Connect with us
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Image: Universal Pictures

Film

Crowe’s Canon: Marking 40 Years of Fast Times at Ridgemont High

At Ridgemont High Only the Rules get Busted!

Revisiting Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Fast Times at Ridgemont High is not only one of the best teen movies of the 1980s, but it’s one that has one of the best backstories. 

Cameron Crowe was in his early 20s — though as everyone who has seen Almost Famous knows, his journalism career started in his mid-teens — when he went back to high school undercover to survey what was going on, and the result was 1981’s “Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story.”

The book resulted in the following year in the movie of the same name, for which Crowe wrote the screenplay, in his first-ever big screen credit. Amy Heckerling made her directorial debut with the film, which was in the perfect wheelhouse of teen movies: Sexually frank, right up to the inclusion of an abortion subplot, but not too crass or exploitative. Heckerling would land the same dynamic 13 years later with Clueless

Overall, Fast Times was a much more honest depiction of teen life than the entire John Hughes canon that would follow. 

Sean Penn
Image: Universal Pictures

Fast Times at Ridgemont High was released in August of 1982, 40 years ago this week. It’s also notable for featuring very young versions of a lot of famous performers, starting with Sean Penn. He played the iconic surfer/stoner Jeff Spicoli, at a time in his career when he had a sense of humor about himself. Spicoli was a truly wonderful character, an original, who never succumbed to the laziness so often associated with stoners on screen. 

Jennifer Jason Leigh, who was 20 at the time, convincingly played the pivotal role of a young teenager, though Phoebe Cates, playing her older, more worldly best friend, was actually younger at the time. Judge Reinhold, 25 at the time of the movie’s release, was a much less believable teenager as Brad, the film’s protagonist. The other male leads, Robert Romanus and Brian Backer were also well into their 20s at the time. 

The film also features very young versions of Forrest Whitaker, Nicolas Cage, Eric Stoltz, and Anthony Edwards. 

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Some of the humor is pretty specific to the early ’80s, although it remains funny, such as when a guy going on a date is told to impress a girl by playing the first side of “Led Zeppelin IV.” 

And yes, of course, the movie is perhaps best known for the scene of Phoebe Cates coming out of the pool, although rather than pure voyeurism, the scene’s punchline is Brad’s humiliation when he’s caught looking.

Roger Ebert may have called Fast Times “a scuzpit of a movie,” but it’s a lot funnier, and not nearly as gross, as Porky’s, which arrived the year before. And in addition to actually giving the female characters something close to equal time, it also acknowledges that girls get horny too, which most such films at the time never quite got around to doing. 

Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Image: Universal Pictures

Some have called Fast Times “problematic,” although it’s not as though the film is endorsing, say, sex between a guy in his 20s and a 15-year-old girl, or homophobic slurs, or vulgar graffiti. 

While it certainly doesn’t approach the material the way a teen movie set in the present day would, Fast Times at Ridgemont High certainly holds up- and remains very funny.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High is available to stream on Peacock. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Written By

Stephen Silver is a journalist and film critic based in the Philadelphia area. He is the co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle and a Rotten Tomatoes-listed critic since 2008, and his work has appeared in New York Press, Philly Voice, The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Tablet, The Times of Israel, and RogerEbert.com. In 2009, he became the first American journalist to interview both a sitting FCC chairman and a sitting host of "Jeopardy" on the same day.

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Kendall David Rivers

    May 19, 2023 at 10:04 pm

    Stephen, Nice article. And for the idiots who called it problematic they’re probably just mad because they’re still pathetic losers now as they were in high school so of course they have zero sense of humor.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Facebook

Trending

Megan Thee Stallion Called Out By Houston Rapper For Allegedly Stealing Her Song

Celebrity

How Did Havoc End? Unpacking the Shocking Twists in Netflix’s New Tom Hardy Action Movie

Film

The Weeknd Reveals His New Album “Hurry Up Tomorrow” Was Originally A Film

Celebrity

Jena Sims Net Worth: Beyond Fame and Philanthropy

Celebrity

Big U Is Considering Asking Donald Trump For Help With His Massive RICO Case

Celebrity

Lorde Announces New Album, ‘Virgin’: ‘100% Written in Blood’

Celebrity

Kali Uchis dating history

Celebrity

NLE Choppa Introduces His New Children’s Book To Memphis Preschoolers With A Read-A-Long

Celebrity

The Story of an Extraordinary Woman, Played by an Extraordinary Deneuve

Film

Smokey Robinson Sued For Alleged Sexual Assault By Former Housekeepers

Celebrity

Danny Brown Teases “SCARING THE HOES” Volume 2 With JPEGMAFIA

Celebrity

Sheryl Crow on Settling Down but Still Fighting the Power in Nashville: ‘I Call My Representatives Every Single Morning’

Celebrity

Every Version Of Stephen King’s The Long Walk That Didn’t Get Made

Celebrity

Ray J Gets Baptized By His Father And Blasts Haters For Not Believing In Him

Celebrity

Anthony Edwards Gives A Post-Game Shoutout To His Daughter Amid Ayesha Howard Drama

Celebrity

Jay-Z Claims To Have Lost Out On $200 Million In Amended Defamation Suit Against Tony Buzbee

Celebrity

Connect