St. Elmo's Fire
Reflecting on a campy classic.
I’m a sucker for all things eighties. Anybody who’s spent more than five minutes with me is aware of this fact. Certainly, anyone who has read this blog is acquainted with eighties revanchism. While St. Elmo’s Fire has not put an end to my love affair with the 1980s, it is not my favorite movie of the decade: the dialogue is unbelievably expository and unnatural, the transitions between the separate plots are abrupt, and the film is generally incoherent and pointless.
Boy, do I sound like the Grinch. And it’s only the day after Christmas!
Nonetheless, even a Grinch like me can’t resist this heartwarming scene:
The motley crew of friends put their qualms aside to stop Jules from committing suicide after losing her job and having her assets repossessed. Despite “breaking her heart” earlier in the movie with his inconsiderate, lascivious behavior, Billy redeems himself by talking Jules off the ledge (metaphorically). Fitting, as Billy references his own suicidal ideation to friend-lover Wndy Beamish in an earlier scene.
Each member of the group is struggling with some vice, inadequacy, or insecurity throughout the movie. Recent Georgetown graduates, they feel like they should have their romantic, professional, and personal lives all figured out. They don’t. By the film’s end, each has accepted that she’s “not fabulous” and he’s “irresponsible,” as the case may be. In abandoning their false pretenses and accepting their true, flawed characters, they are able to be at ease with each other and in their own skin.
Now that’s a message I think every college graduate can profit from.