The success of Flashdance made Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer more than successful producers; it made them auteurs of their own mini-genre of movies. They were mostly action films (the Beverly Hills Cop series, Top Gun (pictured) Days of Thunder) defined by slick surfaces, expensive hardware, MTV-style editing, and shallow scripts. After Simpson’s death in 1996, Bruckheimer continued making such films, often with director Michael Bay at the helm (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor).
In the last decade or so, Bruckheimer has branched out into more imaginative fare, including the CSI franchise and The Amazing Race on TV and the Pirates of the Caribbean and National Treasure franchises on the big screen. Lavishness remains a Bruckheimer hallmark (his upcoming 2013 version of The Lone Ranger was set to cost upwards of $250 million and feature a spectacular train wreck before Disney forced him to scale back a little). Considering the Bruckheimer movies it spawned, Flashdance (with its star-free cast, lack of special effects, and $7 million budget) seems like an indie art-house film by comparison.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9DDCKVrZfU]