Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)A forerunner to Friends and a Brat Pack movie with the most...Brat Packers, St. Elmo's Fire was a romantic comedy that bowed out to theatres in 1985. Seven of the eight stars were in the enviable "Brat Pack" group, young and precocious actors and actresses that were considered the best of the best of their generation. While St. Elmo's Fire is often considered a mellow and almost overblown teen romcom by the starchiest of critics, it's a favorite of many 1980s film lovers.
Summary in 13 words:
Seven college graduates try and struggle with real life, some succeed, some don't.
DVD Details
2.35 Anamorphic Widescreen
5.1 Dolby Digital Surround (English),
2.0 Dolby Surround (Director's Commentary)
English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Thai, Korean Subtitles
Release Date: 1999
Single-Sided Single-Layered Disc
Suggested Retail Price: $14.99
Black Amaray Keepcase
Video and Audio
The video is remarkably clean. The film was issued in the early years of DVD, when most transfers looked more like cable TV quality, but the video here is exceptional. Presented in its original widescreen is always a good thing, and the print quality is great. The colors are vibrant and accurate, and there's little to no grain or dust. One minor complaint would be the main titles, in its unsettling red font, but other than that, the video is great.
Audio is offered in English, but the subtitles are in so many languages that if you wanted, you could learn Chinese by reading the film enough times. It's pretty balanced in terms of dialogue vs. background noise/music.
Bonus Features
A commentary by Joel Schumacher is one of the many audio tracks given on this disc. He does a pretty good job talking about making the movie, including various tidbits about the actors and the story (which he wrote). The guy's pretty good with a microphone. If only he could have done a commentary for his film The Phantom of the Opera in 2004.
A faded and dirt-filled 8-minute EPK about the making of the film is also presented, made at the time the film came out. It has quick interviews with the cast and director, with a narrator talking during much of the behind the scenes footage. Is it an exhaustive documentary? No. Is it a useless 8 minutes of your life taken away? No. It's pretty rewatchable, though a longer more substantial featurette would be welcoming.
"Man in Motion" is the music video that uses the St. Elmo's Fire theme with lyrics. It's got a real 80s look to it, and features most of the cast as well as video clips from the film.
There are four trailers: St. Elmo's Fire, About Last Night, Groundhog Day, and Jerry Maguire. The trailers for St. Elmo's Fire and About Last Night are not the best video-quality-wise, while Jerry Maguire is not the best movie-quality-wise. Groundhog Day is okay for what it is.
There are also cast/director biographies and filmographies up until 2000.
Closing Thoughts
Perhaps the second best brat pack movie of the 80s (The Breakfast Club, of course, is THE best), St. Elmo's Fire is a wonderful "coming-of-age...now what?" kind of film that is best enjoyed in the company of your closest friends.
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Seven friends, recent college graduates, struggle to find meaning in \real life."Genre: Feature Film-DramaRating: RRelease Date: 29-JUL-2003Media Type: DVD"""
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