Depending on who you talk to, the movie Rock 'n' Roll High School is either the ne plus ultra of punk rock-inspired films- or the absolute nadir, and one that may well have led to the downfall of the much-beloved musical sub-genre.
I'd have to disagree with the latter, personally, as it completely discounts the exciting new directions punk rock spiraled into in the 80's and beyond, such as hardcore (Black Flag, Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains, Misfits), skate-punk (Suicidal Tendencies, D.R.I.), alternative punk (Hüsker Dü, The Replacements), grunge (Melvins, Mudhoney, Green River, Nirvana) and pop-punk (The Offspring, Green Day, Blink-182). Okay, maybe that last one is debatable, lol.
Given that some of my all-time favorite punk bands fall into some of those categories, I'd have to say reports of punk's demise in the 80's were greatly exaggerated. However, I will allow that the movie may have well expedited the demise of The Ramones as we knew them at the time.
As fans know, the film marks a line in the sand between the old-school Ramones fans know and love and the 80's-era Ramones that took the band in a new, poppier direction that ultimately led to the band losing some of its original members...and its way, quite frankly. To be sure, there's some good stuff there, but you definitely have to dig for it, which was decidedly not the case until then.
No doubt about it, when most people think of The Ramones, they tend to think of those first four immaculate albums, which is where the bulk of their "hits" can be found, along with lots of solid album tracks.
But from 1980's misguided, Phil Spector-produced Pleasant Dreams onward, it was strictly hit-and-miss, with some great singles and occasional decent album tracks along the way- but also a whole lot of wrong-headed moves and attempts to go "pop."
So, in that sense, Rock 'n' Roll High School is truly essential, in that it captures The Ramones at their absolute peak, which they would never quite rise above again. It's the rise before the fall, and it represents a time in which it truly did seem like punk might well change the world.
In some ways, it can be argued that it absolutely did, at least musically, at a time in which popular music- which had become bloated and unwieldy arena/prog rock, disco, pop and unabashed schmaltz over the course of the 70's- really needed that shot in the arm.
That said, the proposed youth "revolution" never really happened. Of course, The Ramones were never about that, anyway. They just wanted to rock out and have a good time. And this movie definitely captures that anarchic spirit in a way that's both inspired and oddly innocent- at least in comparison to what teen movies would become shortly thereafter- think Porky's, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Last American Virgin, Heathers, American Pie and so on.
The film served as my introduction to punk rock as well. Before that, I had just started to take an individual interest in pursuing musical tastes of my own, thanks in large part to cable TV, specifically MTV. The first type of music I actively embraced was New Wave. I just loved Blondie, The Cars, Devo, Talking Heads, The Police, et al.
Then, along with a host of other young people (circa my late tweens), thanks to its endless repeats on cable, I saw this movie and everything changed. Suddenly, hard, loud and fast was the order of the day. Practically overnight, I started listening to punk rock, heavy metal and anything else that was guaranteed to annoy the shit out of my parents. It's kind of par for the course for kids of a certain age, isn't it?
Thankfully, I was never one of those kids that completely turned their back on the music they grew up on- I still love the stuff my parents raised me on, the stuff my uncle and sister hipped me to, and the stuff I loved on my own as a kid. They just took a back seat for the moment while I indulged my inner punk for a while.
I've returned time and again to the punk sub-genre over the years, no matter how old I get, and I make no apologies for it. Sometimes, you just want to tear the roof off the sucker, as it were. We want the punk! (Oh wait, I think that's actually the FUNK, but it'll do in a pinch.)
At the time I saw RNRHS, I might have heard a few Ramones tracks here and there on MTV- likely I had heard Psychotherapy, I Wanna Be Sedated and almost certainly Pet Sematary, as I was a hardcore Stephen King fan from an early age. I knew Uncle Stevie loved the Ramones as well, so it makes sense that I would have been interested when a full-on Ramones movie presented itself on cable.
I'm quite sure the first time I saw it, it was edited for television, as I had a worn-out VHS copy of the film that I watched for years before I bought it on DVD, as part of Roger Corman's Cult Classics collections.
I remember how excited I was to discover that there were scenes and things I'd never seen before when I saw it on home video uncensored for the first time, including an entire musical sequence ("I Want You Around") that was cut on account of the main character, the excellently-named Riff Randall, smoking pot and prancing around in her underwear.
Like I said, though, compared to what came after, teen movie-wise, RNRHS is pretty tame. There's no nudity, most stuff is implied more than shown (i.e. groupies, drug use) and the entire thing plays a bit like a live-action cartoon, quite frankly, deftly anticipating the "let's throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" attitude of 80's comedy typified by the forthcoming Airplane! and all the other comedy spoofs that followed.
To be fair, it wasn't completely unprecedented, as, for instance, the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team responsible for Airplane! had already been well-established with The Kentucky Fried Movie, which itself inspired a bunch of like-minded skit-based movies of varying quality like The Groove Tube, Tunnelvision and Loose Shoes. In addition, there was the no-holds-barred comedy of Monty Python and SNL.
In the case of RNRHS, writer/director Joe Dante (who would go on to make literal live-action cartoon films like the Gremlins movies and Looney Tunes: Back in Action) and writer/director Allan Arkush concocted a satire of so-called "JD" films, which is short for "Juvenile Delinquents," which are indeed the old-school version of punk rockers. Basically, the types of teens inclined to skip class, get drunk, do drugs, have sex and ultimately drop out (or flunk out) of school altogether.
Interestingly, the film went through a variety of changes in its journey to the big screen. Alternate titles included: Disco High, Heavy Metal Kids and High School Spirit of '76 and everyone from Todd Rundgren to Cheap Trick to- be still my heart- Tom Petty were approached to serve as the centerpiece of the film and declined it.
Van Halen were nearly cast and were certainly interested, but their own label (!) warned the filmmakers that they would be a handful to handle, so Arkush passed on them at the last minute. (Can you imagine how different this film would be with any of those people/groups at the center of the film? Yikes!)
Finally, actor Paul Bartel- who ironically went on to play the "square" music teacher that the "kids" hip to the musical stylings of The Ramones- suggested the group, who agreed to star in the movie. They also proved to be quite the handful themselves, having trouble learning their lines to such an extent that it took hours to shoot the "pizza" scene, in part due to some members' extensive drug use at the time.
Dee Dee, in particular, had his lines reduced from seven to two because he couldn't get them right. As if that weren't bad enough, he also got arrested, overdosed in jail and ended up in the hospital- all during shooting! Mind you, it was only a 21-day shoot, and The Ramones were only on set for a small chunk of that time.
Be that as it may, the film works like gangbusters, even the bits with The Ramones, which are hilariously inept in way that almost rivals the true nadir of rock 'n' roll movies, KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park. (Joey's enthused delivery of the line: "Hey, it's Riff Randall, our #1 fan!" cracks me up every time.) Thankfully, that's because the writing, acting and directing are otherwise pretty top-notch.
What gives this film such re-watchability is all the sight gags and clever lines of dialogue, many of which fly by the viewer the first time around. Sure, some of them are corny, but that's just part of the film's charm. For instance, I love the way the cavernous bathroom at the high school defies all laws of physics, including placing an entire office in a bathroom stall!
(To say nothing that the school's arbitrator of cool is... Clint Howard? Lol.)
In one scene, a character turns around a picture of famed coach Vince Lombardi, for whom the high school is named in tongue-in-cheek fashion, to face the wall and we see, instead of the back of the picture frame...his back profile. Later on, we see the same photo with Lombardi plugging his ears, in anticipation of an impending explosion.
Then there's all the business with the mice, which is hilarious. Featuring impressive make-up by FX guru Rob Bottin- who trained under the legendary Rick Baker, monster maker, and would go on to do the excellent special effects for Dante's The Howling and John Carpenter's The Thing- the human-sized mouse-people are played by Bottin himself.
I like that one of them resembles the post-rock-music-exposed mouse shown in Principal Togar's hilarious breakdown of the effect loud rock music has on poor mice via the "Rockometer." (Note the presence of some of the aforementioned also-rans.) The other is his mother (!), who shows up to burn her child's records, along with the rest of the high school kids' parents, donned in a joke apron that reads- wait for it- "I Hate Mouse Work." LOL.
That's a lot of unnecessary detail for a low-budget film geared towards teens, but it's also why it works for adults, too. You might grumble at some of the jokes, a few of which are real groaners, but at least they keep coming fast and furious- and some of them do land nicely, even after you've seen them a few times, notably some of the great dialogue.
Here's a sampling:
Principal Togar (to The Ramones): Do your parents know you're Ramones?
Tom Roberts (in exasperation): The only thing I'll ever lay is a rug!
Kate: Look at your math book- it looks brand new. Bet you never even opened it!
Riff: I only use it on special equations.
Riff: Tom Roberts is so boring his brother is an only child.
Joey Ramone: Things sure have changed since we were kicked out of high school. (Nice delivery on that line, too.)
Kate: I don't want to have fun! I want to be with Tom!
Togar: Well, that should teach them a lesson in deportment.
Fritz: How do you spell that?
Togar: D-E-portment.
Chemistry teacher: Don't dance near the chemicals!
Mr McGree: I regret that I only have one life to give for rock and roll.
Togar: Those Ramones are peculiar.
Police Chief: They're ugly. Ugly, ugly people. (Reportedly actor Dick Miller ad-libbed this line after laying eyes on The Ramones for the first time!)
You get the idea.
All, in all, it adds up to one of my all-time favorite teen movies and one of my fave movie musicals to boot. (To be fair, I'm not much for musicals, but I don't mind rock musicals if it's bands/performers I like.) It's just a lot of fun, even if it does scrub punk clean of some of its more unseemly attributes for the masses. A lot of that has to do with the team behind it. Let's take a closer look.
In the lead, we have the inimitable P.J. Soles at her most adorable, and that's saying something. Hot off of the one-two punch of the classic horror flicks Carrie and Halloween, Pamela Jayne Hardon- who took her ex-husband J. Steve Soles' surname (and one of his initials) as her own professionally, perhaps for obvious reasons (think about it)- Soles, in arguably her finest role, basically just expands on her persona in those two previous films here, creating a character that feels completely lived in and real, almost in spite of her cartoonishness.
While I have talked to people who find her annoying and grating, most will allow that she delivered what was asked of her- to play an avid rock music fan that would do anything for the music. One thing I noticed this time around I hadn't before: if you look closely amongst her typical rock music posters, such as Talking Heads, Led Zeppelin, The Who, et. al., there's one for...jazz musician Al Jarreau? What the what?
Soles coasted on her likability throughout the late 70's and 80's, in such cult favorites as The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, Breaking Away, The Possessed, Zuma Beach (TV-movie fluff also scripted by John Carpenter, of all people), Private Benjamin, Stripes, Soggy Bottom USA, Innocent Prey, Sweet Dreams, B.O.R.N. and Alienator.
Sadly, her career cooled a bit in the 90's onward, as she made only sporadic appearances in films like The Power Within, Uncle Sam, Jawbreaker, Mirror Mirror IV, The Devil's Rejects, The Tooth Fairy, Alone in the Dark II and The Butterfly Room, often in small supporting roles, which is too bad.
Be that as it may, she is much-beloved by cult film fans and has been warmly accepted on the film-con circuit, where she frequently makes an appearance. She also reprised her Riff Randall character in multiple projects, including director Arkush's old-school rock 'n' roll tribute Shake, Rattle and Rock! and in The Donnas' music video "Too Bad About Your Girl."
In addition, alt-rockers Local H released an album in 2004 called "Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?", featuring a song about her; and the British band The Breakdowns have a song about her called "Sweet Pamela Jayne" that also references this movie. So, she may be underemployed to a certain extent, but she's hardly forgotten by the fans, that's for sure.
Her co-star, Dey Young, as Kate Rambeau, the dictionary definition of Hollywood's idea of a nerd- which is to say, she's actually cute as a button but happens to wear glasses- made her debut with this film and has worked steadily ever since.
She appeared in the 80's cult favorites Strange Behavior, Strange Invaders, Spaceballs, The Running Man and The Serpent & The Rainbow, then made a memorable cameo in Pretty Woman as the snobby saleswoman that gives Julia Roberts a hard time and made multiple appearances in the Star Trek universe, including on The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Enterprise.
Other notable roles include movies like Spontaneous Combustion, Frankie & Johnny, No Place to Hide, Executive Decision, True Heart, The Mod Squad, Barely Legal, Red Eye, Flicka, What Just Happened and the TV shows Freddy's Nightmares, The Outer Limits, The X-Files, Melrose Place, Popular, JAG and CSI. She's also a professional sculptor.
As the would-be love interest for both girls, Tom Roberts, there's Vincent Van Patten. Son of Eight is Enough star Dick, Van Patten was all over TV in the 70's, but slowly-but-surely made his way into film in the years to come, with this film his most high profile movie at the time.
Horror fans will likely recognize him from such cult favorites as Hell Night and Camp Fear, while 90's kids/teens will no doubt remember him from his role on the immortal Baywatch. Sadly, his career cooled a bit after that, with Patten only making sporadic appearances in film from there on out, and cropping up for a brief spell on the soap The Young & The Restless.
Don't weep too much for him, though. In addition to his acting gigs, he's also a professional tennis player that beat the legendary John McEnroe at his peak and then went onto to become a professional poker player, winning several tournaments in both sports. He's since become a poker commentator for the show World Poker Tour. Oh, and he even landed that hot girl IRL. (See above.)
As the resourceful Eaglebauer- originally written for the even nerdier Eddie Deezen (Grease,1941), showing that it was always intended to be ironically casted- there's cult movie legend Clint Howard, the brother of none other than actor/director Ron Howard, in many of whose films he's appeared, including Night Shift, Splash, Cocoon, Apollo 13 and lots more where that came from.
Be that as it may, Howard's bread-and-butter has always been quirky roles in oddball films like Harper Valley PTA, Evilspeak, Get Crazy (also from director Arkush), The Wraith, Freeway, B.O.R.N. (also with Soles), Tango & Cash, Disturbed, Silent Night Deadly Night IV: Initiation, SNDN V: The Toy Maker, Carnosaur, Ticks, Leprechaun 2, Fist of the North Star, Ice Cream Man, Barb Wire, Humanoids from the Deep (remake), The Dentist 2, Little Nicky, House of the Dead, Halloween (remake), Bloodrayne: The Third Reich, Blubberella, The Lords of Salem and The Funhouse Massacre.
If you haven't seen at least some of those cult faves, you've got some catching up to do. I particularly recommend Evilspeak, Freeway, Ice Cream Man and the two absolutely bonkers Silent Night flicks as starting points. Howard's kind of awesome.
Rounding out the core cast are three Corman faves: Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel and Dick Miller. Woronov we've discussed before- she was a former Factory Girl from the Warhol camp who starred in some of his best films, including the innovative Chelsea Girls, then became a regular on the cult movie circuit, often co-starring with fellow actor and fine director in his own right, Bartel.
The two appeared together in Death Race 2000, Hollywood Boulevard (also directed by Dante and Arkush), Cannonball!, the first-rate Eating Raoul (arguably their finest hour-and-a-half), Chopping Mall, Mortuary Academy and Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills.
In addition, Woronov appeared in lots of other cult faves, including Silent Night Bloody Night, Sugar Cookies, Seizure, Cover Girl Models, Jackson County Jail, The Lady in Red, Angel of H.E.A.T., Get Crazy!, Night of the Comet, Blood Theatre, Hellhole, TerrorVision, Black Widow, Warlock, Dick Tracy, Watchers II, Motorama, The Living End, Glory Daze, Prison-a-Go-Go, Frog-G-G-G!, The Devil's Rejects, House of the Devil and Attack of the 50-ft. Cheerleader.
I really love the broad, comedic way she plays the principal character here, as if she were part fascist dictator, part wily dominatrix. If done without her tongue firmly in cheek, it could have come off like, say, Imelda Staunton's Dolores Umbridge character in the Harry Potter films, but she absolutely nails the tone of the film to be a perfect foil to the rest of the cast.
Bartel was an esteemed writer/director known for his quirky sense of humor and oft-twisted narratives. Other notable films he directed include The Secret Cinema, Naughty Nurse, Private Parts, Not for Publication, Lust in the Dust, The Longshot, Shelf Life and he also directed several episodes each of TV's Amazing Stories and Clueless.
In addition, he's acted in quite a few films, including such cult faves as Brian DePalma's Hi Mom!, Big Bad Mama, Eat My Dust, Grand Theft Auto, Piranha, White Dog, Trick or Treats, Into the Night, Killer Party, Munchies, Amazon Women on the Moon, Out of the Dark, Caddyshack II, Far Out Man, Gremlins 2, Liquid Dreams, Desire & Hell at the Sunset Motel, The Pope Must Diet, Posse, The Usual Suspects,The Jerky Boys, Joe's Apartment, Escape from L.A., Basquiat, The Elevator, Lewis & Clark & George, Zoo and 2000's Hamlet.
Finally, there's Dick Miller. Miller was one of Roger Corman's go-to actors, having starred in many of his films from nearly the beginning of his career, including It Conquered the World, Sorority Girl, A Bucket of Blood, The Little Shop of Horrors, Premature Burial, The Terror, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Big Bad Mama, Death Race 2000, Crazy Mama, Cannonball!, The Lady in Red and lots more where that came from.
He was also a favorite of director Joe Dante, appearing in most of his films, including Hollywood Boulevard, Piranha, The Howling, Gremlins 1 & 2, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Explorers, Inner Space, The 'Burbs, Small Soldiers, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, The Hole and Burying the Ex. By all means, check out his IMDB page here- it's amazing.
We've already discussed writer-turned-director Dante's output above, as well as Corman's, so let's move on to co-writer/director Allan Arkush. Arkush also started out with Corman- his first gig was co-directing Hollywood Boulevard with Dante.
From there, he went on to do the pseudo-Death Race 2000 sequel, Deathsport, then movies like Get Crazy!, Heartbeeps, Caddyshack II, Shake, Rattle and Rock, Elvis Meets Nixon and an exceptional amount of TV, beginning in 1986 with The Twilight Zone and continuing on to current day with shows like BrainDead, A Series of Unfortunate Events and Nashville.
I should also mention the film's credited screenwriters Richard Whitley (who also wrote the horror spoof Pandemonium and a fair bit of TV, including episodes of Roseanne and Roswell), Russ Dvonch (who also wrote the unrelated Rock 'n' Roll Hotel) and Joseph McBride (who also wrote Blood & Guts and went onto become a film historian/documentarian for the AFI), who helped flesh out Dante and Arkush's out-there ideas into a workable script.
A few more fun facts about the film: the demolition of the school looks pretty real for a low-budget movie- that's because it was. The school, Mount Carmel in South Central Los Angeles, was already scheduled for demolition and the filmmakers made their movie and when it was time for the big climatic scene, they simply filmed the actual demolition for free, costing them basically nothing beyond the cost of film.
Although they certainly had to make sure they got it on film, as there would be no retakes, for obvious reasons. The destruction took place at 3am, and ended up being way more intense than anyone expected, waking up neighbors all over the place and sending them on the run, as they must have thought the world was coming to an end.
As with Hollywood Boulevard, Joe Dante co-directed the movie, stepping in to shoot the scene in the gym where Riff Randall sings "her" song, the title track; the tracking shot in the expansive bathroom and the scene with Riff and Kate calling the radio station via a phone booth to win some tickets. The last two in particular seem very Dante-esque, what with all the sight gags and slapstick.
The excellent soundtrack is mostly made up of decidedly not punk music, aside from The Ramones, The Velvet Underground, MC5 and maybe Devo, including tracks from the likes of Richie Valens (of "La Bamba" fame), Nick Lowe, Eddie & The Hot Rods, Chuck Berry, Brownsville Station, Alice Cooper, Fleetwood Mac, Brian Eno and Todd Rundgren (who made it into the film after all, though he later regretted turning it down as the potential star of the film).
If the singer of the recurring "love theme" song "Did We Meet Somewhere Before?" sounds familiar, that's because it's none other than Paul McCartney, who agreed to let the film use his song only if he wasn't credited, thinking no one would see it anyway! Director Arkush landed it for a cool $500- not too shabby for a former Beatles' song.
Soles was 28 at the time of filming- that's older than three out of the four Ramones (save Johnny) and a good bit past her teens, obviously. She had never heard The Ramones before she was cast for the film and didn't know what to make of them at first, but grew to love them after meeting the band.
Likewise, Woronov was only seven years older than Soles, and she played the principal. A similar thing happened on Soles' prior film, Carrie, where actress Betty Buckley played a gym teacher, despite only being three years older than Soles and a mere two years older than star Sissy Spacek. Ah, Hollywood- always keeping it real!
This is just a plain fun movie, with lots of energy, great music (punk or otherwise), an endearing cast and some genuinely funny moments that ensure maximum rewatchability- always a plus for any movie, much less a movie musical.
I could- and have- watched this one who knows how many times over the years since I first saw it circa the late 80's-early 90's, and I never get tired of it. I can't recommend it enough to those who haven't seen it, especially if you're a fan of The Ramones or anyone else involved I mentioned.
Definitely check this one out!
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