Back to School

**Back to School** is a 1986 film starring Rodney Dangerfield, Sally Kellerman, Burt Young, Keith Gordon, Adrienne Barbeau, Robert Downey Jr., Sam Kinison and Ned Beatty, directed by Alan Metter, written by Steven Kampmann, William Porter, Pj Torokvei and Harold Ramis and produced by Chuck Russell.

## Plot

The young Thornton Meloni returns from school one day to his father's tailor shop, bearing a report card with poor grades. His ambition is to go into his father's line of work, but his father reprimands Thornton for neglecting his education.

As decades pass, Thornton changes his last name to "Melon" and becomes a corporate giant, with a successful plus-size clothing store. Feeling dejected when his college-student son Jason cancels a visit, he returns home to a party hosted by his wife Vanessa. Finally weary of Vanessa's nasty attitude and adultery, Thornton leaves her, and asks his bodyguard Lou to drive him to Jason's college campus.

On the campus, Thornton learns from Jason that he's unhappy with college life. He is a towel boy for the diving team instead of a member, is antagonized by team member Chas Osborne, has no friends except for his roommate Derek Lutz, and intends to drop out. Thornton motivates him to stay in college by deciding to enroll alongside him. Despite Thornton's lack of qualifications, the dean David Martin admits him when he bribes Martin with a donation for a new campus building.

Thornton's bribery earns him the wrath of Dr. Philip Barbay, dean of the business school. The wrath is further exacerbated by Thornton's attitude during Barbay's class and his romantic interest in the literature professor Dr. Diane Turner, whom Barbay is dating. Meanwhile, Jason begins to attract the interest of Valerie Desmond, a girl that Chas has been trying to impress. Jason's popularity on campus also increases thanks to his father's generosity and party-throwing. Jason even earns a spot on the diving team as well after Thornton — a former diver himself — convinces the diving coach to reconsider him.

As a student, even though Diane is inspiring a deeper appreciation of literature, Thornton prefers partying to studying. He hires a team of professionals to complete his assignments, including hiring author Kurt Vonnegut to write a paper on Vonnegut for literature class. To Thornton's surprise, Diane gives the paper a failing grade for obviously not being his own work, and she becomes estranged by his partying behavior. Jason is also upset with Thornton for trivializing his education, while mistakenly believing he bribed the diving coach into accepting Jason on the team.

In addition, Dr. Barbay accuses Thornton before Dean Martin of academic fraud. Barbay challenges Thornton to pass an oral examination from all of his professors, facing expulsion if he fails any part of it. Believing he has no chance of passing, Thornton packs up and prepares to leave. But Jason stops Thornton and successfully encourages him to stay and prepare for the challenge.

With limited time to prepare, Thornton crams for the examination with help from Jason, Derek, Lou and Diane. When the big day comes, Barbay begins by intimidating Thornton with a single, 27-part question. Nevertheless, Thornton answers every part, though the effort was so much that he wants to forfeit. Dr. Turner inspires him to finish, and he does.

At the championship dive meet that day, Thornton and Jason reconcile, while Jason's team takes the lead. To spite Jason for his performance and for winning over Valerie, Chas fakes a cramp in an attempt to make his team lose. The coach decides to recruit Thornton as a last-minute replacement, and he helps the team win by performing the legendary "Triple Lindy" dive. Afterwards, Thornton learns from Diane that he has passed the examination with all D's, except for a single A from Diane. At the end of the school year, Thornton gives a commencement speech as a freshman student.