{"id":69120,"date":"2018-08-10T16:21:52","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T16:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=69120"},"modified":"2018-08-13T15:03:05","modified_gmt":"2018-08-13T15:03:05","slug":"heathers-30th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/heathers-30th-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"30 years on, and cult teen flick “Heathers” is still as relevant as ever"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4568,10172],"tags":[10922,10921,968,1749,10923,5293,5144,10574],"class_list":["post-69120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-film","tag-christian-slater","tag-columbine","tag-film","tag-heathers","tag-michael-lehmann","tag-television","tag-trump","tag-winona-ryder"],"acf":{"main_category":4568,"legacy":false,"hero_title":"","subtitle":"To celebrate the re-release of the Winona Ryder-starring classic, SLEEK sits down with director Michael Lehmann to investigate why the film still resonates so much today ","hero":{"video":false,"image":false,"header_color":"black","overlay_color":"","overlay_text_color":"black"},"teasers":{"video":false,"image":false,"width":"8","proportion":"natural"},"related_articles":[68897,45798,59271],"next_article":[68897],"content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"12","caption":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

Earlier this year, the Paramount Network in the U.S. premiered their much-talked-about re-imagining of the classic dark teen comedy, <\/span>Heathers<\/span><\/i>. For this TV adaptation, the original premise of the story \u2014 the diabolical machinations of a trio of popular high school girls and the trials of their best frenemy, who tries to end their reign of terror \u2014 was to be modernised, with one hefty twist: instead of the Heathers being your typical white, rich, thin mean girls, this version saw the three embodiments of adolescent evil as an African American teenage girl, a non-binary person, and a plus-size young woman. In an attempt to satirise political correctness (rather than status and privilege), the show changed the core message of the story to try and pander to the Instagram generation. It was torn apart by critics, and barely lasted one episode.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other than the questionable storyline, one of the main reasons the <\/span>Heathers<\/span><\/i> reboot failed was because, in addition to being a superior product, the original Heathers<\/em> is still so painfully relevant \u2014 even perhaps more so than when the film premiered in 1988. This was a decade before Columbine, when images of a teenager in a trench coat waving a gun around a cafeteria was something that could be satirised. These days, <\/span>Heathers<\/span><\/i> rings sickeningly true, in a world where the complicated ugliness of real life spills into high school hallways as a matter of routine. <\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"12","caption":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

\u201c<\/span>Heathers<\/span><\/i> does still seem to be relevant in today’s world to some degree, and it’s partly because there’s been all of this progress made in the past 30 years, towards inclusion,\u201d says Michael Lehmann, the director of <\/span>Heathers<\/span><\/i>, as I sit across from him in a spacious green room at London\u2019s BFI Southbank, where a new print of the classic film is being shown for its 30th anniversary. He has curly salt-and-pepper hair and stylish glasses, and an air of studious calm about him: he could be a teacher in an \u201980s comedy himself. \u201cNow, suddenly the world’s gone into reverse. Somebody shifted the gears, and it’s started to go backwards. And just because of that simple fact, the themes in this movie start to become relevant again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Up until now, <\/span>Heathers<\/span><\/i> was one of the few contemporary classics from the teen heyday of the 1980s and \u201990s to never receive a sequel or remake, clearly for good reason. And while Lehmann hasn\u2019t seen the <\/span>Heathers<\/span><\/i> TV show (one wonders if it\u2019s out of diplomacy, disinterest, or a mix of both), he\u2019s been asked about continuing the story for decades. \u201cFor years, people used to ask me, \u2018Would you do a sequel?\u2019, and I would say, \u2018No, I don’t understand why would you do a sequel; it is what it is \u2014 it’s self-contained,\u2019\u201d says Lehmann. \u00a0\u201cBut Winona (Ryder, who plays the film\u2019s protagonist, Veronica), who’s very smart, said she wanted there to be sequel where the Heathers are grown up and work in Washington, DC. I remember she and I talked about this probably sometime in the late \u201990s and I thought, \u2018Well, I guess that’s kind of interesting,\u2019 but I didn’t really get it. Now, I’d say, ‘Sure. That’s exactly how you’d do it, because you have all these Heather-type characters running the show there.’\u201d He has a point. In the era of the extreme dumbing down of American culture, where politicians at the highest level are acting like petulant teenagers hellbent on popularity, the cutthroat world of <\/span>Heathers<\/span><\/i> ceases to be fantasy and slides terrifyingly into the realm of reality. <\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"blockquote","text":"\u201cNow, suddenly the world's gone into reverse. Somebody shifted the gears, and it's started to go backwards. And just because of that simple fact, the themes in this movie start to become relevant again.\u201d","source":"Michael Lehmann"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

But, for better or for worse, this is why the movie is still such a fascinating watch. Not only for Winona Ryder\u2019s spot-on portrayal of moral duality as Veronica, torn between her psycho boyfriend JD (Christian Slater, doing a Jack Nicholson impersonation for the ages) and the wicked whims of the three Heathers, but for balancing all of the film\u2019s dark themes: teen suicide (although, as fans are quick to point out, no one actually commits suicide in the story itself), alienation, power struggles, and the baffling nature of those bestowed status for no reason other than their birth. If that doesn\u2019t draw a clear through-line between 1988 and 2018, what does?<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"12","caption":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

When I ask Michael if <\/span>Heathers<\/span><\/i> could ever be made today, his answer is resolute. \u201cThe simple answer is no, you couldn’t make it today, because look what happened with the TV show,\u201d he states. \u201cWhether that was done well or not, I have no idea, but obviously they ran into trouble because it was pulled from its American release after the Parkland shooting. With all this crazy high school violence, no, you wouldn’t want to go there right now.\u201d But Heathers isn\u2019t just about violence, it\u2019s about undermining power, revolutionising the underclass, by any means necessary. I wonder if the world needs a dose of that rhetoric now more than ever. \u201cIf you look at the current political and social landscape in the States, it’s baffling to try and figure out what kind of approach you could take that would be appropriately satirical, because it’s already too ridiculous,\u201d offers Lehmann. \u201cIt’s crippling in a way, because how can you make fun of something that’s already so completely, self-consciously ludicrous, on the surface? Trump is literally a game show host!\u201d I think of Veronica\u2019s searing line to Heather McNamara, as she thwarts her suicide attempt in the girl\u2019s bathroom of Westerberg High: \u201cIf you were happy every day of your life, you wouldn\u2019t be a human being. You\u2019d be a game show host”. Fake, plastic, and unfeeling.<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"12","caption":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

And, just like the reality we\u2019re living through right now, the characters of <\/span>Heathers \u2014\u00a0<\/span><\/i>their desires and motives \u2014 are more complicated than they seem. Take Veronica, who turns to the darkest side of herself to stop the Heathers, almost losing herself in the process: \u201cShe’s interesting because she has the moral compass, but she’s playing both sides of the fence,\u201d explains Lehmann. \u201cShe is a Heather, basically. (<\/span>Heathers <\/span><\/i>screenwriter) Dan Waters always said that she was the Albert Speer character,\u201d he says, referencing the Nazi architect who apologised for his party\u2019s horrific crimes at the Nuremberg trials. Does that mean Heather Chandler, the leader and most toxic of the Heathers, represents the ultimate evil? What about JD, who is an actual murderer? \u201cThe Heathers and JD are different representations of evil, or bad faith,\u201d says Lehmann. \u201cIt’s interesting, you can’t really break down <\/span>Heathers<\/span><\/i> and say, \u2018This is the bad guy of the movie.\u2019 JD is seductive, and JD speaks a lot of truth, and JD spurs Veronica to action in a way that she thinks is positive, until it’s not. So, you know, I guess he’s the antagonist in the classic, dramatic sense. But you definitely get the sense that the Heathers are sort of the bad guys of the movie. It\u2019s a tricky one. This isn’t a simple case of, \u2018Here are the people that we root for, and here are the people we root against.\u2019 That’s part of what happens in a dark comedy.”<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"blockquote","text":"\"When we cast Winona, that was my first glimmer that it could really work\"","source":"Michael Lehmann"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

For diehard fans of the movie, however, would he ever revisit these characters, in any capacity? \u201cI would be happy to make a movie that was as funny as Heathers or had the same kind of humour, but I wouldn’t go back to the same characters,\u201d states Lehmann. Fair enough \u2014 and in a way, the making of <\/span>Heathers<\/span><\/i> does seem like lightning in a bottle: a series of events and circumstances that could never be recreated. \u201cThere was really something so special about that script, and in the particular nature of that satire and the tone of the film. It would be very hard to equal it. I mean, I tried for years and years to develop other movies that were similarly dark, and even having had whatever kind of success <\/span>Heathers<\/span><\/i> had, it still didn’t make it easier to get these other movies made. So, the only albatross for me has been: why couldn’t I get another movie as dark as that made?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond its darkness, Heathers<\/em> was also a benchmark in late 20th century cinema for its acerbic, quick-witted script, one that remains extremely quotable to this day. It was one of the first scripts of its kind, containing an incredible line of dialogue a minute, one that could be studied over and over again and recited ad nauseum. \u201cNobody speaks like that in real life, and nobody spoke like that then. Dan is brilliant: he made up a lot of that language, and we would laugh and try and spin it and come up with new things. One of the ones that was very much of the time was, \u2018That’s so turbo,\u2019\u201d\u00a0Lehmann says, with a laugh. \u201cIt never made it into the movie but it was in one of the earlier scripts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"12","caption":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

In a way, it\u2019s not surprising that the movie remains so beloved, 30 years after its release. <\/span>Heathers<\/span><\/i> was Lehmann\u2019s directorial debut, and a part of me expects him to be wistful about the past \u2014 but he\u2019s decidedly not. That being said, he\u2019s grateful about the attention the movie has received throughout the years: \u201cWe thought we were so lucky to be able to make that movie; we knew that, because it was definitely a whole series of events that lined up the right way,\u201d he says. \u201cNone of us thought, ‘Oh, we’ll be talking about this in 30 years.’ We had no idea what would become of it, but we knew how funny the script was. We knew how different it was. I think when we were prepping the movie and putting it together, the question was: will we be ever able to live up to how funny this script is? I remember having that fear myself, as a first-time director. When we cast Winona, though, that was my first glimmer that it could really work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Winona, of course, went on to be an ultimate icon of \u201990s youth culture, revolutionising the very society that <\/span>Heathers<\/span><\/i> so expertly parodied. She, like Veronica, became the anti-Heather, a beacon of authenticity in a world where, up until then, vapidity and greed reigned supreme. In fact, it\u2019s in discussing this, the true message of Heathers<\/em>, that Lehmann becomes his most philosophical. \u201cIt’s built into adolescence: you’re a child, and then you’re taught that the world is a just and ordered place, and that you have a position in it, and you keep thinking, \u2018Well, it’s so unfair, children are not treated well, but it’s gonna change when I’m a grown-up, when I can tell people what to do\u2019. And when you get in to high school you realise, \u2018Oh yeah, right, it just gets worse. And all the grown-ups were protecting me from the world, and now I have to deal with it, and it’s not what I wanted it to be.\u2019\u201d Perhaps, for 2018 there is no truer feeling.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heathers<\/a> is in cinemas across the UK from today for its 30th anniversary re-release<\/em>.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

Images courtesy of New World Pictures.<\/p>\n"}],"facebook_image":false},"yoast_head":"\n30 years on, and cult teen flick "Heathers" is still as relevant as ever 30 years on, and cult teen flick "Heathers" is still as relevant as ever<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/heathers-30th-anniversary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"30 years on, and cult teen flick "Heathers" is still as relevant as ever 30 years on, and cult teen flick "Heathers" is still as relevant as ever\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/heathers-30th-anniversary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sleek Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-10T16:21:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-08-13T15:03:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sleek\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sleek Magazine\",\"description\":\"Sleek is Germany\u2019s leading independent media house\/brand for creativity and innovation located in Berlin the creative capital of the world. This creativity manifests itself in SLEEK\u2019s quarterly print publication, digital and social media channels.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"de\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/heathers-30th-anniversary\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/heathers-30th-anniversary\/\",\"name\":\"30 years on, and cult teen flick \\\"Heathers\\\" is still as relevant as ever 30 years on, and cult teen flick \\\"Heathers\\\" is still as relevant as ever\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-10T16:21:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-08-13T15:03:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1fd4c1b41c96eff389e4781115613a68\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/heathers-30th-anniversary\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/heathers-30th-anniversary\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/heathers-30th-anniversary\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"30 years on, and cult teen flick “Heathers” is still as relevant as ever\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1fd4c1b41c96eff389e4781115613a68\",\"name\":\"sleek\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/28a91a7b03694a9860c1590004521e06b91644c079476028047b1a7f5e3eb6e9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/28a91a7b03694a9860c1590004521e06b91644c079476028047b1a7f5e3eb6e9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"sleek\"},\"description\":\"She\u2019s currently writing her thesis on immersive installation and has a soft spot for techno, existential art memes and nineties sunglasses.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/author\/sleek\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"30 years on, and cult teen flick \"Heathers\" is still as relevant as ever 30 years on, and cult teen flick \"Heathers\" is still as relevant as ever","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/heathers-30th-anniversary\/","og_locale":"de_DE","og_type":"article","og_title":"30 years on, and cult teen flick \"Heathers\" is still as relevant as ever 30 years on, and cult teen flick \"Heathers\" is still as relevant as ever","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/heathers-30th-anniversary\/","og_site_name":"Sleek Magazine","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/","article_published_time":"2018-08-10T16:21:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-08-13T15:03:05+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@sleekmag","twitter_site":"@sleekmag","twitter_misc":{"Verfasst von":"sleek"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/","name":"Schlankes Magazin","description":"Sleek ist Deutschlands f\u00fchrendes unabh\u00e4ngiges Medienhaus\/Marke f\u00fcr Kreativit\u00e4t und Innovation mit Sitz in Berlin, der kreativen Hauptstadt der Welt. Diese Kreativit\u00e4t manifestiert sich in der viertelj\u00e4hrlich erscheinenden Print-Publikation, den digitalen und Social-Media-Kan\u00e4len von SLEEK.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"de"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/heathers-30th-anniversary\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/heathers-30th-anniversary\/","name":"30 years on, and cult teen flick \"Heathers\" is still as relevant as ever 30 years on, and cult teen flick \"Heathers\" is still as relevant as ever","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-08-10T16:21:52+00:00","dateModified":"2018-08-13T15:03:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1fd4c1b41c96eff389e4781115613a68"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/heathers-30th-anniversary\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"de","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/heathers-30th-anniversary\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/heathers-30th-anniversary\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"30 years on, and cult teen flick “Heathers” is still as relevant as ever"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1fd4c1b41c96eff389e4781115613a68","name":"schlank","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/28a91a7b03694a9860c1590004521e06b91644c079476028047b1a7f5e3eb6e9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/28a91a7b03694a9860c1590004521e06b91644c079476028047b1a7f5e3eb6e9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"sleek"},"description":"Zurzeit schreibt sie ihre Doktorarbeit \u00fcber immersive Installationen und hat ein Faible f\u00fcr Techno, existentielle Kunstmemes und Sonnenbrillen aus den Neunzigern.","url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/author\/sleek\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69125,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69120\/revisions\/69125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}