Class of 1984 (1982)
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Spoilers (7)
Mark L. Lester said the film was inspired by several true stories of school violence he had read about in papers. In particular, was a story of a teacher who brought a gun to class to control his students, the scene ended up in the film.
Director Mark L. Lester calls this his best film.
Mark L. Lester cited A Clockwork Orange (1971) as the film's biggest influence.
According to Mark L. Lester, Perry King was the first and only actor considered for the role of Andrew Norris.
In one of his early film roles, Michael J. Fox was billed as "Michael Fox", since he was having a registration problem with the Screen Actors Guild.
Due to the films violent content, Lester had a difficult time getting a U.S. distributor for the film, though overseas numerous distributors bought the film, and made it quite successful abroad.
Upset at the violent content after a screening, Screenwriter Barry Schneider had his name taken off the credits.
Lisa Langlois, who played Patsy, says she and the rest of the Canadian cast hated working on this film. They felt mistreated and under appreciated. "The extras really got mistreated. They hardly got paid. They got peanut butter and jam sandwiches. That scene where the girl (Helena Quinton) takes her clothes off in front of the punks. That was really hard to do. It involved real acting for Tim Van Patton and me because the poor girl didn't want to do that scene. They pressured her into it. She didn't want to take her clothes off. She was shaking. It reminded me of what happened to me in Phobia (when she was pressured by producers to film a nude bath scene). You get intimidated and you don't want to make waves. You're young. You want people to like you. And they make it sound like it's no big deal. That poor girl was literally shaking. I remember it was so sad, my makeup artist was making her up and I was sitting next to her. She told the girl, 'Don't worry, I'll make you up so that no one will recognize you." And I thought, that's NOT just the issue. It doesn't matter whether someone can see your face. The problem is you're taking all your clothes off in front of everyone on set when you don't want to!"
The punk kids at the club were actual slam dancers called in for the film. Shooting of the scene got quite out of hand though, as the crowd got rowdy, and some actors and actresses were hurt during filming. Lisa Langlois, who played punk girl Patsy, said the actors were very nervous. "The punk rockers that were hired to be extras, they weren't really extras, they were real punks. For me personally, they knew I wasn't a real punk rocker. I had my hair purple, pink and some other colors. So a) they knew I was an actor and not one of them, and b) they didn't appreciate me wearing a dress. Several times, I had punk rocker women come up to me and say, 'We're gonna get you.' Mark (Lester) really wanted reality. But I was terrified. You won't notice in the movie, but whenever there were big scenes like in a club or whatever, you wouldn't see me. Because I would literally disappear. I was afraid. When they were slamming people, they were actually doing it. It was for real. They were really hitting each other. The punk extras got off on it. It wasn't well thought out for the actors. It wasn't taking care of us. I was afraid because I knew there was no protection on that set."
The movie that Stegman watches on television at home is Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (1976), an earlier film from director Mark L. Lester.
Much of the graffiti art director Geoffrey Holmes put on the walls of the school for filming was extremely difficult to remove. It caused some trouble when the real-life students of the high school used in the film returned to see all of the profanity left on the walls. Ultimately, it was all removed though.
At the time of filming in 1981, despite playing a high school freshman, Michael J. Fox had just turned 20 years old. Michael recalled that when asked his age, no one believed him.
Detective Stewiski's (Al Waxman's) dialogue to Norris (Perry King) was taken word-for-word from a real-life police officer, while Mark L. Lester was researching for the film.
Dennis Weaver was originally offered the role of Terry Corrigan, but turned it down as being too violent.
According to actor Stefan Arngrim, who portrayed the gangs drug dealer "Drugstore", the graffiti-covered shirt he wears when Corrigan (Roddy McDowall) puts the barrel of his handgun into Drugstores face, was actually a graffitied work of art by co-Star Timothy Van Patten (Stegman).
According to Lester in a DVD commentary, the animal corpses in the science lab were real animal corpses, and it is important to note that they were never actually killed for the sake of the film but were already dead when they were brought into the set.
When originally released in the United Kingdom, the theatrical version received four minutes and fourteen seconds of cuts from the British Board of Film Classification, and was refused a video certificate four years later. It was finally passed fully uncut in 2005.
Comedy writer/producer Tom Scharpling has noted that Class of 1984 is one of his favorite films. Scharpling would often reference the film on his weekly call in radio program The Best Show on WFMU.
The movie is considered by some to be a recollection of 1955's The Blackboard Jungle. King and Van Patten have the Glenn Ford and Vic Morrow roles (respectively), while Fox is in Sidney Poitier's.
Director of photography Albert J. Dunk was hired by Mark L. Lester after Lester saw his work in The Incubus (1981).
In the prerecorded opening of the 1983 Academy Awards a marquee shows CLASS OF 1984 playing at a theater.
The film in which Stegman is watching on his TV is Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (1976), one of Mark L. Lester's first films. That film also co-starred Merrie Lynn Ross ("Diane Norris") as 'Pearl Baker'. She not only co-starred but was a producer also, as she was in this film Class of 1984 (1982). Class of 1984 has proven to be her last film to this very day as an actress.
The film spawned two sci-fi themed sequels that were loosely based on the original: Class of 1999 (1990) and the direct-to-video follow-up Class of 1999 II: The Substitute (1994), the first of which was also directed by Lester and like its predecessor, was also released via Vestron Video, while the latter was released by Vidmark Entertainment. Lionsgate released Class of 1999 on DVD September 16, 2008. The sequel films have been released on DVD in other territories, such as Korea, Italy and Australia.
This was Helena Quinton's first and only film. She was so upset about being pressured into stripping totally naked in a room full of people for the scene where the punk kids want to inspect her body when she auditions for being a hooker, that she quit acting.
Spoilers
The ratings board threatened the original cut of the film with an X rating, so it had to be cut down. The rape scene and table saw death scene, in particular, had to be edited for an R-rating.
Mark L. Lester felt the scene where Corrigan (Roddy McDowall) holds the class at gunpoint was so pivotal to the film that he set aside two days to film that scene alone. Lester says it remains his favorite scene in the film.
Real dead animals were used for the scene where the school finds Corrigan's lab animals killed. The smell of the room in which they were placed was so overwhelming that most of the actors and actresses wouldn't enter the room.
Roddy McDowall drove the car in the scene where Corrigan goes crazy, and attempts to run down Stegman's (Timothy Van Patten's) gang. The camera was mounted on the hood as McDowall drove the vehicle crazily down the street.
The only set built for the film was the auto shop, where Norris (Perry King) fights Barnyard (Keith Knight) in the finale, the rest of the film was shot all on-location.
In the final scene, where Stegman is hanging on a rope above the orchestra, he says he will change his ways, and Andy offers his hand. In one version, Stegman looks to cut himself loose from Norris and falls. However, during a screening, a distributor wanted to see Stegman get his. So after the screening, Mark L. Lester and Perry King did a quick shot of Norris reacting to Stegman's bold move with King looking back in disgust and punching at the camera.
Lisa Langlois (punker Patsy) said she and the other actors were embarrassed to be in the film. They thought it was awful and she was shocked when it ended up being a big hit. Her boyfriend was in Paris and told her he saw this HUGE floor to ceiling poster of her with the bigger breasts the artist had given her. Her mother said it was the quintessential moment for her when she knew her daughter had done a good job as an actress because she was in a theater watching it, and when Langlois got killed at the end, the audience got up and cheered. It was a real memorable moment for her.
