Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

[MiracleandWonder]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I know that it sounds lame when people say that you just had to be there.

When it comes to Desperately Seeking Susan, though...you just had to be there.

I had just turned 13 years old when Desperately Seeking Susan was released in theaters, and, although I was then old enough to see a PG-13 movie, my parents initially expressed disdain at the idea of my going to see this movie with friends. Madonna had released her Like A Virgin album just four months prior and was quickly establishing her public reputation as a alluring floozy of sorts who liked to push the envelope of good taste. In the end, my parents just sort of rolled their eyes, laughed, and let me go to the movie on release night with the other neighborhood kids.

Desperately Seeking Susan is just like Madonna's videos and public persona in that it is titillating enough to get attention, but it never ventures into the full realm of any sort of explicitness or controversy. It's actually a fun and good-natured little 1980s comedy along the same lines as innocuous films like Mannequin or Once Bitten. There's a distinct sort of coolness to the movie that I've always liked, though. Madonna drew people to the movie, but Rosanna Arquette is just as much of a hottie.

This movie is so gloriously 1980s that there should be a warning label on it. The force of my nostalgia is incredibly strong for this one for that exact reason, though.

Great post, and agreed.

I am sure the same people who are all moaning that this is coming out on Blu-Ray are the ones who did the same when Legend Of Billie Jean was announced, another movie that spoke to 80's kids and has a cult following of those of us who watched it as kids, but baffles people who weren't of a specific age in 1985.