Flashdance stands out in my mind as one of the most iconic films of the 80s. That's not to say it had a large political impact, pressured social movement or even significantly changed lives. But it did leave a lasting impression on pop culture. If you pay attention to music videos it's impossible to count the number of times the final scene of Flashdance has been parodied or honored. Even in the modern pop culture world Flashdance gets its share of nods. The two that are coming to me as I write this: a scene from Shrek 2 and the movie Billy Elliot. In the case of Shrek 2 - it's just one of many films that have parodied the over the top dance sequences performed by Jennifer Beals throughout the course of the film (the one in question being the dramatic bucket of water dump with her back arched in a chair). If you can't imagine what I'm talking about just rest assured - you've seen it parodied at least once before.
Alex Owens (Beals) works as a welder by day amongst the men whom she entertains by night as an exotic dancer. Only, her exotic dances reek of experimental and self-expressive over the top choreography. Practicing every night, she dreams of studying at the Pittsburgh Conservatory of Dance. During her nights spent dancing and talking with her friends the stand-up wannabe cook, fellow dancer and her newfound boss-turned-beau she inches closer and closer to the resolve necessary to put in an application to the school.
Flashdance, as I've said, is iconic. Love it or hate it, its influence on every dance film afterwards can't be denied. Like any 80s movie it has its fair share of montages to skip through the training sessions and nights out. The character Alex Owens marks an odd twist on the strong female character. Unlike the Ripley's of Horror or Eva Perons of Drama, Alex Owens knows what she wants but lacks the resolve to do anything about it. In fact, as far as strong female characters go, Alex blazes an odd zigzag both away and towards the furthering of strong female leads in one stroke. While requiring the encouragement and nods of both her grandmother and boyfriend when it comes to applying to study at the conservatory, in every other field of her life she's fiery and knows exactly what she wants. It's an odd contradictory pair of qualities to instill in the same character and it, oddly, strengthens the plot while weakening the character.
Looking back at Flashdance, it's important to remember that the song "Flashdance - What a Feeling" won the Best Song Oscar for 1983. The song permeates the entire film with various reprisals popping up almost every 10 minutes until its final full play-through in the final scene. Every dance movie you've seen that came out in the 90s used the formula laid down by Flashdance. Girl wants to dance. Isn't sure of herself. Spends time building resolve. Applies. Succeeds. Hell, even Billy Elliot follows that route; in which case you can replace "girl" with "boy".
Jennifer Beals, as an actress, is a mixed bag. She pulls off Alex Owens convincingly for about 85% of the movie and only ever falters in the more dramatically serious elements where her performance just seems to fall short of capturing the given scene's gravity. Dance-wise she's tremendous, or at least I think it is. Keep in mind I'm pretty uneducated in that aspect of the Arts.
DVD Bonus Features
The "I Love the 80s" Edition of Flashdance has little to show for itself on the extras front. With little more than subtitles and additional audio tracks the disc feels quite empty. To perhaps counterbalance that shortcoming, the "I Love the 80s" Edition comes with a 4 track CD of 80s hits by a-ha, Echo & the Bunnymen, INXS and Erasure. It's certainly a respectable musical lineup but let's be honest - 4 songs on a CD don't make up for a lack of audio commentary or featurettes.
Flashdance holds the rare title of being one of the few 80s movie classics that's created a legacy for itself from its highly memorable dance sequences - even if you've no interest in the film, because maybe you think it's too chick-flick-like, let me remind you: it's iconic movies like this one that help you understand the references and homages present in the modern films of today. See it for research for all I care but Flashdance is a piece of cultural film history.
"Flashdance" is on sale February 3, 2009 and is rated R. Drama. Directed by Adrian Lyne. Written by Tom Hedley, Joe Eszterhas. Starring Jennifer Beals.
