Flashdance Is The Ultimate Guilty Pleasure Classic

Rating: 7/10 (13 October 2011)

Flashdance probably launched the guilty pleasure classics of the 1980's for which future dance movies such as Footloose and Dirty Dancing followed suit.It was smashed by the critics at the time of its release due to many formulaic movies themes applied to it but it managed to gross more than $100 million at the box office.
The movie was the first collaboration between Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer,the producers of Tom Cruise movies,Top Gun and Days Of Thunder.It stars Jennifer Beals as Alex,a Pittsburgh woman with two jobs as a welder and an exotic dancer wants to get into ballet school.The other stars in the film includes Michael Nouri and Lilia Skala.The film was directed by Adrian Lyne.
The story involves teen-age Alexandra "Alex" Owens works as a welder at a steel mill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the day, and as a dancer at Mawby's bar in the evenings. She lives alone in a converted warehouse with her pet dog, Grunt. Despite a lack of formal dance training, she aspires to be accepted by a prestigious dance school, the fictional Pittsburgh Conservatory of Dance and Repertory. During one of her performances at Mawby's, she attracts the interest of Nick Hurley (Michael Nouri), her boss at the steel mill, and he learns that Alex is one of his employees.
Alex goes to the Conservatory to ask for an application form for an audition, but runs out of the building when she realizes that since she lacks formal training and professional experience, she would have to leave much of the form blank. Alex's dance teacher and mentor is a retired ballet dancer named Hanna Long (Lilia Skala), who encourages Alex to pursue her dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer.
After Jeanie falls twice while auditioning for an ice show, she loses confidence in herself and becomes a dancer at The Zanzibar, where she performs in the nude, and Alex goes to the strip club to rescue Jeanie. Alex and Nick become lovers, but he has an ex-wife named Katie (Belinda Bauer), and they have a hostile encounter in a local restaurant. Nick uses his contacts at the Conservatory to secure an audition. Just before the audition, Alex goes to Hanna's house and learns that she has died. At the audition, Alex falls at the beginning of her routine, but starts over and completes the routine successfully. In the final scene, Alex runs out of the Conservatory building with a smile on her face and is hugged by Nick, who gives her a bouquet of red roses. She gives a rose to him, and the film ends with a freeze frame. The ending of the film does not say directly whether Alex wins a place at the Conservatory as a result of her audition.
The movie is characterized,just like what I've said in the first paragraph by numerous elements of guilty pleasures that a viewers seeks in an entertaining movie such as romance,teen-age memories,formulaic themes,predictability,interesting characters, great choreographed dance scenes, and sequences in the style of music videos.Aside from that,it has many memorable original 80's songs classics such as "Maniac" by Michael Sembello;"Lady, Lady, Lady", by Joe Esposito; "Gloria" and "Imagination" by Laura Branigan; "I'll Be Here Where The Heart Is" by Kim Carnes and the Academy Award-winning "Flashdance... What a Feeling" by Irene Cara.Of course,the final dance scene at the audition is also worth the mention.
In terms of acting,Jennifer Beals shines in her film debut as Alex.She gives an electrifying performance despite the lack of depth given to her character.Also,she is very engaging as we do care for her character to succeed in her aspirations as a dancer.
Overall,Flashdance can be considered as the ultimate guilty pleasure classic.It was made not to please the critics but to please the audience who wants to relax and would prefer not to go into deep thinking but rather seek pure entertainment when watching a movie.With this objective,the movie delivers.