St. Elmo's Fire: Die Leidenschaft brennt tief

Too bad the actual movie isn't as big as the soundtrack wants this to be. Like CHARIOTS OF FIRE this has a very memorable and emotional theme music, but it's hard to care about these brats. Yeah, it was most of the famous 80's BRAT PACK (why wasn't Molly Ringwald in this??).

Georgetown as a backdrop is unusual. It's hard to believe these mostly goofballs went to a near Ivy League college (particularly Billy, c'mon. He's not rich and not intelligent. Was there a scholarship for good looking males??)

It's pretty pretentious and I think I always thought that, but it's polished and gives a sense of the era. Good for the idea of the urban tribe and post college challenges. I first watched this on HBO as a high school freshman and it was on heavy HBO rotation, but still, it's just OKAY.

This movie was the cliché post college life of the 1980's, the life every one read about, saw on television or what was told it should be. It fit right in to the very interesting 80's format. Although, this movie is also strongly "Brat Pack" driven and if you don't know or can't relate to these actors the movie doesn't stand a chance. It's not bad, just chummy, overly dramatic loathsome characters carried by well liked actor credentials of the time. Typical coming of age flick for over privileged college kids with some interesting character twists throughout. A very early glimpse of a young Demi Moore is of pertinent interest, Judd Nelson delivers, Emilio does his Emilio thing and of course, there's Rob Lowe. A quintessential 80's film. A rainy day check it out flick.

St. Elmo's Fire (1985)

** (out of 4)

Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy and Mare Winningham are seven friends who graduate and soon realize that being adults isn't nearly as much fun as they thought. We follow their various ups and downs with much drama in between.

ST. ELMO'S FIRE has a rather amazing cast and especially when you look back on the picture. Not only do you have the seven main leads but there's also Martin Balsam and Andie MacDowell so there's no denying the star power. I've never really liked this picture yet for some reason I usually go back and revisit it ever so often. Obviously the main reason to watch the picture is because of the terrific cast and I thought all of them delivered great performances. It's just too bad they weren't given much to work with.

As I get older I think these characters are all the more shallow. Some might say they were people in their 20s so they were supposed to be annoying and shallow but I don't buy that at all. To me the characters are very poorly written here and there's just no real development with any of them. None of them are very believable and for the most part they are all single motivated characters with no development and there's not much charm to any of them. It's really too bad because the cast is excellent but they just didn't have anything here. You can watch any of these actors in much better films from this period.

The film remains watchable thanks to the cast but when the final credits come on you can't help but think you've just wasted your time. I mean, this cast ends up with these results? It's really a shame but there's more issues than just the screenplay. I'd argue that Joel Schumacher's direction is pretty bland and there's nothing good looking about the picture. You do get a great score and a catchy main song but none of this is enough to save the picture.

Seven friends -- fresh out of college and in their mid-20's -- find themselves struggling with real-life issues such as breaking away from an over-bearing family, getting married, raising children, finding a career, finding love and creating an identity, all while trying to maintain a tight-knit friendship with one another as they booze it up at "St. Elmo's," a bar that perhaps served as the grandfather to the coffee shop in "Friends" or even the pub in "How I Met Your Mother." They laugh, they fight, they learn, and by the end of the flick, things have changed, but their "fire" has remained.

You might recognize three stars of "The Breakfast Club" -- Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Emilio Estevez -- who have magically turned into college grads, and alongside Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Rob Lowe and Mare Winningham, round out the solid cast of "St. Elmo's Fire." A good decade before bringing a perfectly good "Batman" franchise to its knees, writer/director Joel Schumacher did what few films could do with the "Brat Pack" in tow. That is, he created a film that dared to be over-dramatic and dared to touch upon the ugliness of growing up long after the security of school and family has faded. While some characters and their stories are questionable (Emilio Estevez, I'm looking at you), the little stories that make up their day-to-day life are, for the most part, stuff that everyone goes through, and none of the actors seem ashamed to look ridiculous in portraying the selfish, the immature and the inexperienced. For the most part, the characters feel real, and that's why the film works as well as it does.

Perhaps it's a little too over-dramatic and self-indulgent for its own good, but maybe that's the point. All seven characters are colorful, albeit, horribly flawed human beings, and it shows in the most awkward and endearing moments of the film. You may not understand their decisions or why they choose to bring so much drama down on themselves, but you'll at least relate to it in one way or another. How you interpret and appreciate the film rests both in your position in life and whether or not you can recognize the biggest flaws in yourself. It's a film that will speak volumes to anyone fresh out of college, in their 20's or with the hindsight to realize how silly and self-made much of the drama in their life has been.

St. Elmo's fire has been on constant play on HBO lately. I turned it on the other night and watched the whole thing. Yeah, it was a nostalgia trip (I remember watching it a few times on cable ten years ago) but it also has some decent scenes and it really captures a "moment," both for recent college grads and for those of us who were enchanted by the brat pack in the 80s.

I've been reading other people's reviews; several of them whine about how "self-absorbed" these characters are.

Well...um... duh. Yeah. Most movies are about self-absorbed people. Self-absorbed people are more interesting, because they don't care what other people think: self absorbed people feel deeply, they make huge mistakes, and they're generally fun to watch. Some of the greatest movies of all time are about self-absorbed people: Annie Hall (Alvy Singer), Amadeus (Mozart), Leaving Las Vegas (Nic Cage), Goodfellas (Every single mobster in the movie). Mother Theresa was completely giving, completely SELFLESS, and yet I haven't seen a great movie about her. That's not the point.

I'm not saying St. Elmo's Fire is a classic. I'm just saying, calm down people. Take the movie for what it is, a stylized look into one moment in life, and don't be so preachy about what kinds of characters are "appropriate" to focus on.