I re-watched 'St. Elmo's Fire' for its 40th anniversary and it definitely hits different

Forty years ago this week, the Brat Pack—chock full of fluorescent pink legwarmers, tweed jackets, skinny ties, and, for some reason, saxophones—strolled into many of our lives. That's right, it's the 40th anniversary of the Joel Schumacher-directed movie St. Elmo's Fire. And if you think some aspects of John Hughes films didn't hold up—hold Rob Lowe's beer.

There's still a lot of nostalgia to love about this dramedy/romance centering around seven best friends just after graduating from Georgetown University. As a Gen X mega fan who was a tween when this movie first hit theaters, it changed the way I (and many of us) viewed what being a 20-something might look like: lots of love, parties, and ridiculously bad decisions.

Like the Hughes written-and -directed film The Breakfast Club (which was released about eight months prior), Elmo's plays into main-character archetypes. In this case: Billy, the Peter Pan party boy (Rob Lowe); Wendy, the frumpy goody-goody (Mare Winningham); Jules, the troubled sex-pot (Demi Moore); Alec, the edgy politico (Judd Nelson); Kevin, the cynical writer (Andrew McCarthy); Leslie, the sweet girl next door (Ally Sheedy); and last, but far from least, Kirby, the obsessive romantic (Emilio Estevez).

Some might ask, why would these people even be friends? Good question, and it's answered in one simple but poignant line of dialogue: "Sometimes I wonder if we hadn't been put in the same dorm, would we have both met other people?"

The film was re-released in limited theaters to celebrate its anniversary, and I just had to re-live all of my childhood crushes one more time on the big screen. Shockingly, there were only about ten of us in the small theater. And watching now as an aging adult after all these years? Well, I have some notes.

Let's start with the good news: The minute I heard David Foster's opening theme music, I was transported back to my tattered, yellow journal where I had scribbled the lyrics, "We laughed until we had to cry. We loved right down to our last goodbye." Couldn't be cheesier if it tried, but then it was the 80s. Wrapped in glitter and bangle bracelets, it was a time. But like all nostalgia, it has a tendency to filter out the shadows underneath the sunny parts. But we'll come back to that.

Jules’s pink apartment, complete with Billy Idol sketched on the wall in lights, totally holds up. (If that's not brought back into future decorating schemes, I don't know what should be.) The fashion—from Kirby's suspenders to Kevin's trench coat—is ten out of ten. And the scene wherein Alec and Leslie are arguing over their record collection is perfection. "You can have all the Billy Joels. Except The Stranger."

But there are definitely some messy issues which made it, to quote Lowe's Billy, "out of hand." For one, it glorified stalking. Kirby, that aforementioned romantic, relentlessly crept on his love interest Dale Bieberman (Andie MacDowell) to the point of discomfort. Sure, it was a masterclass in limerence, but it was presented in such a cutesy way that it just felt plain odd.

Andrew McCarthy and Emilio Estevez discuss the meaning of life in St. Elmo's Fire www.youtube.com, Sony Pictures

Also, my younger self watched in awe of Rob Lowe's pretty face, even though he was quite literally a terrible character. I remember thinking, "Wendy is so lucky she gets to be with him!" Funny what clarity a 40-year lens will bring. Now my first thought—for all of the women in the film—was, "RUN. This man is dangerous."

And speaking of Lowe's Billy, there's a hilarious scene where he plays his saxophone, seemingly for five minutes straight without taking a break. All the while he's wearing a sleeveless yellow shirt with bats on it, because of course he is. Outrageous.

Rob Lowe plays the sax for a long time in St. Elmo's Fire. www.youtube.com, Sony Pictures

On a recent subreddit r/GenX, someone bluntly posted, "St. Elmo's Fire is horrible." This garnered over 1.4 thousand comments after the OP mentioned the overt racism, homophobia, and misogyny. Some argue there are moments worth savoring, with one person jokingly writing, "Stalking was a COMPLIMENT in the 80s."

Of a famous line read by Moore's character, someone notes, "'I never thought I'd be so TIRED at 22.' Girl, you're rich and going through coke withdrawals. You're gonna be fine."

This person has fond memories of that line specifically: "I’m 57. This movie got me through my terrible early years by imagining I would someday, somehow, be 'cool' and have 'cool friends.' I thought that line was The Best Line in Any Movie (maybe because I, too, was so tired — FROM WORKING). It has stayed with me for all these years; it plays randomly."

Lowe has hinted at a sequel. Perhaps they can fix some of the holes and issues in the script. But at the very least, I hope Billy now has a 40-minute sax solo. Now that would be truly "out of hand."