The Vern posts on SpinOff Blogathon by Cinematic Corner.

There is a fun new blogathon going on in these here interwebs, and it’s being hosted by Sati of Cinematic Corner.  The basic premise is to take a minor or supporting character in a movie or TV show that doesn’t have a lot of screen time and shine a bigger spotlight on them.   Check out her post about Beth Macintyre from “Black Swan” by clicking the link below, and check out the comments to read the other great posts for this blogathon as well as the rules if you wanna submit your own entry.

The Cinematic Corner: Spin-Off Blogathon

My choice for this article features a character from one of my favorite movies of all time.  “Heathers“.(click link to read my review)  She was a part of the most popular clique at Westerburg High, but is rarely seen nor do others talk about her as much.  My choice is Heather McNamara.  Also known as the Cheerleader one.

“Heathers” is about a group of popular girls at Westerburg High and how they humiliate others to reign supreme of the school.  Veronica Sawyer(Winona Ryder), a girl from the same clique becomes so disgusted with their behavior that she vows to take them all down.  It’s fortunate that she had met JD(Christian Slater) because if she hadn’t.  I don’t think she would have found any inspiration to try and change things.  Now it’s true that their methods of changing the social structure of adolescence was a bit unorthodox.  Yet by doing so they were able to expose this need or want for fame that everyone eventually desires.  Heather Chandler(Kim Walker),Heather Duke(Shannon Doherty), and even Veronica all want to be the head person of their school.  Veronica even has that line to Heather Duke at the end that she is the new sheriff in town.  Letting the audience know
that she is in fact the new leader.  But there is one member of the group that doesn’t get talked about much, and her story is a lot more tragic then what was displayed on film.  That girl’s name is  Heather McNamara(Lisanne Falk).

Before she entered high school Heather McNamara was as popular as Betty Finn is now.  She was never confident in herself because she never looked like any of the other girls at her Junior High.  Since her parents were poor, all of the clothes she wore were hand downs from her older brother.  She owned at least 3 pairs of bras and panties that did not match, and she could only wash them every two weeks at most.  All of the other kids teased her because of her looks while at school.  But only one of them drove her to the point of her cutting herself.  That girl was named Heather Chandler and she couldn’t stand this other Heather.  Why was there another girl in her junior high that had the same name as her, but looked the way she did. It was unfair that she exists in the same planet much less the same school.  After Miss Chandler played a really cruel prank on Miss McNamara where she paid one of the cute boys in class to pretend to flirt with her.  She finds her in the bathroom passed out on the floor. Laying by her side was a bottle of sleeping pills and a note.  Knowing full well that she will be blamed for this if she dies.  Heather C quickly gets a hold of her father’s doctor to have him come by the school and help out. She quickly drags the passed out Heather into a stall and tells the others that their classmate is not feeling well, but that she will stay and help her.  The doctors eventually come and they help revive the sick and near dying girl.  Since then, Heather C begins to take an interest in Heather M.  She takes her shopping and gets her some really nice clothes.  She introduces her to some of the more popular kids in school, and by doing so.  Heather M starts to have more and more confidence.  She  even convinces her father, Mr. Chandler to give Mr. McNamara a job at his office so that Heather M will never be poor again. They became the most popular girls at the junior High and were now ready to go and conquer high school.  Our once poor and sad Heather is happy that she finally belongs somewhere and has a friend.  Our other one is glad to have someone she can easily control.

****Spoiler***** The following paragraph will give away some plot details about the movie “Heathers“.  I know the movie is old but there may be one person
who has not seen it and I don’t want any angry comments.

When Veronica Sawyer was first introduced to the group.  Heather McNamara didn’t fully like her.  To her she felt like a fake because she talked to many students who were considered the dweebs and nerds of Westerburg High.  She thought that it was ridiculous to have her join the most popular clique when she socializes with the scum of the school.  The real truth about the situation was that she was just jealous that people liked Veronica more then her.  Back in Junior High when she was being teased.  There was one girl named Martha who did stand up for her,but she never once acknowledged it or even said thanks.  Martha was considered to be more of an outcast then her, and if she was seen being friends with someone like that.  It would give others more fuel to burn her with, and she didn’t want to give anyone the match.  Even if there was someone that she did like or  could talk to.  If Heather Chandler thought they were losers.  She never gave them a second glance.  There was no way she would go back to a life of being alone.  Not ever again.   She wants very much to be liked, but has the hard time keeping her emotions at bay when talking to someone.  That is why when Heather Chandler turns up dead after committing suicide.  It puts her whole world into an upheaval.

In her suicide note.  Heather C mentions that she was only pretending to be happy and carefree.   When in reality she was actually feeling really  sad and depressed.   This really confuses Heather M because for years she was the one who has felt tremendous loneliness and pain.  Never once did she see her friend display any type of warning signs that she was the one who felt upset. She begins thinking that maybe she made the wrong choices with friends if they are just going to leave you by yourselves. She becomes really scared that without Heather C around to tell her what to wear and who to talk to, she’ll go back to being just another nobody that everybody teases and makes fun of.  Heather Duke use to be the shy quiet one, and she liked that about her.  But now she’s becoming exactly what Veronica says about her in her diary.  Heather Chandler’s head was cut off, and Heather Duke’s head just pops back up in it’s place.  Right before the suicide, Heather M and Veronica have become good friends and she could talk more openly to her then the other girls in the group.   She was the only person who knew that she still cut herself from time to time, and she could always rely on her to help out with things like a double date with the school’s two football heroes.  Kurt Kelly and Ram.

After they go to a pasture to tip some cows.  Both Kurt and Ram try and convince the girls to have sex with them.  Veronica quickly escapes and hooks up with JD, but Heather M ends up staying and has sex with both of them.  She has had sex with each guy before, but they were at different times, and they were not all together.  She didn’t want to, but there was no way she was going to be called names if she didn’t.  She tried that once after a Remington party, and the backlash got to be so bad she overdosed on sleeping pills again.   So when Kurt and Ram were found dead after a double suicide.  This  drove our little cheerleader to a near meltdown.  Not only was their death committed just a few days after they had sex, but they were found out to be gay lovers too.  She knew that it was empty sex and could almost be considered as rape, but she thought that at least they found her pretty enough to wanna have sex with.  Now it turns out that the whole time they were into each other and not her.   She couldn’t take it anymore and goes to the bathroom to try and kill herself again.  Veronica stops her in time and they have a nice conversation about how suicide is not the answer and that she should go on living.  The crises may be averted but I don’t think that Heather McNamara  is completely safe from harm.    She is not as strong as Heather Duke nor does she have a great support system like Veronica Sawyer.  It would be great if she could learn to  love herself, but I’m afraid that’s an impossibility.  It’s unknown what she will do with her life after high school, but I hope she can be happy.

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