Class of 1984 | Perry King, Merrie Lynn Ross | Love this cult exploitation masterpiece but where...

Class of 1984 | Perry King, Merrie Lynn Ross | How Do You Like What You See?

DVDs:

Class of 1984

	Class of 1984 Perry King, Merrie Lynn Ross Starz / Anchor Bay, 2006 average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

They?re all part of a typical day for the students of Lincoln High. Into this academic abyss arrives Andy Norris (Slaughterhouse Five?s Perry King), an idealistic and naïve music teacher who has moved into the community with his pregnant wife Diane. Appalled by the crime-infested school, Norris soon crosses sabers with its teenage kingpin, the shrewd and sadistic Peter Stegman (The White Shadow?s Timothy Van Patten). With Norris setting his sights on reforming Stegman, and the young miscreant declaring war on his teacher, the duo sets a fateful showdown into motion on the night of an important school orchestra performance. Directed and co-written by Mark L. Lester (Commando, Firestarter), CLASS OF 1984 is one of the seminal cult movies of the early 1980s. While its vision of a decaying, violence-plagued inner city school seemed over-the-top in 1982, it sadly prophesized the future of American education. Lester?s film ? which caused a stir at Cannes and reputedly offended one of its own screenwriters ? is also notable for its cast, which includes Van Patten, Roddy McDowall and a very young Michael J. Fox. Alice Cooper performs the theme song, "I Am The Future". No longer are the students of Lincoln High the future, for the future has arrived!

for more information click here

Love this cult exploitation masterpiece but where is the old music?

Finally - one of my favorite movies has appeared on DVD. The version I had always known was the Australian VHS edition which features an entirely different score in the final reel when Perry King begins his killing spree.

The Anchor Bay and Australian DVDs of this movie both contain the original Lalo Schifrin score in the final reel, but the original Aussie VHS edition (and I presume theatrical edition) had different music - something that sounded like it could have been composed by John Carpenter in that era. Ticking, high-end percussion with a synth pulse beat accompanied by a rising and falling synth pad really gave the movie a momentum which is missing from Schifrin's score. It kicks in after Stegman's girlfriend utters the line "C'mon get it, teacher, teacher."
It's real "payback time" music that gets the pulse racing.

Not detracting anything from Schifrin, who is in fine form on this picture, but the music I remember from the past gave the final reel a totally different energy and dynamic. It really suited Perry King's violent rage as he viciously destroys the punks (by saw, by fire, bye bye). I wonder if this was something added to the "international" version of the movie that Lester discusses in his commentary. Not sure how many people have noticed this but I'm sure Australia was not the only territory in which this music alteration was made. Seems likely the original UK release would have been similar.

I'm glad the DVD contains the entire Schifrin score but it would have been great to have the option of the alternate audio added to a seperate track. I'd also love to know why the decision to change the music was made in the first place.

Great movie with terrific performances from the entire cast. It's really satisfying to watch the pain get dished out to these little pricks. They've totally earned their punishments and director Mark L.Lester really lets them have it. (A trait evident in his subsequent "Firestarter" and "Commando" in which hundreds of people are laid to waste in spectacular ways with carefree abandon.) Commando must have one of the greatest body counts of any 80s action movie.

Stegman - Tim Van Patten is now a director of "The Sopranos". Also worth checking is out Lester's insane out-of-control sequel "Class of 1999". Cyborg teachers unleash the pain on the youth population of Seattle with explosive results.

Don't miss Class of 1984 - finally in widescreen.

for more information click here

How Do You Like What You See?

Class Of 1984 has always been marketed as as a B exploitation film. Hell, I remember when I was a kid finding it in the "horror" section of the local video store! Though the film does have it's exploitation elements for sure, Class Of 1984 is a damn good movie. It could have been promoted as a more serious film(it actually was intended to be a more serious drama) and win over more critics, but like they mention in the documentary featurette, the scenes of violence and punk rockers and such were enough to prejudice some people into thinking the movie was something less than what it actually was. I never saw much of Perry King's work before or after this, but he's a very good choice as a kind of wimpy music teacher who thinks that through the power of knowledge, he can help the troubled teen, Timothy Van Patten. In fact, King's music class is probably the best behaved of the entire school with Van Patten as the only real rotten apple in the bunch...when he attends. Pretty boy Van Patten is kind of a teenage Godfather who runs drugs and hookers out of a punk rock club. His gang consists of three annoying thugs and one very annoying chick. When King pisses Van Patten off, the war begins. It starts off pretty simple with vandalism and practical jokes, but ends up being quite deadly. King goes through the movie in the role of dogooder throughout all of Van Patten's antics. I think most guys would have broken down long before King's character does, but when King does break down it's well worth the wait. If you let yourself get into the story, this movie will make your blood boil as you feel the frustration King feels. Whenever he retaliates, he's the one who gets in trouble, though you know he's really not doing anything wrong. It's like in real school where a guy would hit you with a spitball and no one would ever see him, but you'd be the one caught when you fired a spitball back. Plus the frustration mounts coz every rotten act Van Patten commits is brushed off coz "no one saw him do it" and the fact that he's a juvenile. The film builds to a fantastic final confrontation that gets downright brutal. Lots of great performances all around. Van Patten should have gone on to be a bigger star, but it never happened. He's does a great job as the evil, sly psychopath. Of course special praise must be given to Roddy McDowell. He's fantastic in this. They couldn't have picked a better guy for the job. Many thanks go out to Anchor Bay for putting this great film out on dvd. There's a good halfhour documentary on the disc that speaks mainly to director Lester, as well as two of the actors. Recommended very highly. Yesiree, Bob.

for more information click here

Rare Laserdiscs - dvds Movies Collector.

Class Of 1984 Grabbed me lol great Movie Drug Dealing,Gang Beatings Prostition,DO NOT MISS DA DVD Go get it at Amazon :P

High School Horror

This movie is great. I first saw this movie back in the 80s on t.v. and I was glued to the screen. All the scenes in the movie have stayed with me all these years and it was fun to see them again this year (2006). Watching this movie when I was about nine or ten scared me so much at the time, that I wasn't to thrilled about the thought of eventually having to go to highschool. Even with all the hardcore scenes either edited or completley eliminated from t.v. it still was shocking. I assumed that being an adult I wouldn't view it the same, and yet this movie still maintains an original shock to it's scenes like no other movie that I've seen, even though it is a bit Clockwork Orangeish-which the director admitted to borrowing from. Very well directed, fast paced, and no borring character development. The story gets right to the point leaving the viewer feeling like a fly on the wall.

for more information click here

This ain't no after-school special, that's for sure

Class of 1984 is an amazing film with the power to shock audiences even a quarter of a century after its release. I mean, this film is fearless, brutally honest, and disturbing on several levels. It's easily the most intense high school film I've ever seen. Its depiction of violence and crime in the schools has been called prophetic - and for good reason: teachers powerless to control their students, administrators unwilling to take charge, cops hamstrung by witnesses too intimidated to talk and "slap on the wrist" laws for even the most dangerous of juveniles, security guards patrolling the corridors, metal detectors at the doors, and so much more. Class of 1984 was a wake-up call that has yet to be answered all these years later.

One can only hope and pray that no public high school today is remotely like Lincoln High. When tough guy Peter Stegman (Timothy Van Patten) boasts that he runs the school, he means it. When he's not thumbing his nose at authorities or having fellow classmates assaulted, Stegman runs a bona fide criminal network, pushing drugs, pimping prostitutes, you name it. He and his gang of fellow hoodlums (including one sadistic girl) answer to no one inside or outside the graffiti-marred walls of the high school. The only person with the guts to stand up to them is, of all things, the new music teacher. Andrew Norris (Perry King) makes himself Stegman's Enemy Number One the very first day - and that initial skirmish soon, and inevitably, turns into all-out war. If there was ever an army of one, it is Andrew Norris. The principal gave up long ago, choosing to keep looking the other way as his school comes crashing down around him. The only other faculty member we get to know is biology teacher Terry Corrigan (Roddy McDowall), a broken man who relies on alcohol to get him through each miserable day. And the cops are impotent to act time and again because no witnesses are brave enough to talk. Even a young Michael Fox (sans the J. in this early role) is afraid to speak up, even after one of his friends comes to a bad end, courtesy of Stegman's illegal drug emporium.

Norris is no saint, mind you. When he's falsely accused of physically attacking Stegman, he goes a little bit off the deep end, giving the punk a strong dose of his own medicine. That's when things turn dangerous. A good thrashing is soon the least of Norris' worries, as his friend Corrigan cracks up completely, one of the few good students in the school is stabbed in the middle of the cafeteria, and no one in a position of authority is prepared to do anything at all to restore order. All the while, Norris is increasingly baited and taunted by Stegman's gang. The stage is now set for the film's rather shocking last 15-20 minutes, which begins with a surprisingly disturbing attack and just gets more and more intense from that point on. If you thought all high school orchestra performances were mind numbingly boring, you haven't seen Class of 1984; no one remains seated when this show ends.

I wasn't expecting the kind of violence this film unleashes toward the end. Although it registers much lower on the shock meter now than it did back in 1982 (one of the screenwriters, Barry Schneider, was so offended by it he had his name removed from the credits), the level of violence may turn a few people off - although I can't see how anyone can consider it unjustified.

What I found truly surprising, though, was the quality of the acting. Timothy Van Patten as a ruthless gang leader? I was expecting to devote at least a full paragraph to some good old-fashioned mockery. And Roddy McDowell? He's never been a favorite of mine, but he was incredible in this movie. Even Perry King delivered in a big way. Every which way you look at it, Class of 1984 is just a great movie.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

products you might be interested in