CLASS OF 1984

US, 1982, 93 minutes, Colour.
Perry King, Timothy Van Patten, Roddy Mc Dowall.

Class of 1984 is one of the exploitation classics of the 1980s. It was based on a story by Tom Holland (Fright Night) and written and directed by Mark L. Lester who made a number of exploitation films over a thirty-year period. After Class of 1984 he was to go slightly more respectable with an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Firestarter and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Commando.

While there have been many films about difficulties in schools (from Blackboard Jungle to Dangerous Minds and Freedom Writers), this is a school to end all schools. Perry King portrays an idealistic young teacher who comes to the school, finds it a centre of rebellion and drug distribution. The chief drug dealer is played by Timothy van Patten (who grew up to be a writer and director of the HBO series The Sopranos). Roddy Mc Dowall also appears as a teacher who secretly drinks and is cynical. Michael J. Fox appears in a brief supporting role.

The film has the courage of its convictions, shows the difficulties of the school in a heightened kind of way, but the overall grasp of Lester of his material ensures that it is dramatically effective even though it is farfetched.

Directed by Mark L. Lester.

1 The impact of the film? Revulsion, involvement? Intellectual response, emotional response, the violence at gut level? Any value in this kind of film?

2. Expectations: the traditions of the school film, upsets in the school? The allusions and quotations from other films? A film buff's film?

3. The style of the film and its directness: the presentation of the school, the city, homes? The contrast between squalor and pleasantness? The editing and the special effects? The build-up of shock, tension? The importance of the song and the mod - the theme by Alice Cooper of the group and its behaviour being the future?

4. The reliance on violence, gore? Violence and tension? The intent of manipulation of audience emotions? The visual impact of the violence? The feeling of satisfaction or revulsion at the end?

5. The director and his work with B-budget direct action films? His knowing how conventions and genres work? His direct presenting of these and taking them for granted?

6. The introduction with the information about statistics, violence in schools, incidents? The ominous data of 1984 and George Orwell? The irony of the ending with Mr. Norris going free and the nature of justice and evidence? How authentic was the film? A blend of reality and unreality? The film as exploitive, a warning? Regrets that the traditions were passing and so challenged? For what audience was the film made? Adults, adolescents? Teachers and parents? The effect on each group? The picture as an exaggerated piece of Americana?

7. Adults and professionals, especially teachers, identifying with Mr. Norris? The rage, anger, the catharsis with his breaking out violently?

8. Themes of education - for what? The generation gap? The spoilt children and their becoming psychotic? Madness and cruelty? Peer exploitation? The ineptness of the education system? The importance of tradition and values - despite the inroads of the punk gangs and the inept administration?

9. The picture of the school - Lincoln High and the patriotic overtones? The graffiti on the wall, their dress, slouchy behaviour, etc.? Yet the traditional values of the school and the curriculum? The small gang and the headmaster commenting that they were a small group? The majority of ordinary kids in the school? The teachers and their trying to cope? The headmaster and his television surveillance - distancing him from administration? Siding with the kids against the teachers? The need for security in the school?

10. Mr. Norris as hero: his arrival, the pleasant teacher, immediately identifiable as hero, the fact that he taught music, his handling of the class, enthusiasm for Tchaikovsky and for symphony-playing? The confrontation with Stegman and his supporters? His reaction to Stegman - and the graffiti on his car? The encounter with Corrigan and his response to the cynical attitude? The background of his family life, his wife's pregnancy, his love for her, sharing with her? His concern for her with the possibility of Stegman's attack? The differences with Corrigan -yet going to the help of the kids in the alley, the picnic? Corrigan and the slaughter of the animals? His trying to calm him down when he pulled the gun on the students? The reaction to the headmaster and his criticisms? Toilet supervision and the discovery of the drugs, the death of the boy on the flagpole? Going to save the children in the alley? The peace of the picnic? The school gradually going berserk? The laboratory? The police and their interrogation and their warnings to Norris? Stegman and his flaunting his anti-social behaviour? The

11. The sketch of his wife, her pregnancy, sentiment? The ugliness of her being raped and being taken to the school as victim?

12. The character of Corrigan - the exaggerated attitudes and behaviour? Desperate? Flip remarks? His being wounded in the hand? The slaughter of the animals and his grief? The picnic and his eventually going berserk? His great desire to communicate to someone? The black humour of his pulling the gun on the gang to get the correct answers? His stalking Stegman in the streets? The violence of his death?

13. The headmaster and his television, his taking sides, inept administration?

14. The police and their concern, meaning well, trying to handle the situation, arrests and charges, their hands being tied by the law and the need for visual evidence?

15. Stegman as a credible villain? Tough, appearance, poses, power in the class, the interviews, igniting Norris' car, his skill in playing the piano, his being protected by his mother, his threatening Norris, drug dealing and death, interviewing the girl for prostitution, signing up the young boy to do his stabbings for him? The atmosphere of revenge? The personalities of the gang and their ugliness - boys and girls? Corrigan's pulling the gun on them in class? Their revenge with his death? The final confrontation with the rape of Norris' wife? The horror of their individual deaths? Stegman's final gesture against Norris and his death?

16. The contrast with the children who were on side - the head of the orchestra and her conducting at the end? The young boy and his dead friend. the stabbing in the cafeteria, hospitalisation? The fear imposed by Stegman?

17. The film as a violent and direct symbolising of hatred, clashes, generation gaps, depression in the United States in the '80s?