Heathers: Painful Satire

Heathers directed by Michael Lehmann satirizes at great length the social issues and systems within High Schools as well as teen suicide and homicide.  As controversial issues that affect society to perhaps a larger degree today, such as how to approach teen violence and suicide and how to react to it, there is not a universal reaction or response.  Heathers approaches the topic of teen violence with unapologetic satire and jokes a-blazing.

            As the audience watches as a joke goes too far and the main characters Veronica Sawyer (played by Winona Ryder) and Jason Dean (played by Christian Slater) begin to kill other students who they deem to be awful people.  Veronica and Jason begin to kill not only to rid the school of bullies, but also to advance themselves higher socially.  They begin to take their anger and channel it in to violence in order to accomplish a higher order, which is to make the school a better place.  The issue with this is as soon as the main “Heather” is killed another takes her place and is just as ruthless as a bully, as soon as one of the other “cookie-cutter” Heathers is gone, than another steps up.  One criticism this movie takes in general is its lack of sensitivity to the killing and the deaths of the dead teenagers along Veronica’s and Jason’s path.

            Heathers addresses this very sensitive issue of teen violence with zero sensitivity, with over-the-top humor as the butt of the joke often falls on the victim.  While, this disturbs many people (and I quite frankly don’t blame them) this presents the audience with the perspective of the murderers and the psychopathic and joking manner of the crime.  This also provides the audience with the sarcasm and flaws of potential coping mechanisms of different people as we see the different adult reactions and ideas they have to console the students.  Heathers interestingly enough post-modernly references the outcast and angry character of Jason Dean to actor James Dean.  The Rebel without a Cause actor who often played confused and angry teenagers, provides the audience with a foundation and immediate reference point in relation by Jason Dean in Heathers.  Leading the audience to not demonize him as he immediately pulls a gun out in a cafeteria and shoots blanks at a bunch of jocks.  This connection has taken a legendary and fondly remembered actor and twisted the character in order to make the evolution of outcast child to become complete, causing the audience to not only relate to the character, but also to each viewer’s own personal experiences to the film.

            One reason many react very negatively to the film, is because the events in the movie hit too close to home.  A disturbing aspect of Heathers is that nearly any event in the film could be grounded in realistic terms today.  Willa Paskin in her article Nostalgia Fact-Check: How Does Heathers Hold Up? makes the point that  “The notes that the girls use as instruments of torture could just as easily be text messages; Veronica’s diary sure seems like a blog; Heather Chandler’s suicide note makes the rounds just like an e-mail; and all that bullying.”  Where anyone who had any form of the movie affect them in their actual personal life could react very poorly to the jokes and satire humor of Heathers and take the joke to heart, but the jokes seem to be merely a method of coping.   

            As most contemporary High School students have teen violence shoved down his/her throats, Heathers does not take a direct route in forcing a message down our throats, but rather makes jokes at the expense of the deaths of the victims.  Watching this movie with a contemporary audience many would be baffled and also likely to be upset to a degree; I think there is significant reason for this.  As teen deaths have affected many people today, reactions vary.  For some death needs to have a coping people, where others find it comforting to deflect, whether it be catharsis in some other activity or making a joke to ease the tension in order to achieve a level of comfort.  While the latter of the two may offend others, I think it is just a way to cope with issues.

            As the issue of violence surrounding schools has not deteriorated much since Heathers release, the film provides viewers with an interesting perspective and focus, which may upset with its unrelentless attacks on the issue and how it’s handled.