Class of 1984 (1982)

I am the future! Class of 1984 is directed by Mark Lester and Lester co-writes the screenplay with Tom Holland and John Saxton. It stars Perry King, Roddy McDowall, Merrie Lynn Ross, Timothy Van Patten, Stefan Arngrim, Michael Fox, Roddy McDowall and Lisa Langlois. Music is by Lalo Schifrin and Alice Cooper and Cinematography by Albert J. Dunk. New music teacher Andrew Norris (King) is shocked to find the pupils of Lincoln High rule the roost. Refusing to kowtow to Peter Stegman's (Patten) gang of thugs, he decides to fight back... It's always tricky revisiting later in life films that have cemented themselves as cult favourites. Class of 1984 is one such cult favourite of many who eagerly digested it back in the early half of the 1980s, a time when censorship was rife and banning orders the order of the day. The word of mouth back then was that Lester's film pushed boundaries, a frightening vision of a future where education as we know it would be replaced by anarchy, the youths of the day running amok with violence, sexual aggression and copious amounts of drugs. was this an astute portent by Lester and his crew?... Essentially this marks one of the turning points in the trashy filmic timeline of films dealing in educational establishments collapsing within via youth rebellion. Where the likes of Blackboard Jungle kicked things off with grim textures, Class of 1984 picks up the baton and urinates on it with a glint in its eye - for better or worse. As a whole the pic is given over to being ridiculous for the sake of shock value, yet it's strangely magnetic, managing to strike a nervous chord. Exploitation? No not really, that was just a marketing ploy that worked... Viewing it these days it looks part of a tired formula, but that in no way should denigrate the importance of it, for it helped turn the tide in said formula. Ultimately it becomes a visceral revenge thriller, where some scenes are well constructed, others not so much, with the finale outrageously over the top. The acting from the younger cast members is mostly ok, though Patten is difficult to take serious as the gang leader. King is splendidly committed to the lead, garnering our support, while McDowall is the class act on show. Lurid colours, eye splinter fashions and a rocky sound track round it out as a trashy "B" movie of much ebullience. One for the nostalgic amongst us for sure, but also for film historians interested in the sub-genre this sits in. 7/10

It's 2020 and, frankly, I miss movies like this. Hollywood has tanked, they really aren't putting out anything worth watching any longer... and it's debatable if Class of 1984 is really worth watching. I guess it depends on your mood. But we need that padding back. We need a whole bunch of ridiculous, low budget exploitation films to pad and help finance the bigger ones. That might actually stop Hollywood from actively attacking the people that didn't go see the trash movies they spent millions on and still tanked. Because, honestly, I'm not going to spend $25 a ticket to go see a gender and race swapped remake of a beloved childhood lecture with a heavy handed one sided political message and no real story or plot. But I will spend a few bucks to stream a trash exploitation movie, with no real message, no real budget, and a plot that was made to just be fun and entertaining. Class of 1984 is one of those movies, one of the movies where you can sit back and just be entertained for an hour without having to suffer through anything that you're not allowed to make fun of because... meh politics. This is the type of movie where it's almost encouraged that you make fun of it... while you are watching it. This is the home movie market, where you don't view it in theaters because a little audience participation makes for a better viewing experience. This I will pay to see on a rainy weekend. The plot sucks, it stars the funny dude from Rip Tide, and its over the top and silly... in other words, it's escapist entertainment. And ENTERTAINMENT is what movies should be all about