Heathers

The film is billed as 'the best high school black comedy ever made.' Winona Ryder plays a 17-year-old student named Veronica. She's part of a clique that also has three wealthy girls with the same first name, Heathers. The three girls are basically cruel bullies. There's another character named Jason who is basically ultra-nasty and possibly outright insane.

The movie deals with the harshness of high school and how badly some students treat other students. It also brings up teenage suicide. The emotional scars some people get from how they were treated in high school stay with them for the rest of their lives. Been there, done that. The movie also deals with teenage suicide which caused some controversy.

Whether you like or hate the movie will depend on various things. The movie was made before the Columbine incident and similar shootings. It was also made before all the media attention to teenage suicides. There are a lot of people today that would probably hate the movie since it does have JD shooting at two guys in the cafeteria (using blanks) and it makes liberal use of murder and there is even suicide. Your view will also depend on the term 'black comedy.' Can things be literally deadly serious and humorous at the same time? Again, this depends on the individual's own personal views.

The movie also deals with the nasty, gritty way some teenagers treat other teenagers in high school. The clique of the Heathers that Veronica joins turns out not to be what she really likes and she finally comes to the conclusion that she has to find some way to stop Heather. Veronica and J.D., the guy, end up having sex. JD kills one of the Heathers (notice JD can also stand for Juvenile Delinquent.)

They rig it up so that the girl appears to have committed suicide. Then Veronica has trouble with a couple of really stupid jocks and JD plans to get revenge. He claims he's going to use tranquilizers. JD loads the guns with real bullets. Veronica shoots one of the guys thinking she's using a tranquilizer.

Later, one of the other students totally unconnected to JD or Veronica tries to kill herself. Things go on from there and JD's plan grow grandiose. The end of the movie I think is pretty good.

The three heathers are using Veronica as a target for their croquet game which gives you an idea of just how nasty the three are.

Veronica is also making entries into her diary so we see what happened to cause the particular entry to be made.


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