Product Details

• Actors: Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson
• Directors: Joel Schumacher
• Writers: Joel Schumacher, Carl Kurlander
• Producers: Bernard Schwartz, Lauren Shuler Donner, Ned Tanen
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Portuguese (Unknown), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), French (Unknown)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Georgian, Chinese, Thai
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: November 20, 2001
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (126 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005Q799
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,624 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "St. Elmo's Fire" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Seven friends, recent college graduates, struggle to find meaning in \real life."
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 29-JUL-2003
Media Type: DVD"""

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Blu-ray: Much more entertaining to watch this time around. May not be the definitive 25th anniversary release but looks great!, August 11, 2009

By 

Dennis A. Amith (kndy) (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: St. Elmo's Fire [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

The mid-80's was about conservatism, Reaganomics, Miami Vice and a time where people were not fully aware about AIDS and were thinking more about working together to bring food to Africa. This was the sign of the times and for director Joel Schumacher ("The Lost Boys", "Flatliners", "Batman Forever", "8MM", etc.), while he was working on his second film "D.C. Cab", during a short stay at Georgetown, he observed graduating college students at Georgetown University and wondered how miserable some of them maybe, of having to graduate but now become adults.

It was right there and then that Schumacher wanted to make a film based on these type of college graduates who face problems of transitioning to adulthood. In order to capture the life of a young adults graduating college, Schumacher tapped into recent college graduate, Karl Kurlander ("Saved by the Bell: The New Class" and "Malibu, CA") and together they began working on "St. Elmo's Fire". Schumacher had renown musician and producer David Foster (who wrote major hit songs for "Karate Kid, Part II", "Sleepless in Seattle", "The Bodyguard", etc.) working on his first film as a composer and cinematographer Stephn H. Burm ("The Untouchables", "Snake Eyes", "Mystery Men", etc.).

But what the film would be known for is the cast in which David Blum of New Yorker Magazine would dub as "The Brat Pack", a title that would be synonymous with Hollywood's popular young talents: Emilio Estevez ("Breakfast Club", "The Mighty Ducks" films and "Young Guns" films), Rob Lowe ("The West Wing", "Brothers & Sisters", "About Last Night...", etc.), Andrew McCarthy ("Lipstick Jungle", "Weekend at Bernies" and "The Joy Luck Club"), Demi Moore ("Indecent Proposal", "G.I. Jane", "Ghost", etc.), Judd Nelson ("Breakfast Club", "Airheads", "Suddenly Susan", etc.), Ally Sheedy ("Kyle XY", "The Breakfast Club", "Oxford Blues", "WarGames", etc.) and Mare Winningham ("Clubhouse", "Grey's Anatomy", "Wyatt Earp", etc.).

The film revolves around seven college graduates of Georgetown University who are starting off on their own careers or trying to find a job.

Kirby Keger (Emilio Estevez) - Studying to become a lawyer and works as a waiter at St. Elmo's Bar. He is obsessed with Dale Biberman (Andie McDowell) and will do what it takes to go out on a date with her or to at least be acknowledged by her.

Billy Hicks (Rob Lowe) - A father who is trying to find ways to support his girlfriend and child. But at the same time, he's a playboy that likes to have fun, likes to drink and be with many women. He tries to have a fling with the group's virgin Wendy Beamish (Mare Winningham). A musician who plays the saxophone, he is unable to hold onto a job and is looked as a hero at his college (because of his ability to find drugs and sell them to the students). Tends to think with his penis than his head most of the time.

Kevin Dolenz (Andrew McCarthy) - Lives with Kirby, a writer, always smoking and the quiet one of the group. Tend to be seen as a homosexual because he doesn't go after women publicly and even looked by his own friends as possibly a gay man who hasn't come out of the closet. Kevin is in love with someone but isn't telling. His friend Jules thinks Kevin is in love with Alec.

Jules (Demi Moore) - The socialite sporting the latest fashions and always partying. The carefree friend but behind-the-scenes, things are not as rosy with her life as it would it seem.

Alec Newbary (Judd Nelson) - The future politician who ran the Young Democrats in college and now works for a Republican. Dates Leslie and wants her to marry him in order for him to end his desires of sleeping with other women. The friend that others looked up to for leadership.

Leslie Hunter (Ally Sheedy) - The architect who is dating Alec. The friend that is level headed but is not sure she wants to get married just yet and wants to establish her own career.

Wendy Beamish (Mare Winningham) - The wealthy daughter and the virgin. She is attracted to Billy but gets upset when he keeps asking her if she's still a virgin. Her father pressures her on how to live her life and that she should marry a guy from a wealthy family for the purpose of a family/business transaction.

The film focuses on these seven friends and how they thought that after graduating college, their friendship would continue to be strong and they would be together. But all learn that as they grow older and focus on their careers, their life as a group and as friends will start to change.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

"St. Elmo's Fire" gets its HD treatment via 1080p High Definition. For the most part, the positive is that the film looks much better than many 80's films that tend to receive a lot of DNR and overall look too soft and are devoid of colors. With "St. Elmo's Fire", there are lot of colors and scenes such as Jules pink and red apartment that look vibrant but at the same time, there was some banding that can be seen prominently in Jules apartment (towards the end of the film when Billy is talking to her) and some darker scenes with light emitting. Granted, if you are sitting far from your television, this won't be as noticeable. In fact, I didn't catch these until I rewatched certain scenes during my testing and saw the artifacts when I was 3-4 ft. away. But for the most part, the picture quality was satisfactory, considering this film didn't have much of a budget.

As for audio, the film is featured in English, French and Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital) and the film is primarily a dialogue driven film. Dialogue is understandable and clear. And of course, David Foster's "Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire" and the other 80's music featured on the soundtrack comes alive during the film. There are some scenes especially at the bar that utilize the ambiance of a crowded room and is heard through the surrounds but for the most part, this film is driven by its characters and its soundtrack.

As for subtitles, English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese are included.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

St. Elmo's Fire comes with the following special features:

* Commentary with Director Joel Schumacher - The commentary by Joel Schumacher at the most part is quite informative and sets up the scenes, working with talent and for the most part, Schumacher really goes in depth about the film and the people he worked with on the making of the film. A lot of the commentary is similar to what he discusses in the "Joel Schumacher Remembers St. Elmo's Fire" featurette.
* Joel Schumacher Remembers St. Elmo's Fire - (14:21) The following is a Blu-ray exclusive and director Joel Schumacher talks about how the talents were cast for their roles, how the term "brat pack" started, how no studios wanted to do the film and despite the negative critic reviews, the audiences were very supportive of the film. Overall, a wonderful retrospective by Joel Schumacher. If anything, the discussion of how the talents were cast for the film, especially Demi Moore was quite interesting. Also, his disdain towards the term "brat pack".
* Original Making of Featurette - (8:43) A featurette from 1985 featuring interviews with the talents and how Rob Lowe had to learn how to play the saxophone in a short amount of time for this film and interview with director Joel Schumacher.
* Music Video: John Parr - "Man in Motion" - (4:21) The original music video in standard definition of "Man in Motion" featuring John Parr (and the talent from "St. Elmo's Fire").
* Deleted Scenes - (15:41) An exclusive for the Blu-ray release (and in standard definition with scratches and dust galore), this section features 12 deleted scenes which include: Too Young, a New Car, How About Lunch, There is No Billy the Kid, The Woman in the Fur Coat, Someone Tell Me What Happened, I'm a Loser, Secret Obsession, Just Pick a Date, A Very Well Dressed Fool, Where is the Defroster and That's My Dad. Although some deleted scenes are quite short, there are a few scenes that get into the relationship of Wendy and her father who is trying to dictate of how she should live her life.
* BD-Live - This blu-ray is BD-Live enabled.

JUDGMENT CALL:

"St. Elmo's Fire" was a film not exactly well respected by critics when it first came out. But the film was part of a string of "Brat Pack" related films that would star these talents along with Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall and would define high school and young adult films in the 1980's.

The film was not well-respected because of the times. These were young adults that were quite liberal during a conservative era and most of them were not being shown in the positive light. These young adults were not perfect and they had their own personal flaws that critics saw as vane and shallow but for audiences, they saw something quite different.

For me, to have all these talents together in one film was just awesome. Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson were just awesome in "Breakfast Club", Rob Lowe in "Oxford Blues", Emilio Estevez in "Repo Man" and "The Outsiders", Mare Winningham appeared on many shows including afterschool specials and Demi Moore was a popular soap star on "General Hospital" years earlier. And of course, for Andrew McCarthy and Andie McDowell, this film would also help put ignite their careers.

And in the 80's, who could not love David Foster's "Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire" or John Parr's "Man in Motion". These were overplayed on the radio and MTV that "St. Elmo's Fire" was literally ingrained into pop culture. And of course, the term "Brat Pack" (as many of them despised the name), for audiences... Read more ›

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the reasons the 80s was...the 80s., April 2, 2006

By 

Escapay The First (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: St. Elmo's Fire (DVD)

A forerunner to Friends and a Brat Pack movie with the most...Brat Packers, St. Elmo's Fire was a romantic comedy that bowed out to theatres in 1985. Seven of the eight stars were in the enviable "Brat Pack" group, young and precocious actors and actresses that were considered the best of the best of their generation. While St. Elmo's Fire is often considered a mellow and almost overblown teen romcom by the starchiest of critics, it's a favorite of many 1980s film lovers.

Summary in 13 words:

Seven college graduates try and struggle with real life, some succeed, some don't.

DVD Details
2.35 Anamorphic Widescreen
5.1 Dolby Digital Surround (English),
2.0 Dolby Surround (Director's Commentary)
English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Thai, Korean Subtitles
Release Date: 1999
Single-Sided Single-Layered Disc
Suggested Retail Price: $14.99
Black Amaray Keepcase

Video and Audio

The video is remarkably clean. The film was issued in the early years of DVD, when most transfers looked more like cable TV quality, but the video here is exceptional. Presented in its original widescreen is always a good thing, and the print quality is great. The colors are vibrant and accurate, and there's little to no grain or dust. One minor complaint would be the main titles, in its unsettling red font, but other than that, the video is great.

Audio is offered in English, but the subtitles are in so many languages that if you wanted, you could learn Chinese by reading the film enough times. It's pretty balanced in terms of dialogue vs. background noise/music.

Bonus Features

A commentary by Joel Schumacher is one of the many audio tracks given on this disc. He does a pretty good job talking about making the movie, including various tidbits about the actors and the story (which he wrote). The guy's pretty good with a microphone. If only he could have done a commentary for his film The Phantom of the Opera in 2004.

A faded and dirt-filled 8-minute EPK about the making of the film is also presented, made at the time the film came out. It has quick interviews with the cast and director, with a narrator talking during much of the behind the scenes footage. Is it an exhaustive documentary? No. Is it a useless 8 minutes of your life taken away? No. It's pretty rewatchable, though a longer more substantial featurette would be welcoming.

"Man in Motion" is the music video that uses the St. Elmo's Fire theme with lyrics. It's got a real 80s look to it, and features most of the cast as well as video clips from the film.

There are four trailers: St. Elmo's Fire, About Last Night, Groundhog Day, and Jerry Maguire. The trailers for St. Elmo's Fire and About Last Night are not the best video-quality-wise, while Jerry Maguire is not the best movie-quality-wise. Groundhog Day is okay for what it is.

There are also cast/director biographies and filmographies up until 2000.

Closing Thoughts

Perhaps the second best brat pack movie of the 80s (The Breakfast Club, of course, is THE best), St. Elmo's Fire is a wonderful "coming-of-age...now what?" kind of film that is best enjoyed in the company of your closest friends.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars my all-time favorite, May 6, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: St Elmo's Fire [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Well, let the critics say what they may. I love this movie. I think it's fabulous.

Quite honestly, I've lost track of the number of times I've seen it; I've worn out two videotapes of it, and am making good headway on my third copy.

And why do I love it? I think the messages in it--about love and loyalty, friendship and betrayal, growing up and growing apart--can be applied to every stage of life. The first time I saw it, I was six years old; it was a "Tuesday Night at the Movies" movie...somehow, it related to my life. Fourteen years later, as a junior in college, it still makes sense. I firmly believe that it still will, years down the line. The actors are fabulous, too.