Heathers is a 1989 black comedy film starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, and Shannen Doherty. The film portrays four girls in a trend-setting clique at a fictional high school in Ohio. The girls—three of whom are named Heather—rule the school through intimidation, contempt, and sex appeal.
Heathers 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.[1] The film was a U.S. box office failure,[2] but went on to become a cult classic, with high rentals and sales business. In 2006, it was ranked #5 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.[3]
Plot
The film centers on high school student Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder), who is part of the most popular clique at Westerburg High School (named for singer Paul Westerberg) in Sherwood, a fictional suburb of Columbus, Ohio. In addition to Veronica, the clique is composed of three wealthy girls with the same first name: Heather Chandler (Kim Walker), Heather Duke (Shannen Doherty), and Heather McNamara (Lisanne Falk).
When a new student, a rebellious boy named Jason Dean (Slater), or J.D. for short, pulls a gun on school bullies Kurt (Lance Fenton) and Ram (Patrick Labyorteaux) and fires blanks at them, Veronica is intrigued. To avenge herself on Heather Chandler, who she feels mistreated her the night before, Veronica and J.D. jokingly prepare a cup full of drain cleaner to bring Heather as a morning wake-up drink. Veronica decides on milk and orange juice as a suitable form of revenge, as the combination can induce vomiting. J.D. distracts Veronica with a kiss and Veronica takes the wrong cup to give Heather. J.D. notices the mistake, but does not inform Veronica; Heather Chandler drinks the drain cleaner and dies in front of them.
J.D. urges Veronica to protect herself from suspicion of murder by forging a suicide note in Heather Chandler's handwriting. Based on this note, the school and community look on Heather Chandler's death as a dramatic, yet somehow hip, decision made by a popular but sadly troubled teenager. Heather Duke soon steps into Heather Chandler's former role as clique leader, and begins wearing a red hair bow that had belonged to Chandler.
Several weeks later, the oafish Kurt and Ram spread a false rumour about Veronica giving oral sex to Kurt and Ram at the same time, ruining her reputation at school. J.D. proposes that Veronica lure them into the woods behind the school with the promise to "make the rumors true"; then, they will shoot them with special bullets that will knock them unconscious but not kill them. J.D. will plant "gay" materials beside the other boys, including a gay porn magazine, and a suicide note saying the two were lovers in a suicide pact. Ram is shot but Veronica misses Kurt, who runs away. Veronica realizes that the bullets are real; J.D. chases Kurt back towards Veronica, who panics and shoots him dead. At their funeral, Kurt's father is seen wailing, "I love my dead gay son!", and the boys are made into martyrs against homophobia.
Other students begin mimicking the perceived behavior of the popular dead kids and attempting suicide themselves. An unpopular, obese student named Martha Dunnstock (known as "Martha Dumptruck") pins a suicide note to her chest and walks into traffic. She survives but is badly injured, and is mocked for trying to "act popular".
Veronica tells J.D. that she will not participate in any more killings. He plans to kill Heather Duke next, and subtly threatens to do the same to Veronica if she does not cooperate. Veronica instead tricks J.D. by using a harness to make it look like she has hanged herself. Heartbroken, he reveals his plan to blow up the entire school during a pep rally. A petition he has been circulating, via Heather Duke, to get the (fictional) band Big Fun to perform on campus was actually a disguised suicide note. Most of the students had already signed, so the mass murder would appear to be a mass suicide instead.
Veronica confronts J.D. in the boiler room where he is rigging timed explosives. She attempts to kill him when he refuses to stop the bomb. As J.D. collapses, he accidentally stops the timer. Veronica walks out through the pep rally with everyone cheering, unaware of their narrowly-missed demise. The severely injured J.D. follows her outside, looks at her as if to say, "We could have been together..." and detonates a bomb that is strapped to his chest. In the film's final scene, Veronica, covered in ash and bleeding slightly, confronts Heather Duke in the halls, takes Heather Chandler's red bow, and engages Martha Dumptruck in a civil conversation, a final rejection of the Heathers' clique.
Production
Daniel Waters wanted his screenplay to go to director Stanley Kubrick,[4] not only out of profound admiration for Kubrick but also from a perception that "Kubrick was the only person that could get away with a three-hour film". (The cafeteria scene opening Heathers was written as an homage to the barracks scene opening Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.) After a number of failed attempts to get the script to Kubrick made Waters realize the apparent futility of the enterprise, he decided to give the script to Michael Lehmann, who then took it on with Denise Di Novi. Many actors and actresses turned down the project because of its dark subject matter. Early choices for JD and Veronica were Brad Pitt and Jennifer Connelly. Although Pitt auditioned for JD, the filmmakers rejected him because they thought he came across as "too nice" and therefore would not be credible. Connelly declined. Winona Ryder—who was 16 at the time of filming and badly wanted the part—begged Waters to cast her. She was eventually given the role; Christian Slater was signed on after. Heather Graham, then 17, was cast as Heather McNamara but her mother wouldn't allow her to do the film.[4] Filming took place in 1988, and lasted 32 days.[citation needed]
Two stars of the movie died at an early age: Jeremy Applegate, who played Peter Dawson, committed suicide with a shotgun on March 23, 2000, and Kim Walker, who played Heather Chandler, died of a brain tumor on March 6, 2001.
Soundtrack
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 & 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. Di Novi also notes that, when her father was a session musician for Day, he and the other musicians had to put money in a "swear jar" when they cursed.
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.
Home media
Heathers was first released onto VHS in 1989, where it received strong sales and rentals, and is where it first became well known after being unsuccessful at the box office. It was released again on laserdisc on September 16, 1996 with restored stereo sound. This widescreen edition was digitally transferred from Trans Atlantic Pictures interpositive print under the supervision of cinematographer Francis Kenny. The sound was mastered from the magnetic sound elements. The film was first released onto DVD on March 30, 1999, in a barebones edition.
In 2001, a multi-region special edition DVD was released from Anchor Bay in Dolby Digital 5.1. The DVD was released in the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe to high sales. In 2004 a limited edition DVD set was released, and only 15,000 were produced. The set contained an audio commentary with director Michael Lehmann, producer Denise Di Novi and writer Daniel Waters, a 30-minute documentary titled Swatch Dogs And Diet Cokeheads, featuring interviews with Ryder, Slater, Doherty, Falk, Lehmann, Waters, Di Novi, Director of Photography Francis Kenny and Editor Norman Hollyn. It also includes a theatrical trailer, screenplay excerpt, original ending, biographies, 10 Page full-color fold-out with photos and liner notes, a 8 cm "Heathers Rules!" ruler, and a 48-page full-color "yearbook style" booklet with rare photos. On July 1, 2008, a new 20th anniversary special edition DVD set was released from Anchor Bay to coincide with the DVD of Daniel Waters' new film Sex and Death 101. The DVD features a new documentary, Return to Westerburg High. On November 18, 2008, Anchor Bay released a Blu-ray disc with all the special features from the 20th Anniversary DVD and a soundtrack in Dolby TrueHD 5.1.
Alternate ending
On the DVD edition of Heathers, the "special features" section contains the script for a different ending which was considered too dark for teen audiences and nixed by New World Pictures, the distributor.[citation needed]
In this version, J.D. dies in the boiler room, and Veronica is shown walking through the school, though only from the back. This is interrupted by shots of the bomb counting down, showing that Veronica had not shut it off. When she reaches the front of the school, Veronica turns around, allowing the viewer to see that the bomb was strapped to her chest. It hits zero, the screen turns black, and Veronica says "Boom."
The next scene is the school prom. A banner says "WHAT A WASTE, OH THE HUMANITY." The students begin to dance, soon with people from different cliques are couples. Dead characters (such as Kurt and JD) make appearances. The Heathers do a ring-around-the-rosey. The camera moves up to reveal Martha Dunnstock, then a smiling Veronica.
Sequel
On June 2, 2009, Entertainment Weekly reported that Winona Ryder had confirmed that there will be a sequel to Heathers with Christian Slater coming back "as a kind of Obi-Wan character".[5] Michael Lehmann, however, has denied that a sequel is in development, saying "Winona’s been talking about this for years — she brings it up every once in a while and Dan Waters and I will joke about it, but as far as I know there’s no script and no plans to do the sequel."[6]
Television series
In August 2009, it was announced that Heathers was to be adapted for television. Mark Rizzo has been hired to write the series, and Jenny Bicks will co-produce with Lakeshore Entertainment.[7] It is described as a modernized version of the original story, and all characters from the film are all expected to be scripted into the adaptation.[8]
References
External links
