FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (1982)
Tagline: Fast Cars, Fast Girls, Fast Carrots...Fast Carrots?
(Drama, Comedy, Irresponsibility) [R]
You want romance? In Ridgemont? We can't even get cable TV here, Stacy, and you want romance!
In this one, we are taken to a Southern California high school where Stacey who isn’t in high school just yet is trying to find her way in the world of dating older dudes. Meanwhile, her friends and her brother are also navigating their teen years and the presence and pressures of rumors, sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
Just to note for those that are concerned, Jennifer Jason Leigh (BACKDRAFT) who plays Stacey was actually 20 when this movie was shot. Phoebe Cates (GREMLINS) who plays Linda had just turned 18. So looking back the controversial thing about this film regarding those two would be that Linda says she was having sex at the age of 13. Clearly, this is based in reality for some girls, but yeah, that’s freakin jail bait. This film really gets more into the sexual aspect of teen life, but it’s also plagued with some terrible characters and a lot of chicks trying to dress like Pat Benatar. Not that there is anything wrong with Pat Benatar.
There is an underlying message here that it is better to seek out a real relationship and not just sleep around. However, sadly there is also the message that most men are just pigs who don’t want responsibility. Then on top of that children are basically just something you can get rid of if you weren’t responsible having sex. It’s almost like people expect that sex won’t result in having children and if it does then just kill it. It’s sick that we as a society ever went from “rare and something you never wanted to happen” to “let’s celebrate killing kids”. Then kind of off in the background, we have a story involving Jeff Spicoli who is a loser on drugs but might actually have something going for him that his teacher didn’t expect.
I think my least favorite character is Linda. She reminds me of some of my idiot friends that did really dumb things with no visible consequences, then pushed others to also do dumb stuff. Inevitably, something bad or unexpected would happen to the people they influenced. This is not to say that everyone shouldn’t take personal responsibility for themselves, but these kinds of people don’t help. Robert Romanus plays Mike Damone who is just as much of a bad influence as Linda, only
Brad Hamilton played by Judge Reinhold (BEVERLY HILLS COP) reminds me of me when I was in high school and briefly worked at Jack In The Box. I think I worked there for a month and got so verbally abused by the director one day that I just decided to quit a few days later. I remember my boss saying “Thanks for the 2 weeks’ notice”. I was so naïve that I didn’t even know what a two weeks notice was. I was like “Wait what?”. I never went off on my boss, but I can definitely identify with what Brad was going through. I also knew a few girls that sadly felt they had to get abortions and hated themselves for it. After the fact you always want to take a comforting approach. It’s not like they can go back in time and undo it. Brad supports Stacey after he finds out what happened in this and I thought that was a nice touch. I could also identify with Mark played by Brian Backer and just trying to not jump into things. Backer who is probably most famous for 1981’s THE BURNING.
Overall I found very little of this movie very funny. These days it seems to be most noted for a very specific scene with Phoebe Cates more than its actual merit. There is a reason for that. The movie really isn’t that good. Cameron Crowe has had better efforts out there writing-wise including ELIZABETHTOWN.
I just couldn’t get into this one, but it was pretty cool seeing some old 80s stuff like “Pioneer Chicken” and the soundtrack is pretty awesome. There are also a few cameos in this but nothing mind-blowing.
This is a 3 out of 7 flirting with a 2 out of 7.
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