reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (06/18/85)
There can be no doubt that "St. Elmo's Fire" (from Columbia
Studios) owes a great deal to "The Big Chill" (though not to "The
Breakfast Club", as "St. Elmo's Fire" was in production prior to
that film's release). "St. Elmo's Fire" deals with a group of
friends rather recently out of college who start adjusting to life
in the real world. Like "The Big Chill", it deals with troubles
and disillusionments, it's an ensemble piece, and every character
has his or her own quirk or problem to work out. In fact, the
characters in this sort of film are practically identified by their
problems. Ally Sheedy Isn't Sure She's In Love, Andrew McCarthy is
Unspoken Love, Mare Winningham is Repressed, Rob Lowe is Destructive
and Immature, and so on. Why can't just one of the characters *not*
have a major problem which the film must address? For me, this
choice of story structure reveals what is artificial about these
relationship films. Do all of your friends fall apart at once?
Not to give the impression that I didn't like "St. Elmo's
Fire". I think I liked it more than "The Big Chill", perhaps be-
cause the people involved here are closer to my age and their
problems are closer to mine. "St. Elmo's Fire" is a well writ-
ten, directed, and acted effort.
In an ensemble piece, the performances must not only be
good, but they must mesh. The actors come together pretty well
in "St. Elmo's Fire", perhaps because so many of them have worked
together before. Judd Nelson, Sheedy, and Emilio Estevez did
"The Breakfast Club" recently, Lowe and Sheedy did "Oxford
Blues", Lowe and McCarthy did "Class", and so on. The ensemble
gives the feeling that they really are good friends, and old
friends. The entire group must also be relieved that they are
being permitted to play their own ages, for a change, rather than
masquerading as high school students.
For individual performances, I think McCarthy and Sheedy im-
pressed me the most, but I'm willing to admit to prejudice here.
All of the lead performers are good. I might have been a bit
more impressed with Judd Nelson's performance if I hadn't just
seen him do a very similar role in "Fandango". Lowe has the
least sympathetic part, but he does make a convincing heel.
Estivez's part is a bit superficial. He makes the most of his
moments, though. Mare Winningham plays something of a human
doormat. Her performance must be counted a success in that she
makes the viewer want to grab her by the shoulders and tell her
to stop letting people take advantage of her. Demi Moore is the
crazy of the group, living too fast and loose, and she is con-
vincing in her frantic attempts to have it all while it's really
all slipping away. Martin Balsam is the only notable representa-
tive of the older generation (as Winningham's father), and he
isn't given much to work with.
The failure to give most of the characters any parents or
family is but one symptom of something that some people will not
like about "St. Elmo's Fire". It's a Yuppie movie. (Yuppies'
families tend to be very much off the scene, perhaps because Yup-
pies move around so much.) All the characters are over-
privileged. They all have a good college education, they're all
basically healthy, they have access to excellent jobs, they don't
really need to worry about money. Some members of the preview
audience I saw this film with complained that it was just an emp-
ty film about empty Yuppies and their trivial problems. My moth-
er probably would feel the same, as she has scant sympathy for
films about the sufferings of the well-to-do, being a child of
the Depression. I have no answer for such criticisms. "St.
Elmo's Fire" doesn't either. There is no indictment of the char-
acters' lifestyle, other than a few empty platitudes and a silly
simile on the illusory nature of the hunt for success. And yet,
I've always felt that this kind of criticism is a bit naive. If
one states that films about the tragedies and problems of the
well-to-do are irrelevant, I'd say one is coming close to the po-
sition that money buys everything, including happiness. At any
rate, if your tolerance for poor little semi-rich kids is low,
you have been warned.
"St. Elmo's Fire" was directed by Joel Schumacher, who also
co-wrote the script with Carl Kurlander. Schumacher has previ-
ously served as a "hired gun" type director on some undis-
tinguished but competently made films. His interest in and sym-
pathy for this material brings out more talent than he has previ-
ously shown. He displays some nice, non-intrusive camera moves
and helps build the relationships between the characters in an
effective manner. The script suffers at the level of plot, drop-
ping us cold into the middle of the relationships and taking a
few uncertain turns. However, it doesn't always choose the easi-
est way out of a tight spot, to its credit. The dialog is good.
While the characters tend to suffer from a lack of dimensionali-
ty, the script does at least offer us clear delineations between
them. This is not one of those scripts where the lines could be
switched from one character to another without any major diffi-
culty. Schumacher, a former production designer, makes particu-
larly good use of sets and costumes, both in the script and in
his direction. A good exercise while watching "St. Elmo's Fire"
is to pay attention to what the characters' clothes and apartment
furnishings say about them. The overall production design is ex-
cellent. Some Washington, D.C. locales, especially those in
Georgetown, make a nice change from the standard LA/New York
scenery we see so often.
"St. Elmo's Fire" is not, in most respects, exceptional or
outstanding. It offers some fine young actors (I get to call
them that because they're a couple of years younger than me) a
chance to stretch a little bit, and it's well intentioned. The
film is enjoyable, especially if you fit in the age group in
question. Great insights and finely rounded characters are not
delivered, but I never really thought they would be. Considering
that the summer is upon us, "St. Elmo's Fire" may be one of the
most mature films to be released for several months, a frighten-
ing thought in and of itself. "St. Elmo's Fire" is a well calcu-
lated summer film. It's much more thoughtful than, say, "Rambo"
or "The Goonies", but it doesn't frighten its audience away with
too much depth. Like a light classic novel read at the beach, it
allows you to feel a little virtuous without expending much ef-
fort.
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
soon to be reiher@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher