HEATHERS: The most CONTROVERSIAL 80s teen movie

Do you think movies used to be bolder? Heathers will prove that they were. This film is the queen of politically incorrect and will make you question if they would dare to make something like this today.

Heathers is a 1988 American teen black comedy film written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann. Starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, and Kim Walker, the film follows a group of popular high school girls and their new, rebellious classmate. In 2010, the story was adapted into a musical and in March 2014, it made its Off-Broadway debut.

In this video, we'll dive into:
00:00 - Introduction
00:41 - Daniel Waters' early work
01:46 - The Heathers script and Stanley Kubrick's rejection
03:15 - Development: Michael Lehmann and Denise Di Novi
04:04 - Winona Ryder joining the project
04:56 - Casting with Brad Pitt and Christian Slater
05:28 - Casting the Heathers
06:56 - The challenging start of filming
07:47 - No one wanted to be in Heathers
08:36 - Filming challenges and a change for Winona Ryder
09:53 - Final days of filming and alternative endings
11:05 - Post-production and David Newman's music
12:10 - The terrible failure of Heathers
13:46 - An unexpected turn and success
14:35 - Controversies and the Mean Girls connection
15:40 - The legacy of the creators of Heathers

[mordaciousfilms]

It's not a film trivializing depression or suicide, but rather showing how superficial performative empathy is, how people will jump on a tragedy to garner attention or clout, how arbitrary social hierarchies actually are, and how we glorify and romanticize "death" in our culture. It's just a satire of EVERYTHING that's so prevalent now all over social media.

[yinyangphoenix]

I think Heather Duke’s red hair is actually a perfect touch. It is a symbol of the way she always wants to be red, always wants Heather Chandler’s social power. Her green wardrobe symbolizes her constant envy and her red hair symbolizes her having those dreams of power always on her mind. The film is better for this detail.

[RapsandRiffs]

I still can’t get over the casting being basically “Brad Pitt auditioned and didn’t get the part, Christian Slater got fussy and threw a fit which was giving Jack Nicholson vibes”

[bella-]

I describe Heathers to my friends as “a movie about high school with a side of murder and terrorism” and then refuse to elaborate and tell them to watch it. I love Heathers.

[lynseyluvsatwink]

"That's right, I love my Dead Gay son"

[iamNOUKN]

Great video!
I worked on Heathers (still have the crew jacket, shirt and parking pass). The original script (I was one of the first people hired for the crew being in locations I had to start early) is the only script that I ever read in my career that had me laughing out loud for the whole read (one sitting). I remember the original shooting script being much funnier and darker than the actual movie. Happens a lot in Hollywood. The wrap party was epic! The Prom You Never Went To was the tagline and took place in the gym of one of the school shooting locations.
Lunch on set everyday ended with several of us hanging out at the prop truck and singing Marty Robbins EL PASO along with a tape of said song. We even sang it at the Prom Wrap party while the cast and crew slow danced.
Was fun to see me in the crew pic. That was a long time ago (2nd movie I worked on). I start out in the middle of the shot at the very bottom before the camera moves down.

Fun fact. Much of the AD crew was from PEE WEE'S PLAYHOUSE so we heard a lot of cool stories.

Thanks again for the vid and have fun!

no1ukn0

[manifestgtr]

What’s the logic in YouTube wanting the word “suicide” censored? “If nobody hears the word, it’ll make it go away!” It’s the perfect exemplification of everything this movie satirized. Performative, disingenuous concern. Anybody who knows ANYTHING about clinical depression knows that performative concern only makes it worse. Complete and utter lack of understanding…

[andyscott]

I always push back when I hear about a movie "not being able to be made today, " particularly Heathers, which was made into a successful musical relatively recently.

[phoebexxlouise]

Catcher in the Rye was the obvious choice. Moby Dick is so left field it's hilarious. It works

[deadbodychic]

Breakfast Club gets the pure teen movie and Heathers gets dark, neither would be deemed "appropriate" by today's standards. I enjoyed both growing up.

[CLJlovesmal]

I absolutely LOVE Heathers. Can't explain it, but it's just...one of those movies that works for certain moods. I'm a bit particular about my dark comedies. It really is a good commentary piece.

The way students acted over the deaths reminded me of the popular kids wanting to help me when i came back to school in a wheelchair. That lasted about a week and then i was one-handedly wheeling myelf in to classes late because no one would help.

[juliacecilianepomuceno]

the fashion ate everytime. i like the color coding of the characters

[mogwaimofo]

Anyone who thinks that the "gay suicide pact" bit is homophobic on it's own really didn't get it. It works because the characters involved, the two football players themselves, are homophobic. The times themselves were even more homophobic. That's the actual joke. It works and seems believable because these two characters who in reality were homophobic were seen as hiding parts of themselves that wouldn't be accepted. They even say it in the movie that the deaths are giving "depth" and a "soul" to the kids that were actually shallow bullies.

[jlooooooooo]

obsessing over how heathers would've "gotten someone cancelled" today is silly, and placing effort in the wrong places. these kinds of movies absolutely do get made today (see: Lisa Frankenstein, Bottoms) but just not in the mainstream anymore

[luciapando]

The musical actually takes it up a notch making it full spectacle. The performance within the performance.

[Mdb]

I saw it in the cinema and it had a huge impact on my life. It resonated with me as I was a lone brunette with a bunch of blonde, very heatherish friends. I literally went to school after watching it and changed my friend group.

[gizmogearloose]

Thank you for giving us the backstory of one of my favorite films! I had already graduated high school, but watching "HEATHERS" was like taking everything socially annoying and heartbreaking, and ridiculous about H.S. life, and turning it up to 11. And I'm afraid satire doesn't exist half as such anymore, so films like this are like a time capsule from a point in history when we could look at the dark side of ourselves, turn the image into a caricature, write a good story, then laugh at ourselves...!

[lizanoelle]

A lot of this movie was filmed at my high school! At the time of filming, it was an all girls Catholic school, but now it is a school for gifted kids with learning disabilities.

[Ravuun]

John Hughes was a filmmaker of the 80's, and his films captured the experiences of the older half of GenX. This film is so 90's, cynical and sarcastic, and really managed to capture the issues of 90's teens, aka. the younger half of GenX. When I was a teen, most of my social group was named either Sara/Sarah or Chris, we ended up giving them all nicknames. My husband and I named our daughter Veronica because of this film.

[zmbdog]

The irony being Winona still would've had to pay her agent 10% of her salary despite them trying to talk her out of doing the movie!