CLASS OF 1984

I have recently had the opportunity to revisit this classic 1982 film by Mark E. Lester about a new music teacher (played by Perry King, star of Slaughterhouse Five) at a very troubled inner city school where things are in a constant state of chaos. Students carry guns, knives and have to pass through a metal detector due to problems with gangs, drugs, and violence. It stars Perry King as teacher Andrew Norris, Merrie Lynn Ross (who also co-executive produced) as his wife Diane Norris, Roddy McDowall as Terry Corrigan and Timothy Van Patten as Peter Stegman, the leader of the gang of thugs who terrorize the school. It was one of Michael J. Fox's early roles, before he was a well-established actor.

The movie portrays the punk look and image that was becoming part of popular culture in the early 1980s. The movie's theme song, "I Am the Future", was performed by Alice Cooper. The film also features a performance by Canadian punk band Teenage Head.

Andrew Norris, the music teacher who's recently relocated to this area with his pregnant wife Diane (Ross) after accepting a position at Lincoln High, a run down inner city school with the worst kind thugs, misfits, lowlifes and junkies.... pretty much like a prison. Soon as he arrives he meets another one of the faculty,who gives him a few pointers on how to survive. Soon, in a music class, he runs into a group of smart-ass punks starts giving him a hard time, led by a sarcastic manipulative creep named Peter Stegman (Van Patten). Stegman and his buddies pretty much control the school. The staff, particularly the principal, are not intervening because they know that the police will just let theses guys go because of lack of evidence. Not worth the effort, in other words. After a kid has a shitty trip from some junk he bought from Stegman and his crew, Andy pushes to get them charged to stand in court. In turn, he gets his car blown up with a Molotov cocktail later that night.

The violence continues to escalate when Stegman recruits a 14-year guy to perform an initiation stunt to get into the group by stabbing one of the students (played by Michael J. Fox), leaving him in the hospital with major injuries. Eventually, Andy snaps after one of the main girls in the gang hands him an envelope (right before he has to conduct a performance at the school) containing pictures of his wife being brutally assaulted and kidnapped. They lure him into the darkened halls of the school for a final, bloody confrontation. At this point, Andy turns into fucking Rambo ready for revenge on these punks.

I already mentioned Perry King, but all the main characters are very impressive actors. I like Timothy Van Patten, he was excellent in his role as Stegmen, not just a punk but very intelligent and talented. Just also happens to be a real manipulative psychotic, and whose only goal is to rule the school and make sure sure no one gets in his way of staying on top. McDowall also gives a good performance as the tired biology teacher who really wants to make a difference in shaping young people's minds, but has pretty much given up, having been beaten down by the lack of caring on the students' part resorting to the bottle for comfort.

The last twenty minutes or so are the best part of the movie and Andy kicks some serious ass! The methods that he uses to kill his victims are pretty creative. The scene in the shop and auto classrooms are my faves, the girl pretty much kills herself trying to kill Andy by crashing a car into the wall. The final confrontation between Stegman and Andy resulting in Stegmen's demise are pretty cool too and I'm gonna leave it at that because if I tell you everything, it'll just spoil it. The violence is scattered throughout the film, and it's done pretty well with most of it being in the last fifteen minutes or so. It's really satisfying to watch these pricks get the pain dished back out to them.

I'm so glad this is finally in a proper DVD version. Anchor Bay Entertainment released it and the picture, presented in widescreen (1.77:1) anamorphic, looks very sharp and clean. As far as the audio, it's available in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital Surround 2.0, and comes through wonderfully. There are lots of juicy extras including a commentary track with director Mark L. Lester and DVD producer Perry Martin, a newly created featurette titled `Blood and Blackboards' (35:32), an original theatrical trailer, two television spots, a poster and still gallery, a Mark L. Lester biography, a six page insert booklet. The only thing I don't really like too much is the previews at the first of the disc. Seems to be more and more of that these days and I just don't like it. Reminds me too much of the VHS days when you annoyingly had to FF through 15 minutes of previews to get to the film. But that's my only complaint.

Highly recommended and if you like this film, you'll also like THE PRINCIPAL starring JAMES BELUSHI, which is the same concept spun in a different way.