| Class of 1984 | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Mark Lester |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by | Tom Holland |
| Based on |
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| Produced by | Arthur Kent[1] |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Albert Dunk |
| Edited by | Howard Kunin |
| Music by | Lalo Schifrin |
Production company | Guerrilla High Productions |
| Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 94 minutes[2] |
| Countries |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $3 million[3] |
| Box office | $6,163,720[4] |
Class of 1984 is a 1982crimethriller film directed byMark Lester, produced byArthur Kent, and co-written byTom Holland and John Saxton, based on a story by Holland. The film starsPerry King,Merrie Lynn Ross (who also served as an executive producer),Timothy Van Patten,Lisa Langlois,Stefan Arngrim,Michael J. Fox, andRoddy McDowall.
The film featured various youth fashions of the time, including thepunk look, an image that was still popular in the early 1980s. The theme song, "I Am the Future", was recorded for the film byAlice Cooper.[5] The film also features a performance by Canadian punk bandTeenage Head.
Andrew Norris is the new music teacher at Lincoln High School, a troubledinner city school. As he arrives on his first day, he meets fellow teacher Terry Corrigan, who is carrying a gun. When Andrew asks about the firearm, Terry assures him he will learn why the protection is necessary. When they enter the school, Andrew is shocked to see everyone scanned bymetal detectors andfrisked. He spots a student with astraight razor, but thesecurity guards let the kid go because they are so overworked.
The halls of the school are covered withgraffiti. Andrew learns he is expected to patrol the halls as a security guard during his off periods. In his first class, a group of five disruptive students are roughhousing and causing trouble. The leader of the gang is Peter Stegman, the only member of the group who is actually registered in that class. They all eventually walk out, and Andrew discovers the rest of the students want to learn, especially Arthur, who plays the trumpet, and Deneen, who plays the clarinet.
As Andrew gets to know the school and the area, he decides to put together an orchestra with his more advanced students. Peter's gang sells drugs and causes all kinds of mayhem, including the death of a student who buysPCP, climbs up aflagpole, and falls off. They follow Andrew home and taunt him one night, spraying a red liquid on his face. Andrew is frustrated, but the school principal is cynical and requires absolute proof of the gang's misconduct to act. The police act similarly.
At school, Andrew is confronted with more and more evidence of Peter's crimes. The two grow increasingly at odds. Eventually, after Peter kills Terry's animals in his lab, Andrew and Peter end up alone in a bathroom. Peter throws himself into a mirror and beats himself, claiming that Andrew attacked him. Trying to clear things up, Andrew visits Peter's mother at home. Frustrated that Peter still plays the victim and his mother will not hear Andrew, hehotwires Peter's car and drives it into a wall.
During lunch, the gang starts afood fight and forces their friend Vinnie to stab Arthur, causing him to be sent to a hospital. Vinnie is arrested and held in ayouth detention center. Terry is driven insane after the incident with the animals in his lab and pulls a gun on his students, but is killed after crashing his car when trying to kill Peter and the others.
Andrew's orchestra is about to give its first concert. As his wife, Diane, gets ready at home, Peter's gang breaks into the house and gang rapes her. One of them takes aPolaroid of her being raped and has it delivered to Andrew on the podium just as he is about to start the concert. Horrified by the photo, he runs off the podium in pursuit of Peter's gang; Deneen conducts the orchestra in his absence.
Andrew and the gang chase each other through the school. Andrew kills them off individually, finally confronting Peter on the roof. Their last scuffle ends with Peter falling through a skylight, and after Andrew reaches a hand to help him, Peter attacks him, getting strangled to death in the ropes above the stage. His corpse falls into full view of the audience. An ending caption states that Andrew is never charged because the police could not find a witness to the crime.
Mark Lester was inspired to make the film by his memories ofThe Blackboard Jungle along with visiting his old high school, Monroe High, and seeing how it had changed.[7]
Lester devised theplot (narrative) which was written up by Tom Holland. Other writers worked on it as well including anuncredited Barry Schneider, who wrote some dialogue. Financing for the film came from Canada and the movie was shot in Toronto.[8]
Battlezone: Adams High, which becameGuerrilla High, which becameClass of 1984, began filming atCentral Technical School inToronto on August 17, 1981.[1][9]
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Class of 1984 was released in the United States on August 20, 1982.[citation needed]
It was originally ratedX when submitted to the ratings board, however, after cuts, it eventually received anR rating, although aX-rated version was released in foreign markets.[11]
When it was originally released, the film was banned in several countries due to its lewd content.[12] In the United Kingdom, it received four minutes and fourteen seconds of cuts from theBritish Board of Film Classification, and was refused a video certificate four years later. It was finally passed fully uncut in 2005.[2] InFinland, the theatrical version was banned in 1983 – the case went up to theSupreme Administrative Court – and an edited video release was similarly banned in 1984. In 2006, an uncut DVD release was approved with an "18" rating.[13]
OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 71% based on 21 reviews, with aweighted average of 6.2/10.[14]Metacritic gave the film a score of 49 based on 11 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[15]
Film historian and criticLeonard Maltin described the movie as an "[u]npleasant, calculatedly campy melodrama. ... Still, not bad as revenge movies go". He further characterized the picture as a loose remake ofThe Blackboard Jungle, with King, Van Patten, and Fox in the roles ofGlenn Ford,Vic Morrow, andSidney Poitier, respectively.[16]
In theChicago Sun-Times,Roger Ebert wrote: "Class of 1984 is raw, offensive, vulgar, and violent, but it contains the sparks of talent and wit, and it is acted and directed by people who cared to make it special".[17]
A negative review from 1982 inTime stated that the film "no longer terrifies, or even disgusts, the moviegoers for whom it is made... The violence in this vigilantefarce is too preposterous to make anyone wince"[18]
Shout Factory's horror division Scream Factory released the film as a Collector's EditionBlu-ray on April 14, 2015.
Comedy writer and producerTom Scharpling has noted thatClass of 1984 is one of his favorite films. Scharpling would often reference the movie on his weeklycall-in radio programThe Best Show on WFMU.[19][20]
Mark Lester later said "I thoughtVan Patten was going to be the big acting star, and it turned out to beMichael J. Fox instead."[21]
Timothy Van Patten wrote and playsStegman's concerto,[22] later performed on the UK music competition TV series,The Piano by a music schooldinner lady inLiverpool Street Station, London.[23][24]
The film spawned two science fiction sequels.Class of 1999 (1990) byVestron Pictures was also directed byMark Lester.Class of 1999 II: The Substitute (1994) byCineTel Films, co-written by Mark Lester, was releaseddirect-to-video byVidmark Entertainment. The three movies have plots only loosely related to each other.
In the '80's Cooper [...] recorded songs for the soundtracks to Roadie, Class of 1984, Friday the 13 Part VI: Jason Lives and Wes Craven's Shocker.
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