Rock N Roll High School
This 1979 cult classic, an attempt by Roger Corman to recreate those 1950s teenage rock films where the kids just wanted to have their music to dance to against the wishes of the stuffy town elders, until some guest rock star rolled into town and taught them that hey, rock music really isn’t so bad, succeeds in capturing that same innocent charm albeit for one wrinkle. When looking for that one rock act to be featured, consideration was given to both Cheap Trick and Van Halen, until Corman finally settled on The Ramones of all people, who are now remembered as the definitive American punk rock band, and the tone of the piece changed considerably. The movie still plays out as goofy and cheesy, but now an undertone of anarchy permeated the whole affair (albeit in a light hearted way) as the film portrays its Vince Lombardi High School in a constant state of hilarious chaos, with its rebellious leader surprisingly being P.J. Soles as Riff Randall, a cute, pot smoking, yet always cheerful and upbeat blonde girl who harbors a massive crush on the gawky looking Joey Ramone and dreams of one day having the songs that she writes to be performed by the band, which leads to her camping out at a box office so she can buy up 100 Ramones tickets (for $1000!) and then heads back to school so she can give out the tickets to her fellow students for free! Soles (best known as Jamie Lee Curtis’ best friend who gets strangled with the phone cord in the original Halloween) is adorable and very likable in the lead role, and her energy is certainly infectious even if it’s obvious she wouldn’t last a New York minute in a crowd of actual Ramones / punk rock fans. In other roles, we have Vincent Van Patten as the star high school quarterback agonizing over wanting to lose his virginity (I guess standard stereotypes don’t apply in this school, especially with most of the football players walking around the hallways with full pads on); Dey Young as Riff’s shy and nerdy best friend who longs for the quarterback even as he maintains a crush on Riff; Mary Woronov as the draconian, Nazi-like principal Miss Togar, who vows to put an end to the infection of rock n roll and has her two sniveling hallway monitor lackeys to help her; Paul Bartel as the classical-loving music teacher who gets turned on to punk rock; Dick Miller in a short bit at the end as the police chief who manages to steal the movie with one line; and legendary LA deejay Don Steele doing another part in a Corman movie as, well, a deejay. The only drawback is Clint Howard as a sort of Ferris Bueller-type wish fulfillment specialist who maintains his own office in the boy’s lavatory complete with his own secretary. While both the character and concept are funny when first introduced, the film keeps him in the story way too long to the point that he wears out his welcome badly. It has to be noted that the film’s surreal, borderline ZAZ style of life in high school is a refreshingly bizarre portrayal that has never quite been duplicated, but some of the gags and one liners are so bad that the truth is that they come off as borderline stupid. For what’s it worth, it does do an impressive job of rising above its low budget (despite an almost unforgivable continuity error in a scene where there’s a meeting in the school lab), but where the film succeeds the most is in it’s SPIRIT, the idea that the rules can be rewritten so that the concepts of peace, love and rock n roll rebellion can win the day, and that is really brought out best by the music, with a soundtrack that features many legendary rockers but of course showcases The Ramones most of all, giving them a number of musical bits including an extended concert sequence before they arrive at the school to stand with the kids as they tear the place apart. Overall, a deserved cult classic that, while not the greatest film, is fun and goofy enough to make for an enjoyable experience…
8/10