RPM

US, 1970, 97 minutes, Colour.
Anthony Quinn, Ann- Margret, Gary Lockwood, Paul Winfield.
Directed by Stanley Kramer.

RPM stands for revolutions per minute - as applied to the unrest on American University campuses during the protests of the sixties. This is a theme taken up in such films as Richard Rush's Getting Straight and Stewart Hagman's The Strawberry Statement.

In their time, these films were criticised as trying too hard to be contemporary and to reach the audience depicted. However, in retrospect, they are an interesting opportunity to see what things were like in the late sixties (however exaggerated for the purposes of the movie) and the issues of protest that were the atmosphere of the time.

Anthony Quinn gives a sympathetic and even persuasive performance as the self-centred sociology lecturer who is lionised by the students and becomes the University President, having to deal with them, and becoming exasperated in the process, even setting the troops on to the students occupying the University buildings. Ann Margret has her usual sixties' ultra-glamorous sexy role - although she is given a lot of serious dialogue to confront Anthony Quinn. Gary Lockwood and Paul Winfield are the two student leaders. There is a gallery of University board members (including a young Donald Moffatt) and Graham Jervis as the head of the campus police.

The film was directed by Stanley Kramer, best known for so many of his small budget social concern dramas of the fifties - moving into bigger budget and longer films in the late fifties into the sixties such as The Defiant Ones, Judgment at Nuremburg, Inherit the Wind, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and The Secret of Santa Vittoria (also with Quinn).

1. Interesting picture of campus unrest in the late sixties? Criticized as exploitive in its time? In the retrospect of the decades and the perspective on protest on campuses in the sixties?

2. The University campus, school buildings, board rooms? The life around the campus? Action sequences, the final confrontation? Musical score and songs?

3. The title - and its reference to campuses and protest?

4. The Universities in the sixties, the dissatisfied students, the curriculum, the need for change, tenure and the role of staff? The Universities and change, the role of Boards, their not understanding youth? The need for some kind of revolution? The background of civil rights and freedoms in the sixties? Permissiveness? The context of the Vietnam War? The actual shootings and riots on such campuses as Berkeley and Kent State?

5. The students, Rossiter and his leadership, Steven and the blacks? The group with the leaders, occupying the classrooms? Their loyalties? Their disdain of the staff, older people? Freedom, the twelve points? Concern about studies, staffing, rights of blacks? The confrontations with the staff? With Paco? The negotiations? The self-confidence, even smugness? The possibility of black clashing with white, their need for self-assertion? The preparation for the assault? The tear gas, the police, the battering? Prison? The deals - and the future? The leaders and their getting roles in the University? The characters of Rossiter and Steven, with Paco, negotiating with each other, clashes between black and white?

6. The Board, its composition, conservatives, bankers, academic staff, chaplain? The chaplain more sympathetic to the young? The meetings, the late discussions? The resignation of the President? The nomination of Paco? The meetings with him, not listening to him, the clashes? The support of action? Their world collapsing around them?

7. Paco, Anthony Quinn and his style? Relationship with the students, with Rodha? His sociological work and publications? Woken up, the meeting, relationship with the Board? Sympathies with the students? Social reform, sociological patterns? Discussions with the students, sympathy, their attacking him? His emphasis on his age? Experience? The stories about his growing up and the changes in the sixties? The attempts at negotiation, the various points, curriculum, appointments, tenure? The black Registrar? The sticking-point about the students controlling curriculum? His going back, his being ridiculed? The relationship with Rodha, listening to her? His decision to send in the police, the talk with the coach, the talk with the Police Chief? Not wanting violence? The ultimatum, the clashes, the violence? His reaction - and seeing Rodha there? The final conversations - after paying the bail money? With the Board, with the students? His future?

8. Rodha, the glamorous student, the relationship with the professor? The permissiveness and sex style? Her angers with Paco? Going out with him, the conversations, sympathy with the students? Disparity of age, her joining with the students?

9. The police, the discussions about violence? The coach and his antagonism towards the youngsters? The tear gas, the attack? The fight - and the brutality? The young people besieged, the young people and the attack?

10. Memories of the sixties, social transitions in the United States, the background of the War? Freedoms? Academic life and protest?