What were we thinking in the 80's?
One of the biggest hits of 1983 was FLASHDANCE, the story of a young woman welder in Pittsburgh who dreams of being a professional dancer.
I remember seeing this movie in theatres a couple of times, it was all the rage!
As I watched it this week for the first time in over 30 years, I couldn't believe I ever liked it!
A few thoughts:
* So our heroine Alex (Jennifer Beals) dances at night in a blue collar club that seems to be set up like a strip club, yet dancers rarely bare much of anything and every song has an elaborate producton number on stage that costs thousands of dollars...hmmmm
* The cook Richie who wants to be a comedian falls into that cinematic niche of the character that exists wholly to extend running time. You could edit him out of the film and not effect any major plot point. He's just unfunny padding.
* Jennifer manages to take off her dress under her sweatshirt with great style, but her stage presence is almost non-existent and she never had another hit. Her next film was the mega-bomb "The Bride" co-starring with Sting in a euro-Frankenstein retelling.
* It's hard to hear some of the film's biggest song hits like "Maniac", "Flashdance" the title tune and "Seduce Me Tonight" and not feel a bit nostalgic, but the ending dance in front of the judges now feels very cliche and poorly executed.
We'll add this to a huge list of 80's faves that we watch now and scratch our heads. Just what were we thinking back then?
Poorly written, non-sensical dreck that gets a shoulder padded, bright pastel D.
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