy and longing for social justice and equality, one place in American life where every young citizen can access equal opportunity and upward mobility. On the other hand, the cultural life of high school operates as the central training ground in the ruthlessly competitive values and viciously hierarchical social structure of American capitalism. Through a series of homologies, Westerberg High School becomes a metaphor for American life and culture during the Reagan and George Herbert Bush administrations. The conflict between democratic values and the social brutalities of 1980s consumer culture resides not just at the heart of the high school experience, but at the heart of 1980s American life. | ” |
According to Christine Hubbard, this conflict often leads to minimal resolution:
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