IN DEFENCE OF: CLASS OF 1984 (1982, LESTER)
In 1982, director Mark L. Lester took a screenplay from Tom Holland and John Saxton about a young, naive Music teacher who comes up against a volatile group of punks in his new teaching position and turned it into a smart, thrilling and altogether cool film that is severely under-appreciated.
Andrew Norris (Perry King) is a handsome, intelligent man whose about to start his first day at Abraham Lincoln High School. Leaving his job at Nebraska to teach Music here, Andrew and his wife are hoping to start fresh and be happy. But on his first day, he meets the Biology teacher, Terry (Roddy McDowall), who explains to him that teachers at Abraham Lincoln are merely educated security guards and the kids here pretty much engage in whatever they feel like, be it smoking marijuana, dealing drugs, fighting, gambling or "urinating in the hallways". It's not long before Andrew meets Peter Stegman (frequent HBO collaborator, Timothy Van Patten) and he realizes are far gone these kids are.
The tone of Class Of 1984 can be summarized in one scene, where Andrew first meets Stegman. Mr. Norris throws Peter's gang out of the classroom so he can begin his lesson and Peter reacts by getting up and walking out. Norris quickly questions his attendance in the classroom, to which Stegman replies (with his middle finger lifted), "sit on this, motherfucker". Mr. Norris is genuinely shocked at the state-of-mind of these students and it sets up both characters as the film's protagonist and antagonist. From here, we learn that Stegman and his gang are running the school and are hell-bent on getting rid of Mr. Norris.
I should mention that as cool retro-cool and entertaining as the film is, it's also pretty prophetic in that a lot of the things we see in Class Of 1984 have come to pass (and then some). Throughout the film we see various assaults in and out of the school on teachers as well as metal detectors being used to scan the students for weapons before they enter their lessons. As of 2002, the United States school system reportedly had over 10.1% of High schools using metal detectors and security guards. And that's just 20 years after the film was released. In another big scene we see Roddy McDowall's character, Terry, bring a pistol to school to threaten and frighten his students, an action that doesn't end well for the teacher. Again, we've seen this in the news only last year, when a British teacher brought a dumbbell to his class room and assaulted a 14 year old boy. It begs the question, have our schools always been this bad or is it something Holland, Lester and Saxton saw coming?
But besides the social commentary of the film, it also works wonderfully as a great thriller with solid action, performances and atmosphere. Perry King and Timothy Van Patten work well together on screen and Stegman's gang are all suitably sleazy and scuzzy. It appears that besides the fact that it had all of these great things, audiences and critics disapproved of Lester's film due to it's violence and furious tone. Originally threatened with the horrific X-Rating (usually reserved for pornography), the film had to be cut to achieve an R-Rating. This significantly hurt the film too, as two specific scenes were cut; the rape of Mr. Norris' wife and the scene in which Norris murders one of the gang. Both scenes are pivotal to the shaping of his character and his motivation. I haven't seen the edited version (the Region 2 DVD is uncut*) but I can't say I want to either.
I strongly recommend people check this out. It's a fine film and one that's overlooked constantly. You're not going to find it in many rental stores, but you'd find it in your local retail shops for relatively cheap. So try it out.
*I could be wrong on that. If I am, let me know in the comments.
