Another Eighties Movie Perhaps, but Some Timeless Observations

I know what you’re thinking; this from the misanthropic, narcissistic writer that should be postulating about Artificial Intelligence:AI or Eyes Wide Shut. Those are excellent movies, disturbing, but good nonetheless; rather than use the obvious examples or rehash Woody Allen again I figure I’d take a different direction and talk about some of the pop stuff I like, sans The Breakfast Club, Clueless, or Risky Business.

Everyone knows about the popular movie quotes from those classics, but I thought I’d pick a movie most of us can at least respect yet vaugely, aren’t really sure why. Movie quotes are easy enough to find; a good search on IMDB offers memorable quotes for each movie listed. But why are they important to you, that is what is different and unique for all of us.

1.) Steff: Money really means nothing to me. Do you think I’d treat my parents’ house this way if it did?

Well wouldn’t we all like to be in a position in which we don’t really think or respect money quite as much as Steff did. Truth is, a lot of us are and don’t already know it. Steff was a rich jerk who didn’t want anything out of life and was more enamored with what and who money could buy him than he was what good in the world he could do with it. In all truth most of us are like that whether we are rich or not; sure the quote typifies the materialistic age of the eighties but it also is a good example of what happens to people that are self consumed. Blane, who wasn’t that sure of himself at the time, couldn’t argue with Steff; quietly, Blane needed Andie to develop a real sense of character to help figure out who he really was, yet didn’t realize it at the time.

2.) Principal: If you give off signals that you don’t want to belong, people will make sure that you don’t.

Yeah, Molly Ringwald was still in the midst of her self-loathing, sans The Breakfast Club. In fact those type of roles sort of summed up her career. But at the end of the day the principal was right, Andie’s body language and the way she carried herself spoke alienation. Was this quote a precursor to Gen X behavior; well yeah in an odd sort of way it did typify that slacker mentality. What Andie and Blane didn’t realize was that it was the one thing they had in common, regardless of the fact that she was poor, or probably lower middle class if your really think about it (I mean how could they afford the house if her father didn’t work) and Blane was rich. Again that is an observation that you don’t get until you’ve watched the movie a few times.

3.) Iona: I know I’m old enough to be his mother, but when the Duck laid that kiss on me last night, I swear my thighs just went up in flames! He must practice on melons or something.

Okay so Duckie’s passion for Andie came out in a strange way through his interaction with Iona. Yet Iona sort of liked the attention, a fact that is lost on a lot of adolescent boys. Iona was a mother figure, yet there was a strange chemistry there; let’s move on ….

4.) Steff: I’ve been out with a lot of girls at this school. I don’t see what makes you so different.

So here is Steff again; arrogant, thinking that he has experienced it all. Yet he hasn’t, not Andie, not anyone or anything like her. But Steff, who is in his own bubble, self-contained, never would. So he doesn’t respect women because he doesn’t feel as though he has anything to look forward to. Actually I had never really thought about that until now, because of the editing; so much of the importance is put into the friction between these two it’s hard to reflect on what each was going through individually.

5.) Andie: I have some taste.

Yeah Andie finally stands up for himself, against Steff, who was the least probably threat! But it is important nonetheless; how many times in high school did you have some taste and want what none of the other kids wanted because it wasn’t popular. Your likes and dislikes were more adult than you were really willing to contemplate or let on. Andie was finally growing up, and getting some gumption.

6.) Duckie: Yours or mine? Ours?

In a different setting, with different clothes and a different eccentricity, Duckie actually would have been a pretty cool guy. Because he was relentless and was an opportunist, which is a quality that some girls like. Thing is Andie was too consumed in her own depression to realize it, and too bent out of shape over Blane, who wasn’t ready for her.

7.) Blane: You said you couldn’t be with someone who didn’t believe in you. Well I believed in you. I just didn’t believe in me. I love you… always.

I mean finally, like almost at the end of the movie. But this is very true to the teenage experience, and a true mark of crossing over into adulthood. Blane believed in Andie, sure, but he didn’t realize that he did and he didn’t know that he could, which is quality that Andie had that she wasn’t aware of. Andie was sort of set aside, for someone special, and in a way that guy was Blane; a little bit of Mr. Darcy here? Perhaps, but in this post-contemporary setting you aren’t even aware of it, and that is the magic of the big screen.

8.) Andie: I just want them to know that they didn’t break me.

Because that’s really all that a woman really wants, if we haven;t figured it out yet. Watch these eighties movies and suck it up, check otu Valley Girl, Heathers, heck even go back a few decades and check out Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It’s all right there in your face on display, if you’re looking …

9.) Blane: You don’t understand that it has nothing at all do with you.

It really didn’t; but it shouldn’t have even existed, Blane’s inability to express himself and his lack of articulation just made things all the more confusing. In fact that whole scene is timeless, because Andie was finally over it and had put it all together, and, in true fashion, particularly with someone from the wrong side of the tracks as she was finally called him to the floor on his stuff. She may as well have been Shaniqua or some other girl he really wasn’t supposed to be dating, but was trying to in secret; eventually it all comes out, and you have to deal with it where everyone can see it. All this scene is, what was done in the dark came to light; but at the end of the day there really wasn’t anything to be ashamed of to begin with.

10.) Duckie: His name is Blane? Oh! That’s a major appliance, that’s not a name!

He always knew what it was, or at least he thought that he did. But in all truth his own feelings for Andie blinded him to Blane’s true potential, which is why he encouraged Andie to go after Blane at the end. So there was a true friendship between the two of them, just hidden in a lot of love/hate chemistry. This is true to what friendships often are between the sexes, and why they are so complex.

Now for the real fun, I have some quotes from The Last King of Scotland, a dark comedy starring Forrest Whittaker.

Djonjo: Frankly, I don’t know. You deserve to die. But dead, you can do nothing. Alive, you might just be able to redeem yourself.

Yeah Nicholas deserved to die, for his stupidity if nothing else. But Djonjo was an angel, now remember earlier on Nicholas was supposed to replace Djonjo as the head in that hospital, and was told that if anything, Djonjo was an adversary. But he was really a decent guy; the fact that someone could bring down Idi Amin was a true motivator here. It was as if Idi Amin was brought down by the IRS for not paying his taxes.

Idi Amin: You did it because you love me.

What he was saying is that Nicholas was loyal, and that he was going to use that loyalty against him when the opportunity presented itself if and when his loyalty for someone else superseded that to him. Watch the scene again and take it in.

Idi Amin: But you did not persuade me, Nicholas. You did not persuade me!

That was really all Idi Amin wanted, was for someone to be passionate enough of their reasons against what he wanted to get his attention. It was a ride of die thing there. Truth is, Nicholas didn’t have it to die, though he could ride, as long as he felt safe.

Idi Amin: “Beat this wall, Amin.” “Dig the latreen, Amin.” And now, here I am. The President of Uganda. And who put me here, huh? It was the British.

We get a sense of who Idi Amin really is, why he was loyal to the British. In a sense he was like a Saddam Hussein to the Americans; but of course they had to take him out before he made the British look silly, and despite his rhetoric, he was biting the hand that fed him.

Sarah Merrit: Do you know the feeling when you’re married to a really nice guy?

Yeah that’s why she cheated on you, seriously. She summed it up in that one line better than a lot of other actresses could, and she isn’t really a memorable character in the film.

So enjoy your favorite movies, watch them again, remember why they were so important to you, and how they shaped and molded who you are today. Some of us will turn around and write a screenplay, direct, produce, act, whatever. But the rest of us have our memories, of which we can write so vividly about …