PORKY'S 2

US, 1983, 93 minutes, Colour.
Dan Monahan, Roger Wilson, Cyril O'Reilly, Nancy Parsons.
Directed by Bob Clark.

Porky's was an extraordinarily popular and commercial success of 1982. Written and directed by Bob Clark, based on reminiscences from his schooldays, the film combined vulgarity with the touch of nostalgia. It was a classic example of a film 'having its cake and eating it'. The youngsters were comparatively sympathetic, at least in comparison with the cheaper youth oriented films by such companies as Crown International. The situations, while vulgar and frequently crude, were presented in a belly laugh manner.

A sequel was inevitable. The film takes up the characters on the day after the episodes in the original film. The principal characters are reintroduced - though they seem less funny and engaging this time. Their sexual preoccupation is much more laboured. There is the same emphasis on vulgarity and crudity. However, interspersed with the vulgarity is a great amount of moralising, especially on social hypocrisy and racial issues. The film focuses on the plight of the Indians in Florida in the '50s and makes its points, especially in a very hard-hitting send-up of the Ku Klux Klan. The film also criticises the moral stances of the establishment. While they lay down the letter of the law they are preoccupied with their own importance and political gain. There is also a wealthy and loudmouthed religious leader whose morals, of course, are suspect and eventually exposed. The difficulty with this kind of hard-hitting expose is that the exposers, the younger generation, are full of self importance though no less hypocritical in their way and one can wonder about their own contribution to the world.

Bob Clark made some interesting thrillers like Dead of Night and Black Christmas. He made the excellent Sherlock Holmes film Murder By Decree and directed Jack Lemmon in his Oscar nominated Tribute.