Posted on 07/25/2017 8:58:17 AM PDT by Skooz
Upon its release in 1982, no one would have expected Fast Times at Ridgemont High ever to receive the imprimatur of classic.
The movie was engineered to make a quick buck at a moment when Hollywood was giddy about its latest easy-money formula: Take some horny teens, put them in a broad, dumb comedy that invited teen boys to ogle bare breasts, and load the soundtrack with hit rock songs. Low-budget movies like Private Lessons (1981), The Last American Virgin (1982), Goin’ All the Way (1982), Private School (1983), Losin’ It (1983), Spring Break (1983), Bachelor Party (1984), and especially Porky’s (1982), which cost almost nothing but earned the equivalent of $320 million in today’s dollars at the North American box office, promised sexcapades in their titles and delivered.
Theater managers were often happy to look the other way as underage kids scrambled to get into these R-rated films.
Most of these efforts are too moronic to interest anyone who has weathered the teen-hormone tsunami, but despite its salacious title, Fast Times at Ridgemont High was different: a genuinely thoughtful and well-drawn collection of character portraits that stands on a higher plane than virtually any other teen movie of the era, including The Breakfast Club. Moreover, it concludes with a conservative message about the emotional perils of casual sex.
As part of the ongoing TCM Big Screen Classics series, which brings movies most of us know from TV back to multiplexes, Fast Times will screen in theaters on July 30 and August 2 to observe its 35th anniversary. It can also be streamed on HBO.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449793/fast-times-ridgemont-high-35th-anniversary-conservative-sex-comedy
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
This movie should have been terrible. But, it’s actually quite good. Surprisingly so.
People on Ludes should not blog
It struck me as pretty much a hard core liberal movie.
I did think Phoebe Cates was pretty. Is that the way you spell her name?
It would have been conservative if she chose not to have the abortion. Other than that, it was a very good movie. I don’t think it had a conservative message, other than to be a movie about the types of people you encounter in high school. On that, it was accurate for its time, people in that movie were exactly like people I knew. And it was hilarious in some parts, especially those involving Spicoli. Too bad he grew up to be an uneducated douchebag.
Porky’s was a great movie, too. The sequels, not so much. But it was true to life, well written, and hilarious.
Fast forward 3 seconds, please.
Good points. But, I think the film showed the abortion as a negative experience.
‘Casablanca’, also, was not originally supposed to be anything other than just another of dozens of movies Hollywood pumped out with great rapidity, but it did capture the way people looked back at an era.
Exactly. What movie was this guy watching?
I don't want to get banned.
“It would have been conservative if she chose not to have the abortion.”
Bingo!
Porky’s The Next Day had to be the worst movie ever made.
Never saw any of them and I was in my mid 20s.
lol
hi, brad......
I never saw “Porky’s The Next Day,” but I can’t imagine anything worse than “The Trial of Billy Jack.”
Watching that was actually physically painful.
Learn it. Know it. Live it.
That scene was legendary... never was there a better pair of on screen mammaries...
ayep...
...just reach your little hand into that till, and give me my $2.75 back...Brad...
“..if you dont shut up, mister, I am gonna kick 100% of your azz...”
funny movie...classic quotables....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.