SPRING BREAK

US, 1983, 105 minutes, Colour.
David Knell, Perry Lang, Paul Land.
Directed by Sean S. Cunningham.

Spring Break is an American youth-oriented film of the early '80s. It echoes the more permissive styles of the '70s and '80s, but is essentially a remake of the Beach Party films of the '60s.

The setting is Fort Lauderdale during the Spring Break and focuses on college students and their high jinks - and low jinks. The film has some verve - and is very much for extroverts who love crowds and non-stop activity. The emphasis is mainly on sex. However, there is the age-old sub-plot of the owner of the motel threatened by gangsters and who gains the loyalty of the young heroes and heroines and the gangsters are outsmarted - especially when a would-be political figure, the stepfather of the hero, is behind it all.

Most of the action is on the beach, in nightclubs with a variety of activities of drinking competitions, wet shirts etc.

The film was produced by Menahem Golan Yoram Globus, the prolific Israeli producers, and directed by Sean S. Cunningham who came to fame with his Friday the 13th. (He had previously made the sexploitation box office success, The Case of the Smiling Stiffs). A better film, a thriller, is The Stranger Watching Me with Rip Torn and Kate Mulgrew.

A negligible piece of Americana - though an example of a very popular box office type.