MovieChat Forums > St. Elmo's Fire (1985) Discussion > Which Character Do You Detest The Most?

Which Character Do You Detest The Most?

posted 10 years ago by Goatlips
22 replies | jump to latest

I'm not sure who's the most horrible of the lot. They all display immoral behaviour - some even seem to be amoral psychopaths.

At first, Rob Lowe takes a clear lead by being instantly detestable.
Then, once you realise he makes no attempt to hide it you have to question the others for being his friend - NB: 'You are known by the company you keep.'
Your attention is then drawn to Demi Moore who is probably the most self-centered of them all - she clearly cares only about herself and again makes it hard to believe the others are her friends (especially as she sounds like Marge Simpson).
Emilio Estevez enters the fray and quickly displays dangerous stalking behaviour, which suggests he's the one who's the biggest danger to others - and doesn't he tell (Dr) Andie MacDowell he's studying law and later switches to medicine? I know stalking wasn't a thing in 1985, but I'm fairly sure turning up uninvited to someone's private love shack, when they're there with someone else, was still disturbing behaviour.
As for Andie MacDowell - she doesn't even bat an eyelid throughout his demented actions and encourages him and teases him like he's a joke. Is she a psycho too?
Judd Nelson seems like the rock of the group, only to then reveal his unashamed promiscuity and sexual exploits that only normally occur in the plots of porn movies. All while trying to get Ally Sheedy to marry him out of some illogical belief that being stuck with one woman forever will make him want other women less. Promiscuity is a trait of psycopathy too.
As soon as Sheedy and Nelson break up, that very night we see his 'friend' Andrew McCarthy swoop in like a vulture to move in on her - his 'true love' for her clearly being more important than any thoughts that basically date-raping the drunk and vulnerable girl might be wrong.
But, hey, it's ok! Turns out that Sheedy just used McCarthy for revenge sex on Nelson and then makes them both her puppets.
Even Mare Winningham, the timid, plain Jane behaves in ways that makes it clear she overrates herself. She uses and leads on some Jewish lad just to get a car from daddy, all whilst lusting after married (with baby) scumbag Rob Lowe, who's admittedly ridiculously handsome, but offers nothing else (no one likes saxophone). Even when she loses Lowe she shows zero emotion.
The characters (yeah, I don't know their names) are all psychos! The writers expected people to care about these people in 1985?
...Anyway, I'm actually going with Ally Sheedy as being my most detested character - she actually makes an effort to use and hurt people, whilst hiding her true horrible nature throughout the film till that point.
...My outrage is 30 years late. Maybe I need a lie down.
4/10 (the acting & music was ok).

[–] joetigersfan 10 years ago

I'm voting for Andrew McCarthy as the most annoying. His constant cynicism-"i hate life, love sucks, marriage doesn't work"- was incessant. Not to mention that ever present cigarette between his lips.

[–] cabananthony2 10 years ago

Im surprised that Wendy (Mare Winningham) gave her virginity to that "man-whore" Billy (Rob Lowe.) I know she was in love with him but when he said to her something about it being a "going away present." Ugh.

[–] nativenewyorker88 10 years ago

That was pretty putrid and lame. That said, this is some silly movie with cardboard characters. And a comedy to boot, so I wouldn't delve too deeply into their characters. They're caricatures, not real people. I wouldn't take the movie all that seriously.

[–] Whiskeycan 9 years ago

The thing is, it was trying to be serious. It just failed miserably because every character in the movie is shallow, self absorbed, & utterly unlikable. And the writing is absurd.

That being said, I love every minute of this horrible piece of dreck.

[–] muzhik_dva 8 years ago

What a great question! Start with some definitions. Douche- a person who is basically hateable. Loser- someone who in essence is pathetic. Douche-loser a person both hateable and pathetic. Alec, Billy, Kirby, Jules are all douches. Wendy is a loser. But the Andrew McCarthy character is a horrible douche-loser. Self important git who porks his best friend's GF and thinks the public wants to read his essay on the meaning of life. He really needed to be punched out!

[–] Reebiebaby64 10 years ago

With out a doubt, Alec. He screws around like crazy, then tosses Leslie's out when she confronts him. Then all he does is whine, "if I could only get her back."
Plus, he resembles my ex-husband. That alone makes me hate him.

[–] wstock70 10 years ago

Alec and Leslie both!! Ugh!! I at least got a kick outta the rest of them. I saw this in 1985 when I was 15 and wished I had this post college life! I think the main reason they are detestable to us is because we don't see the college life they had before this. Then maybe we'd get it.

[–] morningfixx 9 years ago

Female: Demi Moore's character, Jules. Utterly detestable. They should've let her freeze.

Male: Alec. Stereotypical politician.

I loved the movie when I was a teenager, idealizing their lifestyle, but deplore it now as an adult woman.

[–] crypticanomaly73 9 years ago

Saw some of this film again recently and just couldn't get over Alex or Judd Nelson to be precise, it's like watching his character from The Breakfast Club play at being a politician.

Sometimes a movie or tv show plot is so stupid that only the stupid can understand it.

[–] SpiceTea 8 years ago

Beautiful rant. "Which Character Do You Detest Most?" is the question of the ages, word choice totally appropriate.

I hate them all. Mare Winningham would have been slightly less hateful except for mooning over the indiscriminately promiscuous pretty boy Rob Lowe character, who apparently sleeps with anything female, and saving her first sex with him under the absurd pretense that he feels an iota of genuine romantic inclination back towards her.

Speaking of indiscriminately promiscuous characters, the Rob Lowe fails with his baby mama, tries to friend-rape Demi Moore, fails at that, and then seduces virginal Mare W.

Then there's Ally Sheedy who breaks off her live in relationship with Judd Nelson because he slept with someone else and hid it, then turns around and initiates meaningless (for her) sex with Judd's roommate and friend lovestruck Andrew McCarthy whom she promptly dumps because she just needed an ego boost /roll in the hay. Hypocrite much?

Andrew McCarthy is so self-entitled in his mooning over Ally Sheedy that we can't stomach him. He lets people go about thinking he's gay so he can feel sorry for himself that he's too cowardly to tell her how he feels. Then he writes an article which realistically no one could care about and is smug over it.

Detest Emilio Estevez for being a self-entitled stalker. Sniffing Andie MacDowell's pillows, throwing a tantrum when she (a doctor on call) leaves their date early after being called to the hospital, getting a job with a rich guy and throwing a party at rich guy's house without permission expressly for the purpose of coercing Andie to go, inviting her to your party with the expectation and demand that she'll show up, pitching a fit when she elects not to attend and following her to her hideaway in the mountains, interrupting her having sex, kissing her forcefully, saying "Later, Dude" to her boyfriend whilst driving off in a junky car. Just a prat.

Detest Andie MacDowell for not telling Emilio Estevez "Hey, I'm not interested but thanks" and for later succumbing to his forced kiss especially with her boyfriend just around the corner.

Detest Judd Nelson for being Judd Nelson. After this and Breakfast Club he will be forever typecast for me as an insufferable blowhard.

Hmm who have I missed?

There's so much hate to spread around; sorry I can't answer your question.

[–] daverindone 8 years ago

I can't say I hate Alec because of Judd Nelson whereas I actually paid for and sat through Blue City over 30 years ago. And hey - it had Ally Sheedy! We also sat through St. Elmo's back then and I remember not liking Alec at all. The only two the character had going was perpetually helping Billy getting a job and highhandedly coming to Demi Moore's rescue in the face of potentially drug fueled Arab types (I wonder how many people would try that these days without an armed response team behind them).

I've had friends like him and have worked with Alec types, all have been insufferable dicks. Right from the start, he's trying to coerce an arresting officer after he was clearly and admittedly at fault. The cop telling him to basically piss off was one of the better part of the movie. When's he's not admonishing one of his best friends about losing a job or dunking said guy's head in a public toilet, he's alternating between telling his would-be finance to be on her best behavior, banging random sales clerks and switching political sides for his own personal gain. When he kinda-fiance then has a one night stand, he not only throws her out. hoards her best albums, abuses a football, sulks in his PJ's and nearly murders the guy she had sex with.

Oh yeah, he blows off one last round at the Fire in liue of brunch. Dick.

[–] legnadibrom (6485) 4 years ago

the stalker angle in this movie is hilarious,
the things Emilio does & says are straight out of a 90's suspense thriller:

confronts woman at hospital while she's working about a date they had 4 years prior

shows up to the restaurant for their new date over 2 hours early, just so he can get the table he wants & to study the menu while consulting over the phone about which wine to order, as well as circling the items he wants on the paper menu

changes his post-grad studies from attorney to doctor because this woman is a doctor

then discards his doctor idea & gets some kind of assistant's job for a wealthy business man because he thinks instant money is the answer according to an off-the-cuff comment the woman makes

stakes out her home, follows her to a swanky party in the rain, then crashes the event in a big confrontation with her where he tells her in front of a room of her peers that he's obsessed with her...cut to next scene where she has let him into her apartment (!) where he sniffs her pillow while her roommate watches him with concern

sets up a big party at the businessman's home, without permission, for the woman & when she doesn't show, he calls the hospital to see if the woman was working or was called into work on an emergency (& was given answer by the clerk, something unbelievable in today's world)

his party trashes his employer's home

he storms off to her apartment & demands to be let into the building where her roommate yells out the window at him, he demands to know where the woman is & the roommate actually tells him!!

drives probably hours to a remote cabin in the snow where the woman is enjoying a weekend with her actual boyfriend

boyfriend & woman actually invite him in to stay & the next morning her grabs her when the BF isn't looking & plants a big passionate smooch on her & leaves

- i'd love to see an interview with Emilio & hear what he would say about this role nowadays

[–] stevenackerman69 8 years ago

For me, it was Rob Lowe as that drunk musician. He had a marriage and a child that he didn't care enough about. Judge Joey would've ripped him a new one for screwing around and *beep* everyone. Because of this role, I am not a fan of this actor.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Rob Lowe for the simple reason that he's still irresponsible even as a parent. While each character turns out to be pretty unlikable he's the one who's put someone else in harm's way who had no choice in the matter.