HIGH SCHOOL MAYHEM: 1980s Gangsploitation
There were a lot of fears being explored in 1980s cinema: the "slasher" genre blew up, "satanic panic" was at its peak. Urban legends spread that drugs or razor blades could be in Halloween candy. "It's 10:00 PM. Do you know where your children are?"
Somehow, at the height of suburbanization and relative safety, well before the era of frequent school shootings, people were at their most paranoid. Perhaps it was a shift in how the news reported violence to increase fear-based viewing. Once there was a hit movie with a new formula, it would be repeated ad nauseum. Hence, in the '80s, there was a brief boom of copycat movies about gangs running rough-shod over teachers and principals in urban high schools.
Let's take a look at some High School Mayhem:
DANGEROUSLY CLOSE
1986, USA, d. Albert Pyun, 1h35m, ***
Who's In It: John Stockwell, Don Michael Paul
Cannon Films hired Hawaiian director Albert Pyun to direct this high school melodrama. Despite being known for ultra-cheap "Z-grade" action films, Pyun often found a way to inject his voice into his films. For example, the dismissed and forgotten Captain America (1990) with hindsight seems to interrogate the white American jingoism inherent to a character who was literally thawed out from 1940s comic books. So, I was intrigued by the premise of this film, which is about a bunch of white kids forming a Nazi-like vigilante "patrol" group in a California high school.
The original script was apparently a straight-forward slasher, but Pyun worked with one of the stars of the film to rewrite it incorporating this theme of vigilante justice, inspired by several headline news stories in the mid '80s. Early in the film, it shows the appeal of joining a gang like this to belong to something and provide a sense of safety (even when the dangerous atmosphere in the school mostly seems to come from this group). One of their targets is Kruger, a loud but charming punk music loving kid with a mohawk, who's the best character in the movie.
Source: TEEN VIGILANTE FILMS: ARMED AND DANGEROUS - Los Angeles Times
Cannon Films had their music licensing game on point, and this fantastically '80s soundtrack features Depeche Mode, The Fine Young Cannibals, The Smithereens, Black Uhuru, and more. The Glendale junior high school is memorable from tons of Hollywood movies, like Fast Times at Ridgemont High. But the calibre of acting here really lets down the teen melodrama which feels rote and tedious. And the little Nazis get let off the hook too easily; it turns out that the deaths at the school were all caused by a serial killer-type in their midst. They definitely, absolutely didn't really want any of this to happen.
After watching Dangerously Close, I read a number of Letterboxd reviews comparing it to other films of its era, which turned into the following watchlist. Clearly The Warriors (1979) was a factor, although that film was not set in a school. But the next two movies are probably where the sub-genre started:
MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH
1976, USA, d. Rene Daalder, 1h27m, **1/2
Who's In It: Robert Carradine, Ray Underwood
If I had heard this title before, I dismissed the film as a cheap slasher. But 1976 puts it a few years ahead of the establishment of the slasher genre. This violent high school movie eventually escalates into a wild series of ultra-violent "kills", and contains prototypical elements of both the slasher genre and the high school gang genre.
New kid David navigates the mean hallways of Central High, where the jocks are antagonizing all the other cliques. They are astonished when David doesn't want to join them and react violently. The violence is amped up on both sides, but the "massacred" wind up being the jock villains who are picked off one-by-one in astonishing fashion that leaves you wondering whose side you should be on.
This is a cheap film from a fly-by-night indie production company, and the acting is sub-par, but the plotting is original and hard-to-predict. There is a slight resemblance to Carrie, which came out a year earlier. It's a fun watch.
CLASS OF 1984
1982, USA, d. Mark Lester, 1h38m, ***1/2
Who's In It: Tim Van Patten, Roddy McDowall, Michael J Fox
Mark Lester (Commando, Firestarter) directs this movie that amps up the gang violence in a high school to something resembling The Warriors. This one follows a new teacher, Andy, who's shocked to discover his new school starts off with an ineffective trip through metal detectors. Students' knives are allowed through and fellow teachers can't believe he's not packing heat. One of the gang leaders has the musical talent to be in Andy's orchestra class, but his violent outbursts cause him to get kicked out, and the gang finds out where he lives and starts harassing him and his wife at home.
Although there are a couple of nasty scenes of violence, the film is well-made and has a memorable cast. A chubby-cheeked pre-Family Ties Michael Fox is one of the good kids in Andy's class. Roddy McDowell plays another teacher who has a nervous breakdown. Tim Van Patten plays the gang leader and shows real performing talent - even credited for his own piano improvisation - but he's famous now for his post-acting career as a director on HBO series like The Pacific and Game of Thrones. There are hints of Carrie (1976) in the violent climax that occurs in the high school auditorium.
TUFF TURF
1985, USA, d. Fritz Kiersch, 1h52m, ***
Who's In It: James Spader, Robert Downey Jr, Kim Richards
While the opening scene places this in the world of inner-city violence, the fact that it's shot on location around Highland Park and Redondo Beach in Los Angeles makes Tuff Turf about as soft a gang film as you're going to find. In fact, it's basically New Wave West Side Story.
James Spader is the cool new kid at school, and I've got to admit, he kinda pulls it off despite being 25-years-old. His new best friend is a gawky, teenaged Robert Downey Jr. Spader is actually a rich kid who got kicked out of private school, and he is powerless when the local gang runs over his bike with a car, but he brings more trouble upon himself by openly courting the gang leader's girlfriend, played by Kim Richards (the ice cream girl from Assault on Precinct 13!), who hilariously protests that she's too trash to ever fit in with Spader's country club family.
Tuff Turf is a silly movie high on teen melodrama and hang-out vibes. There are a ton of long musical performances by ridiculous New Wave bands, filling out the runtime to sell soundtracks. If this sounds cool, know that these may be a collection of the least cool bands out of Santa Monica. Bands like Jack Mack and the Heart Attack, an all-white soul band with something like 20 brass instruments... If this had been the '90s, they would have been a ska band... And Spader sings a serenade to his would-be girlfriend which is both sweet and cringe. Tuff Turf has a lot of nostalgia for some '80s kids, and the MTV-influenced editing pops, but there are times when you'll be looking at your watch waiting for something to happen.
THE NEW KIDS
1985, USA, d. Sean Cunningham, 1h50m, ***
Who's In It: James Spader, Lori Loughlin
Shannon and Loren love their Army Colonel dad, even though he wakes them up before school to run through the obstacle course like they're in boot camp. After opening with a training montage, the second scene is the kids learning they're now orphans and are being sent to live with their uncle in Florida, which means they'll have to help run his gas station/Santa Claus-themed amusement park. Bleach blonde James Spader tries rudely to invite Lori Loughlin out to the school dance, and when she turns him down they become the target of his gang of hillbillies who sell cocaine and hold dog fights in the high school parking lot.
There is a weird clash of wholesome family drama and sleazy hicksploitation in this movie. Written by Jake Gyllenhal's father - one of the first scripts he ever sold - and directed by Sean Cunningham of Friday the 13th fame. It has the rapey vibes of an 80s slasher, and a finale full of gory kills in the amusement park... That's why there's an amusement park in this movie. Of course, they could have just had a carnival in town for the big prom dance... But this movie is not for/by normal people.
Lalo Schifrin scores it like a '70s cop movie, another part of this that doesn't make sense. But I don't know, if you like stupid movies, this one's got a lot going on in it, so it's not boring. Shannon Presby would soon give up acting to go to law school; he would end up as Los Angeles' deputy District Attorney. (And Lori Loughlin was the member of the cast you'd think would be "Least Likely to Go to Jail".)
THE BROTHERHOOD OF JUSTICE
1986, USA, d. Charles Braverman, 1h37m, ***1/2
Who's In It: Keanu Reeves, Lori Loughlin, Kiefer Sutherland, Don Michael Paul
This is a made-for-TV movie, so my expectations were low, but I can't say I wasn't looking forward to seeing an early movie for both Keanu Reeves and Kiefer Sutherland. It turns out this is a pretty great movie with a cult following; at some point it was also lovingly restored to blu-ray quality, so even though the aspect ratio is not widescreen, the photography is still very artfully done. Like Dangerously Close, the filmmakers are ripping a story from the headlines and trying to show how kids can fall in with a vigilante gang and while this movie stays pretty entertaining throughout, they also take care to make the gang pretty ridiculous. As evidenced in the LA Times interview I linked to earlier, they knew the worst thing they could do is make a "how-to guide". The movie ends with a moralizing tone, and black-and-white "Hill Street Blues"-style photos showing all of the bad kids being arrested and booked in jail.
Keanu Reeves is the high school's star quarterback and rich kid, whose dad literally "owns a dealership" and is absent throughout the movie. The school's principal (Hill Street Blues' own Joe Spano) makes a speech urging students to police their own classmates, and when Keanu catches his 14-year-old brother with cocaine, he uses his leadership position to do just that with a gang of his jock buddies. But it quickly devolves from bullying known drug dealers and thieves to straight-up assassinations of anyone they don't like the look of, led by racist loose cannon Billy Zane. Yes, Billy Zane; this movie is great!
Keanu Reeves' girlfriend sees through the whole thing right away and laughs at the concept of the "Brotherhood of Justice" to his face immediately. She starts hanging out with Kiefer Sutherland, who's supposed to be the class dork, but he's legitimately the coolest guy. He's so cool, that when Keanu Reeves confronts him to stay away from his girl, he doesn't stay angry for long. Seriously, it looks like Keanu wants to beg him to be his best friend.
CLASS OF 1999
1990, USA, d. Mark Lester, 1h39m, ***
Who's In It: Malcolm McDowell, Stacy Keach, Pam Grier, John P. Ryan
This absolutely has a lot going for it as a ridiculous "sequel" to Class of 1984 that is knocking off Robocop and The Terminator and Escape from New York (for no reason) and Westworld and Mad Max. The movie moves, it has great production design, great practical effects, good stunts and pyro and puppetry. It has the cinematographer from '80s Cronenberg movies, and the first use of Nine Inch Nails in a movie. It has Pam Grier and John P Ryan as terminator robots, and Malcolm McDowell, and Stacy Keach with a bleached blond mullet so there's no mistaking he's the villain...
But the dialogue is baaaad. There's a one-liner every minute whether the story warrants it or not. What gets on my nerves more than anything else is when a movie willfully tries to be bad and winks at you, or is lazy, and there's a bit of both here and it's really frustrating. But if I was drinking and with a crowd, I could look past that and it would be a fun night. I really hate that some of the terrific action and special effects of this movie reside in such a disposable movie.
