St Elmo's Fire

Starring:  Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Mare Winningham

Year: 1985

Running Time:  110 minutes

St Elmo's Fire has been on my watchlist for a while. The movie piqued my interest because a) I love some 80s pop culture b) it features six of the members of the so-called Brat Pack, including Rob Lowe and Demi Moore who are possibly two of the most beautiful people in Hollywood and c) it has arguably one of the best movie theme songs, Alan Parr's St Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion).  So after finding a DVD at a thrift store recently, I finally gave it a watch.

The film opens with shot of seven graduating friends, arm-in-arm, as they leave Georgetown University and head out into the big bad world to face the realities and responsibilities of adulthood.  The group consists of:

Billy (Rob Lowe), the baddest of bad boys who will flirt with any woman regardless of her poor fashion choices slash terrible hair;

Kirby (Emilio Estevez), a handsome but naïve and obsessive law student/waiter

Wendy (Mare Winningham), a do-gooder with a passion for granny cardigans

Kevin (Andrew McCarthy), a journalist at the Washington Post who is secretly in love with his best friend's girl

Leslie (Ally Sheedy), Alec's girlfriend with the worst Barbara Bush-esque hairstyle and love of lacey collared blouses

Alec (Judd Nelson), a douchey guy trying to advance his political career who cheats on Leslie

Jules (Demi Moore), a party girl with a weakness for the finer things in life including nose candy

The optimism of the opening shot is soon contrasted with a shot of an emergency room as the friends frantically search for Billy and Wendy who have been in a car accident, thanks to Billy's drunken driving.  Kirby also sees Dale (played by a young Andie MacDowell), someone he's had a crush on for years.  The friends then head to their local hangout, St Elmo's Bar (cue the movie's theme song).

We soon realize that this group of friends is trying to navigate struggles in their personal and professional lives but rather than feeling sympathetic towards them, I initially found them to be self-absorbed and largely unlikable, particularly the male characters.  Alec desperately wants to marry Leslie because she completes his vision for his success but she is hesitant - for good reason.  Kirby becomes obsessed with Dale and sets out to win her over while Billy is an incorrigible flirt, despite having a wife and child, and Jules is having an affair with her boss while racking up debt daily.  

Kevin, however, has a cynical view of love and delivers some of the best lines in the film:  "Love is an illusion created by lawyer types like yourself to perpetuate another illusion called marriage to create the reality of divorce and then the illusionary need for divorce lawyers".  Jules interprets Kevin's lack of romantic interest in women as a sign that he is gay and in love with Alec.  She also wants to set him up with her gay neighbor, Ron (Matthew Laurance).  Jules' theory is shared by Naomi, a lady of the night played by Anna Maria Horsford, who's advances have no impact on Kevin.

Meanwhile, Jules continues to make bad decisions and calls Alec to rescue her from a hotel room where she finds herself with a group of Arab men who have been coercing her into doing coke - she also thinks she overheard the words "gang bang".  Alec rushes to rescue but it turns out she was exaggerating to get attention - the Arab men in question are chilling and watching MTV.  Wendy, on the other hand, finally realizes that Billy is an asshole after he makes fun of her girdle (though in his defense, it's pretty ridiculous) and she suggests they remain platonic friends despite still having feelings for him.

And then it's Halloween.  There's a costume party at St Elmo's (obsessed with Jules' crimped hair!) where Billy plays the longest sax solo, drenched in sweat.  His wife, Felicia, shows up with another guy and when Billy sees them making out, he loses it.  Somehow the music stops and the entire bar goes quiet while he confronts them.  A fight ensues which spills out onto the street.  Billy goes on a misogynistic rant before he and Felicia make up.

Then Kevin, displaying serious stalker vibes, waits in the rain outside Dale's apartment, follows her on his bicycle and peeps through a window to watch her at a fancy party.  He admits that he is obsessed with her (actually using that word) and somehow she still invites him to her home, where she admits to being a slob who steals magazines from her dentist's office.  What a catch!  Kevin concludes that he needs money to impress her so he gets a job as an assistant to a wealthy business man, Mr Kim.  

So of course, one of the first things he does is throw a huge party at his new boss's house when he is out of town.  At the party, Alec announces that he and Leslie are getting married - which is news to her.  She confronts him about his "extracurricular love life". Alec thinks Kevin spilled that tea and confronts him. Once again, the music stops and Alec kicks Leslie out of their apartment, thereby challenging Billy for the title of World's Biggest Douchebag.  Things spiral further for the friends with more heartache, betrayal and several #MeToo moments.

I think the film does a good job of portraying the interaction of personal struggles and socio-economic pressures and how this group navigates them.  Yes, they are melodramatic, messy and messed up (with a touch of misogyny and toxic masculinity in the case of the boys) but they are also just twenty-somethings who haven't got their shit together (who does at that age?).  Jules sums it up perfectly when, during her breakdown, she says "I never thought I'd be so tired at 22".  By the end of the film, they have each grown in some ways so there's some form of redemption but it is clear that they still have a long way to go.  Their gradual progress toward maturity is also symbolized by their decision not to brunch at St Elmo's in the film's closing scene, opting for a place with "not so many kids" instead.