Five students spend a Saturday in the school library while serving detention.
And voted most changed in class is Anthony Michael Hall... who would have predicted what a beefy hunk he'd grow up to be?
Wrapping up my "back to school week" with a classic, I revisited my favorite John Hughes movie from my own high school years. I've watched it every once in a while since VHS and DVDs came along (you know, since I grew up when dinosaurs roamed the earth) but that doesn't mean it's not still relevant or interesting. There will always be richies, sportos, tokers, brains, and basket-cases. There will always be teachers so pissed off at the world that they take it out on their students, or use them to take the blame for their own mistakes. And there will always be unusual friendships forged in the fires of a common experience with a common enemy.
Beyond the unbelievable elements of burned carpets from dropped doobies, broken windows, collapsed ceiling tiles, and the reek of marijuana in the video room, anyone with high school experience can relate to this movie in some way. Divorce, performance pressure for sports or academia, or neglectful uncaring parents... if we haven't experienced this ourselves, we know or grew up with someone who did.
Seven laugh out loud moments in this movie... the dialogue is funny, but sometimes it's just a look from Sheedy or Hall sticking a pen up his nose. One eye roll moment for the Vernon character, because who counts to two with the evil eye gesture? Wouldn't that have been more appropriate for the bull/horns line earlier?
Highly recommended for knitters, especially ones of a certain age like me who were in high school when this came out. There's plenty of dialogue, and if you look up once in a while you won't miss the physical comedy.
I often wonder from the title if this wasn't originally written to be five one-hour sessions in the morning for a week of school, and it was re-written to be one giant block of time on a Saturday. If so, why not change the title? It's a little weird that I even care, but I can't be the only one who noticed.
Five out of five stars. It may be thirty years old now, but I don't think the high school experience has changed that much, except maybe now certain items would never make it inside the building. I just have to wonder if Bender's shoe isn't still sitting in the middle of the gymnasium, and I may have to use google to find out the punchline to that blonde joke. Buy it, rent it, or stream it, but don't miss it.
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