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"Class of 1984" is a highly memorable melodrama depicting a high school of the "future" overridden by violence and crime. Sadly, this premise, while far-out at the time, turned out to be all too prophetic.Perry King plays Andy Norris, the new music teacher at this high school. He's replacing a man named Goldstein who supposedly had an "accident". Almost immediately, Andy is butting heads with the kingpin of this school, a snot-nosed and deranged under-age creep named Peter Stegman (Timothy Van Patten). Andy refuses to be bullied by the young psychopath, and their war of wills reaches an inevitable breaking point when Stegman and his gang target Andy's pregnant wife (Merrie Lynn Ross).Van Patten creates a very vivid villain who I had a lot of fun hating, but the real star of this movie is, for me, veteran Roddy McDowall. The "Planet of the Apes" series star is biology teacher Terry Corrigan, an embittered alcoholic despondent over the fact that he can't get his students to want to learn anything, and who is clearly just one step from a nervous breakdown. His highlight scene is the said breakdown, where he forces his students to answer biology questions at gunpoint.Canadian legend Al Waxman pops in from time to time as the detective who is basically powerless to appropriately punish these young miscreants. And Michael J. Fox (billed here without the middle initial) makes an early screen appearance as a dorky little wise-guy.Yes, this film is undeniably lurid and perverse trash. But it WORKS. The struggle between Andy and Stegman is too compelling to ignore, and the ultra-violent final battle had me on the edge of my seat, cheering on Andy as he handles things the Charles Bronson way.Co-star Ross has little to do. Essentially, she seems to function more as a plot device than as a character - as in the plot device that will conclusively drive Andy over the edge.The film is co-written with future film director Tom Holland, and features a song contribution by Alice Cooper ("I Am The Future")."Class of 1984" is a great dose of 1980's trash with a nice side dish of social comment; it's one of the finest films of its kind that I've ever seen. Note that if you check out the external reviews link, even Roger Ebert had to admit that he enjoyed it! I certainly give it a hearty endorsement myself.10/10
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