Reviews (50) 
Total BS, but great music
ok ok this movie had great music and the dancing was the real star. I remember seeing this movie with my mother, who was a real construction worker. we both laught. No way she could do construction all day and dance all night, but its a movie right. Jennifer Beals was so hot when she did this movie, why didn't she do more films? Oh yeah, she can't act to save her life, but never mind that lets get back to the dancing. The Choreography was so cutting edge for the 80's. If you can choke down the bad acting and the weak story this is not such a bad film. If you like good dancing,and some of the best 80's music see it.
Great Cinematography and directing
This movie has some good music and dancing, in a sappy plot. But the music and dancing are not integral to the plot development; they do not carry the film in the way dancing carries "Dirty Dancing" or "The Turning Point" (both of which have better dancing, by the way.)
But it's one of my favorite movies. Why? The director, Adrian Lyne, got his experience directing TV commercials, where the entire message has to be conveyed in 60 seconds, and in Flashdance every moment is contributing something. The key is the cinematography. Leonard Maltin calls Lyne a "visual stylist", and he is, but he's more. He takes Roman Polanski's cinematographic innovations and pushes them to new limits; the camera tells the story. When you watch "Flashdance", watch how light and camera angle are used. Light: Pittsburgh light, hazy, smoky, dull, reflecting off puddles, blazing from lamps, dim, bright, strobe, whatever; lighting carries the mood of each scene. As for camera angle, in most movies we are observers, outside the movie, watching the actors. In some of "Flashdance" that is also true, but then in many places the camera angle shifts so we are inside the movie, seeing what one of the actors, or several of the actors, see at that moment. It just pulls you in. If you're not familiar with the film, the first time you watch it wait for the final "audition" scene, and watch how the camera is first an observer, before the dancer enters the audition room, then sees from the dancer's view as the audition begins, and then shifts to show us what the judges see, as the dancing becomes compelling. I don't know about you, but this grabs me and pulls me in; I could watch that scene five times running. And there are many other scenes in which camera angle is used similarly but not quite as obviously. I give this movie four stars; I would give it five if the music and dancing were as well integrated with the plot as in some other movies.
A Believable story that any dreamer can identify with.
Flashdance is one of the most remembered films of the 1980s. It is full of rythym and fast paced tempo that most people were used to seeing in the popular dance movies like Footloose and Dirty Dancing. Jennifer Beals plays her best role as the young wannabe ballet dancer who strives to make it in a rough neighborhood. This film whould be nothing without its music or dancing. It is one of the best date movies too. I highly reccomend this film to anyone with a dream or anyone who is a fan of films from the 1980s.
The dream is eternal
The film is an image of what the 1980s were, of Pittsburgh in the 1980s, this temple of heavy industry coming to an end and starting to look for a new future, due to its industrial crisis. Yet this film has not lost any charm and meaning. The young Alex, an 18 year old girl, is the symbol of this city, an industrial worker during the day and a dancer at night, with a dream : to join the ballet company of the city. Industry producing art. Industrial work producing the dream of art. Alex is a willful young woman who follows the road of her desire, if not ambition, but keeping her ethics pure all along. Pure by looking for love and not pure pleasure. Pure by refusing any favor in her quest and longing for a victory that can be called her own because it owes nothing to anyone and any help from outside herself. Pure because she salvages her friend from becoming a gogo girl in a shady place where dancing is just some kind of dressing for enticing prostitution. Pure because she finds her energy in an old friendship with an old dancer who is encouraging her in getting started and competing for an audition that could open the door to a new artistic life. Pure because she is not soiled by all those who would like to drag her down into the mud of selling her young beauty and art to the gloating eyes of perverse and lustful males. And she can succeed because she never lets her dream die. In life the dream is the almighty sign on the road to epiphany and Alex will meet with this epiphany of hers, the one she has dreamed of for years and she can find only in the energy that comes from her mind and her body, from her unconquerable soul. This film has not aged in spite of all the changes that have occurred in our societies. The dream is the energizing force that leads the way, too often of some Cross, to transcendency.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
typical 80's flick
Alex is a welder by day and an exotic dancer by night, her true passion is dancing and she dreams of being accepted into a professional dance school, except that she lacks the confidence to go after her dream. This type of story, Cinderella goes after her dreams and makes it, is cliched and I love it. Instead of seeing glossy characters with ravishing careers, how about those of us who actually live in the real world and are very much like Alex, we want to see characters like her who are struggling and actually make it! Its a very encouraging and inspiring film for those of us pursuing our dreams. I really like it, I could have done without the naked bar scene later on in the movie. Jennifer Lopez recently did a video based on flashdance and I got to say she was really good. There was a rumor a while back that there might be a flashdance remake with her, and I think that she should do it. J.Lo is perfect for the part! It'd be awesome if she did it.
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