Flatliners (1990)What youth lacks in experience, it tries to compensate for with earnestness, often falling prey to arrogance instead. Flatliners (1990) is a psychological thriller about a group of gifted medical students with a healthy dose of confidence in their abilities. One of these talented, young doctors named Nelson Wright (Kiefer Sutherland) considers it his imperative to discover if there is life after death, and only first hand experience will do. After convincing his clique of clinicians to revive him after "flatlining", Nelson begins experiencing disturbing and violent phenomena--like he brought something from the other side back with him.
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Each of these competitive medical students is driven past the point of discretion, most apparent in their "bidding war" to see which one of them can outdo the others in how long they can stay "dead"--gambling to satisfy their egos with their very lives. Along with Nelson is Dave Labraccio (Kevin Bacon), a medical virtuoso and self-proclaimed atheist on suspension from school for overstepping his authority to save a dying patient in the ER. Nelson recruits the craven, self-aggrandizing Randy Steckle (Oliver Platt) and womanizing lothario, Joe Hurley (William Baldwin)--who both have a propensity to record their favorite subjects--to aid him in his choreographed dance with death, along with the aloof yet attractive Rachel Manus (Julia Roberts). On a dark night mere days before Halloween, the five students convene in a deserted building adorned with classical Greek architecture and frescoes depicting Prometheus stealing fire from Mount Olympus--a pointed metaphor since Nelson intends to pluck the keys to the undiscovered country from under God's nose. Flatliners conveys constant feelings of death throughout, with few instances of daylight; Nelson stares out over the waters from one of the city's piers at sunrise, and proclaims that it is a "good day to die". What little classroom work the students have uniformly involves them dissecting cadavers in a dimly lit rotunda, as if there were something sinister or forbidden about it. As the quintet continues their ghoulish experiments on subsequent nights, a Halloween bonfire rages outside the building, while a costumed danse macabre is performed on their very doorstep. Several scenes are shot at night, where rain-soaked streets spew steam from sewer grates like the bellows of the underworld. These streets are often abandoned, except for unsavory or dangerous types that lurk in the alleys, giving the city a purgatorial aspect. Several scenes concerning Nelson are lit with a predominance of blue, infusing them with a death-like pallor; conversely, Rachel is forced to contend with her terrors in scenes that are lit with an oppressive red glow. Even the set design seems otherworldly, including Nelson's vast yet barren apartment and Dave's army truck--an unorthodox choice of transportation. Consider the metaphorical implications of Dave's "escape" from his apartment, rappelling down from his second story window, which is situated where an eye would be in the ornate graffiti painted on the side of his building--a soul fleeing through those poetic portals.
Nelson's trip to the other side summons a specter in the form of a young boy named Billy Mahoney (Joshua Rudoy)--a vengeful spirit with a mean right hook, who haunts Nelson for his past sins. Joe instead sees the faces of women he has seduced--despite being engaged--and video taped without their consent on television screens, while Dave envisions a young girl who he picked on as a boy accosting him on the subway. Rachel is swallowed up by her darkest memories of her father (Benjamin Mouton); she discovered that he was addicted to heroin after returning from his tour in Vietnam, and subsequently killed himself out of shame, which her mother blamed her for. Rachel's experience fills her with guilt, because she had recently comforted an elderly patient by claiming that the "other side" was a warm and welcoming place, only to have her most painful memories thrown back in her face. With the exception of Joe, it is suggested that these traumas guided them to a career where they would to "do no harm"; consider how Dave and Rachel are willing to put so much of themselves on the line for the welfare of their patients. Nelson endures profound physical and psychological pain after his crossing, but it's clear that he has been plagued by guilt long before this; after all, it would take someone suicidal to deliberately die and then run the risk of failing to be resuscitated in the first place. Just as the students transition from life to death (and back again), Flatliners explores their shift from childhood to adulthood. It is the acme of pride to believe that they can cheat death--especially on an escalating scale over and over again--which speaks to their fundamental immaturity. Most of their visions of the afterlife depict them as children, or experiencing an initial child-like sense of security. The traumas of their childhood have left them in a state of arrested development, and only by accepting their demons can they be free to graduate into a new life, wiser in their humility.
Recommended for: Fans of a stylish and grim thriller about youth and hubris, and about confronting the sins that we pretend won't haunt us in our darkest hours. Directed by Joel Schumacher, Flatliners features a cast of young actors whose careers would blossom over the years--it could playfully be described as St. Elmo's Fire meets "Frankenstein".
Nelson's trip to the other side summons a specter in the form of a young boy named Billy Mahoney (Joshua Rudoy)--a vengeful spirit with a mean right hook, who haunts Nelson for his past sins. Joe instead sees the faces of women he has seduced--despite being engaged--and video taped without their consent on television screens, while Dave envisions a young girl who he picked on as a boy accosting him on the subway. Rachel is swallowed up by her darkest memories of her father (Benjamin Mouton); she discovered that he was addicted to heroin after returning from his tour in Vietnam, and subsequently killed himself out of shame, which her mother blamed her for. Rachel's experience fills her with guilt, because she had recently comforted an elderly patient by claiming that the "other side" was a warm and welcoming place, only to have her most painful memories thrown back in her face. With the exception of Joe, it is suggested that these traumas guided them to a career where they would to "do no harm"; consider how Dave and Rachel are willing to put so much of themselves on the line for the welfare of their patients. Nelson endures profound physical and psychological pain after his crossing, but it's clear that he has been plagued by guilt long before this; after all, it would take someone suicidal to deliberately die and then run the risk of failing to be resuscitated in the first place. Just as the students transition from life to death (and back again), Flatliners explores their shift from childhood to adulthood. It is the acme of pride to believe that they can cheat death--especially on an escalating scale over and over again--which speaks to their fundamental immaturity. Most of their visions of the afterlife depict them as children, or experiencing an initial child-like sense of security. The traumas of their childhood have left them in a state of arrested development, and only by accepting their demons can they be free to graduate into a new life, wiser in their humility.
Recommended for: Fans of a stylish and grim thriller about youth and hubris, and about confronting the sins that we pretend won't haunt us in our darkest hours. Directed by Joel Schumacher, Flatliners features a cast of young actors whose careers would blossom over the years--it could playfully be described as St. Elmo's Fire meets "Frankenstein".