Before I dump on this this dated 80's pop yarn, I must admit that it was a huge hit back in 1983. If you haven't seen this yet, just know that this is an indicative example of how a lame and weak drama can have effective allure to the public. At least for the early 1980's which it is so reflective of. Flashdance fits this bill to a T.
To begin, this trite story is about a very young gal who has aspirations of becoming a professional ballet dancer. She is self taught and lives around the Rust belt in Pittsburgh, PA. To make ends meet, she works as a welder by day and moonlights as an exotic dancer in a local night club. Jennifer Beal, in her movie debut, takes on this role, but she is rather genteel and fragile looking to come off as a tough girl who does rugged work. She is shown to have bouts of tantrums, risque behavior and street wisdom. She seems unsuited for this type of character requirement since she is much too young and soft looking. She even looks uncomfortable playing the scenes where she shows aggression. I just learned that she didn't do much dancing at all since the dancing scenes are performed by Body doubles. After close review I can see it now. The scenes where she is practicing to "She's a maniac" only shows her face and her feet in close-ups. The rest of the routine is clearly another person doing all the strenuous movements and stretches. It is clear that the body-double is more muscular and athletic looking than Jennifer Beals, but the dim lighting and edits are done so well that I didn't even notice initially. And this goes for the rest of the dance scenes, which are the highlight of the movie.
Flashdance is a confluence of MTV meets Film drama. It succeeds as the former, but fails as the latter. The ulterior motive was to sell a soundtrack. The plot is very weak and not very involving. The supporting characters are cliche. Beals' character is just not fleshed out enough for us to really care about her personally much. Of course, at the end it's exciting, because we are all waiting for that moment for her to knock her audition out of the park with her exciting dance routine. And that's what we are anticipating. Her love interest, Michael Nouri, is bland and doesn't reveal much about why he decides to go for her, other than he's thrilled at watching her dance. But the love story angle, her work angle and the little drama at the bar are just not believable and somewhat muffled in their delivery. They just don't add any appeal to this movie. Did I also mention that being a welder is a dangerous job that requires skill and intensive training. It is virtually impossible that an 18 year old girl can just walk in and learn this so quickly. And the percentage of women in that profession must be under 1%.
Flashdance fits in the same genre with movies like "Fame". This whole craze about young people working on their passions and fulfilling their dreams of becoming singers, actors, musicians and dancers is what inspires this. The film throws in these little subplots of how people are aspiring to be performers. Her friends at the nightclub: a cook/comedian, ice-skater, etc. And how these people are struggling. But the main character is determined and good enough to succeed. The drama, characters and the overall progression is not involving enough and is actually boring until we get to our finale of her acing her audition and running outside to leap into her boyfriend's arms with that signature 1980's freeze frame. It's all so cheesey, but it's as satisfying as an ending as we could get.
To its credit, the dance scenes are pretty good and exhilarating enough to hold our attention. I could also credit Flashdance for being innovative in that it attempts to achieve the Cinderella story with a touch of Rocky. But it really is just a 1980's chick flick.
To begin, this trite story is about a very young gal who has aspirations of becoming a professional ballet dancer. She is self taught and lives around the Rust belt in Pittsburgh, PA. To make ends meet, she works as a welder by day and moonlights as an exotic dancer in a local night club. Jennifer Beal, in her movie debut, takes on this role, but she is rather genteel and fragile looking to come off as a tough girl who does rugged work. She is shown to have bouts of tantrums, risque behavior and street wisdom. She seems unsuited for this type of character requirement since she is much too young and soft looking. She even looks uncomfortable playing the scenes where she shows aggression. I just learned that she didn't do much dancing at all since the dancing scenes are performed by Body doubles. After close review I can see it now. The scenes where she is practicing to "She's a maniac" only shows her face and her feet in close-ups. The rest of the routine is clearly another person doing all the strenuous movements and stretches. It is clear that the body-double is more muscular and athletic looking than Jennifer Beals, but the dim lighting and edits are done so well that I didn't even notice initially. And this goes for the rest of the dance scenes, which are the highlight of the movie.
Flashdance is a confluence of MTV meets Film drama. It succeeds as the former, but fails as the latter. The ulterior motive was to sell a soundtrack. The plot is very weak and not very involving. The supporting characters are cliche. Beals' character is just not fleshed out enough for us to really care about her personally much. Of course, at the end it's exciting, because we are all waiting for that moment for her to knock her audition out of the park with her exciting dance routine. And that's what we are anticipating. Her love interest, Michael Nouri, is bland and doesn't reveal much about why he decides to go for her, other than he's thrilled at watching her dance. But the love story angle, her work angle and the little drama at the bar are just not believable and somewhat muffled in their delivery. They just don't add any appeal to this movie. Did I also mention that being a welder is a dangerous job that requires skill and intensive training. It is virtually impossible that an 18 year old girl can just walk in and learn this so quickly. And the percentage of women in that profession must be under 1%.
Flashdance fits in the same genre with movies like "Fame". This whole craze about young people working on their passions and fulfilling their dreams of becoming singers, actors, musicians and dancers is what inspires this. The film throws in these little subplots of how people are aspiring to be performers. Her friends at the nightclub: a cook/comedian, ice-skater, etc. And how these people are struggling. But the main character is determined and good enough to succeed. The drama, characters and the overall progression is not involving enough and is actually boring until we get to our finale of her acing her audition and running outside to leap into her boyfriend's arms with that signature 1980's freeze frame. It's all so cheesey, but it's as satisfying as an ending as we could get.
To its credit, the dance scenes are pretty good and exhilarating enough to hold our attention. I could also credit Flashdance for being innovative in that it attempts to achieve the Cinderella story with a touch of Rocky. But it really is just a 1980's chick flick.