Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979) [Rock On Edition] – DVD

***/**** Image B+ Sound B+ Extras A-
starring P.J. Soles, Vincent Van Patten, Clint Howard, Dey Young
screenplay by Richard Whitley & Russ Dvonich and Joseph McBride
directed by Allan Arkush

by Travis Mackenzie Hoover I could be fastidious and tell you of Rock 'N' Roll High School's faults–that it's cheesy, for instance, with cheap jokes and a relentlessly peppy mindset that somehow contradicts the presence of punk pioneers The Ramones. Yet the film's various demerits add up to a plus, as the exuberance of the whole thing renders it absurdly enjoyable. Much like punk itself (though not like punk at all), the inappropriateness of juxtaposed elements creates sparks that make you wanna dance. This is the big latter-day musical John Landis was gunning for with The Blues Brothers but had too much money and too little sense to achieve: a film that resurrects the innocent, let's-put-on-a-show mentality of old musicals and mates it to the burning-schoolhouse mentality of rock-and-roll. Most people can see that The Ramones have no place in a bouncy teen comedy, but that's almost the best joke in the movie's arsenal.

I can't make any great artistic claims for Rock 'N' Roll High School. It's a tale at least as old as Rock Around the Clock: new principal Miss Togar (a kick-ass Mary Woronov) is planning to make life miserable for the students of Vince Lombardi High School, and chief troublemaker Riff Randell (P.J. Soles) is just the girl to stop her. With nerdy second number Kate Rambeau (Dey Young) by her side, she will buy 100 tickets to The Ramones and distribute them–whether mean martinet Togar likes it or not. Not exactly the stuff of Greek tragedy, especially considering the subplot in which jock Tom Roberts (Vincent Van Patten) crushes on Riff while Kate crushes on him. But the thing is, as the pep rallies would have it, about spirit. It's about cramming as many obvious jokes you can into a 90-minute time frame and not getting tired no matter how fast they fly by your head.

The one truly deliberate thing about a production clearly pressed for time was the idea that nobody really gets hurt. As rendered by a brilliant Woronov, Miss Togar is too charismatic for us to truly despise: she enjoys her reign of terror so much that we enjoy it, too. She's almost a precondition of the plot, as without her, there would be no reason for Riff and Kate to resist and raise their friendly little hell. There is of course some sexual intrigue as contraband impresario Eaglebauer (Clint Howard) tries to divert Tom into falling for Kate, but there's no real follow-through: genuinely seditious behaviour is only namechecked, lest we lose the frivolous air and drop back into something abrasive. The film is rebellion as a dance move, and where that would be a cop-out in any other context, here it's a tonic that's easily ingested.

There is also the matter of the clearly befuddled Ramones, who, as the object of Riff's ardent fandom, are asked to downplay the "Beat on the Brat"/"Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" element and be the Neil Sedaka dreamboats they can't possibly be expected to be. They play along for the sake of the joke–and without them, it wouldn't be nearly as funny. The presence of the withered quartet amongst milk-fed California youth grants the film credibility while imbuing the band with an unthreatening vibe that normally isn't there. Joey Ramone seals the deal in the "I Want You Around" number: while the other bandmates sort of keep up, Joey can't wrap his mind around the task and succeeds only in rubbing his arms and legs together like a cricket. Joey can only pretend, which dovetails beautifully with the naïve showmanship of the rest of the movie.

THE DVD
Buena Vista reissues Rock 'N' Roll High School on DVD as part of their Roger Corman line in a perfectly creditable 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. The image is largely clear and bright with saturation that's just a hair too intense; small amounts of print damage speck certain shots, but it's mostly smooth sailing. The accompanying Dolby 2.0 mono audio compensates for a minor amount of sharpness loss with excellent fullness. Extras begin with two commentaries that couldn't be more different. Track one features director Allan Arkush, producer Michael Finnell, and co-writer Richard Whitley in a discussion recycled from an earlier DVD release. They provide frank and hilarious accounts of Corman's adventures as a cheapskate; from the storm windows he deducted from the budget to a three-figure writing payment that resulted in a Writers Guild arbitration, he seems less like the friend to filmmakers he's been painted as than like a skinflint cum sweatshop foreman. Camaraderie is the rule here, the boys laughing at the budget cuts and the rushed nature of the 20-day shoot while still taking time to give props to deserving actors and point out tech details.

After this thorough debunking, a new track with Corman and Dey Young seems hugely inadequate: Corman is happy to act proud papa and indicate extremely vague points of relevance (such as the way schools have degenerated since 1979–how germane), while Young nods and smiles and says what a wonderful time it was. It's all hearts and flowers in "Back to School: A Retrospective" (23 mins.), wherein Arkush pledges allegiance to Corman and runs, with various other participants, through the making of the film. Dee Dee Ramone, who acknowledges Rock 'N' Roll High School as a gateway drug for prospective Ramones fans, in turn respects Arkush's passion; the rest is everybody saying how much they liked working on it, but instead of appearing false their excitement is infectious.

Meanwhile, "Audio Outtakes at the Roxy" (15 mins.) is the actual performance by The Ramones in the film's concert scene (and not, as the keepcase insists, the final scene). Although it's fairly primitive recording, it is The Ramones, after all, and fans will appreciate the reduxes of "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Teenage Lobotomy," "I Wanna Be Sedated," "California Sun," "Pinhead," "She's the One," and "Sheena is a Punk Rocker." Two radio ads and the trailer round things out; previews for Casanova, Annapolis, and the Roger Corman Collection begin on startup.

84 minutes; PG; 1.85:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 2.0 (Mono); CC; English subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Buena Vista