“Class of 1984″ (1982)

Studio: United Film Distribution Company
Starring: Perry King, Timothy Van Patten, Roddy McDowall, Merrie Lynn Ross, Michael J. Fox
Directed by: Mark L. Lester
Rated: R
Running Time: 98 min.

Synopsis: A new teacher at a high school is terrorized by a gang of misfits.

REVIEW

Class of 1984 is a great cult classic that is totally 80’s, in your face punk, and a dark look into the future of youth. In some ways, it’s a film that foresees the future in a weird way. Violent kids killing each other, metal detectors at every entrance, armed guards all around, and even teachers bringing guns to school for protection. This film has a very bleak out look about our youth, but tries to show some hope with one teacher standing up for himself and taking down the troubled teens.

The movie has a great opening, with a song from Alice Cooper titled, I Am The Future. A music teacher, Andy (played by Perry King) is new to the school and is very shocked to see how things are run and the behavior of the students. Crime is very high in the school and teachers mostly look the other way when someone’s dealing drugs or in a fight. One gang dominates the school, which is lead by a kid named Stegman (played by Timothy Van Patten) who is actually talented in music, but rather spend his time selling drugs, fighting with students, and giving the teachers a hard time.

Andy tries to steer his students in the right direction trying to get them to practice for a school band competition, but Stegman’s gang keeps disrupting the class and trying to make the teacher’s life a living hell. When a student dies from falling off a flagpole after he took drugs he bought from Stegman, Andy wants to bust him and put him away for good. He tries to get the dead student’s friend, Arthur (played by a pre-Family Ties and Back to The Future, Michael J. Fox, billed without the J) to rat out Stegman, because he believes he saw him sell the student the drugs. Arthur refuses, because he knows what will happen to him. Stegman and his gang see the two talking and start to harass the two. Stegman crosses the line when he has a kid stab Arthur and then set fire to Andy’s car. Andy goes to war with the gang, but things backfire in the end when the gang members rape Andy’s wife and then kidnap her. Andy then confronts all five members of the gang after they take his wife. A cat and mouse game is played throughout the school that night, which happens to be the same night of a music recital for Andy’s class happening at the school.

The director of the film, Mark L. Lester, directed many exploitation films in the 70’s and later on would direct Firestarter and Commando in the 80’s. He even directed the follow up to Class of 1984, called Class of 1999, which was nothing like the original and instead of an action drama, it was a sci-fi film where the teachers were cyborgs. Lester also executive produced Tobe Hooper’s horror classic The Funhouse. It is also said that Troma’s Class of Nuke’Em High is kind of a comedic rip-off of Lester’s film.

The gang in the film is low in numbers (four boys and one girl) but are very threatening in their actions and basically run the whole school. It’s kind of hard to believe a gang that small could pull off the shit they do. There’s also a scene where they fight another gang who are larger in numbers and they take them on like it’s nothing. The leader, Stegman, doesn’t even look tough. He’s some pretty boy who actually is a well off kid. There’s a part where Andy tries to go to his home to talk to his mother and Stegman is in a nice apartment watching TV. The mother doesn’t want to hear it from Andy and rushes him off. Stegman even says to his mother, “Mommy make him leave…” or something like that. Doesn’t sound like a leader of a vicious gang, but he is a master manipulator and Van Patten pulls off a great performance as the twisted teen.

This film screams the 80’s, from it’s look, style, and music. There’s even a part where the gang goes to a punk rock club and everyone is thrashing around. It seems the gang kind of run the place, which again is hard to believe, but whatever. Stegman and the rest of his gang are in a back room with a line out the door of kids waiting to see him. Almost like a teen Godfather of sorts. One girl comes in and wants to hook for them. The girl in the gang, Patsy, orders her to strip. The girl gets totally naked and is looking very hot. She then goes off with one of the gang members to get a try out.

Next to King and Van Patten, veteran actor Roddy McDowall gives an excellent performance as the school’s biology teacher, Terry. Terry takes Andy under his wing when he first arrives and warns him about the evils of the school. In one scene the gang kills all Terry’s animals and hangs them all over the classroom. Terry walks into the room to see this and has heartbreak all over his face. You feel for him in this scene as you see the pain he is going through emotionally. Another thrilling scene is when Terry gets revenge on the kids by holding them hostage by gunpoint in his class. He asks them each a biology question and two of them get the answer right and he doesn’t shoot them. He goes to Stegman and he doesn’t answer him his question. Terry is seconds away from shooting him when Andy comes in and takes the gun away from Terry. All the kids run out and Andy calms down Terry. The funny thing is that they don’t even take Terry away, he just leaves and goes home on his own will and the rest of the school is okay with it. Well, I guess since nobody died then everything’s okay, right?

Class of 1984 is very cool film from the early 80’s and has some great stand out performances, a good story, and thrilling action. I first saw the film in the late 80’s and after seeing it recently it still is a good film to watch. In recent years, Anchor Bay released it on DVD a part of its Cult Classic Film Series, which is an excellent DVD that includes a cool feartuette on the film.