Fast Time at Ridgemont High was directed by Amy Heckerling in 1982, and was a american teen comedy. It is about the lives of two highschool freshman, Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and Mark Ratner (Brian Backer) and their older friends Linda Barrett and Mike Damone, who are believed to be the romance experts and try to help the younger freshman out. This movie is different from Amy Heckerlings, Clueless, because it a based more off of reality which is different from other teen movies during the 80's. Although, there are still some exxagerations, like when Jeff Spicoli ordered pizza in the middle of class. These characters are not just the traditional stereotypes, but are more natural. The scenes are also most serious and humorous, because some of them are very unpredectable and remind us of what people acutally do in high school. Some of the other characters included in this film include Jeff Spicoli, played by Sean Penn, who is known as the "stoned surfer", who talks back to the teacher Mr. Hand, who believes all of his students are "on dope". Stacy also takes some advic from her older "popular" brother Brad, played by Judge Reinhold, who works at All American Burger. Overall, I think Amy Heckerling did a good job making a more "realistic" teen movie, rather than her other one, Clueless. The characters are well played and the movie is still known as a classic.
1 comment:
I really liked this movie. I completely agree with Heckerling's more realistic view of a high school. Every situation (well most) seem like they could have actually happened. The one thing I noticed which I also wrote about, was how this movie and Clueless sort of switched main roles, and there are a lot of similarities in the characters. In Clueless, the main characters are the "popular girls" (cher and dion) and the stoner, Travis, is sort of in the background of everything. In Fast Times, the stoners take the lead role with Spicoli, and the two girls are debatably in the background. ( I say that because some people could probably argue that they are the main characters too with Spicoli) I found that role reversal sort of interesting, and even more interesting how similar the character's attributes are.
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