“Whatchu thinking about?”
Oh nothing, just the way that Heathers doesn’t fit into cultural “norms.”
The most popular girl in school is a junior, and has nothing really going for her except she’s rich and pretty. But how did she get to be so popular? Did she just start buying people things? Did she start sleeping around to get up her reputation? I don’t think so, because it doesn’t seem like many people know anything about her body. Or did she start finding secrets and blackmailing people until everyone was scared of her? So to be “safe” you have to be accepted by her.
The cheerleader isn’t a big, over-the-top personality. She’s not portrayed as dumb, just lost and emotional. She’s hurt and doesn’t know how to fix it. And she really isn’t the most popular of the heathers, or even semi-popular. She’s pretty, and she gathers the attention of Ram and Kurt, but that is only shown after Chandler dies. (Think “I’d love to be in a heather/veronica sandwich” in the caf scene). Really, the only reason she’s popular is because she’s a heather.
And the last one? She’s a nerd! She carries around Moby Dick, doesn’t talk to anyone until after a role is opened up, and doesn’t consider herself pretty enough to have a voice. Now, how much of this is because of Chandler, who’s to say? But she can’t have just “believed” that once she was found.
And then there’s Veronica, who is the “alt-leaning” one of the group, also a nerd (I mean, you have to be to know how to do other’s handwriting), and we have no idea how she was adopted into the heathers. We have the musical version, sure, but there’s no evidence of that in the movie, and she doesn’t hang out with the heathers all the time, and seems irritated when she’s summoned to the caf. Why is she a heather? Was she picked because she was pretty and could be the “and her” of the group? Was she supposed to make them seem more kind? Was it because she had money, and dressed kinda okay? Or were people talking about her, and Chandler had to pick her up?
These four girls wouldn’t be friends in any other movie, but somehow they do get along, at least a little bit, but the nerds are popular, the girl who doesn’t have anything going is the leader, and the cheerleader is shy, kind, and sympathetic. This is completely off track to most other 80s movies.
And it’s just so beautiful for that.
