Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a 1982 American coming-of-age comedy film directed by Amy Heckerling (in her feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Cameron Crowe, based on his 1981 book Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, and starring Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Brian Backer, Robert Romanus, and Ray Walston. Crowe went undercover at Clairemont High School in San Diego and wrote about his experiences.
The film chronicles a school year in the lives of sophomores Stacy Hamilton and Mark Ratner and their older friends Linda Barrett and Mike Damone, both of whom believe themselves wiser in the ways of romance than their younger counterparts. The ensemble cast of characters form two subplots with Jeff Spicoli, a perpetually stoned surfer facing off against history teacher Mr. Hand, and Stacy's older brother Brad, a popular senior who works in entry-level jobs to pay for his car and ponders ending his two-year relationship with his girlfriend Lisa.
In addition to Penn, Reinhold, Cates, and Leigh, the film marks early appearances by several actors who later became stars, including Nicolas Cage, Eric Stoltz, Forest Whitaker, and Anthony Edwards (the first two in their feature film debuts).
In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
In the San Fernando Valley town of Ridgemont, the lives of various teenagers who attend Ridgemont High School intersect. Brad Hamilton, a popular senior, looks forward to his final year of school. He has a job at All-American Burger, his 1960 Buick LeSabre is almost paid for, and he plans to break up with his girlfriend Lisa so he can be completely free for his senior year. His younger sister Stacy, a 15-year-old freshman, works at Perry's Pizza at Ridgemont Mall alongside her older friend, Linda Barrett. Stacy desires to be as sexually experienced as Linda. Mike Damone is a smooth-talker who fancies himself a worldly ladies' man; he earns money taking sports bets and scalping concert tickets. Mark "Rat" Ratner, Damone’s shy but amiable best friend, works as an usher at the movie theater across from Perry's Pizza. Lastly, Jeff Spicoli is a carefree stoner and slacker who lives only for surfing and getting high.
On the first day of school, Spicoli runs afoul of history teacher Mr. Hand when he shows up late for class. An ongoing battle of wits ensues between the two with Mr. Hand attempting to get Spicoli to take school seriously. At work, Stacy is asked out by 26-year-old stereo salesman, Ron Johnson. Stacy agrees to go out with him and lies about her age, claiming she is 19. On their date, she loses her virginity to him in the dugout of a baseball field. Ron sends her flowers the next day but quickly loses interest in her.
Rat meets Stacy in science class and is smitten with her. He takes her to a German restaurant; afterwards, at Stacy’s home, she invites Rat into her bedroom and they begin to kiss, but he nervously leaves before they can proceed further. Stacy mistakenly interprets his shyness as disinterest. Linda advises her to move on and find another boy. When Rat and Damone later drop by Stacy’s house to join her and Linda in the swimming pool, Stacy becomes infatuated with Damone. One afternoon, she invites him to her home, where they have sex in the pool house. Their encounter is cut short when Damone ejaculates early and immediately leaves. After this incident, Damone avoids her.
Spicoli accidentally wrecks the 1981 Chevrolet Camaro of Ridgemont star football player Charles Jefferson during a joyride with Jefferson's younger brother. He successfully conceals his role in the damage by making it look like the car was destroyed by fans of Ridgemont's sports rival, Lincoln High School. Meanwhile, Brad is fired from his job after threatening a customer with profanity. When he realizes he needs Lisa, she confesses she wants to date other guys. He gets a new job at Captain Hook Fish & Chips, but rethinks the position when a beautiful older woman laughs at his pirate-themed uniform while he is making a food delivery.
Stacy later confronts Damone to inform him she has gotten pregnant from their one-time encounter. She asks if he can cover half the cost of an abortion and provide her with a ride to the clinic, and he agrees. However, Damone is unable to come up with his half, and he ends up abandoning Stacy on the day of her appointment. Stacy asks Brad to drive her and lies that she is going to a bowling alley to meet friends, but he sees her cross the street to the abortion clinic. After the appointment, Brad confides to Stacy that he knows the truth. Stacy makes Brad promise not to tell their parents, but does not divulge who got her pregnant. When Linda finds out about Damone flaking on Stacy, she paints the insult "Prick" on his car and his school locker as revenge. Rat angrily confronts Damone about his involvement with Stacy. They get into a fight in the boys’ locker room, but a teacher breaks it up.
On the evening of the end of the year school dance, Mr. Hand visits Spicoli's house and informs him that he must make up the eight hours of class time he has wasted over the school year. They have a history session that lasts until Mr. Hand is satisfied that Spicoli has understood the lesson. Rat makes peace with Damone and resumes his relationship with Stacy. Brad takes a job at a convenience store called Mi-T-Mart and foils an armed robbery with some help from an oblivious Spicoli, who stumbles out of the bathroom just in time to distract the robber.
A postscript states that Brad was promoted to manager of Mi-T-Mart. Damone was busted for scalping Ozzy Osbourne tickets and was forced to take a job at a 7-Eleven. Linda attends college in Riverside and lives with her Abnormal psychology professor. Rat and Stacy are in love but are taking their romance slow. Spicoli saved Brooke Shields from drowning and blew the reward money hiring rock band Van Halen to play at his birthday party.
Cast
Other minor appearances include:
Hallie Todd as Carrie Fraser
Martin Brest as Dr. Miller
Stu Nahan as himself
Pamela Springsteen as Dina Phillips
Lana Clarkson as Mrs. Vargas
Nancy Wilson as a beautiful girl in a car
Stuart Cornfeld as the Pirate King, the proprietor of "Captain Hook's Fish & Chips"
Taylor Negron as the pizza delivery person from the "Pizza Guy" restaurant
Jason Bernard as the gym teacher
Production
Writing and development
The film is adapted from a book Cameron Crowe wrote after having spent a year at Clairemont High School in San Diego, California. He went undercover to do research for his 1981 book, Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, about his observations of the high school and the students that he befriended there, including then-student Andy Rathbone, on whom the character Mark "Rat" Ratner was modeled.
Universal executives recommended David Lynch as a director, and Crowe met with Lynch. Though Lynch liked the idea, he passed on directing. Producer Art Linson showed Crowe's script to Amy Heckerling, who at that point had directed only student films. Heckerling then met with Crowe, and the two began brainstorming different ideas for the film. Heckerling thought the book "had just such an amazing wealth of material" that could be incorporated more into the script." She liked how much of the book's action is centered around a mall, and suggested featuring the mall setting even more prominently in the film. Said Crowe, "Amy completely got it and we were up and running."
Casting
Nicolas Cage made his feature-film debut, portraying an unnamed co-worker of Brad's at All-American Burger, credited as "Nicolas Coppola". It was also the film debut for Eric Stoltz and provided early roles for Anthony Edwards and Forest Whitaker. Crowe's future wife, Nancy Wilson of Heart, has a cameo as the "Beautiful Girl in Car" who laughs at Brad in his Captain Hook uniform during a traffic-light stop.
Tom Hanks was considered for the role of Brad Hamilton. Justine Bateman was offered the role of Linda Barrett, but she turned it down to star in Family Ties. Matthew Broderick was offered the role of Jeff Spicoli, but he turned it down. Jodie Foster was considered for the role of Stacy Hamilton. Jennifer Jason Leigh stated that she prepared for the role of Stacy by rereading her own high school diaries and letters, as well as taking a job at the Sherman Oaks Galleria Perry's Pizza restaurant for three weeks.
Filming
Mall scenes were filmed at the Sherman Oaks Galleria during after hours. Principal photography began on November 2, 1981, and lasted for a total of 8 weeks. Scenes at Ridgemont High School took place at Van Nuys High School.
Universal test-screened an early cut of the film in Orange County, California. Heckerling said feedback from audiences and the studio was worrying because "people were like, 'We teenagers are not like that,' 'You think all we care about is sex and drugs,' and blah, blah, blah. And we were worried that we would have to cut out a lot of stuff." However, producer Linson, who maintained that conservative audiences in Orange County were not the film's target audience, ensured that no major cuts or edits were done.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack album Fast Times at Ridgemont High: Music from the Motion Picture was released by Elektra Records on July 30, 1982. It peaked at #54 on the US Billboard 200 album chart. The soundtrack features the work of many quintessential 1980s rock artists.
Several of the movie's songs were released as singles, including Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby", which reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Other singles were the title track by Sammy Hagar, a cover of The Tymes' "So Much in Love" by Timothy B. Schmit which reached #59 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, "Raised on the Radio" by the Ravyns and "Waffle Stomp" by Joe Walsh. In addition to Schmit and Walsh, the album features solo tracks by other members of the Eagles: Don Henley and Don Felder. The soundtrack also included "I Don't Know (Spicoli's Theme)" by Jimmy Buffett and "Goodbye Goodbye" by Oingo Boingo (led by Danny Elfman).
Five tracks in the film not included on the soundtrack are "Moving in Stereo" by the Cars; "American Girl" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers; "We Got the Beat" by the Go Go's, which is the movie's opening theme; Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir"; and "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms. In addition, the live band at the prom dance during the end of the film played two songs also not on the soundtrack: The Eagles' "Life in the Fast Lane" and Sam the Sham's "Wooly Bully".
The Donna Summer track "Highway Runner", was recorded in 1981 for her double album titled I'm a Rainbow; however, the album was shelved by Geffen Records but ultimately released in 1996 by Mercury Records.
Todd Rundgren also recorded the song "Attitude" for the film at Crowe's request. It was not included in the film, but was released on Rundgren's Demos and Lost Albums in 2001. A track titled "Fast Times" was recorded by Heart but was not used in the film. The track ended up on their 1982 album Private Audition.
In some countries, the album was released as a single LP with 10 tracks.
Heckerling, in the DVD audio commentary, states that the 1970s artists, like the Eagles, were insisted upon inclusion in the film by one of the producers. Coincidentally, Irving Azoff, one of the film's producers, was the personal manager for the Eagles and Stevie Nicks.
Track listing
Release
The film was initially given an X rating by the MPAA due to a protracted sex scene and brief male frontal nudity during the pool house scene. The original scene was longer, as Heckerling wanted to portray what she felt was the awkwardness of teen sexuality realistically, and with gender equality when it came to showing nudity, as X-rated films up to that point had mostly shown only nude women. To secure the R rating needed for commercial release, the sex itself was drastically shortened in editing, and Heckerling re-cropped the full-frontal male nude scene in question. Leigh expressed disappointment that the re-cut version "eliminated the sense of awkward hesitancy between the two characters".
Universal was not confident the film would be a box office success and was considering shelving the film. Crowe said, "What happened is somebody wrote a memo shortly before the [release]...to [Universal executives] Ned Tanen and Sid Sheinberg that said the future of the studio was in doubt if we are making movies like this high school movie." Tanen stood by releasing the film theatrically, and it was given a limited theatrical release. It was not given a big marketing push due to a lack of marquee names and concerns over its sexual content. Actor Judge Reinhold recalled, "We were really heartsick because somebody high up said, 'This is pornography, and there's no way that Universal's going to release [it]. We didn't see it as this horny high school movie at all. We saw it as having the opportunity to do something authentic that was based on the actual experiences of the kids that Cameron chronicled for that whole year."
The film opened on August 13, 1982, playing in 498 theaters. Positive word-of-mouth, with audiences showing up to repeat viewings and quoting dialogue from the film, prompted the studio to expand the release.
Box office
On its opening weekend, the film earned $2.5 million. The release was widened to 713 theaters, earning $3.25 million. The film ranked 29th among U.S. releases in 1982, earning $27.1 million, six times its $4.5 million budget, and later gaining popularity through television and home video releases.
Home media
Fast Times at Ridgemont High was released to DVD on December 21, 1999. The DVD included audio commentary with Heckerling and Crowe, as well as the making-of documentary "Reliving Our Fast Times at Ridgemont High". It was released on Blu-ray on January 10, 2012. On May 11, 2021, a digitally restored 4K version was released on Blu-ray and DVD through The Criterion Collection. The Criterion release restores Heckerling's original cut of the film.
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 78% of 60 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's consensus reads, "While Fast Times at Ridgemont High features Sean Penn's legendary performance, the film endures because it accurately captured the small details of school, work, and teenage life."
On its initial release, multiple critics dismissed the film as just the latest in a wave of teensploitation films such as Porky's and The Last American Virgin. Roger Ebert was highly critical of the film's vulgar humor and called it a "scuz-pit of a movie". Though he praised the performances of Leigh, Penn, Cates, and Reinhold, he lamented that Leigh's character is put through "humiliating" situations that he found degrading to young women. In later years, Ebert reevaluated his opinion of the film and became a big supporter of Cameron Crowe's directorial career. Richard Corliss of Time compared the film negatively to another teen coming-of-age movie, American Graffiti. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that it was "a jumbled but appealing teen-age comedy with something of a fresh perspective on the subject."
In contrast, LA Weekly praised the film, particularly its screenplay, direction, and the performances of Leigh and Penn. The review read, "While neither as slapstick as Animal House, nor as apocalyptic and biting as Over the Edge, Fast Times at Ridgemont High is both serious and funny enough to hold its own in their company." The review added the film presents "a portrait of modern school life that speaks lightly but truly to the fears and trials of post-Watergate teens".
Speaking on earlier negative reactions to the film due to the sexual content, Heckerling said, "The whole theme, of even the title, is things are going too fast for young people. They shouldn't have to worry so much about sex at such an early age."
As time went on, however, the film was increasingly seen as a classic. In an essay written for the Criterion Collection edition in 2021, critic Dana Stevens wrote, "Fast Times is the polar opposite of exploitation. Deep in its horny heart, this is the story of one fifteen-year-old girl's clumsy and sometimes painful introduction to the world of sex, related without judgment or preconception or the least hint of sentimentalization. Heckerling's film is a raunchy crowd-pleaser replete with stoner humor, a masturbation gag, and a blow-job tutorial that makes use of school-cafeteria carrots. But it is also attuned to the emotional lives of teenagers—girls and boys—in ways that place it far ahead of its time."
The film is considered notable for foregrounding its young female characters as having agency. In Collider, Grace Neave noted that in teen comedy films like Porky's, the women are typically objectified and are chased after by the male characters; however, in Fast Times, Stacy and Linda are fully formed characters that also pursue the guys. Neaves added that unlike most teen comedies of its time, which tended to "encourage misogyny as a comical gag", "Stacy's enthusiasm about sex is never shamed or used as a plot point to cast judgment over her character."
Fast Times has also received praise for its realistic depiction of the abortion scene, foregoing judgement or moralizing about the act itself and instead focusing on Damone's failure to support Stacy. Of Heckerling's decision to depict the scene, Crowe later said, "She said 'you know what, this is life. I want to shoot this like life.' She just quietly did it, and in an almost European way, she put this young girl's life onscreen in a way for you to judge — this is just how life is. And it meant a lot when she did it at the time, and it still means a lot. It was a very courageous thing to do, and it actually is the one thing about the movie that I'm probably happiest about at this point."
For the film's 40th anniversary in 2022, critic Richard Roeper said that out of all the raunchy teen comedies of the 1980s, Fast Times "continues to resonate as a substantial time capsule of the period, capturing the music, the fashions, the attitudes and the social mores of the time", and called it "the best ribald teen comedy ever made."
Accolades
Crowe's screenplay was nominated for a WGA Award for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium. The film ranks No. 15 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" and No. 2 on Entertainment Weekly'''s list of the "50 Best High School Movies".
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #87
National Film Preservation Board
2005: National Film Registry, Fast Times at Ridgemont High Legacy
Television spin-off
The film inspired a short-lived 1986 television series titled Fast Times. Ray Walston and Vincent Schiavelli reprised their roles as Hand and Vargas on the show. Other characters from the movie were played by different actors, most notably Patrick Dempsey as Mike Damone.
2020 table read
During the COVID-19 pandemic, as a fundraiser for CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort), a nonprofit charity co-founded by Sean Penn, a table read was organized for the film. After the table read, Cameron Crowe and Amy Heckerling hosted a discussion about the film.
See also
Fast Times at Barrington High, an album by the band The Academy Is..., is a play on the title of the film.
"Fast Times at Buddy Cianci Jr. High", a Family Guy episode from Season 4.
Fast Times at Fairmont High, a novella by Vernor Vinge, is named in reference to the film.
"Stacy's Mom", a song by Fountains of Wayne which pays homage to the film.
The Last American Virgin, a remake of Lemon Popsicle and a film released in the same year with similar themes.
"Phoebe Cates" from the album Lechuza, a song by the band Fenix TX about Phoebe Cates' role in the film.
References
External links
Production Notes at TheUncool.com
Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 , pages 777-778
Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A Kid's-Eye View an essay by Dana Stevens at the Criterion Collection
1982 films
1982 comedy films
1982 directorial debut films
1980s coming-of-age comedy films
1980s high school films
1980s sex comedy films
1980s teen comedy films
American coming-of-age comedy films
American high school films
American sex comedy films
American teen comedy films
1980s English-language films
Films about abortion
Films about teenagers
Films about virginity
Films adapted into television shows
Films directed by Amy Heckerling
Films set in California
Films produced by Art Linson
Films shot in Los Angeles
Films about proms
Films with screenplays by Cameron Crowe
Stoner films
Teen sex comedy films
Juvenile sexuality in films
Teenage pregnancy in film
United States National Film Registry films
Universal Pictures films
1980s American films
Films set in shopping malls