Fast Times at Ridgemont High
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- "Ridgemont High School" redirects here. For , see .
In 2005 it was added to the list of films preserved in the United States National Film Registry. The film also ranked #87 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs list. This film is number 15 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies.
Plot summary
The story is loosely inspired by the year Cameron Crowe spent at Clairemont High School in San Diego, California. He went undercover to do research for his 1981 book Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, about his observations of the high school and the students he befriended there.Students Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh), an incoming freshman, and Mark Ratner (Brian Backer), a sophomore, are both looking for love, and they are helped along by their older classmates, Linda Barrett (Phoebe Cates) and Mike Damone (Robert Romanus), respectively. Another character in the film is Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn in an early film role and one for which he is still often remembered), a perpetually stoned but savvy surfer who faces off against uptight history teacher Mr. Hand (Ray Walston), who is convinced that all students are "on dope." The film features many actors who later achieved some degree of fame: Anthony Edwards, Eric Stoltz, Nicolas Cage (here credited as Nicolas Coppola for the first and only time), Forest Whitaker, and Judge Reinhold.
Response
Despite Universal feeling the film would have no appeal outside of California, the movie ended up making over $27 million in its theatrical run, six times its $4.5 million budget.One of the film's most memorable scenes involves Brad (Judge Reinhold) fantasizing about Linda (Phoebe Cates), emerging from a swimming pool wearing a red bikini, and—in slow motion, with constant eye-contact with the camera—removing her bikini top, exposing her breasts, as The Cars hit Moving in Stereo plays in the background. The fantasy ends with Linda embracing Brad and kissing him. Brad masturbates in the bathroom to this mental image until Linda, in real-life, accidentally walks in on him. Disgusted and embarrassed, she flees, upon which Brad utters the line: "Doesn't anybody ever fucking knock anymore?"
Filming locations
Fast Times was filmed in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles (although it is never explicitly mentioned as such in the film), and many people identify the movie with that area and the teen culture that existed there, or was perceived to exist there, in the early 1980s. "Ridgemont" is a fictional name, however; there is no California community by that name. Cameron Crowe likely named it after Clairemont High School in San Diego. Most of the exteriors of Ridgemont High School were shot at Van Nuys High School, and other scenes were shot at Canoga Park High School. The "Ridgemont Mall" shown in the film was actually the Sherman Oaks Galleria, with its exterior shot at Santa Monica Place. The actual mall has since been converted to an open-air mall. "The Point" was filmed at the Encino Little League Field in Encino.TV spinoff
The movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High inspired a short-lived 1986 television series called Fast Times, featuring Courtney Thorne-Smith as Stacey, Wally Ward as Mark, Claudia Wells as Linda, Patrick Dempsey as Mike, Dean Cameron as Spicoli, James Nardini as Brad, Ray Walston reprising his role as Mr. Hand and Vincent Schiavelli reprising his role as Mr. Vargas, the biology teacher at Ridgemont High.Trivia
- According to the DVD extras, many video store owners reported that their copy of the VHS video of the film had tracking errors during Phoebe Cates's topless scene. The owners presumed this was caused by customers continually rewinding and playing the scene over and over again.
- There are solo songs in the soundtrack by four different members of The Eagles.
- The film's title inspired Vernor Vinge's Hugo award-winning short story "Fast Times at Fairmont High".
- The title of an episode of Family Guy, "Fast Times at Buddy Cianci Jr. High", is named after this movie.
- A sequence near the end of the film partially inspired the plot for the music video for Fountains of Wayne's hit "Stacy's Mom". In the video, Australian model Rachel Hunter parodies Phoebe Cates' topless scene.
- Fast Times is one of two films that feature a song by Led Zeppelin; the other is School of Rock.
References
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High DVD commentary
External links
- [Fast Times at Ridgemont High Home Page]
- [Fast Times at Ridgemont High: The Info Archive]
- [Fast Times at Ridgemont High] at All Movie Guide
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