"Aloha Mr. Hand!" (DVD)

We saw "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" on DVD this week, and it was wonderful to see it again. It is somewhat sad though, because the film seems strangely innocent when viewed almost twenty years after it was filmed. "People on 'ludes should not drive!" remarks Sean Penn as Jeff Spicolli just before wrecking a borrowed car. It was good for a laugh then, now seeing drunken high schoolers wrecking a car would not be something to laugh about. The line would probably have to be changed to something like "people on heroin should not drive". Quaaludes no longer exist, and heroin is all too available today, sadly replacing 'ludes which seem somehow harmless when compared to heroin, X, GHB, and other designer drugs that teens now experiment with.

Fast Times at first appears to avoid moralization about teen sex and drugs. On a simple level, it merely entertains as it follows a group of California teens through a year of high school. They are having fun, and exploring new things as they attempt to find their way in the world. There are all types in this character study. There are stoners, nerds, career minded go-getters, a little bit of everyone is in here. You probably see some of yourself and others in this film.

As the film unfolds, these teens who like myself, are somewhere in between the Baby Boom generation and the Gen Xers, face an ever quickening pace as they are either forced into, or force themselves to grow up all too fast. There is an honest awkwardness about the sex scenes that make them more than just a way to grab the young guys. The romance is not glamorized as in other teen flicks. It doesn't always work out. The characters make a life for themselves, in spite of themselves, and their youthful resilience carries them through.

Screenwriter Cameron Crowe based this script on his book which he wrote about his own undercover return to high school as an adult. He did another senior year, this time with the advantage of having an adult writer's sensibility and was thus able to preserve the feel of what late seventies/early eighties high school was like. The cast is amazing. The film was shot on a budget, and then unknowns like Sean Penn, Phoebe Cates, and so many others that you see on film and TV, got a break in this movie.

Fans of the movie will want to own the DVD. It is very generous in providing notes and a look at where so many of these young actors have wound up. Interviews with the now middle aged cast provide interesting insight into what was going on as they began their careers. The DVD extras alone will make it a good value for anyone who, like me, loves and lived this film.