A Film at 45: Rock 'n' Roll High School

0:00 Hello everyone, and once again, welcome back to the year nineteen seventy nine and a Film buys a limited series A film at forty five. I am David Burns and I'm Scott Hoffman. I we're coming back, dusting off the end of a decade that changed cinema forever with a fresh look at modern classics and hidden gems that we can't stop watching. Except we're getting into a new year, and this one so far is become a crazy year. We've barely gotten into it, and seventy nine is going to be crazy. When you off the train, off the hook, off the Oh my goodness, Well, Scott, as the sky School motto goes, winning isn't the most important thing, it's the only thing. It's time to head to Vince Lombardi High School for some Roger Corman teenage fool of ree and of course some rock and roll with Scott. Welcome to rock and Roll High School. Rock and Roll High School. I am miss Togaw and I am the new principal of this school. And who are you. I'm Rick Randall. Rock and Roller rock and Roll High School. Rock and Roll High School, Scott. For our listeners who haven't visited this comedy, how would you describe this film to them?

1:29 So this is a doozy at the height of their hut, at the height of their punk rock powers, the iconic Ramones take over a small town and turn the local high school upside down. The music comedy adventure follows their number one fan, Riff Randall, who leads her class on a quest to see the Ramones in concert, get laid and give their principal finger. Will your School be Next? Executive produced by Roger Corman, directed by Alan Arkish and Piranha's Joe Dante, starring Supream, Queen of Halloween, PJ Souls, the incomparable Clint Howard, Vincent Van Patten and featuring that guy Dick Miller, the dynamic duo of Paul Bartel and Mary Wornoff of nineteen eighty six is chopping mall and of course the Ramones and their feature film debut. Yeah, feature film debut for sure, Absolutely so, Scott. This is a very goofy, strange, odd film. Yes, basically in the vein of a rocker cornpin film for sure. My first reaction after I saw it, Now, this is my first time seeing this, so this is fresh perspective. After finishing the movie the first time, my reaction was, what did I just watch? Yeah? Was this under the Cherry Moon? Was this Howard the Duck? Like it's so weird, it's so out there. And then having some time to kind of look back on a little bit, I know Dayton, our friend at docum Base seventy seven, would say the one redeeming quality of this movie is the soundtrack, and I kind of disagree with that.

3:01 In hindsight, I can see how this quickly started to pick up a cult following. I feel like it has kind of punk rock roots to it because it has all the the the of the cast of characters that I just mentioned is just a sample of it. It's very much a punk rock kind of scene in the movie world right. Yeah, And the choice of the Ramones at the time that they're doing this with the Ramones is the perfect fit. So I'm not going to say this is the perfect comedy. I'm not going to say this is, you know, the most amazing piece of cinema ever. No. Yeah, but it is a very very interesting time capsule into this moon in the movie. In the music scene. Yeah, I mean, did I love this film? No? But I didn't hate it hate it like some people do, because you're right, it has a cult following, you know, and the way I look at it, this is someone's art, you know, so I'm not going to go trashing on it or anything like that. It takes a lot of work to make something, you know, of this caliber, and you know that we've talked about that before, you know, so I always try to find something good in a project, and there was a few times I laughed in this Scott, I've got to say. And I love PJ Souls, Yes, yes, very easy to love Pj's souls. Yeah, she is so like charming and she is anything that she is in. But this is, you know, after Carrie, after Halloween. She's definitely a teenager. I think she was like twenty six when she made this. She's twenty eight, but very vibrant, very

4:32 young. Like I'd totally buy that she's a high school student in this movie. Yeah, absolutely. And you know what I find interesting is you know you've already mentioned it, but this is like the third time we've talked about her on a podcast. Seventy six we did Carrie, you know you and I did in Chad cochrane. We did Halloween, the last first season of a film at forty five. Now we're talking about her in this. But something else that we've talked about that they really did a lot in the seventies is they got a lot of older people to play teenagers. Yeah. I mean she was twenty eight years old when she did this. We did we talked about this movie. We did Grease last year. You know, I don't know what it was because today obviously they're gonna use teenagers in those roles for the most part. Yeah, but I wouln't see anybody else in PJ.

5:15 Soul. I thought she was awesome as Riff Randall. Awesome. Yeah, Yeah, I think she was exactly who she needed to be, And I think early on in this movie it establishes what kind of a movie it's going to be. If you remember the scene where the freshman is standing there on the looking at the map saying you are here, and he's standing on an X, So you know this is going to be in the vein of like airplane or you know, something that's obviously having fun with itself being pretty goofy. Yeah, it felt kind of like the Beatles' Help, So it's very much centered around a band, very much goofy kind of comedy. But I think her as the central character was great. First of all to see her in a lead role, Yes, that was wonderful to see. And second of all, her and the rest of the cast seemed to have an amazing time making this. When I look through notes, I didn't see anything about you know, I think there was some exhaustion on the part of Alan arkish Yep at one point, which is where Joe Dante comes into the picture to finish a couple of scenes, right, But it seems like everybody's having fun. Yeah, And I mean, it's a Roger Corman film, So come on, you know what you're getting when you're going into Roger Corman film.

6:24 Okay, yeah, So you're not going to get some Oscar Winner Academy, a warmind or anything like that. You're gonna get a quirky, fun little film. And that's exactly what he wanted. You know, he wanted to go back to his roots a little bit that he did in the sixties. He wanted to do it again with a new cast, and you know, with something about music, modern music that was you know, during this time period. And that's what we got. You know, I find an interesting day Young, who plays Kate Rambo. She I really liked her character, by the way, Yeah, I felt very sorry for her when she wanted Tom and Tom wanted Riff, you know, and then it kind of broke your heart little bit when he called. But then they both went, which was hysterical and ended up going to a concert anyway. But Wayne, who as a ruddy Nose, is with us when we do The con Men, but he also is with us in Star Trek and Phaser Set the Sun.

7:17 He would really want her autograph on his Star Trek poster. Did you know that Day Young was an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, Deep Repase nine and Enterprise Intrigued? Okay, yeah, where is she a next Generation? So she just played like a small character, which for those listeners, if you want to hear who she plays, catch us on Phaser Set the Stun when we get to that season and we'll talk about it all right. But yeah, she was in some Star Trek episodes. So I just found that interesting. So if Wayne you're listening to this, you're going to need her autograph. Yeah, well he's going to need another alum from Rock and Roll High School because Clinton Howard, that's right, a former for a child actor on the original series. It plays a very very unusual character Eagle Bowers. What like there are there there's there are times throughout this movie when I said to myself, I don't think I'm high enough to understand this movie.

8:20 What is happening. His character has got an office in the bathroom, Scott, He's got a secretary at an office and a claqueson that goes off whenever a girl comes in. And he's the you know, supposed to be the suave matchmaker. Yeah, I mean he's setting up waterbeds and vans and you know, everything's fine. Yeah. It's a very interesting range of a cast in this and Clint Howard is no exception that the Eagle Bower character. It's fun to see Clint Howard at this age being this kind of central character and he's not you know, yes, he's doing it to make money, but it never see it feels like he's you know, dastard the year he's got other schemes, you know, or bad intentions or anything else like that when he's he's trying to be a matchmaker. Now a matchmaker in the sense that he wants his friend Tom to you know, have sex. So it's not necessarily like, oh, let me set a romantic scene. No, it's a furry van, you know, with a waterbedd in the back, like come on. But he's another character where you can just see that he's having a lot of fun with it. Nothing seems like it's overdone on their part. No, it's not. It is goofy, but it's not.

9:39 They're not doing over the top goofy performances. But you did mention that Mary Warnoff plays a princevill tuger who was in Chopping Mall that we talked about nineteen eighty six. Yeah, she played Mary Bland, which I thought was real interesting. And then of course you mentioned Paul Bartel, who's like d Movie Royalty right right, he was in Chopping Mall as well. Yeah, so it's funny that these guys keep coming back. And he was in Pirana too, Scott, Yeah, we talked about last season. So I'd love how these actors just keep coming back. We get to talk about him more and more, you know. Well, and again those two actors thrust into the spolet here because mister mcgree and Miss Togar obviously Miss Togar more so have very big roles in this movie, and I think they're having a ton of fun with it. I got kind of a Brigitte Brigitte Nielsen kind of red Sonia kind of vibe from Miss Togar in this yep, Like, you know, all the shots are kind of setting her up as being this intimidating kind of presence, and mister mcgree being this very kind of you know, at first he's like opposed to everything, but then he's kind of getting along with it, and it's all this kind of connective thread of the Ramones obviously a big star of this movie. But you know, I'm encountering this for the first time knowing how iconn of the Ramones are as of today, but back then they were not. They were not necessarily a household name. Is that fair?

11:03 Yeah? I know that I've seen that the Joy Ramone was a very anxious kind of person, even though he was a towering front man. Yeah, yeah, stunt double for Howard Stern, like very tall guy. You know, he embraces every scene, all four of them. They have a lot of fun with it. That's why It reminded me of the Beatles' Help because it seems like they're just having fun through the scenes. They're not making too much of it. They're bringing in a little bit of intrigue, and it's a time capsule, right like you're seeing them in their youth. You're seeing that original Well, I think the lineup had changed maybe at that point, but you're seeing an original lineup from the seventies. I was surprised to learn that at this point they had a lot of kind of endie success.

11:50 They were kind of the leaders of the punk rock scene, but I don't know that they were necessarily getting national airplay. And this is probably this might be one of the first ways that a lot of people would discover the Remotes. Even though this movie itself didn't really get wide release, it almost kind of toured around the country in small bits. So they've they've got a lot of common So it feels like a very good fit for the for the Remotes. I think so too. And Alan Arkish, who directed this film, I think he did some remote their music videos to that year, so I get I guess they just went hand in hand. After he did this, he directed some music videos form as well. So yeah, I think this is this really helped them, you know, push them a little bit further.

12:35 But you're right looking looking through our glasses now, you know, as famous as they are back then, they weren't really at that point. Yeah. I mean a lot of people knew them, but it was kind of like, well, if you're cool, you know who they are, right, Yeah, very much fits with a Roger Corman kind of underground kind of movement. I love that Joe Dante is even involved in this, Oh me too, because talk about it like a great start, like a great name to have associated with it. That's just interesting to see where this came about. And this is the only production that Jo Dante has built as a writer too. I don't know if you knew that or not, but interesting. Yeah. I know both of us are huge fans of Joe Dante, all of his work that he's done over the years, so it's kind of nice to go back to explore some stuff that he was doing towards the beginning of his career, you know, and just seeing his you know, his fingers and all of this kind of stuff. And as you mentioned, you know, he had to do a few scenes because Alan was hospitalized for exhaustion.

13:33 I believe he directed the scene where PJ. Soul sings Rock and roll High School in the gymnasium. He directed the long the bathroom scene, the bathroom scene, and he did the telephone booth scene. Those are the ones that Joe Dante had to direct. Okay, yeah, interesting. So it's kind of nice that you work with somebody like that who can just fill in for you, you know, not miss a beat. It's always nice to have that camaraderie. So that was pretty cool. Ye, So Scott, let's look through the lens and what do you got? Some of it we've already kind of touched on in you know, Joe Dante being having a role in in one of the scenes. Apparently Huey Lewis is in this uncredited playing vice like Covner. Now I've tried watching this and I can't really find his face, but fascinating to me. Apparently special effects legend Rob Botein was the concert mouse. What what that makes that mouse even funnier than yes, which is one of the scenes where I was like, I don't know if I'm high enough to understand what's going on. Scream and Steve stevens Now. He's featured a lot in the trailer and he's got a very distinctive look. So it's Don Steele and it was bugging me the entire time because I'm hearing his voice and I'm like, I know who this is. Yeah, I know this voice. It's DJ Rock and Ricky from Gremlins. Is it really? Yes?

15:07 I yes, I love that connection. Joe connection right there has to be Joe Dante exactly. But yeah. So apparently this is something that started uh an idea from Alan Arkish and originally he was going to call this disco high and when he was speaking I think with Roger Cortman about it, he was like, well, disco is not what the kids are listening to. This is not the kind of thing you want to do. You want rock and roll. And I know that they pursued a bunch of different bands. At one point, I think Cheap Trick was being discussed, which would have been an interesting movie in and of itself, but very very different Devo, which would have been way different, way different Tom Petty, which I feel like would have been kind of a you know, more of a mellow approach and probably wouldn't have been as fun, and apparently they were afraid of their other choice, Van Halen. Yeah, apparently Warner Brothers was kind of like, uh no, So if we can step into our alternate reality video store for just a minute, I would love to go right to the shelf and pick up the alternate reality where Van Halen was the replacement for the Ramones.

16:22 Because this is in seventy eight, their debut album Van Halen had gone gold, right, and it's got a bunch of iconic tracks on it, running with the Devil eruption You really got me? Ain't talking about love? I mean, Brad Kozo, I'm talking to you right now. Imagine this with the debut album as the soundtrack. It would have been I think the same kind of wild kind of comedy. I would have wanted to see them having fun, seeing seeing Eddie and David Lee Roth doing this kind of movie. It would be absolutely Oh God, that would be phenomenal, It really would. It would also kind of set their career in a different trajectory, I think, And I'm not sure what that would have done. But anyway, so no Disco High, Let's go Rocket Roll High School. They finally got the Ramones. It wasn't a very big budget for this one. I think it was only what two hundred thousand dollars. I think it's five hundred thousand some somewhere in the neighborhood. Yeah, and it didn't, like I said before, it didn't really get wide release. It's something that was kind of you know, toured around the country, which again seems very fitting for something connected with the Ramones. It didn't really get a lot of critical acclaim.

17:36 And I say that when thinking about like Cisco and Ebit's review of this. I know that Roger Ebert basically said I can't really recommend this movie, but I understand that it's you know, going to have a hit in certain circles. And Rodri Ebert called it. He was like, this will not be a blockbuster, but it will be a cult classic and people are just going to devour. Eight years later, and I think that's true today, there are a lot of people that still love this movie. It's definitely a highlight for in the Roger Corman world. And as we'll talk about a bit later, it's one that Alan Arkish is really proud of. Yeah, so I think it's deeff there worth to take a look at. Yeah. Absolutely, And I always have a special place in my heart for small budget films, So you know, I respect something like this, and you know it maybe not like the whole thing, but you know, I still respect the film, and you know, I still had a good time with this one.

18:26 But one of the things I found very interesting, Scott is, I'm sure you remember the ear mail scene. Apparently behind the behind the teacher there are some handwritten posters and they are the double feature of Death Race two thousand, which was directed by Paul Bartel and Hollywood Boulevard, which was directed by Alan Arkish and Joe Dante. Interesting. So I believe when we talked about chopping Mall, there was some posters too that they so apparently they were keeping this theme going along making posters in the background of their previous projects and stuff like that. So I always find that interesting, yep. But another thing is, I know the movie poster they did for this, they kind of stole Animal House is look, which it makes sense, right, Yeah, And I think at the time there was a lot of that kind of stuff going on. Looks like William Stout was the artist, and it very much has that kind of national lampoon kind of look to it right right, which sets up the kind of movie this is in ittably going to be. When I'm looking at the poster, it makes me my first reaction is thinking, oh, well, there's got to be some kind of fold gag to it right right at the back of the Mad magazine where it becomes some other kind of image and you folded down the middle. But yeah, very rawdinous into that kind of thing, and you know it sets it in that kind of avant garde kind of place on the video shelf right. Yeah, absolutely, all

19:57 right, man, Well, let's score. Let's talk about the music. As we know, there is a ton of music in this movie, especially since this can call it rock and roll high School, of course you're going to have rock and roll music in it. One of the things that I found very interesting about this and I find it humorous. The theme song at the end is going over the credits. Did We Meet Somewhere Before was sung by Paul McCartney and Wings, but apparently that was made for Heaven Can Wait for Warren Beatty but it wasn't used, so Alan Arkis apparently made a deal for like five hundred bucks to use that song, but part of the deal was Paul Kartney did not want to be credited. It's a little uncomfortable, yeah, it is. Well, it's interesting that Paul McCartney did a song on this movie. So what I didn't know and this is me being a total newbe with the Ramones. And it's a name that they kind of adopted for everybody. They're not actually related. They all just kind of, you know, adopt that name because Paul when he would check into hotels, would check in as Paul Ramone m hm. So they all decided to just take on the last name like Joy Ramone, De d Ramone, etcetera, etcetera.

21:19 And they've also got a lot of so obviously the Ramones are a huge feature on this track. Just a year before this was released, they had their four studio album Road to Ruin that came out that had a lot of big songs that were associated that were used to hearing about now, especially I Want to Be Sedated right, And obviously Rock and Roll High School is one that eventually is released and kind of expanded editions later on. They don't credit it as being written by Riff Randall, but I think that's okay. We'll let it go, they had, but we'll let it go this time. But it does have a lot of their hits, like you know, Teenage Lobotomy, Pinhead, Let's Creak Pop, Sorry a big Let's Creak Bop.

22:07 I always get that wrong. I went you around. I think that's what they were saying in the in the bathroom scene. Yeah, right, So I read that that was something that was a little uncomfortable for Joey to film. He was super nervous in that scene, but it it kind of endeared him to PJ because she was like, Oh, this guy is so adorable. He's having a hard time with this. But I probably would have struggled too being in there with PJ Soul. So Okah, I get it, I get a little uncomfortable, But yeah, it features a lot of their hits. So it's kind of like this is a gateway to the Ramones if you're not totally used to them, or if you want to kind of learn more about them, it's a good way to do so. And I think there was a great inclusion of some some concert even though it was a stage concert, you know, probably a fake concert, I imagine, but good to see them on stage. You get that kind of full Ramones experience of being able to see them at that age doing one of their their live shows.

23:08 So I'm glad they had a chance to do that. I think that concert that they had too, they had a lot of I don't know if they were groupies, but a lot of fans of the Ramones were in that crowd, because apparently they were like so crazed about the Ramones and being in that crowd that they it freaked out PJ souls apparently. Yeah. Yeah, And I think that there was something about how was it Ellen Arkish that invited like prominent rock journalists to attend to the concert and you know, write stories about the sure is about the experience, right, very clever reviews it is.

23:49 And they peppered the soundtrack with other with other acts, like you've got some Richie Allen's in there, You've got some Alice Cooper in there. I think there's some Devo, Yeah, there's in there. Come back Jones, Come back Jony Joney. Is that what it is? Yeah? Yep, come back Jony, Yep, yep. And I think Fleetwood Max in there. Yeah. I think I caught Albatross, isn't it wasn't then in there. Yeah, it was yep and Chuck Berry of all things. So you got you get a big mix. Yeah, so there's a lot of interesting things covering that. And we have to mention Alice Cooper. Oh, I mean school's out come on, I mean, come on now, the guy with the magic marker of course, exactly, very fitting and this is all like seventies seventies rock, right, So that's another way that you know, if you look at this, I wouldn't say go out and get the soundtrack before you see the movie. See the movie, and again, this is not the most amazing thing in the world, but it's a better experience.

24:56 I think to watch it as a soundtrack as a as a backdrop to the movie itself before going into just listening to the soundtrack. I would say, if you want the soundtrack by a Ramones album and just dive into that, yeah, I'd agree with that. But there's another reason too, Scott to see this movie. Yeah, PJ Sols exactly exactly. All right, Dave, Well, we've been rocking and rolling and whatnot. I think we've got to take a break, so let's step away for a minute, and when we come back we'll get into the rewind. All right, Well, let's let's head on over to the rewindscot some likes, some dislikes. What you got? So I've mentioned a couple likes again, this is one where I was torn. I was like, man, do I like this movie?

25:41 The tortured freshman was interesting? But I felt so bad for the guy. Good lord, it was a very you know, it was a trope of you know, the freshman getting stuffed in the locker and having all this torture and also the kind of stuff. I kind of wanted the freshmen to stand up and kick some butt in the end, you know what I mean? Ye, Well, so bad for the guy. You already mentioned that the airplane scene I thought was very imaginative, seemed kind of long and drawn out, Like, man, how much all the budget is spent on different angles at a paper airplane? And the scene where they're having pizza was interesting.

26:22 So apparently they had to reshoot that scene, like up to forty times scene because Dede Ramone kept messing up his lines. Yeah. Now, I'm hoping that they only had to redo the scenes that Dedi was actually in and not the shot where Joe is being fed sprouts and wheat germ, because that just seemed torturous to the poor guy. Like I understand, like the joke is like, you know, oh, we got to keep these you know, rockers healthy and whatever, but really, like, no, no, you get one take with that, you get it wrong, that's on you, pal, You're to use it. Yeah, I agree, no doubt.

27:02 And obviously Riff I loved when she was designated a honorary Ramone. Oh yeah, that was a great scene. That was anice touch. So what about you? So one of my likes of this, and I'm still laughing about it. I left actually like ten fifteen minutes after the scene happened. Too. So when Egobauer is teaching Rambo and Tom romance and they're in the car and he's showing how Tom to put his arm around the doll, the sex doll. When when Tom did it for the first time and the doll punches him. Yeah, I don't know what it was about that scene, but I just laughed every Yeah, and I'm still laughing about it. But you know, it was just it was just one of those scenes that you just got to see Clinton Howard just have a blast and just let go you know, be this weird character that he's playing and just just go to town with it. I really liked that a lot. Yeah. But one of the things that I did not like in this movie, and I'm sorry I don't I hated every scene the hall monitors were in. Oh yeah, they were so obnoxious. They were so obnoxious, and it felt like the humor was forced, you know. Yeah, I'm like, really, come on, guys, I see what you're trying to do. But it just did not work for me. Every scene they were in, I just I rolled my eyes. I really did. Yeah. Well, I mean because they also ratcheted up the pervinus of that too, right, Like they were just these ledges and it was just like, it's actually kind of interesting. I expected

28:36 this movie to be raunchier than it was. Yeah. When I'm looking at the trailer and I'm looking at some of the shots that they fixate on, and obviously it's like, you know, fixating on a woman's chest jumping around and bikinis and whatever, You're thinking, oh boy, here we go. There's going to be the gratuitous nuity and also the kind of stuff not a drop of it, no at all. I mean, there's the SuDS scene. But I'm pretty sure they're trying to be pretty good about, you know, not making it gratuitous nudity and not making it a movie like that. And I think that's why the tone of Gretel and Hansel or whatever their names were, the Fritzes just hit odd, Like nobody else seemed to be.

29:23 I don't know. I was about to say, nobody else seems to be getting super perverse. We just talked about a scene where Clinton Howard is demonstrating with a sex doll. Maybe that's not the best argument, but I don't know. Their tone just seems to hit. But they could have gone to a more extreme of that. I see what you're saying. You know, you know, they easyly could have had a new scene with Riff, but they held off. You know, you see her from the back, you know, yeah, don't we don't see anything. I respect that, I really do. I do too, because it doesn't turn her into a sex object. Yep, right, like she's able to be Like, No, I'm going to lead the school in rebelliou and you know, I want to be recognized by the band. I'm not chasing them around as a groupie.

30:06 I'm not just you know, dreaming about making out the Ramones. I want to make it as a songwriter, and I know that I can write songs for them, which is the central, you know, the drive of her quest. So I really love that they did that with her character and with the rest of this cast. That it wasn't that kind of movie. Come to think of it. The Twins also had that that note they kept trying to pass to Miss Togar about her luscious thighs. Yes, God, that's chilling, I know, And it popped up a couple of times. I'm like, would you just stop it? Yeah, I feel bad for the guys who played the Fritz is you know, nothing personal guys, but that role you know it was creepy. Yeah, you had to write Yeah, all right, Well quote this Scott So I found one from director Alan Arkish.

30:56 It wasn't really about rock and roll high school. It was more on the lines of low budget filmmaking. He basically he says, in order to do a movie for a really defined budget, a small budget, you can't wing it. You've got to come in with a real plan because you have so little time, so few hours, and your resources are so limited that you really have to know exactly what you're doing. I can completely agree with mister Arkish on this. I have directed a few very low budget films, so low that they barely had a budget for crying out loud. So you have to go into those with a complete plan of what you're going to do because you have to move fast because you're basically I'm dealing with volunteers, but with them, they're dealing with people who are getting paid at very low minimum wage. So I completely agree with mister Arkish. Yeah, and it's interesting that you found that, And when you said that you had a quote from the director, I was like, oh, no, do we find the same one. We have a tendency to do that for we do. I found a very interesting article that was kind of a forty years later retrospective from twenty nineteen in Variety where they had a chance to talk to Alan Arkish a bit, and I think he had a very interesting thing to say about the movie, specifically our favorite PJ Souls and the fact that she became kind of this inspirational female figure to teenage girls around the country. Arcash had said, when people come up to me now to discuss the movie, forty percent or

32:28 men and sixty percent or women who not only liked the Ramones but loved Riff Randall and the fact that she's so determined and doesn't take crap off anyone all right at that, but she's funny, has a ton of attitude and could give a crap what you think. So four decades later, since Rock and Roll High School, Arkish had a very successful career. He was an award a Emmy winning television director for things like Alan McBeal and Nashville and Heroes and The Good Fight. But when they asked him what he's most proud of, he smiled and says, this film is my legacy, and he kind of choked up a little bit when he was thinking about his days working for Roger Corman and his New World cast of Misfits. I think that's a great way to think about this movie. And I know that I cannot argue with you, Dayton. It is not a great movie, and that's probably not what I'm going to go out and buy. But I respect the hell out of it knowing you know that what people had put into it, the fun time they were having, and you know the slice of life that it gives you into this time, which is part of the reason we're even doing this series at all. Right, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And you know you hit on something there too that I never really thought about Scott. Sixty percent of the women you know, want about Riff. You know, they wanted to know about the Ramones, obviously, but I never really looked at this movie as a big character that Riff really was and you know, being that

34:00 representative for for the females. You know, you know, she is the main character of this movie, even though the movie has the Ramones in it. You know, she is the driving force behind all of this. You know, we even see it with her when she's playing the music over the loud sestem there towards the beginning. But I never looked at it that way. So that gives me a little bit more respect for this movie in that character. And I'm not just peaking that up because I love PJ. Sols, I say one keeps saying that, but anyway, but yeah, no, I didn't look at it that way. So thank you for opening my eyes to that. And you know that's another reason for people to go watch this movie for that very reason. So cool. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, all right, So any what ifs? So the big one is just what I already mentioned. You know, I didn't really hear about alternate casting.

34:54 I just think if we had that. There's a music video that's that's U. I think it's a Pretty Woman, So Van Halen's Pretty Woman video, and if you've never seen it before, look it up. It is bizarre. It is absolutely bizarre. But that's what comes to mind when I think about what might have been with Van Halen. Knowing you know, David Lee Roth and what kind of a front man he was at that time. It just would have been very interesting to see that kind of slice of life what about you? It really would The only only thing that I saw was Eddie Deason was supposed to play Eagle Bauer, but apparently he was working on Steven Spielberg's nineteen forty one so the role was handed to Clint Howard at that point. So I think that was a good decision. Yeah, I think I think Eddie would have been a good but I like Clint Howard and what he did. Yeah, And it's another one where it's kind of like, I love seeing PJ and Clint and you know, our illustrious principal Miss Togar, Yeah, Mary Warrenoff and Paul Bartel getting such big themes in this.

36:06 Yeah, I don't see aside from having a nice bonus of Dick Miller, I don't, yeah another Gremlins connection. I just beam whenever I see that guy's face. I don't care what he's in. Every time he pops up. You're right, I just get the biggest smile on my face. Nick Miller, yep, love that man, Love that man absolutely. All right, Well, let's talk about the impact of this film, because you know that's really what we're boiling down to on these films ending the decade in the seventies. The biggest one for me, Scott is, you know, this is a film about rock and roll. It's kids rebelling against you know, the system, just like we see in other films. You know, coming up, we're gonna see Dirty Nancy in the eighties and Footloose doing something very similar. But you and I talked about a movie in the last season of a film forty five, the Buddy Holly Story, you know, where they're bucking the system, you know, because music is changing everything. Music changed in industry. You know, it really wasn't about that in this one, because you know, it was just a principle being, you know, the principal who was just trying to run everything right. It was still the focus on the rock and roll and you know, kids wanting to be kids and explore new themes and new things, and you were going to see that later on in the eighties and the nineties and on and on and on. This is just another one of those movies that is having that impact, that's just leading up to what we're going to see in the future. Yep, yep.

37:30 And I mean I don't think we necessarily saw a lot of Obviously there's a sequel to this, which we probably don't even need to talk about at all. No, I haven't even seen it, to be fair. I've just seen a clip and I was like, yeah, I don't need to see that. I don't know how many films this necessarily inspired. Aside from what you've already said, I don't think there. It doesn't feel like there were a lot of you know, the Band is the Vehicle kind of movies that really hit. But it feels just like the lasting impression of this not only for the people who saw it, but the people who were able to see it and kind of that cult following. I feel like it was something that helped the Ramones career. Now there might be some that argue with that, because soon after this they started coming out with a couple of albums that weren't necessarily right for who they were, so maybe it brought them into the mainstream a little bit too much. But it feels very much like around the time of the Road to Ruin an album something that kind of captures that moment in time, and I think without this movie, other than you know, bootleg footage or something like that, you're gonna lose those kind of things.

38:54 So if anything, it just helps to kind of perpetuate the Ramones and what they were about at that time and give you a gateway to get into them. Overall, absolutely, I couldn't agree more with that. Scott Will said, all right, so where did you watch this at? I ended up watching this on the Roku channel all places. I know it's available in a lot of things like plex with ads pretty often, but I was surprised I'd be able to find it. One of the Tricks was talking about movies like this at their forty fifth anniversary is some of them are just very hard to find. And I know that. You know, recently there have been a lot of famous people talking about what Dayton's been saying all along, that physical media is always better than there's a value in preserving that physical media. This feels like it's one of those cases where this is something that could get lost to time if it doesn't have some kind of way to survive. Yeah.

39:54 I know. When I was we talked about we were going to cover this film, I'm like, man, I'm not gonna be able to finally watch that. But you're right, it was in a bunch of places this time. I was shocked. I mean even Peacock had it, which is where I caught the film. So yeah, it's all over the place right now. And you know, hey, check it out. You know, Scott said it's not the best film in the world, but definitely check it out with the music and check it out for PJ Sols. Yeah, and you're gonna ask yourself several times what am I watching? Right? You will it's not troll, I'll say that, yeah. I mean it opens kind of awkward. Just just get through the beginning there a little bit. You're gonna be fine, I promise once you muscle through that it's really worth Yeah, it is, it is, absolutely all right. So, as always, I want to thank our listeners and hope you are as excited as we are of the films that we have coming that we're gonna be talking about from nineteen seventy nine. There are some good ones on the list. I know Scott's excited about him. I know I'm excited about him. So I hope you are with us through this journey and come back the next time, which I believe we're gonna be covering. Is it Norma Ray I believe is the next one? Yeah? All right, yep, so we're gonna be talking about that one. If you want to leave a comment, discuss what's next, or even half suggestions, you can find us at www dot a film buy podcast dot com. You can write us at a film by podcast at gmail dot com, a film by a podcast on Facebook and Instagram. Until our

41:25 film reels start rolling again, go out watch something new, watch something different, and who knows what you will discover next. Thanks everyone, all right, thanks