Review of Class Of 1984

Introduction

I often wish that my school had been slightly more morally corrupt and debauched than it actually was. I mean, obviously there were fights, pornography and the occasional drugs bust, but the Americans put the English middle-class school-system to shame. What with all the cocaine, fire-arms and prostitution that seem to be in existence, you wonder how they ever get round to double math(s)!

Unfortunately, the sorry state of some US educational establishments should really have been predicted by someone other than people making movies. "We are the future ...and nothing can stop us!" is the boldly proclaiming tag-line of this 1982 Mark L Lester film, the director maintaining that he intended the film as a warning of the kind of semi-apocalypse that could come to be.

Mr Norris (Perry King) is the new arrival at Lincoln high school, a fresh faced (although bearded) teacher with aims to achieve great things - until he meets the students. Within the usual cast of half-mast-trouser-wearing buffoons and sub-cheerleader prom queens are a real bad bunch; a gang of five highly criminal and severely badly behaved `kids` (the average age appearing to be around 27!) headed by the perma-sneering Stegman (Timothy Van Patten).

After a series of run-ins and confrontations, the naughty kids get naughtier, culminating in the death of both a fellow student AND a slightly unhinged teacher. This is all before Mrs Norris is unsuspectingly held hostage, and her husband goes on the rampage, with the aim of killing the children that have ruined his once-cushy life!

`Class of 1984` was the first of its kind in many ways. Firstly, and most impressively, it was the first major roll for Michael J Fox. Secondly, it pertains to have premiered the look of `punk kids` in US Cinema, (a whole four years after the Sex Pistols had split up and whilst The Clash were in their `Rock the Casbah` phase - keep up America!), although the knowledge that Mad Max was made in 1979 surely puts pay to that claim.

More prophetically however, and as mentioned above, it indicated just where the school system was headed, and now - twenty years after it was made - the metal detectors on the school gates don`t seem quite as ridiculous.

Video

The picture quality is grainy and very B-Movie like. In fact, there does not seem to have been a DVD overhaul of the visual aspects at all. There is a fair amount of discolouration, and coupled with the rather dreary high school backdrop (it`s no `Saved by the Bell` entire-rainbow affair), it makes for rather unpleasant viewing.

3/10 - Detention!

Audio

Bizarrely, the producers of this film decided that they`d get Alice Cooper to specially record a song entitled` I am the future`, despite already having an almost perfectly suited and extremely famous song entitled `Schools out` in his repertoire! This oversight encapsulates the entire audio element to this movie; thoughtless and clumsy.

4/10 - See me!

Features

The DVD comes with a plethora of extras for your consideration; `Blood and Blackboards` making-of featurette, Trailer, TV Spots, Gallery, Mark Lester Bio, Commentary, and Screenplay in DVD Rom format.

Of all of these, the only substantial feature worth noting is the `Blood and Blackboards` documentary, clocking in at 35 minutes and featuring interviews from Mark L Lester himself, Perry King (looking a lot older, and a lot wiser) and Merrie Lynn Ross, who plays Mrs Norris- aka Teach`s wife - in the movie.

Mark Lester`s insights into the production of the film are well worth having a look at, his use of the word `Contro-ver-see-yal` providing chuckles a plenty. More impressive is the fact that he seems to genuinely believe that this is one of the greatest movies of all time, notwithstanding what anyone else might say. For those reasons, this is one of those extras that actually makes you go back and re-evaluate the film you`ve just watched. Unfortunately, it still isn`t much good.

6/10 - Show more of your working out.

Conclusion

Previously dismissed as unnecessarily violent and shocking, the current climate of middle-America should provide a reason for those detractors who once shunned this movie years ago to reappraise its qualities. In several departments, it is a success; the revenge is (eventually) sweet, and the overall thrust of the story, as we are continuously reminded on the DVD extras and within the 8 page booklet that accompanies the disc, foretells a future which is to be avoided.

The big `However`, is that the movie`s shortcomings far outweigh any positive aspects. For one thing, it looks horribly dated, the music is embarrassing, and some of the scenes are so hammy that you would order them in French by calling ``Garcon! Le Jambon, Merci!``. When the unruly white kids have a gang fight against their black counterparts (the concept itself is cringe worthy), there is no conclusion you can come to other than to assume that there was a technical error, and they included a play-acting dress rehearsal in the final cut by accident.

As a polar opposite to this, the scene where Mr Corrigan (excellently portrayed by Planet of the Apes star` Roddy McDowell) holds his biology class at gun point and forces the answers to his questions from them is probably one of the greatest 100 scenes of ALL TIME, with the `Blood and Blackboards` documentary acknowledging that it took a whole 2 days to shoot, and was the most important scene to `get right`. Its inclusion in, quite frankly, one of the most disturbingly average that I have seen in a long time is a mystery, but makes seeing the DVD at least partly worth your time.

5/10 - Excels in one subject, but overall performance poor.