St. Elmo's Fire: Does It Hold Up?

Brat Pack Deep Dive

Welcome back to my Brat Pack deep dive! Today I’ll be discussing “St. Elmo’s Fire,” which came out in 1985 and was directed by Joel Schumaker. If you didn’t read my previous Brat Pack article about “The Breakfast Club,” I suggest giving that one a glance so you get some background on what these movies are all about and my criteria for the critical question: does it hold up?

In this case, I should specify that I am paying particular attention to the popularity of this film as opposed to critical acclaim. When I ask, “does this hold up,” I am considering all of the elements I described in my first article, but with increased scrutiny on whether it deserved the popularity it got. This film was wildly popular. This popularity was due in large part to the star-studded cast, which includes Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Mare Winningham, and Ally Sheedy, among others. These are all members of the Brat Pack, and if you want to know more, read my other article. You could also use Google, but I would rather you read my article instead.

“St. Elmo’s Fire” is like if “The Graduate” was about seven tedious people as opposed to one interesting person. The film follows a group of friends who have all just graduated from Georgetown and are navigating their post-college lives. There are Alec (Judd Nelson) and Leslie (Ally Sheedy), a well-to-do but boring couple, Kirby (Emilio Estevez), an aspiring lawyer and successful stalker, Kevin (Andrew McCarthy), an angsty writer who seems to be a John Green character before such a thing even existed, Billy (Rob Lowe), an absent father and menace to society, Jules (Demi Moore), a party girl who is emotionally disturbed for no good reason, and Wendy (Mare Winningham), a frump. Whew! If you made it through that list without your eyes glazing over, you may be a good candidate to watch this movie.

Simply put, this movie is not very good. However, I am never one to put things simply, so I will expand on this judgment. The audience is first introduced to the main group striding across a collegiate-looking field in caps and gowns, the whole band of them arm in arm, clearly the best of friends. This film does a lot of work to establish that these people are best friends without actually having to do a lot of work. For all their inane secret handshakes and awkwardly forced inside jokes, it’s still somewhat unbelievable that these people are all actually friends. Some of them have a good rapport with one another, but others, particularly Billy and Wendy, made me wonder how in the world they would ever meet and become friends. This is a load-bearing dynamic, and I regret to say that it does not pull its weight.

There are several storylines for this film to juggle, but because a lot of the characters’ paths overlap, this ground is covered fairly efficiently. However, there are some truly extraneous plot points, ones that the movie would be better off without. Kirby’s entire character seemed superfluous to me, having little to do with any of his friends and all his time taken up with a nurse he glimpsed in the hospital. This nurse happened to be his first love from school, and Kirby spends the whole movie literally stalking her, eventually even following her to a cabin at the top of a mountain and showing up unannounced. To my knowledge, stalking has been illegal for some time, so I’m not sure this would have been considered okay even in 1985. Especially today, though, this was one of the film’s major “uh oh!” moments. In addition to that, Wendy’s family seemed to be a painfully stereotypical overbearing Jewish clan. Her controlling father, her flocking female relatives, and the nebbishy guy she’s pressured to marry are all not a good look for this movie. Wendy herself is embarrassingly dowdy, wearing roughly 5 layers at all times. Most of the layers are cardigans or some sort of doily-based garment. I didn’t find this as egregious as the guy whose whole thing is being a stalker, but it was still gross.

The thing about teen movies is that they don’t actually have to be good in order to be fun, classic, and enjoyable. I love “High School Musical 2,” but I don’t consider it high art. However, “St. Elmo’s Fire” is neither good nor particularly fun. It’s often melodramatic, corny, and boring.That being said, I would be remiss if I didn’t shout out my favorite scene, the only one I really found funny: when Alec and Leslie are arguing over who gets to keep which album. Other than that, it was pretty light on laughs. For this reason, I’m honestly confused about why it was so popular in the first place. Yeah, Rob Lowe and Demi Moore are hot, but their good looks alone cannot make a movie. Obviously, my verdict is that this movie does not hold up. Also, the music is annoying. That is all.