Flashdance (1983)

Tagline: Every day, she works in a man's world. Every night, she dances through the universe that is her dream.

Picture an 18-year-old girl living on her own in Pittsburgh: metal welder by day and exotic dancer by night. But! She has big dreams of getting into a prestigious ballet school. Oh, and she lives in an old warehouse and has a pit-bull. Well, then you’ve just pictured Flashdance.

I have to say, for so much hype surrounding this film, I was utterly surprised to find that it was ridiculously bad. Sure, I was pleasantly surprised to find a pretty girl, Alex Owens, working in a man’s blue-collar world, but then it just took a huge turn. Alex goes and dances her little heart out (she, you know, strips her clothes off while she’s at it) and catches the eye of Nick Hurley, her daytime job boss.

Well, that just about did it for me. I figured Alex and Nick would get together and her dance aspirations would come to fruition. I thought Alex and Nick’s relationship killed her independence. She was doing just fine before Nick entered the picture, yet after a little persuading, they start dating and having sex. I believe that their relationship was not truly romantic or based on love and trust, rather it was based on sex, which devalues Alex and the independence she so obviously had at the beginning of the film.

It annoyed me that Nick got her the dance audition she needed; she was never given the chance to land the audition on her own. The audition itself was more comedy than drama, with the drastic change her dancing evokes on the panel of judges. I laughed out loud.

There were a few moments of “Wow, that was atrocious acting” in the film. One was certainly not meant to show how dreadful Jennifer Beals is at showing emotion – she sheds one solitary tear… The dancing was alright, from a 2011 audience member, I have had 28 more years of dance moves to contend with and I saw nothing special in Flashdance.

I rephrase my last statement to include the entire film. I saw nothing special in Flashdance.

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