Pop-Ed: Corey Haim's Death and the Loss of Innocence

By Kristen Tsetsi Posted Mar 13th 2010 06:57AM

Pop-Ed: Corey Haim's popular 80s film characters were often a direct reflection of the magnificent balance of innocence and reality we came to expect from Hollywood and they existed in a world far removed from the details surrounding Haim's death on March 10.

With his pinchable face and mischievous sideways glances, Haim was the perfect poster boy for that unique decade in movies. We had not yet been inundated with the shallow crudeness of today's storylines whose characters include teenage boys so bent on sex they fornicate with food ('American Pie') or dream of doing it with a human-sized bag of marijuana ('Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay').

There was just something different about films back then. In Haim's glory days, teens weren't depicted as faultless, by any means. They had certainly broken through the purity barrier with lines like "Check out the t--- on that one." But, at the same time, their "very bad" behavior was generally exemplified by hiding an alcohol-filled flask in a locker and was, by today's standards, pretty good.

Kristen Tsesti During Her Corey Haim Years

Take the opening sequence of 1989's 'Dream a Little Dream,' for example. Haim is Dinger, a pin-wearing, ripped-jeans and mousse-haired high school student whose best friend Bobby -- played by Corey Feldman -- wakes him from a nap. In this early scene used to illustrate Dinger's "bad," or even "dirty-minded" character, Dinger opens his eyes.

DINGER (to Bobby): I'm asleep. I'm dreaming. Apache women. Mai Tais. Vanna White and a whip.

Twenty years later, such a scene introducing "bad-boy" characters would certainly involve a dream far more...well, let's say explicit.

There was no better boy than Haim to use for 80s roles. His smile -- even when suggestive of something naughty -- possessed overwhelmingly honest appeal and a cracking, adolescent voice belied his characters' adult posturing. Even as a troublemaker, Haim's characters could be counted on by audiences to be deep-down good, and his slight, vulnerable build was in perfect opposition to the formidable strength his characters would reveal.

In his most well-known films, Haim was either the underdog or the ridiculously pure-at-heart. In 1985's 'Silver Bullet,' he plays Marty Coslaw, a boy who courageously battles a werewolf from a wheelchair. As the scrawny and pitiable 'Lucas' (1986), he overcomes being the smallest, weakest boy on the football team. In 'Dream a Little Dream,' Dinger is a character whose own mother had driven over his leg with her Volvo, leaving him limping with a cane, but still somehow optimistic and confident.

Haim at His Innocent Best in 1986's Teen Classic 'Lucas'

It is perhaps because of all that lovely soul and innocence that Haim has lingered for so many years in the memories of those who enjoyed his on-screen characters. After all, these are the days when even family-hour television includes dick jokes on 'Two and a Half Men,' teenagers in the 2009 premiere of the new '90210' having oral sex in the school parking lot, and "kids" in a 2009 episode of 'Gossip Girl' engaging in a threesome.

To those of us who remember, that relatively-untainted heart at the core of Haim's characters and films is something we still long for.

It's been said Corey Haim meant to forge a comeback from his comparatively obscure adult life with a movie due for release this year. Had he been given the opportunity to continue working after its release, it's possible at least a small part of older-Hollywood's delicate, almost magical melding of purity and grit would have lingered on, clinging however loosely to him like the ever-present message pins on Bobby's and Dinger's jackets. But it's difficult not to suspect that such a rare and irresistible blend, barely clinging as it was for the last twenty years or so, is now gone forever with him.

Kristen Tsetsi, a former cab driver, is the author of the semi-autobiographical novel Homefront. Enjoy more of Kristen's work, including her new video series "Inside the Writers' Studio," at Red Room.

Comments

(44)

Sunday 14 March

By Boston Blackie

Low Ranked Vote down Vote up Report this

Are you just lead headed? Are youn not aware that Mr. Haim died in a hospital where he was undertreatment?
I also contend that script. drugs don't kill that many it is the over use/incorrect use of them that kill people.

By debbie

Moron

By My sympathy

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You really should not talk about yourself that way. If you don't think well of yourself, no one else will......they will agree with what you say about yourself.

By rosco

to boston blackie where is ur so called brain GET IT RIGHT YOURSELF WERE IN GODS NAME DID U HEAR HE DIED IN HOSPITAL???????? HE DIED AT HOME WITH HIS MOTHER WHAT R U READING FICTION , THE NEWS SAID HE HAD BEEN GOING UNDER TREATMENT PRIOR,HOWEVER U R RIGHT OVER USE DOES CAUSE DEATH &MISUSE ALSO OTHER THAN THAT U ARE INCORRECT SO DONT SPEAK OF WHAT U NOT KNOW. HE PASSEDOUT ON THE FLOOR AT HOME &WAS NEVER REVIVED D.O.A. &R.I.P

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