As someone who spent part of his youth in the 1980s, I can attest that at the time, it didn’t seem to be as cool a decade as young folks today seem to think it was. If my memory serves me correctly, I was actually pretty bored a lot of the time. Nowadays, we have YouTube, smartphones, video games that go far beyond what my Atari had to offer, and the internet. How can the 80s compete with all of that? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s all about the spirit of that decade and a world before endless wars. The 1980s was the last of our innocence in many ways. And few things personify the 1980s as well as the movie “Flashdance.”
For a fairly low-budget film, it performed exceedingly well. The budget was a reported $8 million, and the movie earned nearly $200 million worldwide. “Flashdance” wasn’t just a commercial hit. It won a crazy amount of accolades as well. The song that star Jennifer Beals danced to in her final dance scene, “What a Feeling,” won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. The music in “Flashdance” also won two Golden Globe Awards. The soundtrack album won a Grammy Award for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special, and the movie won lots of other awards. The music from “Flashdance” also broke new ground and is credited with ushering in the MTV era because it was the first feature film to effectively exploit the popularity of music videos.
But what about the dancing? After all, it’s a movie about dancing, right? Jennifer Beals didn’t actually do the dancing in the final epic dance scene. She had a double named Marine Jahan to do her intricate dance sequences, and the part where she spins on the floor is actually done by a man! Fun fact: he refused to shave his legs for the scene, so luckily, the tights covered that up.
Image via YouTube
It’s also important to note that “Flashdance” inspired a generation of talented young artists. It’s hard to believe that this movie was made more than 35 years ago. It was an instant classic and remains iconic today. Watch this video and remember when “What a Feeling” and Jennifer Beals made us feel like we could conquer the world.