My DVD movie watch on 30 January 2022 was the full-length, uncut version of a Roger Corman classic – Rock 'N' Roll High School – the cult comedy rock musical starring pioneering US punk rock band The Ramones, alongside whom everything else was totally incidental.
Directed and co-written by Alan Arkush, with the afore-mentioned Corman as executive producer, and released in 1979 by New World Pictures, it is incredible, and also incredibly tragic, to think that Rock 'N' Roll High School was released 42 years ago now, and that of the four Ramones featuring in it – Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Marky – three are now gone (only Marky remains with us). (Incidentally, 'Ramone' was not their real surname, just a stage name that they came up with; they were not actually related to each another.)
The storyline of this manic movie, which is set in and around the fictional Vince Lombardi High School (but filmed in a real-life closed-down Los Angeles school as well as in a school at Manhattan Beach, California), is the usual one of anarchy inside and outside the classroom, with everyone – but most especially rebellious student leader and Ramones über-fan Riff Randell (played by P.J. Soles) – far more interested in attending a local Ramones concert than lessons (understandable!).
In addition, Riff has written a song specifically for them that she is determined to hand directly to Joey Ramone. Its title? 'Rock 'N' Roll High School' of course! (Ironically, in real life P.J. Soles had never even heard of the Ramones before appearing in this movie!) And like all the best films, this one definitely goes off with a bang – albeit quite literally, when in its climactic sequence the entire school is blown up!
Rock 'N' Roll High School contains several totally surreal characters – Mrs Mouse, a human-sized female white mouse, being one (honestly!). However, I particularly enjoyed the evil (and, imho, spookily Jennifer Saunders-ish) Evelyn Togar – the new school principal and an avowed hater of rock music, who has been brought in to bring to this infamously low-achieving school some much-needed discipline (no hope of that here!). She is played in uproariously unhinged fashion by Mary Woronov, a frequent actress in Roger Corman movies.
Also worthy of mention is the captain of the school's American football team, Tom Roberts (Vince Van Patten), who in spite of his handsome looks and muscular physique is hilariously clueless when it comes to getting a girl. However, his obsession with talking constantly about the weather until his would-be paramour heads for the hills to escape his tedious tirade may have something to do with it!
Nor should we forget Eaglebauer (Clint Howard), a wholly illegal fixer-upper for the students who, inexplicably, is seemingly permitted by the school to operate his dodgy deals on site – indeed, from an office installed inside the students' toilet building!
As for the Ramones, who perform several of their own classic songs in Rock 'N' Roll High School as well as the title number (written by them), there is only one word to describe them – sensational! And in any case, how can you not love and respect a band whose lyrics from their song 'Teenage Lobotomy' include the wondrous rhyming couplet:
"Now I guess I'll have to tell 'emThat I got no cerebellum."
Fantastic!
And yet, ironically, the Ramones were far from being the first choice of rock performers to star in Rock 'N' Roll High School. Todd Rundgren, Cheap Trick, Devo, Tom Petty, and Van Halen had all been considered before them, but for varying reasons no deal had been struck with any of them.
Then someone (accounts differ) suggested the Ramones, who, to the delight of massive Ramones fan Alan Arkush (this movie's director), agreed to appear – and the rest, as they say, is cinematic, and rock, history.
Also, once the Ramones were on board, the movie's original title, Disco High, was swiftly dropped, with Rock 'N' Roll High School instated in its place – a major mercy indeed!
In addition to the Ramones, this movie musical also features tracks from a number of other major contemporary acts. These include Paul McCartney and Wings, Fleetwood Mac, Brian Eno, the Paley Brothers, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Nick Lowe, Velvet Underground, Chuck Berry, Alice Cooper (singing – what else! – 'School's Out'), and Devo, plus Todd Rundgren (who allegedly has always regretted turning down the chance to star in it).
True, its storyline may be insubstantial, but what gives Rock 'N' Roll High School a lasting, inestimable value is that it constitutes a truly wonderful visual as well as musical record of the Ramones, capturing the band for all time at the very height of their fame and powerhouse performance flair. In short, it confers upon them an absolute immortality, in which they will never grow old, never fade away, but remain forever young, vital, and rocking as only the Ramones can!
In 1991, a Rock 'N' Roll High School sequel movie was released, entitled Rock 'N' Roll High School Forever, but set at a different school, not including the Ramones (except for a single track featuring Dee Dee), and presenting a whole new cast of characters. Notably, however, the Vice Principal is played by none other than Mary Woronov, although her character, Vadar, appears different from Principal Tagar in the original movie.
Moreover, plans to remake Rock 'N' Roll High School have been mooted for more than a decade now, but I personally hope that this never happens. After all, how could anyone possibly take the place of the Ramones in it? Or, to put this another way, how could anyone improve upon perfection?
If you'd like to experience some of the classroom chaos, anthemic anarchy, and Ramones rock'n'roll, be sure to click here to watch an official Rock 'N' Roll High School trailer on YouTube, and here to watch the Ramones performing 'Do You Wanna Dance?' in it! Gabba Gabba Hey!
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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