Fast Times at Ridgemont High (released August 13th, 1982)
Fast Times is somewhat of a cop out to start the blog with. First, Nic Cage doesn't have a speaking role in this film (he is simply "Brad's Bud"). Second, he isn't even Nicolas Cage yet. He is credited as Nicolas Coppola. (This fact is important to remember. Nicolas Cage is Francis Ford Coppola's nephew. In fact, after Fast Times he changed his name, an indication that he knew he was onto bigger and better things, something I will look for when I watch Valley Girl, his first star turn a year later.)
Now, I know some of you Nic Cage purists out there will say, "This is Nicolas Cage's first movie! It was his excellent supporting role in the 1981 TV show Best of Times." If you know this exists, you are a loser; however the entire thing is on Youtube. It also stars a young Crispin Glover in the role of "Crispin." I shit you not. Perhaps another day I will watch this, but for now, on to Fast Times.
I'm a big movie guy, so I'm a little embarrassed to admit this was my first time seeing Fast Times. As a film, it TOTALLY stands up. 80s movies are hard to critique sometimes because we can only look at them through the lens of "Wow, look at their outfits!" or "Ha! Look at the how technologically backwards they are." Fast Times may be the most self aware 80s movie ever made. Two main characters, Stacey and Linda, talk about how three of their schoolmates have adopted the "Pat Benatar" look with some degree of mockery and scorn. The opening and closing scenes of the movie are at, you guessed it, the mall. None of this is overtly rubbed into the nose of the audience, it is just there.
At the same time, while there are some very funny parts of this film, looking at it now, Fast Times is a pretty bleak look at high school and really is, in fact, a drama. Think about this, only one member of the group of kids makes it to college, Linda, and she ends up dating her professor (some great life choices there). Both Brad and Mark end up working at convenience stores after high school. Things are nice for Rat because he is now with Stacey (but they haven't boned yet) but it is curiously called a "love affair." Strange . However, and big SPOILERS coming for those who haven't seen the film, is what happens to Stacy during this movie supposed to be funny? First off, she basically gets statutory raped by some random dude TO LOSE HER VIRGINITY! Then, her second encounter with a guy (Mark) lasts ten seconds and she ends up getting pregnant! Were condoms not invented in 1982? Tragedy.
Anyways, let me get to what this blog is about, Nicolas Cage. Once again, this isn't really a fair way to start this blog. All told, Cage gets maybe 7 seconds of screen time in the entire film. According to IMDB, Cage was in line to play the role of Brad, eventually going to Judge Reinhold (where has he gone? by the way), but lost out on the part. This was for two reasons. 1) He lied about his age. He was only 17 at the time and could not work long enough hours based on his age to be a leading role. And 2) after his audition the studio thought his performance was "too dark." If #2 is actually true, Nicolas Cage is my hero. It only excites me more for this project and for Valley Girl.
All in all, Fast Times was a great film. I am very curious to see where Nic goes...
No comments:
Post a Comment