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.
