Class of 1984 (1982) United Film Distribution Company/Action-Thriller RT: 98 minutes Rated R (language, strong violence, rape, full frontal nudity, sexual content, heavy drug use) Director: Mark L. Lester Screenplay: Mark L. Lester, Tom Holland and John Saxton Music: Lalo Schifrin Cinematography: Albert J. Dunk Release date: August 20, 1982 (US) Starring: Perry King, Merrie Lynn Ross, Timothy Van Patten, Roddy McDowall, Lisa Langlois, Stefan Arngrim, Keith Knight, Neil Clifford, Michael J. Fox, Al Waxman, Erin Flannery, David Gardner. Box Office: $20M (US)
Rating: ****
Think of Class of 1984 as To Sir, With Love meets Death Wish. I could easily picture Charles Bronson accepting a teaching position at Lincoln High School in Los Angeles (the movie was actually filmed in Toronto, but never mind). Students have to pass through a metal detector as they enter the building. The hallways are crawling with gang members who deal drugs right out in the open. The principal tells the new music teacher, “Teaching is something you do in spite of everything else.” on his first day. Talk about making the new guy feel welcome with words of encouragement, right?
Let me start things off by saying that Class of 1984 kicks ass! I really love this movie. When it first came out at the end of summer ’82, it was the top title on every teenager’s movie wish list including my own. It was also the top title on every parent’s OMDB (Over My Dead Body) list. I didn’t get to see it until December ’84. It was one of the first movies I rented from The Video Den upon receiving my first VCR. I watched it twice before returning it the next day. How can I not love a movie where a teacher forces his class to learn biology at gunpoint? Considering the dismal state of today’s schools, what teacher wouldn’t love to do this very thing?
Class of 1984 is a great violent revenge flick; I will NOT apologize for giving it a four-star rating. True, it’s a trashy low budget (approx $4.3 million) action movie, but it’s the good kind of trash. It’s the kind of movie where you hunker down in your seat and cheer for the good guy as he rids of the school of a vicious gang of psychos. Plot spoiler? I don’t think so. We all know it will come down to the formerly idealistic hero changing his stance and dealing with the gang Bronson-style in a satisfying violent finale. It wouldn’t be much of a movie otherwise.
Andy Norris (King, Search and Destroy) can’t believe what he sees on his first day at Lincoln. The place is a zoo. He witnesses a student sneak a straight razor past security. He calls it to their attention, but nobody seems interested in doing anything about it. Biology teacher Terry Corrigan (McDowall, Fright Night) advises him to ignore whatever happens. The principal (Gardner) echoes this sentiment and further informs him he’ll be expected to patrol the halls and washrooms during his free periods.
Andy soon discovers the students and teachers live in fear of psychotic hoodlum Peter Stegman (Van Patten, The White Shadow) and his band of punks. The gang includes Stegman’s girlfriend Patsy (Langlois, Happy Birthday to Me), hulking neo-Nazi Barnyard (Knight, My Bloody Valentine), drugged-out Drugstore (Arngrim, Fear No Evil) and psychotic enforcer Fallon (Clifford).
Andy’s refusal to allow Stegman to play in the school symphony orchestra sets off a violent battle of wits as Stegman tries to force the new teacher out of the school by victimizing everybody he cares about. The police can’t do anything about it because the punks are all under 18. Furthermore, nobody will testify against them out of pure fear. It’s a no-win situation that keeps getting worse. Things come to a head after the gang rapes and kidnaps Andy’s pregnant wife Diane (Ross). I don’t want to ruin things by saying too much, but I’d just like to say Andy makes excellent use of a table saw at one point.
Class of 1984 is one of the coolest movies of the 80s. What’s interesting about it is how much of what’s depicted as nightmare fantasy has become harsh reality of everyday life in an inner city high school forty-odd years later. Take the metal detectors at the doors. Director Mark L. Lester (Commando) imbues his film with an anarchic, punk rock vibe. From the opening song by Alice Cooper (“I Am the Future”) to the cameo performance by Canadian punk band Teenage Head, it embodies the whole punk subculture of the early 80s.
King makes a good protagonist, a decent guy pushed too far by lawless teenage punks. McDowall is excellent as the bio teacher who finally snaps after the creeps kill all the animals in his classroom. He’s the one who holds them at gunpoint. Van Patten is positively chilling as Stegman, a complete psychopath who knows how to properly f*** with people like when he makes it look like Norris assaulted him by beating himself up. Michael J. Fox (pre-Family Ties) shows up as Arthur, one of the school’s few decent students. He witnesses a drug deal that results in the death of his best friend and refuses to speak up out of fear of Stegman and his hoods. It doesn’t matter, they go after him anyway.
The violence in Class of 1984 is nice and plentiful. One of the best sequences is a fight between Stegman’s punks and an African-American gang. The best, of course, is the finale where Norris deals with the dirtbags during a school concert. He gets them real good! They deserve everything he dishes out and more. Bronson himself couldn’t have done a better job. Lester brings it all home to create one of the best revenge actioners of the 80s.
