Things to Love: Rock 'n' Roll High School

 As my vacation at home comes to an end and I will be back in Chicago in a little more than a week, I've been toying with the idea of writing something about Croatia but everything I could come up with was either way to personal or way to depressing or both. To break this spell of depressing topics and bad writing I decided to write up a post about something that is not only super fun but also something that I really like. If you are as upset about not being around in the 80s as I am, you should definitely check it out.

The original poster

 I would have probably missed the DocFilms (UChicago’s  very own cinema) screening of Rock’n’Roll Highschool  if someone hadn’t been brilliant enough to put up a poster in one of the math buildings advertising not only the movie but also a live performance from a local tribute band. At that point I had not listened to the Ramones for a fairly long time and seeing the bands’ caricatures made me think of times when I was 13 or 14 and still discovering the ridiculously wide spectrum of alternative music of the harder sort. I remember having a friend from the city over for an improvised summer vacation on the island where I live who was rather vocal about Joey Ramone sounding like a Greek person that learned how to speak English only a couple of days ago. I’m not quite so sure where she got that whole Greek thing but I will admit that I soon realized that the Ramones were miles away from being in any way refined and quite frankly forgot about them once I developed a taste for all the intricacies and music prodigies of heavy and all other sorts of metal. Watching Rock’n’Roll Highschool  up close, on the big screen where the more than moderate budget is rather obvious immediately dissolved all of my prejudice about the band and their music. For the sake of being at least semi-objective, I will admit that the plot is more than stereotypical, that some of the gags are fairly corny and that most of the movie is visually as tacky as it can be (and keep in mind, we’re talking 80s here). At the same time, it is brutally honest in what punk rock is about, the Ramones are definitely as genuine as they can be, the music is pretty excellent, and the whole thing is just ridiculously, albeit a little trashy, fun.

The plot is centered around Riff Randall, Kate Rambeau and Tom Roberts, three 1980 teenagers that attend Vince Lombardi High, a school notorious for pushing the patience and sanity of their many principals until they finally get hospitalized due to nervous breakdowns caused by students’ unwillingness to study and love for rock’n’roll music. The movie opens on the first day of school when a new principal, Ms Togar, is introduced and already gets into a conflict with Riff that has stolen a record player and taken over the school’s PA system, with a little help of her science genius friend Kate, and is blasting the Ramones so loudly that the desks are shaking and students dancing absolutely everywhere. We soon find out that Riff is madly in love with Joey Ramone and has written a song for the band, titled “Rock’n’Roll Highschool” while Kate has decided to enter into a contract with the king of the school underground services, Eaglebauer, to get a chance to go out with Tom who happens to be the star of the football team but also a complete dummy when it comes to girls. In one of the best moments of the movie he walks around the school and talks to girls about the weather until one of the replies with his usual line about how it is “raining cats and dogs in Idaho”.  He also sets up a contract with Eaglebauer, whose office is situated in the boy’s restroom and filled with cigarette smoke, to try and go out with Riff. What follows concerning this part of the plot is the most hilarious succession of “practice” date during which he teaches Tom and his “practice partner” Kate the art of teenage hook ups in a flashy car on top of a hill with a great view of the city. At the same time, Riff has found out that the Ramones are coming to town and decides to camp out in front of the venue for three full days to be first in line and get tickets for everyone in her school. After a cult appearance of the Ramones, riding in a car and actually “Hanging out of Second Avenue, eating chicken vindaloo” and a more or less violent run in with a Ramones groupie Angel, Riff succeeds in buying 1000 tickets. Unfortunately, principal Togar ends up seeing through all of her excuses for missing school and takes away concert tickets from both Riff and Kate. The girls almost give up on going to the show but as they drive to a last minute date with Tom and Eaglebauer they win tickets on a radio show. At the show, they end up meeting the Ramones after quite a bit of difficulty and while Riff gets her song to Joey, Kate finally realized her romance with Tom who has crashed the concert to get Riff but suddenly changed his mind in the middle of a chase through the backstage corridors. The next day principal Togar rallies up all of the parents to burn all of the rock’n’roll records they could take from their kids. The students’ uproar is ended when the Ramones show up looking for Riff and, followed by Togar’s  confused yet angry “Do your parents know that you are the Ramones?”, start a whole new level of high school rebellion. In the end, the police gets involved, the whole case goes public via yet another radio show and after she is named the only Ramone sister, the students literally blow up the school due to Kate’s science magic.

Riff camping out to get tickets

"This is the best day of my life"

Rocking out before the grand finale

According to Wikipedia the producer Roger Corman, King of the B movies, “wanted alatter-day version of his wild-teen films of the 1950s and 1960s, and he feltthat the best way to adapt to the 1970s would be to center the plot on thepopular music of the day”. The movie was first imagined as centered on disco music but the screenwriters Richard Whitley and Russ Dvonch decided to focus on punk rock instead. This more or less arbitrary decision led to the appearance of the Ramones and made this low budget movie a cult classic. Even though the production was obviously not so great and the budget was such that P.J. Soles had to come up with her (hilarious) own Riff Randall costumes, legendary scenes are definitely not lacking.  Early on in the movie we are presented with Ms. Togar’s investigation of the harmful effects of rock’n’roll music on white mice that tend to explode when exposed to the intensity of the Ramones and later on we do indeed see a huge white mouse in your typical punk apparel with headphones entering the Ramones concert. Another great thing is the introduction of Kate Ramebeau as studying nuclear physics and splitting protons as a hobby. The Ramones manager later speaks favorably of her latest Scientific American Article. The list goes on since the whole movie is just a wild progression of gags about rock’n’roll fandom and the inherent awkwardness of the teenage years.

Kate being an angsty teenager after gym class

As I mentioned above, I personally think that the biggest value of the movie is in its honest and the genuine portrayal of what the Ramones were all about. At times the band openly admitted to not being particularly proficient at playing their instruments and their leather-jacket-and-knee-hole-jeans look was as simple as were their four riff songs with catchy lyrics concerning your average punk rock experiences.They built their style upon the foundations of bands such as the Beach Boys, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones but also all kind of trashy pop acts and emerging protopunk bands. They wanted to have nothing to do with the overproduced music of the time that was abundant with elements that they found to be too complicated to think about and too far away from the old fun jams. Rock’n’Roll Highschool can be described in rather similar terms and it is in that way true to being all about punk rock a la Ramones. and it is in that way true to being all about punk rock a la Ramones. And while Riff Randall is a caricature of a music fan to quiet an extent, her fandom is also rather endearing and heartwarming to anyone that has ever genuinely loved a rock band of any kind. The scene depicting the Ramones playing in her bedroom in a marijuana induced fantasy is one of the cutest things one can imagine despite the fact that the band is indeed full of “ugly, ugly people” as the chief of police describes them. A typical, borderline trashy story about teenage rebellion and popular culture therefore assumes a whole new level of nostalgia for a time when music was more genuine and so were music fans.

Riff's fantasy brings the Ramones into her bedroom

Joey Ramone being as "tall and handsome" as Riff sees him to be

Most amazing bodysuit ever

In the end, it should definitely be mentioned that the tacky yet fun spirit of the 80s is all over the place in every shot of the movie and just the fact that the main character is indeed named Riff and wears the most ridiculous shiny track suits and the most amazing stripey bodysuit you have ever seen has to have at least some visual value. The movie is therefore a true paradise for all 80s lover as much as it is something of a low budget ode to teenagers, punk rock and music fans everywhere.