BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE

US, 1989, 90 minutes, Colour.
Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin, Terry Camilleri, Dan Shor, Bernie Casey.
Directed by Stephen Herek.

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is not quite. It is a kind of youth cult movie, a story of two "nerds" who have great ambitions to be musicians but have no talent. However, six centuries hence people look back gratefully to them as the foundation of their society. How come? People from the future take these two students on a tour of history, time travelling where they encounter various personalities - and bring them back for their history project. It,' s not a bad idea, but the treatment is very much geared towards the American market and limits its entertainment value.

1. Enjoyable cult film? Oddball? American style?

2. The title, tone, Language - "excellent"?

3. The picture of American teenagers, nerd behaviour, at school, studying music, pool playing, hopes? Their friendship? Making the joke credible?

4. California settings? Excerpts from King Vidor's War and Peace? The scenes from the past, the future? Special effects? Musical score?

5. The future, Ruthless and his pleading about the boys, the council in session, the irony about the past and the future, the society? Time travel? Saving the boys? Teaching them to play music? Rock'n Roll? It being part of the heritage?

6. Bill and Ted and their music, playing, their threats of military service?

7. History and Socrates, the west and Billy the Kid, Joan of Are, Abraham Lincoln, Freud and Beethoven?

8. The effect of the experience of history and learning, bringing back the characters, the carnival atmosphere, the historical personages in prison, time tricks and the boys being able to recuperate their losses? The presentation to the class?

9. The picture of the students, the teachers, the history teacher, the parents, the father with his young wife, the police?

10. Napoleon and his strategies, the women? Napoleon on the water? Billy the Kid and his shooting? Freud and his psychology, Joan of Arc and her aerobics? Genghis Khan and the martial arts? Beethoven and the symphony? Lincoln and his speech? The medieval girl friends?

11. The final history lesson and learning from history?